What Is The Difference Between A Custom And A Generic Tuning File?

30 Sep What Is The Difference Between A Custom And A Generic Tuning File?

There is great confusion about custom and generic files. Some of our more minor competitors use the word “custom” to describe what they offer without actually knowing what it means… so here are the definitions:

A generic file is one that has a tried and tested calibration created by a file writer who understands the ECU strategy. There is no need to change it, and it will have been successfully applied to thousands of vehicles with the same ECU. Should we receive a new original from an ECU of the same type, running the same strategy, the modification we apply is still deemed as a generic file.

A custom file is NOT created by changing the modifications of a generic file; rather, it is a conversion carried out with the car on a dyno, being mapped precisely to the customer’s instructions and based on hardware changes that require a different level of tune. Anyone who offers “custom tuning files” without a dyno is misrepresenting the term and should be avoided.