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GDE Tune (Green Diesel Tune)

313K views 1K replies 171 participants last post by  Hanskropft 
#1 ·
So... I see there are lots of comments about the GDE Tune but I can't seem to find a thread dedicated to it. Lets start one.

If you have a GDE Tune or a thinking about getting one then this thread is for you. Please stay on subject.

I ordered my tune this morning and I see that it has shipped already. That is pretty fast service so far. I'll keep you posted on how it goes. I also asked Keith at GDE four or five pre-purchase questions. He was fast to reply with answers.

If you have the tune already, you might post some data here and brag a little. Also reveal any problems that may have arose.

Which method did you choose to obtain the tune? Etc, Etc.

I decided to bite the bullet and buy the flash tool. So my bill was $750.00.... ouch. BUT we are going to launch on a 6,000 mile trip. At $4.35+ per gallon of gas, I should make up a portion of the price right there.
We'll see.

The scariest thing about the whole deal is the warranty. Its like... HEY you are messing with your car, if anything goes wrong, it totally on you. Its the same guarantee you get when you install a hack in your computer operating system or your WII Game System. If you hack, its on your back. I hacked my WII so I don't have to insert any disks any more..... great. But then my WII didn't cost me $26,000.

So.... hearing from happy customers is welcome and encouraged. When enough people say, "I did it and it works GREAT." It really helps. So dive in.

:2thumbsup:
 
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#714 ·
Thanks. I just went to GDE website. Their warranty is a bit scary looking, but they do offer a full-money back promise as long as the product is returned within 60 days. So I think someone like me should try it and if I find the efficiency claims are not as promised, I can just return the GDE and sell the tool. Better than complaining about a product that I have not tried.

Has anyone sent theirs back for a refund? Any complications with the refund?

Speaking of flash tools. I already have a code reader. Im not too thrilled about buying the tool. Have any of you had success in renting one from GDE?
 
#717 ·
Thanks. I just went to GDE website. Their warranty is a bit scary looking, but they do offer a full-money back promise as long as the product is returned within 60 days. So I think someone like me should try it and if I find the efficiency claims are not as promised, I can just return the GDE and sell the tool. Better than complaining about a product that I have not tried.

Has anyone sent theirs back for a refund? Any complications with the refund?

Speaking of flash tools. I already have a code reader. Im not too thrilled about buying the tool. Have any of you had success in renting one from GDE?
heres a flash tool for u, talk to Keith and GDE and see how much it would be to tune it up and get it working for u

http://www.jeepforum.com/forum/f130/gde-flash-programer-tool-1507427/

also i had a problem after my dpf delete, had a CEL come on saying soot clog in the dpf, Keith had re-worked the tune and i havent had a problem since.

he said if the problem couldnt be fixed there would be no problem with me sending my unit back..

i dont know my real world mileage numbers pre tune, but on my evic it was always stuck at 14.3L/100kms, now its at like 12.5-13, but i do 100% city driving
and thats a 2MPG increase at all city...

so going on highway would be more,...did 2 hours of highway driving and over the whole tank brought me to 11.2L/100kms, which is 4.5MPG better than my evic was showing pre-tune..

food for thought
 
#715 ·
I have yet to hear of anyone NOT being satisfied with their product and service so cannot comment on returns. This is my second GDE tuned Jeep and am very happy with it. I tuned it for the power more than the economy. I have been tuning my Diesels for 11 years (6 different cars) and NEVER had a failure or issues due to a tune. The tune is a modest modification, not enough to cause any long term damage in my opinion. If you start putting bigger turbo, bigger injectors and high flow fuel pumps then you can expect issues. And even at that I think the engine is bullet proof and could handle much more horesepower. The tranny would probably be the weakest link.
I think you will be pleasantly surprised with the Tune and wished you had done it sooner ;)
 
#716 ·
Tuco said:
This is a great thread, but Im surprised there are no negative comments about this product. Seems too good to be true kind of thing. Please dont take this post as an attack, Im not trying to start a flame fest; just putting out an alternative viewpoint. We are interested in GDE tune, have heard a lot of good things about the company, particularly from folks here that we trust. Yet, I am still a bit skeptical about this type of product.

Ive never considered buying such a product because of the cost , legal issues and personally I question the accuracy of some of these mpg claims. Many claim 2 mpg average increase, I would suggest this is probably a maximum and realistically probably closer to 1 or 1.5. Im a skeptic and would think that after very careful measurements we might get at most 1.5 mpg increase as an average.

Even if we use an upper end of 2 mpg increase, If we drive 10k miles per year at $4 per gallon of diesel, this equates to about $165 savings in fuel per year. This means 5 years to pay for tool. Or for us, this means that the tool will pay for itself about the time we sell the Jeep.

The company claims that the engine will not be harmed in any way. How do we know for sure this is true? A turbo charger costs $4000 ....
I am probably not the only one here that thinks this way ... I ran the ECO tune and now the HOT tune for performance and not fuel milage ... I am happy to get better performance and same fuel milage. I did see at least 2mpg increase on highway but that is not why I run a tuned engine. If I want fuel milage we take the wife's tuned up 05' vow golf that gets 55+ on the highway !!!

Good luck with your decision
 
#720 ·
Had to be in Nelspruit at 9:00 this morning, but woke up very early and could not get back to sleep.

So left just after 5:00 after filling up and decided to test the Jeep's fuel consumption at 100km/h true speed on the gps. Above 100 aerodynamics tend to stuff up consuumption.

Got to Nelspruit and filled up immediately. Pleasant surprise: 27,7mpg at an average speed of 56mph.

Not bad for a permanent 4x4 with a lift, bigger tyres, 5 speed auto and a heavy body. And driver.;D

And the GDE Hot tune.

Back got 21mpg at an average speed of 73mph.

Total distance 400 miles.
 
#721 ·
it's worth noting that Keith @ GDE has been tuning other CRD's for quite some time, including MB and VW. I can't say how my engine will be running after 50K miles on the GDE tune(s), but I can say that right now it's running better than when I bought it. 5K miles on the Eco tune, now 1K miles since I flashed the Hot tune, no complaints.
 
#722 ·
Had to be in Nelspruit at 9:00 this morning, but woke up very early and could not get back to sleep.

So left just after 5:00 after filling up and decided to test the Jeep's fuel consumption at 100km/h true speed on the gps. Above 100 aerodynamics tend to stuff up consuumption.

Got to Nelspruit and filled up immediately. Pleasant surprise: 27,7mpg at an average speed of 56mph.

Not bad for a permanent 4x4 with a lift, bigger tyres, 5 speed auto and a heavy body. And driver.;D

And the GDE Hot tune.

Back got 21mpg at an average speed of 73mph.

Total distance 400 miles.
Its not clear what units you are using here (US vs imperial gals?). Your average is 24.35 mpg. This is about what I get on highway with a stock set up and after many thousands of miles of data.

So how are you folks computing MPG's? I hope its not with the EVIC (especially if tire size has been changed!) or with a single one-way trip or tank of fuel. I see so many posts where someone gets outstanding mpg's. When in reality they are going down a mountain or with strong tail wind or they simply dont know how to do the math. To get an accurate estimate of MPG change after installing a product like GDE, it will take many tanks and many miles and many conditions to determine. A one-way trip of a couple hundred miles means nothing to me and it should mean little to anyone.

Sorry for the rant...
 
#723 ·
I average about 27 mpg on the hwy at 70 mph. 50/50 hwy city I average around 25 mpg. Just made a trip from Smyrna ga to Bristol tn. Drove thru the mountains and could only drive 60-65 mph for most of the trip. Mpg on the trip up was 28.4 for the 300 mile trip. On the trip back I did some site seeing on back roads. Some of the roads I could only drive between 30-45 mph. 450 miles on that tank I got 29.3 mpg. I have taller tires and hand calculate my mileage for every tank. Any faster than 70 mph and the mpg drops fast. Ran 75 mph all hwy for a tank and got just over 26 mpg. I drive conservative and usually run at the speed limit.
 
#724 ·
Ok, I installed the ECO w/o delete in April 2012, upgraded to the ECO tune w/delete in Nov.

During the time with just the ECO tune, I tracked on paper every fill, marking down the mileage on my fuel receipt.
My exel spreadsheet, corrects for my mileage due to my oversized tires.
So, during that period, I drove 16416km (10199m) and used 1745.775 litres of summer blend diesel (461.18US Gal)(362.6imp Gal).
So, my mileage, combined, about 80% highway, 20% city works out to:
10.3 liters/100km
27.4 mpg (imp gal)
22.8 mpg (US gal)

I have not had as good figures with the ECO/delete yet, as it has been very cold since November and have been using winter blend fuel. But, since I installed it, my figures have been 26.1imp Gal, 21.7US gal, 10.9 l/100.

Forgot to add my pre tune/post lift and larger tire mileage:
25.4 (imp) mpg
11.4 l/100
 
#726 ·
Ok I guess it's about time I asked all the questions that I have after reading about this awesome product. I bought my jeep GC Limited S in November with 61,000 km on it, I think there's 68,000km now. I have a 5 year extended warrantee on it. So if it will void the warrantee which Ofcourse they say it will I'm going to have to wait another 5 years and I dont think I can wait that long haha. Anyway my 1st question is if I flash any of these tunes will I be able to put it back to my stock settings for servicing or any mechanical problems without leaving any foot prints for the dealership to void my warrantee. 2nd I will most likely skip the Eco tune and go straight to the Hot tune because I am looking for more power then fuel mileage even though it sounds like the Hot tune gets almost the same depending on how u drive it. I was woundering can I run the hot tune without a dpf delete because I think someone was saying u can't run the dpf without gutting ur dpf and putting in a dpf delete pipe or else u will plug it up. I will eventually put one in But the reason I ask this is because if I gut it and put the dpf pipe in the dealership will kno forsure. 3rd I was reading on GDE website that if u are going to use the hot tune u should have a aftermarket torque converter is that nessasary or am I ok with what came stock with the GC. 4th and finally I bought a edge insight cts dash diagnostic scanner does anyone kno if it will work with these tunes. U guys are the ones that kno best so I thought it was time to ask because I am itching to start upgrading :) thanks.
 
#727 ·
.......1st question is if I flash any of these tunes will I be able to put it back to my stock settings for servicing or any mechanical problems without leaving any foot prints for the dealership to void my warrantee.
Yes, you can flash back to the OEM tune. AFAIK the dealer cannot determine what you had flashed previously, but it may be possible for them to see that a flash has been applied.

2nd .....I was woundering can I run the hot tune without a dpf delete....
Yes you can run with DPF intact and fully functional. I have put 7K miles on my CRD with the GDE Tune and a working DPF

3rd I was reading on GDE website that if u are going to use the hot tune u should have a aftermarket torque converter is that nessasary or am I ok with what came stock with the GC.
The OEM converter is fine the tune(s) will not exceed it's rated capacity

4th and finally I bought a edge insight cts dash diagnostic scanner does anyone kno if it will work with these tunes. U guys are the ones that kno best so I thought it was time to ask because I am itching to start upgrading :) thanks.
I don't know the answer to that one, but I am using Torque Pro and it works just fine
 
#730 ·
I'm pretty sure when I bought the GC they put a new battery in and I have no code errors I check it with my edge cts when I got it last week. Thanks.
Hey do u kno if the swirl motor error is turned off when u load the tune. Mine is still ok but does that mean the swirl motor is turned off or just the sensor so it doesn't go into limp mode if ur swirl motor goes If its just the sensor how will u kno if it swirl motor does go if the sensor is off?
 
#731 ·
hey another BC guy :p

with the tune u will never had a swirl motor issue and it leaves the valves open i believe
i need to order the hot tune..but i like my mileage..dont know how much of a drop it would be cause i do all city driving

also i got a dpf delete and reso delete
 
#736 ·
Get the HOT tune already and forget about the CAT delete! you will NOT be disappointed I promise you :D The HOT tune was like adding another tune on top of the ECO. Truely amazing;) I was not impressed with just the ECO as I still found it too laggy. The HOT tune you can almost spin all 4 wheels from a standstill.
 
#733 ·
i got some third party warranty that ive never used..
dont know what they could blame the dpf delete for...

also from what i have heard the dealer can see how many times u have flashed the ECU, dont know if they can tell with what tho
 
#734 ·
Hmmm really that's no good if they can see that. I don't want to loose my warrantee that's 5 years of free fixes down the drain. Wasnt it u who said u need to get rid of ur dpf if u use the dpf delete or else u will clog it. If I gut it then they will really know. What where ur gains with the dpf delete and when u got rid of the dpf
 
#735 ·
The Hot tune and the Eco tune are your base tunes. The DPF delete tune can be added as extra for like $100. So if you don't want to delete your DPF (through gutting it or straight piping it), then do not get the DPF delete tune when you get your base tune. If you run your Jeep with the DPF delete tune but have not gotten rid of the DPF, you will clog it.
 
#739 ·
abit better throttle response, little bit difference in tone, better mileage

then u can use oils made to keep the engine going rather than oils too keep the DPF alive

oil change next month ill be using mobil 1 0w40 [if i can find it in bigger than 1l jugs lol]
 
#743 ·
They could pass because they were built at a time when there was little to no emissions regulations for them. 2007/2008 is a different story. Interestingly enough Mercedes was able to meet emissions in 2007 without a DPF on their 3.0l CDI vehicles, but they added a Eurea injection on their 2008 models.
 
#744 ·
In the US, the CDI was phased out in 2005. 2006-8 om642 had a dpf part of the bluetec system, no urea injection. 2008 on got all of the bluetec system which includes the urea. Mercedes developed "bluetec" that other manufacturers also use now. They must pay mercedes for the right to use the technology.
 
#745 ·
I bought the eco tune last week and have put 2500kms on it so far so I figured Id do a review for all those who are on the fence. I sent Keith my ecu file at 2am and had my tune at 4:57am! Hows that for service! I got the delete too but havent had time to do it so this is a review of just the eco tune.
I recently drove from langley to kamloops (1100ft elevation change; lots of up and down) and got 10.7l/100kms (21.9mpg) doing 120km/h (74.5mph)....hand calculated
With the following mods:
turbro resonator delete
k and n cone filter
32" all terrains( I adjusted the distance to make up for the bigger tires)
no lift
lower bumper ferring gone
spare tire on roof


Before the tune it was between 13.5-14.5l/100kms

I have noticed that a lot of the turbo lag is gone. The motor makes a new grunting noise when you press the gas quickly. Its a completely new vehicle. Where I really notice the difference is rolling full throttle from 60km/h-100.

My favorite thing so far is how the transmission behaves. When Id be doing 90km/h up most hills it would downshift. I felt that was totally unnecessary and that it had more than enough power to pull the hill in 5th. Ive driven on all the same hills and only on one of them did it still do this. Im guessing this is because the computer now says its only using 60% of power instead of 80% thus not needing to downshift. I dont have a gauge so those numbers aren't accurate, just a guess.

It also shifts alot sooner/lower rpms when cruising through the city.

Based on my calculations this tune will pay for itself in 18,000ish kms. And due to no egr I will extend my oil change intervals to 12k instead of 10k.

I drive about 30k kms a year. So this tune will pay for itself in 8-9 months. And after that I will save $1170 every year.

I probably wont buy the hot tune as Im more of a slower driver/economy person.

Was it worth it? Totally!
 
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