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HELP! Predator just killed my car!

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Old Jan 28, 2006 | 12:57 PM
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Default HELP! Predator just killed my car!

I'm looking for a quick way out of this one. I have a Predator with the latest updated software and I've used it many times to load a tune but this last time, the upload to the car quit at 28% and now the car won't start and the Predator says it can't read the vehicle type so it won't even allow me to load the original backup back into the car. I tried forcing the original backup but it gives me some code and then wants a password which I don't have, so I can't load the original back in. It claims that operation is for a "dealer" only. Are there any "dealers" on here that can get me out of this mess? Maybe the password is all I need? I don't want to have this thing flatbedded to the dealer 20 feet from my garage!

Thanks,
Mike
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Old Jan 28, 2006 | 01:40 PM
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I guess the lesson here is to never do a tune on a weekend! DiabloSport, TByrne (where I bought it), and everyone else seems to have no tech support on the weekends so there is no way for me to get the password I need to force the original backup into the car: assuming that's what will fix it. Looks like my car will be sitting out in the driveway all weekend blocking one of the other cars we need to drive.

Mike
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Old Jan 28, 2006 | 02:56 PM
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put it in nuetral and push!!!!
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Old Jan 28, 2006 | 03:05 PM
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Wondering if disconnecting the battery for a couple of hours would reset the darn thing ???
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Old Jan 28, 2006 | 03:16 PM
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Originally Posted by mikeyc6
I guess the lesson here is to never do a tune on a weekend! DiabloSport, TByrne (where I bought it), and everyone else seems to have no tech support on the weekends so there is no way for me to get the password I need to force the original backup into the car: assuming that's what will fix it. Looks like my car will be sitting out in the driveway all weekend blocking one of the other cars we need to drive.

Mike
I was planning on ordering one today. Sure glad that I read this first. I think that I’m just going to run what the factory put in it until I do some more mods.

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Old Jan 28, 2006 | 03:28 PM
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Burnt C6, if you'll hang there in for about 2 weeks, Ricky, the svc mgr at Corvettes of Houston will be able to do a full blown C6 edit. Also, COH just bought a dyno. It is due for delivery in mid March.
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Old Jan 28, 2006 | 03:33 PM
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Originally Posted by mikeyc6
I'm looking for a quick way out of this one. I have a Predator with the latest updated software and I've used it many times to load a tune but this last time, the upload to the car quit at 28% and now the car won't start and the Predator says it can't read the vehicle type so it won't even allow me to load the original backup back into the car. I tried forcing the original backup but it gives me some code and then wants a password which I don't have, so I can't load the original back in. It claims that operation is for a "dealer" only. Are there any "dealers" on here that can get me out of this mess? Maybe the password is all I need? I don't want to have this thing flatbedded to the dealer 20 feet from my garage!

Thanks,
Mike
Wow Mike sorry to hear that...Was just going to instal mine..I Guess i should wait also...Let me know what happen's? did you do anything diffrent? or did the acc just shut off?
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Old Jan 28, 2006 | 03:49 PM
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Originally Posted by black05c6z51
put it in nuetral and push!!!!
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Old Jan 28, 2006 | 04:20 PM
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This happened to a gTO member; you need Diablo to fix you up, they have the password. Read this thread: http://ls1gto.com/forums/showthread.php?t=59193


Note to self: Avoid making changes after hours when Diablo Tech-support is unavailable.


Originally Posted by mikeyc6
I'm looking for a quick way out of this one. I have a Predator with the latest updated software and I've used it many times to load a tune but this last time, the upload to the car quit at 28% and now the car won't start and the Predator says it can't read the vehicle type so it won't even allow me to load the original backup back into the car. I tried forcing the original backup but it gives me some code and then wants a password which I don't have, so I can't load the original back in. It claims that operation is for a "dealer" only. Are there any "dealers" on here that can get me out of this mess? Maybe the password is all I need? I don't want to have this thing flatbedded to the dealer 20 feet from my garage!

Thanks,
Mike
Reply
Old Jan 28, 2006 | 05:12 PM
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Originally Posted by MSammet
Burnt C6, if you'll hang there in for about 2 weeks, Ricky, the svc mgr at Corvettes of Houston will be able to do a full blown C6 edit. Also, COH just bought a dyno. It is due for delivery in mid March.
I had Ricky and staff install my Corsa Sports and I’m fixing to have them do the B&B headers and high flow cats. He told me last time I was in there buying things that they would be able to Dyno very shortly. I can wait till then They do great work in my book no complaints at all.
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Old Jan 28, 2006 | 05:14 PM
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Originally Posted by black05c6z51
put it in nuetral and push!!!!
I tried. My driveway is on an incline and even with me a fairly strong 210 pounds, I couldn't push the thing back in the garage. Letting it roll the other way would have made it worse (more in the way). I ended up putting a rope around the rear sway bar and towing it back in the garage with my quad. I knew the bar would be OK because I wasn't pulling it that hard: just too hard for a human. I should have taken a picture of that setup. It would have been worth a lot of mileage here.

Looks like I'm dead until Monday. No response from Johan or TByrne. Sucks how some people can take the weekend off!

Mike
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Old Jan 28, 2006 | 05:24 PM
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Originally Posted by YellowVette22
Wow Mike sorry to hear that...Was just going to instal mine..I Guess i should wait also...Let me know what happen's? did you do anything diffrent? or did the acc just shut off?
I did it the same way I had done it 15 times before. I guess the car's brain (or the Predator) farted this time. It just hung up at 28% for about 30 seconds and then went back to the previous menu. Blew a good couple of days for driving too. Nice weather in MD today!



I think any tool like this is probably prone to communication problems sooner or later. The only thing that stinks is the fact that you can't "force feed" it the original backup without a DiabloSport password. I see why it's needed but it sucks for the legit customer like me who isn't trying to steal the damn thing... I'm just trying to get my $51K car to start again. Oh well... Monday's another day.

I'd been contemplating getting a second tat on my arm. Now I know what to get on my forearm: "WARNING: tune only Monday-Friday 9:00am - 5:30pm eastern."

Mike
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Old Jan 28, 2006 | 05:51 PM
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Originally Posted by mikeyc6
I'm looking for a quick way out of this one. I have a Predator with the latest updated software and I've used it many times to load a tune but this last time, the upload to the car quit at 28% and now the car won't start and the Predator says it can't read the vehicle type so it won't even allow me to load the original backup back into the car. I tried forcing the original backup but it gives me some code and then wants a password which I don't have, so I can't load the original back in. It claims that operation is for a "dealer" only. Are there any "dealers" on here that can get me out of this mess? Maybe the password is all I need? I don't want to have this thing flatbedded to the dealer 20 feet from my garage!

Thanks,
Mike
Sorry to hear of your misfortune MikeyC6.

Hope you get it back up and running soon.

JMO, but at this point, I would be wondering why it happened in the first place and asking myself if I wanted to risk that, or some other mishap, again

Last edited by '06 Quicksilver Z06; Jan 28, 2006 at 05:55 PM.
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Old Jan 28, 2006 | 07:07 PM
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Originally Posted by DSOM Z51
JMO, but at this point, I would be wondering why it happened in the first place and asking myself if I wanted to risk that, or some other mishap, again
Believe me, I've already thought of just sending the thing back or selling it after loading the stock program again (assuming/hoping that the password is all I need). I keep telling myself I need to eat better too, you know, more fruits and vegetables. I think my appetite for power is as bad as my appetite for red meat, so I'll probably be dumb enough to fiddle with it again. I'll be sure to only tune in the middle of a weekday from now on though. IMHO, if DiabloSport is going to create a device that cannot recover from a communication error and renders your car completely dead, they ought to have a 24/7 hotline or at least an online or telephone based automated system that could give you the password based on your S/N and some other info on weekends and after hours.

I don't want my experience to scare people off from buying a Predator but I do think they need better load fault recovery. Now I'm thinking about all the times I went for a test drive around the block and stopped in a parking lot to tweak a few parameters. If it had happened then, I would have been stranded and this would have been even more of an inconvenience. Now it will be a lot less convenient to tweak parameters because I'm going to make sure this thing is in the garage in its normal parking spot before I try to load a tune from now on. What a pain to have to back the car in its tight spot every time and then pull it out for another test drive! Any device with this kind of fatal error potential needs a recovery method that doesn't require calling a phone number you can't remember and hearing that no one is available because you decided to tune your car after normal business hours! Yeah... well... some of us work normal business hours too so the majority of the times when this happens there will be no one to help you. I guess we are all supposed to take the day off to tune?

Mike

Last edited by mikeyc6; Jan 28, 2006 at 07:16 PM.
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Old Jan 28, 2006 | 07:27 PM
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Originally Posted by MSammet
Burnt C6, if you'll hang there in for about 2 weeks, Ricky, the svc mgr at Corvettes of Houston will be able to do a full blown C6 edit. Also, COH just bought a dyno. It is due for delivery in mid March.
COH bought a dyno
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Old Jan 28, 2006 | 07:59 PM
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Originally Posted by mikeyc6
Believe me, I've already thought of just sending the thing back or selling it after loading the stock program again (assuming/hoping that the password is all I need). I keep telling myself I need to eat better too, you know, more fruits and vegetables. I think my appetite for power is as bad as my appetite for red meat, so I'll probably be dumb enough to fiddle with it again. I'll be sure to only tune in the middle of a weekday from now on though. IMHO, if DiabloSport is going to create a device that cannot recover from a communication error and renders your car completely dead, they ought to have a 24/7 hotline or at least an online or telephone based automated system that could give you the password based on your S/N and some other info on weekends and after hours.

I don't want my experience to scare people off from buying a Predator but I do think they need better load fault recovery. Now I'm thinking about all the times I went for a test drive around the block and stopped in a parking lot to tweak a few parameters. If it had happened then, I would have been stranded and this would have been even more of an inconvenience. Now it will be a lot less convenient to tweak parameters because I'm going to make sure this thing is in the garage in its normal parking spot before I try to load a tune from now on. What a pain to have to back the car in its tight spot every time and then pull it out for another test drive! Any device with this kind of fatal error potential needs a recovery method that doesn't require calling a phone number you can't remember and hearing that no one is available because you decided to tune your car after normal business hours! Yeah... well... some of us work normal business hours too so the majority of the times when this happens there will be no one to help you. I guess we are all supposed to take the day off to tune?

Mike

I hear you. You bring up some very good ideas and hopefully someone at Diablosport is listening too.

A key which could be obtained with you SSN or some other code sounds like a good idea for those times, even during normal business hours, when you cannot get through to a real live human being.

Many people, myself included, tend to tune late at night or on the weekends. Its much easier to make test runs late in the evening or early in the morning. . Little traffic and few cops.

I too have parked in an office building or mall parking lot after one leg of the run, to make changes for the trip back home. It would have been real inconvenient to get stranded during some of those 12:30a.m. - 1:30 a.m. "test and tunes" I did.

In any event, hopefully you can get through to James on Monday and he can walk you through it. I'd send him an e mail or a PM on the off chance that he comes back to his computer this weekend.
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Old Jan 28, 2006 | 10:01 PM
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Good luck getting it going again, Mike. I know how persistent you are. You'll get it going!
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Old Jan 29, 2006 | 12:40 AM
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i was going to install mine today..But going to wait until monday now...Its my daily driver and dont need something like this to happen to me..
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Old Jan 29, 2006 | 12:42 AM
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Old Jan 29, 2006 | 12:43 AM
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Originally Posted by mikeyc6
I did it the same way I had done it 15 times before. I guess the car's brain (or the Predator) farted this time. It just hung up at 28% for about 30 seconds and then went back to the previous menu. Blew a good couple of days for driving too. Nice weather in MD today!



I think any tool like this is probably prone to communication problems sooner or later. The only thing that stinks is the fact that you can't "force feed" it the original backup without a DiabloSport password. I see why it's needed but it sucks for the legit customer like me who isn't trying to steal the damn thing... I'm just trying to get my $51K car to start again. Oh well... Monday's another day.

I'd been contemplating getting a second tat on my arm. Now I know what to get on my forearm: "WARNING: tune only Monday-Friday 9:00am - 5:30pm eastern."

Mike
Oh Forgot to ask you..Why 15 times? you had new tunes sent to you? will i have to keep going back and forth to find a right tune..?Hows that work?i though once you had it in then you just tweak it.. and thats it..
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