RangerDick

Ran into a quandary getting my car ready for its California Biennial smog test . The state has begun to query the ECU on cars and compare the data to verify its not modified. Unfortunately, my car had a tune of unknown origin since I purchased it in 2012. In a search to avoid the anxiety of not knowing it would pass or not, I reached out to Sam at By Design Auto (Sambo). He is a Cobb tuning dealer and they have a California Air Resources Board - CARB waiver for the Accessport tuner. This allows their tunes to be legally installed on 996TT's.

Sam was super honest and helpful. We discussed the options on available tunes, both stock ones and custom tunes that he develops and adds to the Cobb. One of the big concerns I had with my car was the unknown tune, as Cobb specifically states that installing over non factory tune has the potential to brick the ECU. Sam reassured me that it would not be an issue and that he had options available in the remote chance it didn't work. So I took the plunge and ordered the Cobb with the custom tune by Sam.

First, I installed the included state 1 tune and did a few runs to datalog the engine operating parameters. Sent them to Sam and he saw there was probably a vacuum leak and out of spec Fuel Pressure Regulator values. I did a thorough inspection of the car and found the oil tank vent hose had a crack in it from years of high vacuum and a quick peek with the bore scope showed the FPR line was off at the elbow. Got those items fixed and did new data logs. All good.

This is where I was especially impressed with Sam. Instead of just selling me the tune and taking my $$$$, Sam took the time to point me in the proper direction to fix the two issues that were showing anomalies in my data. That is what I consider to be great customer service. Hes super responsive and at most, he replied in minutes to my questions.

Once corrected, Sam sent me a custom tune for the car, which I then installed. Wow! What an improvement. Probably a 20-25% improvement in HP over stock. Power delivery is much smoother and linear. It pulls very hard! And the Car has passed smog and has the Executive Order - EO number so it will continue to pass smog.

So, if any of you are having this issue with you California car, I consider this a very easy and cost effective solution. Plus, I don't believe I will need to reflash each time I smog again.

Thanks Sam!

T Kono

That is both encouraging for us CA folks and impressive regarding his diagnostic skills.

T10Chris

Sam is the man for many things on this platform, but especially for anything related to stock ecu tuning. Glad to hear he's found a way to keep at it with the CARB stuff.

TommyT

That's really great to know. Are the COBB ots tunes CARB legal also?

QwikKotaTX

Sorry you have to deal with all of that but glad Sambo got it figured out. I am sure that is not easy to do remotely.

We are doing away with inspections here for the most part but large cities still do an OBD check.

kamlung

@SamboTT@ByDesign does it again...

SamboTT@ByDesign

It was a pleasure working with you thank you for the kind words. Having a clients trust is a huge factor and it’s the only way we can truly help you so I appreciate that. We love using the Cobb access port for all these reasons. From all of the power it gives us to help you remotely to switching maps and diagnostics and of course, the time and money they put into getting certification. Thanks for all the kind words everyone! Enjoy.

RangerDick

Yes, In fact technically the Cobb OTS tune Stage 0 and Stage 1 are the ones with the EO assigned number. My belief is Sam's custom tune is not detected and therefore passes as well. I'll know in two years. But the good thing is if the custom tune is flagged, just reflash to the stage 0 or 1 and it will pass. The Cobb dongle holds all the tunes you have downloaded onto it.

T Kono

Are the X50 cars included in this good news? Separate tune?

vtec_

Is the stage 0 tune a stock map or is it a modified stock map?

This is good to know because I have a feeling these emission laws are going to come to liberal northern states.

SamboTT@ByDesign

Hi again guys. This goes for all models that Cobb has a calibration for actually it’s quite nice. Because the parameters of adjustment are all qualified they are all good to go. In other words, we don’t have toggles to do anything that’s not approved.

Stage zero is a copy of a stock file yes, however, the access port is still connected to the car so sometimes it works for diagnostics, but sometimes you need to completely uninstall.