Sorry for starting a new post about this but I felt the other one was a bit bogged down with complaints on different issues. So as I stated in the other post I have received a new tune from Trifecta. The engineers raised the idle speed (by my eye) an estimated 50-100 rpms. The idle seems to hold at 600 or higher now as compared to dropping to the low 500's before. It has not been extremely cold here but has been in the low 50's over the last few days of test driving and I have not felt any idle vibration while sitting at a red light as of yet. While I am happy with the results so far I will continue to monitor it as the temps plunge and update this post with the results.
I will suggest that anyone with this issue that already owns a tune, contact your provider (trifecta or overkill) and ask for the same fix. If you do not have a tune already and have this issue, I would continuing holding out from buying until we have some more data on this but it does look promising. :beer:
Put another 40 miles on her yesterday doing some stop and go errand runs and nothing of note to report, been steady as a rock. It would suck to tell people they need to purchase a tune to fix the factory's issues but you do get the added aggressive response, throttle, and shifting patterns to go with it too. More to come...
It would suck to tell people they need to purchase a tune to fix the factory's issues but you do get the added aggressive response, throttle, and shifting patterns to go with it too. More to come...
I'm sure that affected owners would be more than glad to fork over a few hundred $$$ if raising the idle turns out be a solution to these vibration issues! Interested to see how this works out. Did you have the idle vibration, the 1500rpm vibration or both?
And if someone didn't want the full performance tune - such as those that aren't trying to turn their Impala into a race car, for example - and actually prefer softer shifts, etc (like myself) - they could just buy an HPTuner device and raise the idle themselves (it's super easy to do). That way, they could fix the issue without affecting anything else tune-related - and could even customize certain other things to their liking (amount of torque reduction, shift points, shift speeds, etc, etc, etc) if they decide to in the future. For the record, I didn't like the Overkill tune or the Trifecta tune as I felt they made the shifts too firm and/or made the throttle too "touchy", etc - so I ended up going the HPTuner route and set up my car to *my* liking, which was really worked out well for me (I wasn't looking for increased performance - just increased "drivability").
Anyway, good news (so far, at least)! I hope the good news stays that way!! Would be crazy if the issue was such a minor thing and GM was just unwilling (or unable) to correct it...
Seems like it was 600rpm but constantly dipped as low as 500-450 at red lights. Now it hold between 700 and 600 haven't seen it dip below that as of yet. Again, I want to check it in 20F temps but that won't come for at least a few more weeks.
Everything has it's pros and cons. The benefit of HPTuners is that you can customize *many* other things to exactly the way that *you* want them. You'd be surprised what some small modifications can do to the overall drivability (slightly modified shift points, TCC apply/release settings, removing some torque reduction during shifts, adjusting gas pedal sensitivity, etc).
With Trifecta, you get what they give you and you cannot change anything (or even look at it). You have either stock or performance. With HPTuners, you are in complete control, which is awesome (it's actually addictive!). Plus they have a fantastic scanner as well. But just a small correction - HPTuners cost $500, not $350.
But like you said, it all depends on what you're looking to do, I guess. When I purchased the Overkill tune (and tested the Trifecta tune), I *never* expected to be tuning my own car, but in the end, I found that was the only way I would truly be happy. Unfortunately, I think we've all seen just how valuable the GM powertrain warranty *really* is (unless something completely fails, which is unlikely, its not worth much!), so I was OK with potentially voiding my warranty to get a car I actually enjoy driving. My understanding is that they don't even check for modified tunes on cars like the Impala, so it may not be an issue anyway. I've seen GM docs that say they only check tunes on V8 vehicles and sports cars (such as V6 camaro).
Regardless, if the idle increase solves this issue, at least people have a way to avoid the vibration - however they decide to do it - which is a huge win!
i'm at 89K and almost out of warranty so i guess nothing lose if i do this. except i dont know how. i started looking into it with the 95SS and know i had to dig somewhere and change a chip i believe.
but today is all this stuff done through the tuner they sell you for 500 and you can play with stuff yourself?
i would love to get rid of the vib at idle. but will this be using measurably more gas? also would be nice to have better shifting and whatever else this could do for me. i dont care about the HP gains and i have to keep using 87 octane because i go over 30K a year and cannot afford premium.
also on the off chance i do want to go to the dealer for something and want to revert to factory settings, is this easy to do?
You can also go the cheaper option and in my opinion safer option and get a tune from Trifecta.
I use more a bit more gas cause I actually like opening the car up now that it actually accelerates with the new TCM tune.
If you go with Trifecta it has a transparency option that make the tuning invisible to GM. If however you need to go back to the dealer with the vehicle you can easily revert back to your stock tune with the included software and cable. However, you DO need to make a backup of your stock tune before doing the initial tune.
Yes, nowadays, you can do this type of thing (and *so* much more) from a computer without ever touching a single tool. To lower the idle, for example, you just type in what you want it to be - you can set target idle speed (based on coolant temp and if in gear, neutral or in park), idle speed when A/C is on, startup idle speed (cold starts), etc. You have COMPLETE control over all idle speed aspects. Very simple to change. It would only use considerably more gas if you idle a LOT.
And yes, it's very easy to revert back to the factory tune.
Yu do have to be careful though. There are thousands of values that you can change with HPTuners. And if you set them incorrectly, you can cause engine/trans damage. But you can just change what you are comfortable changing. Takes less than a minute to update the calibration after a change - all done via a laptop with the HPTuner software.
I didn't know ANYTHING about tuning or even about the mechanical workings of cars when I started messing with HPTuners. I've learned SO much - and I find it all extremely interesting and rewarding...
@ICUBB - I'm assuming that all is still well since you raised the idle? I'm sure lots of 9th gen owners are keeping an eye on this!
Even if they go the HPTuner route @ $500, I think that is a small price to pay in order to resolve such an annoying issue - I'd jump at paying $500 to solve it if I had a 9th gen with the issue!
When do you think you'll know for sure if the problem is solved or not?
Another potential option - a few people pitch in on an HPTuner and "share" it. When you buy an HPTuner new for $500, it comes with enough "credits" to tune 4 different cars. So really, 4 people could pitch in on this. One person changes the idle speed and then sends the unit to the next person... Only "issue" is deciding who holds onto the unit and shipping it back and forth to get back to the stock tune if needed.
Just seems like such a waste to not use all of the credits that come with the HPTuner... If you get 4 people to go in on this, you're talking $125 to solve this issue (and have the ability to change other things if you'd wish).
@ICUBB - I'm assuming that all is still well since you raised the idle? I'm sure lots of 9th gen owners are keeping an eye on this!
When do you think you'll know for sure if the problem is solved or not?
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All is still well, been in the 40's here the last few mornings and has been markedly better than before. I do still feel the engine a bit but not the heavy vibrations. I will not rush to a conclusion and tell people to go out and spend to fix this with only a few weeks and 300+ miles of data but it does look promising. Still waiting for the 20's and teens to set in, likely in a month or so, I believe that will be a much better marker as to whether or not this is a nice whitewash to GM's shoddy tune.
regarding my idle question above and using more gas. i hate my office so i eat my lunch in my car. meaning summer and winter thats 30 min of idling per day , or more, during the AC and heater usage months
is this material? i have no clue how much gas is used at idle.
regarding invisibility mode. sounds like super hero stuff
Just for laughs, if the car normally idles at 600 and you raise it to 700 using simple math I would have to imagine it would be a 16% increase in idling gas. I cannot and will not confirm that however. Here's the math for you scientists out there 700/600=116% of normal.
I can't imagine the slightly increased idle speed making much of a difference. The 2012+ 8th gens (same engine and trans) are tuned to idle at 680rpm in the stock tune, so this small increase would just alter the idle speed to be the same as the 2012+ 8th gens.
i think my car knows i was reading this forum.. today i was waiting to pull out onto the road and the steering really was vibrating bad. its like its saying 'tune me' lol
From what I know, most new vehicles burn less than 0.5 gallons per hour of idling. So I'm going to say that unless you're setting your idle speed to > 1000 rpm, your fuel consumption won't change noticeably.
Ok, so quick update. It has finally hit the teens here and while the vibration issue is better it is not completely gone. The car does idle higher as that is what the tune has fixed, however, it does still randomly drop 500 or so RPMs and when it does this the vehicle does shake a bit. It's not as bad as it was before where the car seemed to want to fall apart but not 100% smooth either. It was worth the shot and I have to thank the guys over at Trifecta for attempting to solve the issue that GM says doesn't exist.
Super smooth here also. In cold weather i just start the car like i would any other car and let it warm up before leaving. On some unrelated note i have to bring my car in for recall tomorrow. Something about some cars trunks not opening when using FOB. I dont have that issue but still gonna bring it in
-10 celcius my house. Car does drop to 500 rpm if i switch gears from N to D/R, causes some vibration. Don't get straight pipes as they give more vibration lol. These engines are loud too, lots of ticking and stuff going on at cold start
only time i go into neutral is when i pass it on the way to drive. cold start = metal expansion
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