Guys,

I think I have done something out of order.

I had a custom tune installed in my 150 through a x3

I got new tunes I was supposed to update the old ones with to correct some shifting issues.

what I did was load the new tunes onto the x3 go out return my truck to stock and then load the new tune.

The truck goes into engine failure mode once it starts like this.

I have tried returning it to stock and reloading the tunes even going back to the old tunes with no help.

From reading I was supposed to return the truck to stock PRIOR to loading the new tunes on the x3

question is now what do I do...my truck wont run and I have no one to call on the weekend.

any experts know how to get out of this mess?

 

Do you have any modifications? If so, were the tunes you loaded designed for them? What is the HEX code? What year/engine truck? Inquiring minds want to know...

I don't do anything with the X3, but it seems to me that returning back to stock should at least eliminate the CEL/Failsafe Mode issue.

Bill

 

To me it sounds like you are humped. I think your stock tune may have been erased when you updated your tunes. I hope this is not the case.

Kevin

 

You wouldn't think that the XCal would ALLOW an update if could possibly lose the factory stock program. If it does, that's just bad programming.

Anyway, if going back to stock didn't work, you're stuck until Monday. Sorry... I really wish I could help.

 

stuck till monday for sure

Talked to my tuner on saturday and he will work with sct on monday to get this fixed he thinks its the stock tune corrupted as well

 

The X3 still has some little bugs in it, though most of them are worked out with the newest firmware on their website.

Generally, with any of the SCT tuners, you do not need to take the step of going back to stock when switching tunes or loading new ones onto the device.

 

thought I would update the group on my experience so hopefully someone else can learn from my expereince.

When the truck went to the dealer they called me and said the truck was throwing 14 codes.

They also saw all the mods and immediately told me this was not a warranty repair.

My mod dealer was nice enough to try and talk to them, however they were not receptive to his advice and were convinced the mods were causing my problem.

After more than two weeks, 10 phone calls, 3 personal visits with not only the salesman, but the owner of the dealership I ended up paying 542 dollars AND having all my mods removed and put back to stock.

They simply would not replace the pcm with the efans and intake on the truck.

The only part they did replace was the pcm (other than replacing the air force one with the stock intake and replacing the efans with the stock) and the truck now runs fine.

This has convinced me that the sct tuner poped the ecm and caused my problem. the mechanic from my mod company admited to me that he had seen a pcm blow from a tune before.

So before you go do all these mods, ask yourself a question. Who is going to help me if something goes wrong. I can tell you its not ford, its not your mod dealer, and its not SCT. They all simply want to point the finger at the others and you are left holding the bag and paying the bill.

Buyer beware.

 

I just died a little bit on your behalf. blindfold please.

 

That sucks that you had some problems and the dealer wouldn't warranty it. The best bet is to always put a vehicle back to stock if there are any questions about how mod-friendly a dealer is. Some are very good to work with, others are looking to do non-warranty work any way they can because they get paid more for it.

I've never seen an sct tuner physically damage a PCM to the point of no recovery, generally the 1s and 0s all get copied correctly and everything works fine, if for some reason they don't get copied right then you can flash it again. If that still doesn't work a PCM update with a dealer flash tool can usually get you set up and running correctly again (or sending the pcm back to sct to be bench flashed with their equipment).

I was talking to one of my friends from Ford during the PRI show, and PCM replacement came up. Dealers love to replace PCMs to fix problems, but he barely sees any PCMs come back that are actually bad.

 

I am in the sign business and we get components back all the time from lets just say less than expereinced field personell that are in fact not bad.

the problem is I cant fly all over the country to correctly trouble shoot the problem. All I have is my folks in the field.

Same problem I ran into...all i had was my local ford dealer.

As far as replacing all my mods everytime I need service, it may sound good in theory, but it took them around 8 hours to put them all on, I dont thinks its reasonable to take them all off everytime I go to a dealer.

The best i can come up with is if I would have just done the normal airforce one that could also be run with the stock tune, and not done the efans I might have gotten away with it....then they could have simply put in a stock flash and see if it worked.

With all the wires from the efan running to the pcm and the non stock compatible intake, I didnt even have that option.

 

Wait, what? Why were the wires for your E-Fans run into the PCM? What mods did oyu have that took them eight hours to reinstall? A supercharger can be installed or uninstalled in that time frame ... What problems would E-Fans cause none the less? Also, the "regular" AF1 can not be run safely without a tune. Take it or leave it ...

 

Great question Thumper! I wondered the same thing, but then thought that maybe since I haven't done all these mods, maybe I just don't understand....

In any changes I've ever done to anything, my goal has been to make it simpler (KISS) or more reliable while keeping it simpler. In my experience, adding complexity makes things unreliable. I never thought of E-fans or intakes as being something that should be complex (but maybe just a bit more expensive). And, I don't really see these things as valid warrenty "killers".

Of course, since Ford has fallen on "hard times", they may be "clutching at straws".

- Jack

 

I am going to answer your questions, but do have a question for you. Have you every had a positive thing to say in your entire young life?

Now for your answer.

I didnt do the install of the mods. I paid a shop to do them for me. I sat there for over 8 hours while they did them.

That included exhaust, which I guess I wouldnt have to take off but since I didnt sit in the shop with the mechanics, I dont know how long each part took to put on.

in total all the mods were an air force one, a cat back exhaust, underdrive pullies, Efans, and a dyno tune.

Why they ran the efans into the pcm is beyond me, however when I questioned the mod dealer about this, he told me this is how rousch does it and thats how he does it.

I wasnt about to sit there and take all that off as I didnt put it on in the first place.

I didnt come here to whine about my problem, I wanted to update the group (and there are others here like me who dont do all their own work) that if you decide to do these mods, you are taking a risk with your daily transportation.

I have motorcycles with extensive mods, but I can accept the risk that if I blow it up, I have another way to get around and even if it takes me a year to save up for a new engine I am ok with that.

I guess in the end my point is I am confident that the SCT tuner blew up my PCM and as a result of that I was out of commission two weeks and 542.00 poorer (and now dont have my mods installed).

 

Responses in bold ...

I thought it was a legimate question. I guess the OP just wants to wipe his hands clean of the incident instead of trying to gain knowledge about the incident. It sounds like the dealer fed him a bunch of BS, wrote up an invoice, took his mods off and gave him a new PCM. Sounds like the only thing that was wrong was the tuning for the air intake.

E-Fans, you're correct, are not unreliable. I mean look at all of the models that they come on from all sorts of manufactures as a standard. Exhaust doesn't do much so it doesn't effect much, no problem there. Intakes can cause some problems when they aren't too correctly. I'm thinking that's possibly what happened here.

 

have any of the vendors every successfully stepped in with a dealer and been successful in having a denied warranty claim turned around? now to me that is a very legit question.

i dont know what some of you do for a living. but if you manufactured a part warranted it and had return claims (money out of your pocket) and there was a chance the customers modification caused it, would you happily pay for the repairs?

i work on robotic type of machines, a short in one component can effect other components. i have one machine that when it blows a simple servo board, it takes out the main board. if i showed up to do warranty work and the harness had been spicked into , i would let the customer know right away that this was not warranty anymore.