Stratified Tuning Review

[koston33]

Starting off if you take a look at the thread I started before this one you will see what prompted me to go custom tune. Quick summary is that I upgraded my fuel pump, but was still stuttering and hesitating every time I built up boost. I was sure I had a leak or something mechanical. The masters on this forum recommend I get a custom tune. I was about to go to my local shop and pay $600+ for a dyno tune. Luckily they chimed in and suggested that I go with an e-tuning from one of the sponsors here. After looking into a couple I decided to go with Stratified, and I am very happy I did.

Let me just begin by saying I am extremely satisfied with the service I got from these guys. Specifically Alex. The tune I got has exceeded my expectation all the while I got outstanding customer service.

My mods are auto tech fuel pump, iridium plugs, forge bpv, down pipe, test pipe, sts, and of course a access port tune. Like I stated earlier, the otc cobb maps weren't meeting my cars needs and I ran into a bunch of problems.

I ordered a custom e-tune from stratified towards the end of december. For those not familiar with an e-tune let me explain. As oppose to driving to a shop paying a bunch of money for either a designated number of pulls or hours on a dyno for a tune, e-tuning is when you send your mods to stratified along with datalogs from your access port that measures different units on your car (load, knock, boost, etc) from this the guys analyze the numbers and build you a map. From here you repeat the process. Logging the data and them building you a new map until you have reached the final map and can't push the car's potential anymore without running into safety issues. You can see on stratified that everything is laid out in black and white how everything works and their process. There are no loopholes or ways they try to screw you. I paid 250 for one base map (you can order a winter map and other tweaks like bigger turbo map and what not). The 250 covers 4 weeks of tuning. If it goes past those 4 weeks you can pay 65 per extra week. I will discuss more in depth about this timeline

So I ordered the map at the end of december and sent them my mod list and initial datalogs. It took awhile for them to get back to me, which I didn't mind because it was over the holidays and they are human after all. I also didn't mind because your 4 week time frame doesn't begin until Alex (Tuner I dealt with) sends you your first map. This was great. I didn't have to worry about time running out because it didn't start until my first map was sent.

So a few days later I get my first map from Alex. I install and go for a spin. Those problems I was having before about sputtering and hesitation were almost all gone. I was amazed because I honestly didn't think it could have been the ECU. Shows how much of a noob I am. Anyways I was thrilled. The care pulled great and felt strong. Just like I remembered her. I took datalogs the next day and sent them to Alex. The logs started with just 2 pulls from 4th gear at WOT.

Now like I said my 4 weeks has now started since I received my first map. Now it was just a matter of tweaking and sending datalogs and maps back and forth. Here's one of the great things about stratified, BTW I forgot to mention that they have done hundred's of Mazda's and know how the car behaves. Truly experts. Anyways once you send them your data back to them for a new map revision they have 2 days to reply. For every day they do not send you a new map after those 2 days, your time is extended by 2 days. WHAT! AWESOME. talk about honesty. This hold them accountable big time. I truly loved this about them. They weren't going to try and screw you by taking a long time to reply and force you to buy more time. This little rule made sure you would get the most out of your tune. Let me say this too. $250 for what I got was a true steal. I would have paid double.

Anyways so this back and forth happens for a couple of weeks. The car getting smoother and faster with every map. Also the drivability greatly improved. Obviously I'm not full throttle all the time so it was really important to have the car run smooth as a daily driver. It is now better than it was stock when it comes to just driving around like a "normal" person. The power delivery is butter. So little by little Alex keeps upping the load. Finally we reach a point where the knock starts to kick in. The knock ranged from 1-2.5. So Alex dialed it back a little bit because safety is one of there main concerns. They don't want cars to blow engines or anything like that of course. So the knock numbers were definitely at the forefront when tuning.

Like I mentioned earlier about there two day policy. Well they honor like priest to the bible (maybe a bad metaphor). Alex was late a day or two on a few of my map returns. So he extend my time. Let me stress that he did this without me having to say anything! NO HASSLES. No having to check email dates or anything like that. They know what is right and they adhere to it. What a relief. So my tune was suppose to end january 31. But with the extensions, it ended up becoming february 12. That means through the whole 4 weeks of tuning Alex was 6 days late here and there. Remember for every day late they add 2 days to the tuning timeline.

Let me just talk really quick about the customer service I was provided apart from the great tuning policy in place. Alex was professional, courteous, and extremely helpful. He answered any questions I had for him. He is truly a craftsman at what he does, and takes his work very serious. I can tell that he values his reputation as a tuner and is truly a perfectionist. I say this because it seemed like we had finally reached my final map. He wanted me to send him the last set of logs just to confirm. This was good because it was few days before our deadline. I sent him the logs and assumed that he would send me an email back just saying to enjoy and all was good. Nope. He still felt like the knock was a little high. So a couple of days AFTER my deadline he sends me a revision and asks for a another set alongs. I reiterate he is now working past the amount of time I paid for. He could have early wiped his hand with the situation and said here you go and asked that I purchase more time. But that did not happen. I sent him a set of logs and offered to pay for the extra time. He declined and said that we are very very close and he wouldn't charge me. He then sent me another revision map and wanted more logs. So NINE days after and 2 maps later we reached the perfect map. Alex put in 9 extra days into my tune because he wanted to make sure my car was safe. Man talk about dedication. This is the email he sent me "Hi W****, we are very very close. But just because I am a bit of a perfectionist, I wanted to make one more adjustment. Please send me another set of logs with this iteration. I am limiting the boost spike between gear changes here."

To sum it up this map is awesome. It pulls hard and almost has a little kick when I hit 4k (almost like a micro v-tec). I have good low end power too. Acceleration feels more linear. Now I can't confirm this yet, but I think my mpg may have improved slightly. hmmm.

If you're thinking of getting a custom tune I would highly recommend Stratified Tuning. Best bang for the buck, and you can rest easy knowing that your car is being tuned by dedicated tuners that are full of integrity. Thanks a bunch Alex.

[skiptowncat]

Cool story

[12blkms3]

Didn't bother reading but liked anyways because great tuner

[Big Dog]

Things like this are good to hear. Especially about how they are with drivability and safety being a top concern. For me it's not about just going fast. Sounds like customer service was excellent aswell. My Speed6 will be ready to have a custom tune in a couple months and stratified is looking more and more like the go to guys.