After many hours of searching through old posts and looking at both manufacturers websites, I am still at a loss over which company I should choose to alter my ECU.

I have a turboxs uppipe, APS downpipe, 3" exhaust, and new intercooler and intake hoses connected to the stock airbox.

I am no tuner and I dont want to try and learn on my daily driver. While I am looking to set it and forget it (which makes accessport appealing), I also want to get my car individually dynotuned and dont want to install generalized maps that aren't programmed specifically for my car (which makes UTEC appealing).

Currently I am spending the summer in Washington, DC, this gives me the opportunity to have turboxs tune my car if I go with the UTEC (another selling point for UTEC). But I read about needing to retune the UTEC to compensate for temperature changes between summer and winter as well as numerous other problems people have faced with the UTEC.

If I go with the UTEC, I will also have to rely on a different tuner if I ever need to make any adjustments, which also makes me cautious about purchasing it. But what the hell do I know about tuning, maybe I have no reason to be concerned about that?

Basically, I'm wondering if having turboxs personally install the UTEC and tune my car will cut down on some of the many problems I've read about? Also, does having my car individually tuned really make a big difference compared to using the generalized accessport maps? And finally, what would you do if you were in my position?

Thanks in advance for any help you can give me...

go with the cobb AP it's user friendly and easy to hook-up.and it's not complicated like the UTEC.if you not in for tunning you might mess up something with UTEC.and if your ready to do some tweaking you can always get the street tuner.

Having an AP and switching to UTEC myself i will tells you this:

1. AP is nice if what you have now is all your gonna do.

2. AP does have streettuner and pro tuner, but for the money you might as well get a utec if you buy the street tuner. Plus the technology is still new.

3. The utec has been around for a while and there are many resources for it.

4. You can swithc maps on the utec. It has 5 map locations. Example: map 1, daily map; map 2, winter map; map 3, low ocatne or economy map; map 4, race gas map:); map 5, what ever. Granted all of these maps have to be tuned but they are all going to be variations of your daily map so when you get custom tuned yuo can just do what ever you want. I think the utec also has a valet mode but you cannot get a remote map selector switch for it.


I could go on and on. I liked my AP a lot. It worked well for me and i had no trouble with it. I just got the itch for more power and IMO the utec seems beter for that than the AP+ street tuner.

Cobb doesnt have any maps for an aftermarket top mount. I have yet to see a car with your setup run safely with an AP.
If you get the street tuner you can make it run fine, but at that point you should have just bought the UTEC and used their stage 3 map, which is mapped for your mods.
The street tuner is also about 1239681726398168937 times more complicated, and therefore more dangerous as far as engine safety goes if you dont KNOW what you are doing.
With either path, and any em path, you will want boost and EGT for gauges at the minimum. (well, thats really all you NEED)

+1 for the Cobb AP.

I'm surprised all you folks are recommending the AP when Cobb specifically states that all thier maps are for the stock IC. I'm with Davenow, get a UTEC because you're current mods do not match well to Cobb's maps.

thank you for all the comments, but I posted hoping to get some answers to the questions I specifically asked:

1. I'm wondering if having turboxs personally install the UTEC will cut down on some of the many problems I've read about.

2. Does having my car individually tuned really make a big difference compared to using the generalized accessport maps?

3. What would you do if you were in my position?

I'm leaning toward going with the UTEC, but I dont want to run into problems when I am back in vegas and at that point, I wont have the option of running down to turbxs to work it out.

With either choice, someone else is doing the install... I dont care how simple it may be, I dont trust myself even a little bit when it comes to messing with the ECU.

maybe this thread belongs in the EM section, but I thought my questions were still too basic for that.

Thanks again for the help

1. I'm wondering if having turboxs personally install the UTEC will cut down on some of the many problems I've read about.

The utec is really easy to install. Any of the issues people are having with the UTEC are not related to an improper install. If the utec wasn't installed right then the car would not start... The only thing txs would give you is a good tune... They make 4-5 maps for you that start more aggressive and work their way down... *ideally* you should be all set for most conditions you would see...

I'm surprised all you folks are recommending the AP when Cobb specifically states that all thier maps are for the stock IC. I'm with Davenow, get a UTEC because you're current mods do not match well to Cobb's maps.

I totally skipped over that part, if he's going or has a FMIC I recommend the UTEC as well. However, I'm still an AP man...

Basically, I'm wondering if having turboxs personally install the UTEC will cut down on some of the many problems I've read about.

The UTEC is incredibly simple to install. First, unplug the connectors going into your ECU, and plug them into your UTEC. Then plug the connectors on the UTEC into your ECU. How do you **** that up?

my apologies for being unclear... I meant to ask if having turboxs tune my car when they install the UTEC will cut down on the many problems I have read about? As opposed to having someone else tune my car with the UTEC. Thats what I get for not proofreading before hitting submit. Thanks for all the advice