Yeah it's illegal for BMS to ship their tunes in CA or sell in CA. They got popped by the CARB a long time ago. You'll have to buy from an out of state seller. BMS will ship to them, they'll ship to you. It's basically a circle. From Cali, to another state, back to Cali.

BMS is a reputable company with reputable products. Many BMW owners are loyal to BMS and their JB4 piggy back. I had no problems with my Stage 1 tune and if BMS had a flash tune, I'd go for it.

The difference between Stage 1 and JB4 is mainly that Stage 1 was a set piggy back tune, no changing it, you were on the map it came with. JB4 is essentially the same thing but with more possibilities as it has more maps loaded and I believe you can create your own. There's a little more to installing it compared to Stage 1, but if I didn't have an OVTune, I'd go with JB4.

 

So, I went ahead and purchased the Tom's Racing Powerbox for the IS300 from Apexi. They only gave me one shipping option, although advised to call in later today to see if there were any additional shipping methods that may be quicker than ground shipping. They (Apexi) are located in OC and I'm not that far away from their headquarters, but I don't know if their warehouse is there or if they have to order the part from Japan.

The main reason I went with Tom's over BMS is the strong relationship that Tom's has historically had with Toyota as an official tuner to many of their vehicles, Lexus vehicles included.

The instruction guide isn't available online like it is with the BMS module, so when it arrives I might need help putting this together.

Thanks to all who commented and guided me along as I super, ultra cautiously approached my first tune.

 

How’d you go from deciding not to get a tuner because of “engine life span shortening” to buying a Toms box that quickly? Lol

 

lol, i dunno, man. things happen lol. no, but seriously, i thought that the specs for the tom's box were really mild and wouldn't put an excessive amount of undue stress on the engine. that, and that i can unplug it if i run into problems and take it to the dealer with an innocent face to have it fixed is comforting.

oh, also that tom's works with toyota and lexus pretty much exclusively if not exclusively was also reassuring, while bms works with, like, every make and model under the sun. i feel like more attention to detail went into the tom's tune even if it's not quite as robust as the bms one, which is fine with me.

 

Well you won’t regret the extra torque I promise. Also, someone from OV tuning had stated they spoke to a Toyota/Lexus engineer who worked on our engine (the 8AR-FTS) and said that the engine stock could easily handle much more power with no issues due to how well they reinforced it for forced induction. That put my mind at ease about the whole longevity part.

 

yeah, i totally believe 100% that toyota put a ton of r&d into how to best reinforce the engine to withstand the turbocharger's forced induction given toyota/lexus' reputation for building reliable and dependable products. they don't wanna give that up and i think that's why 1. this engine was so late to market and 2. why it's so underpowered compared to the competition.

 

Heard the engine was built to handle double the stock power output and higher. More and more tempted to get myself the JB4 or a proper tune when coronapocalypse blows over.

 

Yep. The 8AR-FTS is pretty "undertuned" for what it can actually handle, and Toyota wanted it designed that way to be bulletproof. hell, the EGT doesnt even get over 1350 degrees F on my custom OVT tune even when pushing it hard...

 

To be perfectly honest with you, how you drive and treat the car will determine if your tune or modifications damage your car.

You're largely safe with piggy back tuning solutions as long as you drive reasonably. If you drive like a jackass, stock or not, that creates unnecessary stress on the engine.

 

yes, this along with what I had already mentioned in my previous post about what ultimately led me to pull the trigger on the product was how much in control i was of the vehicle. if i abused, for example, a stock vehicle, then it's not going to live for the same amount of time that it would had it not suffered such abuse.

 

No tune

 

Has anyone else had trouble getting in touch with Matt over at OV? I keep having a P0505 fault code but only on the 1.02 tune (i purchased his tuning software last year) I have been trying to make contact with him via email (even before the virus) but still haven't heard anything back. I figured he was just busy but its been like two months. I love his tune and software, they were the best over-all.

 

I know you probably don't want to hear this, but if you have a OV tune you're SOL. So much frustration, problems, demand and ungratefulness has been placed on Matt's shoulders than he has essentially given up on this platform. To put it in a nerdy version: the citizens of metropolis has demanded soo much from Superman, that Superman ultimately gave up on the citizens to let them rot.

 

well, that sucks for you OV guys out there that are having problems.

 

Well....so I see where you are coming from with that point and yes sadly that probably is what has happened here... However i totally disagree with how it all went down. That statement "Superman ultimately gave up on the citizens to let them rot" if true it is quite a travesty and to be honest its just crappy service from him or any business that would function that way... but i will agree with you totally that Yes there are a few a-holes out there and those people should have been a bit more patient with Matt especially on a heavily modded car, that i definitely don't deny and i have seen it on here.... but to punish the rest of us good decent folks?...in here that have been nothing but nice to Matt from the beginning?....this is not cool man. Personally, i can say (and this is just me) I have done nothing but always speak highly both of Matt and OV, paid him full price for his tune (even when he offered me a discount code) and made many attempts on this forum plus several FB groups to try hard to promote both him and OV to other prospective members who might be interesting in his tunes. He promised me support if i had any problems.... but then 5-6 months later goes MIA when i patently get back to him on an email we had going for a simple limp mode issue on 1.02 for a common code. I will still give him the benefit of the doubt that maybe he is busy as i know he has a growing family and he said he was moving his shop so things were crazy.... but yes if the other instead is true then you would be exactly right and if so then he basically got fed up with the few and now completely bailed even on the good people like myself. If this is the case, then there are a lot of good people that should be pretty pissed at him. They paid him for goods and services that he doesn't support. I will keep all of you posted on if he ever responds to any of my emails to him for help and sorry guys for the rant, but i feel this needed to be said for all of us (the good ones) who decided to give OV a chance.