For many who have built their cars to a level of performance acceptable to them, it is not always known what to expect and what changes with owning a now highly modified vehicle vs. a stock street version.
Keeping it at desired performance specs is more than a visual inspection (we agree that is necessary as is how it feels, ...there is more).
If you have a high performance subaru / modified vehicle, here are some proactive ways to keep your vehicle in tune and performing as you intended it to.
Having your car dyno tuned is not a once and done deal, especially if you want that level of performance to last. Every time you make a physical change to the engine (and the slow wearing of parts does count), you need to reprogram the ECU so it knows what you've done.
Something as simple as a new air filter can cause enough physical change to require reprogramming of the ECU. "Close enough works well with a normal street car, you no longer have a basic street car."
Because our specialty is High Performance vehicles, we have seen many cars that over time tend to change, and performance becomes altered, this is normal wear and tear when maintained at proper intervals.
Tunes don't wear out, parts do. The programming a tuner does within the ECU is considered non-volatile memory, let me explain a bit deeper:
The data will not be changed or lost if electrical power is lost. The data also does not degrade over time. Hoses, belts, and metal due wear out though. Air leaks, loose connections, fouled sensors and worn parts can feed the ECU with bad information causing the motor to run poorly all the time, or just in places.
This general wear and tear usually happens slowly and gradually. Most drivers won't notice there is even an issue until gradual wear leads to broken parts. Because we keep data on how long parts will last (of course that depends on your driving habits), we recommend checkups regularly.
How do you find, identify the root cause, and maintain / repair these problems?
- A dyno check-up!
By coming back to the dyno regularly, you can monitor the health of your vehicle. Every time you come in, you get the eyes and ears of our experts.
Due to our extensive database and experience with performance vehicles, we know what to look for and we know how to get your vehicle back to your standard of performance.
- Was your car tuned in the summer?
- Want to find out how much more power it makes in the cold of winter?
- Want to make sure your winter tuned car is safe in the heat of the summer?
Once you build your vehicle to a higher level of performance, (especially here in Denver performance cars need to tuned to the altitude) it is a good idea that you keep those parts operating within proper specs so you don’t experience a catastrophic failure.
Much like a purpose built race car, all components have an expected performance life and depend on other parts to ensure strong performance. keep your vehicle in good shape, get a checkup based on good evidence / experience. Enjoy your ride.
