[elantraSport]

So I bought my car about a year ago and I've been wanting to tune it, I want to be stage 3 tuned. I found a chip within my price range and I just wanted to know if the chip would be worth it and what upgrades do I need to do to the vehicle to be considered stage 3. If anyone could help me out, that would be great!

 

[R1600Turbo]

So I bought my car about a year ago and I've been wanting to tune it, I want to be stage 3 tuned. I found a chip within my price range and I just wanted to know if the chip would be worth it and what upgrades do I need to do to the vehicle to be considered stage 3. If anyone could help me out, that would be great!

Welcome. There are no "stages" with this car. Top tuners are Lap3 & BTR with a lesser known shout-out to 845 Motorsports. Lap3 offers a full ECU tune that comes on a spare ECU, or a piggy-back unit that allows you to change maps depending on the fuel you are using. BTR is ECU tune only, and 845 is usually a flash on the stock ECU. (not the best option if you are worried about the warranty)

For hard parts (intakes, exhaust, etc) Check out SXTH Element Engineering, Pierce Motorsports (mainly suspension parts) and aFE is slowly coming out with things.

Welcome.

 

[ecko04]

So I bought my car about a year ago and I've been wanting to tune it, I want to be stage 3 tuned. I found a chip within my price range and I just wanted to know if the chip would be worth it and what upgrades do I need to do to the vehicle to be considered stage 3. If anyone could help me out, that would be great!

When you say “stage 3”, what do you mean? Presently, vendors are not marketing their tunes by stage. However, that doesn’t mean that they won’t at some point.

Instead of stages, what are your current mods? Do you plan on doing more in the future?

Anyone recommending tunes/companies without knowing what you have is doing you a disservice. Additionally, there are many of us that use different tuning vendors, do not get caught up in the “these are the best” as it’s relative.

 

[R1600Turbo]

Anyone recommending tunes/companies without knowing what you have is doing you a disservice.

Not really. Most ECU tunes will adapt to mods. You can tune a stock car and add parts after and it will adapt to the changes. With that said, having the car re-tuned on a dyno when you are finished installing said parts is always the best scenario.

Additionally, there are many of us that use different tuning vendors, do not get caught up in the “these are the best” as it’s relative.

I've been around since before this car was for sale. I run a facebook group with over 2,100 owners. I think I have seen enough to get a good idea of what companies stand apart from others. I would never intentionally mislead anyone.

 

[Voodoo Idol]

The next person who posts in here that isn't 100% directly answering the OPs question is in for perma-ban. Admins are aware and on board - even with vendors.

 

[SLReyes209]

Actually r1600turbo... tunes DO NOT adapt to mods. You can certainly tune a stock vehicle, but when you add such mods as exhaust, air filter, injectors, etc... It absolutely needs to be re-tuned because the AFR is thrown off and so is driveability. I don't tune cars but I work on dynojet with supersport bikes and I am quite sure it is the same issue with a car's combustion engine as it is with a bike's.

As a clarification, ECU "flashing", which is done on a bike, is the same thing done to car and it needs to be "re-flashed" for any actual mods.

 

[R1600Turbo]

Actually r1600turbo... tunes DO NOT adapt to mods.

Talk to David at Lap3 (arguably the best tuner for these cars) and he will tell you otherwise.

 

[Deep6]

Actually r1600turbo... tunes DO NOT adapt to mods.

Talk to David at Lap3 (arguably the best tuner for these cars) and he will tell you otherwise.

He is not a tuner... .just a salesman.

 

[R1600Turbo]

He is not a tuner... .just a salesman.

That can tell you what you need to know.

 

[SLReyes209]

So to be clear... the ECU adapts to any new.mods but the best results come from retune? Anyone else see the contradiction here or no?

Retune the ECU if you add mods. Your horsepower, fuel economy, dyno numbers and driveability will thank you. It's a few hundred dollars to do. Cheap insurance if you're doing anything real to the car after you install your augmented ECU from Lap3.

 

[R1600Turbo]

So to be clear... the ECU adapts to any new.mods but the best results come from retune? Anyone else see the contradiction here or no?

Retune the ECU if you add mods. Your horsepower, fuel economy, dyno numbers and driveability will thank you. It's a few hundred dollars to do. Cheap insurance if you're doing anything real to the car after you install your augmented ECU from Lap3.

Yes the ECU will adapt and add some power with additional mods. BUT, to get the MOST out of those mods a re-tune is recommended. Not sure why that is hard to understand.

 

[ecko04]

So to be clear... the ECU adapts to any new.mods but the best results come from retune? Anyone else see the contradiction here or no?

Retune the ECU if you add mods. Your horsepower, fuel economy, dyno numbers and driveability will thank you. It's a few hundred dollars to do. Cheap insurance if you're doing anything real to the car after you install your augmented ECU from Lap3.

It’s not necessarily a contradiction. At the very least, data logging should be done to determine if the current tune is adequately adjusting for the parts, if so then a retune can be safely avoided.