SCT Livewire TS - Paperweight or Programmer?
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Black & Chrome
Joined: Jan 2010
Posts: 330
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From: WV
SCT Livewire TS - Paperweight or Programmer?
A little background -
I just bought an SCT Livewire TS last week and I've had nothing but problems with it to this point and it's still not in my truck. Upon trying to update the programmer before I used it, the updater software from the SCT website installed without any errors, yet it would still not recognize and update my tuner. I then tried to put it in my truck to see what would happen and after setting all my parameters (tire size, gear ratio, preset tune), I hit the "Approve" button to install the tune, only to receive an error. The truck had been running fine before this, but the tuner said I needed to charge my battery and try again. So I unplugged the SCT and tried to start my truck. Completely dead! I had to jump it with the wife's car and it was perfectly fine after that.
Skip forward a couple days and I got a tech from SCT on the phone. He first looked at the updater problem I had on my computer and fixed that quickly by giving me the proper driver files for Windows 8.1, which I couldn't find anywhere on their website. I've had trouble with a lot of products due to Windows 8.1, so I figured this would be an issue with this tuner as well. After updated the drivers, I went to update my tuner with the latest version(s) of the files on it. 696 updates needed. After waiting 15-20 minutes for it to updated, it failed. Could not unlock tuner. I had to eventually unplug the tuner from my laptop, plug it back in, and it would finally recognize it again to restart the update, which eventually worked.
So now that it was updated, I went back to my truck. Plugged it in and it started updating files right after I turned it on. Progress from the first time I tried it in my truck, so I was hopeful that I could get it installed. Wrong! Upon hitting the "Approve" button again, I ended up with another error. "110be - could not unlock vehicle". So back to the phone I went to get SCT on the line. After an hours wait for a rep, I finally got someone on the phone. I explained the issue I was having with the failure code but I hadn't written it down, so I tried to program it again so I could get the error. This time, I didn't get the "unlock vehicle" error, but I got yet again the error saying to charge my battery. Yep, it was dead one again. So I got the wife's car back out to jump it and it fired right up, so I left it hooked to my truck to keep the battery charged while trying to install the tune. Tried it once again and I ended up with the "could not unlock vehicle" code.
So at this point, the SCT rep had me go back to my computer and he sent me a "stock" tune using my hex code to install to see if it would unlock the truck so that I could tune it. That was another big failure! Could not unlock vehicle.
So now I'm left with a $500+ paperweight, and a pretty lousy one at that. Anyone else that has used this tuner ever run into these issues? I know there have been lots of complaints about the tuner draining the battery, but all of those that I have read were talking about after it was installed and the truck was just sitting around and it would eventually drain the battery. This behavior doesn't seem right to me. I shouldn't have to hook another vehicle to mine to get it to install a tune. I'll probably just end up sending it back for another unit to see if this one is just a lemon. Any other ideas?? Any suggestions would be appreciated.
I just bought an SCT Livewire TS last week and I've had nothing but problems with it to this point and it's still not in my truck. Upon trying to update the programmer before I used it, the updater software from the SCT website installed without any errors, yet it would still not recognize and update my tuner. I then tried to put it in my truck to see what would happen and after setting all my parameters (tire size, gear ratio, preset tune), I hit the "Approve" button to install the tune, only to receive an error. The truck had been running fine before this, but the tuner said I needed to charge my battery and try again. So I unplugged the SCT and tried to start my truck. Completely dead! I had to jump it with the wife's car and it was perfectly fine after that.
Skip forward a couple days and I got a tech from SCT on the phone. He first looked at the updater problem I had on my computer and fixed that quickly by giving me the proper driver files for Windows 8.1, which I couldn't find anywhere on their website. I've had trouble with a lot of products due to Windows 8.1, so I figured this would be an issue with this tuner as well. After updated the drivers, I went to update my tuner with the latest version(s) of the files on it. 696 updates needed. After waiting 15-20 minutes for it to updated, it failed. Could not unlock tuner. I had to eventually unplug the tuner from my laptop, plug it back in, and it would finally recognize it again to restart the update, which eventually worked.
So now that it was updated, I went back to my truck. Plugged it in and it started updating files right after I turned it on. Progress from the first time I tried it in my truck, so I was hopeful that I could get it installed. Wrong! Upon hitting the "Approve" button again, I ended up with another error. "110be - could not unlock vehicle". So back to the phone I went to get SCT on the line. After an hours wait for a rep, I finally got someone on the phone. I explained the issue I was having with the failure code but I hadn't written it down, so I tried to program it again so I could get the error. This time, I didn't get the "unlock vehicle" error, but I got yet again the error saying to charge my battery. Yep, it was dead one again. So I got the wife's car back out to jump it and it fired right up, so I left it hooked to my truck to keep the battery charged while trying to install the tune. Tried it once again and I ended up with the "could not unlock vehicle" code.
So at this point, the SCT rep had me go back to my computer and he sent me a "stock" tune using my hex code to install to see if it would unlock the truck so that I could tune it. That was another big failure! Could not unlock vehicle.
So now I'm left with a $500+ paperweight, and a pretty lousy one at that. Anyone else that has used this tuner ever run into these issues? I know there have been lots of complaints about the tuner draining the battery, but all of those that I have read were talking about after it was installed and the truck was just sitting around and it would eventually drain the battery. This behavior doesn't seem right to me. I shouldn't have to hook another vehicle to mine to get it to install a tune. I'll probably just end up sending it back for another unit to see if this one is just a lemon. Any other ideas?? Any suggestions would be appreciated.
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Joined: Nov 2013
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A little background -
I just bought an SCT Livewire TS last week and I've had nothing but problems with it to this point and it's still not in my truck. Upon trying to update the programmer before I used it, the updater software from the SCT website installed without any errors, yet it would still not recognize and update my tuner. I then tried to put it in my truck to see what would happen and after setting all my parameters (tire size, gear ratio, preset tune), I hit the "Approve" button to install the tune, only to receive an error. The truck had been running fine before this, but the tuner said I needed to charge my battery and try again. So I unplugged the SCT and tried to start my truck. Completely dead! I had to jump it with the wife's car and it was perfectly fine after that.
Skip forward a couple days and I got a tech from SCT on the phone. He first looked at the updater problem I had on my computer and fixed that quickly by giving me the proper driver files for Windows 8.1, which I couldn't find anywhere on their website. I've had trouble with a lot of products due to Windows 8.1, so I figured this would be an issue with this tuner as well. After updated the drivers, I went to update my tuner with the latest version(s) of the files on it. 696 updates needed. After waiting 15-20 minutes for it to updated, it failed. Could not unlock tuner. I had to eventually unplug the tuner from my laptop, plug it back in, and it would finally recognize it again to restart the update, which eventually worked.
So now that it was updated, I went back to my truck. Plugged it in and it started updating files right after I turned it on. Progress from the first time I tried it in my truck, so I was hopeful that I could get it installed. Wrong! Upon hitting the "Approve" button again, I ended up with another error. "110be - could not unlock vehicle". So back to the phone I went to get SCT on the line. After an hours wait for a rep, I finally got someone on the phone. I explained the issue I was having with the failure code but I hadn't written it down, so I tried to program it again so I could get the error. This time, I didn't get the "unlock vehicle" error, but I got yet again the error saying to charge my battery. Yep, it was dead one again. So I got the wife's car back out to jump it and it fired right up, so I left it hooked to my truck to keep the battery charged while trying to install the tune. Tried it once again and I ended up with the "could not unlock vehicle" code.
So at this point, the SCT rep had me go back to my computer and he sent me a "stock" tune using my hex code to install to see if it would unlock the truck so that I could tune it. That was another big failure! Could not unlock vehicle.
So now I'm left with a $500+ paperweight, and a pretty lousy one at that. Anyone else that has used this tuner ever run into these issues? I know there have been lots of complaints about the tuner draining the battery, but all of those that I have read were talking about after it was installed and the truck was just sitting around and it would eventually drain the battery. This behavior doesn't seem right to me. I shouldn't have to hook another vehicle to mine to get it to install a tune. I'll probably just end up sending it back for another unit to see if this one is just a lemon. Any other ideas?? Any suggestions would be appreciated.
I just bought an SCT Livewire TS last week and I've had nothing but problems with it to this point and it's still not in my truck. Upon trying to update the programmer before I used it, the updater software from the SCT website installed without any errors, yet it would still not recognize and update my tuner. I then tried to put it in my truck to see what would happen and after setting all my parameters (tire size, gear ratio, preset tune), I hit the "Approve" button to install the tune, only to receive an error. The truck had been running fine before this, but the tuner said I needed to charge my battery and try again. So I unplugged the SCT and tried to start my truck. Completely dead! I had to jump it with the wife's car and it was perfectly fine after that.
Skip forward a couple days and I got a tech from SCT on the phone. He first looked at the updater problem I had on my computer and fixed that quickly by giving me the proper driver files for Windows 8.1, which I couldn't find anywhere on their website. I've had trouble with a lot of products due to Windows 8.1, so I figured this would be an issue with this tuner as well. After updated the drivers, I went to update my tuner with the latest version(s) of the files on it. 696 updates needed. After waiting 15-20 minutes for it to updated, it failed. Could not unlock tuner. I had to eventually unplug the tuner from my laptop, plug it back in, and it would finally recognize it again to restart the update, which eventually worked.
So now that it was updated, I went back to my truck. Plugged it in and it started updating files right after I turned it on. Progress from the first time I tried it in my truck, so I was hopeful that I could get it installed. Wrong! Upon hitting the "Approve" button again, I ended up with another error. "110be - could not unlock vehicle". So back to the phone I went to get SCT on the line. After an hours wait for a rep, I finally got someone on the phone. I explained the issue I was having with the failure code but I hadn't written it down, so I tried to program it again so I could get the error. This time, I didn't get the "unlock vehicle" error, but I got yet again the error saying to charge my battery. Yep, it was dead one again. So I got the wife's car back out to jump it and it fired right up, so I left it hooked to my truck to keep the battery charged while trying to install the tune. Tried it once again and I ended up with the "could not unlock vehicle" code.
So at this point, the SCT rep had me go back to my computer and he sent me a "stock" tune using my hex code to install to see if it would unlock the truck so that I could tune it. That was another big failure! Could not unlock vehicle.
So now I'm left with a $500+ paperweight, and a pretty lousy one at that. Anyone else that has used this tuner ever run into these issues? I know there have been lots of complaints about the tuner draining the battery, but all of those that I have read were talking about after it was installed and the truck was just sitting around and it would eventually drain the battery. This behavior doesn't seem right to me. I shouldn't have to hook another vehicle to mine to get it to install a tune. I'll probably just end up sending it back for another unit to see if this one is just a lemon. Any other ideas?? Any suggestions would be appreciated.
