The TAP Saga Continues ...

[charlie@elektro.cmhnet.org (Charlie Smith)]

An update on what's happened with my TAP modified MAC-10 ECU.

I've kept off the quattro list on this topic, since I was intending to
get them to give me a stock MAC-10 and a refund.  After some of the reports
I made last month got handed to TAP, I didn't want them to feel threatened
and tell me they wouldn't help me at all.  I didn't want to have to start
off by hiring a lawyer!

You may recall, this series of events has occured:

 *  I had purchased their upgrade to my MAC-10 ECU which included a new 
    wastegate spring.

 *  They originally sent me a spring that was WAY too strong, and Trevor's
    comments not withstanding, they gave me NO instructions to put a guage
    on the setup, and they gave me NO instructions for 'tuning' the
    wastegate spring pressure.  The MAC-10 they returned to me had a problem
    with the check-engine light coming on over 3K RPM, and it stored a 
    result code of 2222 (pressure sensor defective) - plus didn't run worth
    a hoot.

 *  Anita quickly sent me another spring, stronger than stock but about
    half the stiffness of the first one they provided.

 *  After returning the MAC-10 to TAP for recheck, with no improvement, they
    sent me a MAC-11C ECU to use.  This caused major breaking up above 4K
    RPM, but ran stronger from 2500 to 4000.
 
 *  I had talked to Anita on the phone and had asked for them to give me
    back a stock MAC-10, that hadn't been modified by them - she said they
    would do this.  I also I even made a memo for myself to this effect.

 *  It was about at this point that one of the readers of the quattro
    list provided printed copies of my reports to Trevor at TAP, which
    caused him to go into rapid denial mode.  I declined to comment at 
    that time, figuring that if I did - then copies of that would get to
    TAP also.  I've got a major problem with people handing this sort of
    stuff verbatum to vendors, especially when the vendor doesn't have the
    savvy to handle email themselves!  It sure will result in little or
    no public discussion of problems!

 *  During a visit last week to my son's in Tampa Fl, I stopped by the
    TAP storefront.  I did this to return the messed up MAC-10 and the
    MAC-11C, in exchange for an unmodified MAC-10.  When I showed up at
    at the TAP store, Anita denied telling me they would give me a stock
    MAC-10 ECU, all they would do is to "unmodify" my original MAC-10.
    To make a long story shorter, that is all that they would do.  They
    have not refunded my money at this point.

 *  I had a lot of reservations about them removing their mods from my 
    MAC-10, since they hadn't been able to get it to work right when I 
    originally returned it.  However, it does seem to work OK as stock,
    the check engine light problem is fixed.  The work done removing the
    mods is extremely sloppy - they desoldered the socket they had installed
    and soldered in the original MAC-10 EPROM chip, and in doing this Trevor
    tore out one of the printed circuit traces on the back of the board
    and replaced it with a 2" piece of wire with the insulation half melted
    off.  This is in addition to removing their circuit from the pressure
    sensor daughter board.

 *  I'm still holding some slight hope of getting my money back, so I'd hope
    to keep this discussion just to the list until I really see how this
    ends up.

      - Charlie


Charlie Smith   charlie@elektro.cmhnet.org  614-471-1418  
Columbus, Ohio USA


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