May this is a stupid question, but I am new to bama and tuner. I installed airaid cai on my car and love it. I am about going to buy a bama x4 tuner. So, what does bama free tunes for life really mean? By the way, I have been never tuned my car in my life. Thank you!
When you buy a tune / tuner, you have to tell them all the specs / mods for your car, so they can write the tune for those mods. For example the Airraid intake probably needs the tune adjusted for it because the MAF flow section diameter is different.
"Free tunes for life" means whenever you change something on your car, like a different intake for example, they will rewrite and send you new tunes adjusted for that change. Also if you decide you want a different tune (like you originally asked for 91 octane and now you want 93) they will send new tunes for that too. It does come in handy, I have used it several times even through I don't do a lot of mods to my car.
Also good to request a new tune at least once a year. They are constantly trying to improve their tunes. That is what I do now. This last batch was a lot better than the previous versions I had.
the "for life" part only means while your the owner of your current car, if you sell your car the next owner doesn't get free tune updates, and your next mustang will need a new tune package bought if you want it tuned.
Whenever you get a new mod, If its something that needs to be tuned they will tune it for free. Some places require you to buy the product from them to receive a free tune. With Bama you can buy the mod wherever
Last time I used Bama "free tunes for life" they did not ask where I bought the parts or why I needed a new tune; I just submit the tune request with what I want in the tune (intake, gears, whatever) and they write and deliver the tune via e-mail.
Personally I have had good luck with Bama tunes, but I have not tried any new tunes for about 3? years and I have seen more complaints about them recently.
BTW I did receive your PM, and tried to reply, but the system said you either had set up your account to prevent receiving PM's or you could not receive PM's for some other reason
@JBert
Thanks JBert! I don't know what is happening with my PM... I'll check my account settings from a desktop... Probably I will figure out what is happening...
“Running Bama's 91tune (w/BBK CAI) for the last month and have had issues starting……when turn theignition my car would click and the power intermittently cuts in/out, but wouldeventually start. I usually keep my odometer on the trip odometer, but wheneverI start it reverts back to the total mileage odometer…..my fuel gauge wasacting a little erratic, so I decided to revert back to stock and tryre-uploading the 91R tune. After reverting back to stock, I couldn't get it tostart.”
All my tunes from Bama have been great. Money well spent for tunes for life. That includes datalog tunes, which I had at least 3 that I recall, that were a constant improvement. Then I added headers/mid pipe and had it dyno tuned.
From what I gather, the tuners I dealt with are no longer there. Matthew Allen did a great job......Good luck.
It sounds that Bama tunes for life is a very sweet deal... IMO that is not pricey at all! You don't even need to buy the parts from them(AM parts prices' are not bad compared to Amazon/Ebay and AM team are highly rated for their customer service)... So considering I could buy almost anything(NA), anywhere new or used and just send them an email and get a tune in my email box within few days is awesome!!!
I've done a quick search on the net and I've just found that a SCT Bama X4 from AM costs 399... On Ebay the best prices are the same for the same non Bama X4 perhaps if you search a lot you may find it a few dollars cheaper somewhere else...
Basically if you buy a Tuner from AM you will get free tunes for life for free!!!
I DO understand some people may find their
tunes not "custom" enough... But just the idea of buying a part and getting it running properly until you have time to contact/choose your favourite email/dyno tuner to build a fully custom tune is great enough to me!!!
Be forewarned, there are lots of horror stories floating around the interwebs like Beechkid posted above.
But I have a feeling that Bama sometimes gets blamed for "user error." One disadvantage of remote tuning is that the tuner cannot verify the information that the user is providing to them; they just have to accept whatever is filled in the tune form. So if the car owner puts in the wrong information for their ECU code or their mods then the tune will be wrong. And sometimes I think the tune might be blamed for things that are not caused by the tune. Like in the last example the Beechkid posted, I am not sure how the Bama tune could have messed up the original factory tune; unless it somehow fried the CPU which I don't think is possible.
I think it's worth checking with some of the other remote tuners such as Brenspeed, Lund and Lito before you decide. Try some searches on here and hopefully you can find the details, they are posted on here somewhere.
Thanks for the advice. I also believe there are times that they get blamed for other reasons too... Like you said ´bout the example Beechkid posted... IMO even if the tune fried the CPU the guy had the car acting funny during start for a whole month... If it had happened to me I would have loaded my previous tune and contacted Bama to explain what was happening and asked them to fix it...
Anyways, I believe that indenpendently from who an how your vehicle is being tuned you must pay attention to how it works... and if something doesnt seem right one should contact the tuner or some good mechanic.
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Related Threads
?
?
?
?
?
Ford Mustang Forum
3.7M posts
229.4K members
Since 2001
A forum community dedicated to Ford Mustang owners and enthusiasts. Come join the discussion about performance, builds, modifications, reviews, engine swaps, classifieds, troubleshooting, maintenance, and more!