So I have done alot of reading and have really considered buying a tuner to compliment my exhaust and Gotts mod. One thing I have not found is what people are doing about their warranty. I have a 2010 XLT SCREW and since its my first truck I did buy the extended warranty. ( I know I know dont say anything please lol) A friend of mine says that Ford can tel how many times its been flashed and will void the warranty if they see that.

What are your thoughts?

 

PHP told me they can't.

 

I've got the 6 yr 100K warranty on mine and I have a Gryphon. I can't blame you for wanting the warranty. I mainly paid the $1500 for piece of mind in case the motor or the transmisson goes. If it starts to go I will simply set mine back to stock and remove the programmer before I have it looked at.

 

Thats pretty much why I got it. $1500 on $40k truck didnt seem like a deadmans bet to me. I understand electronics and how they are programmed and I cant figure out how they could tell if your flashing the module. That pretty much erases everything and loads a new config. I just wanted to get your thoughts on here.

 

Ha ha
I love these threads......

What the dealer don't know won't hurt you...

So if you ever bring it in for warranty...set back to stock and remove programmer cable and or pod.....

Your warranty question covers a very broad spectrum of parts that make up the truck.

 

Also, if one dealer turns it down, I know around here other dealers will still take the work.

 

That's what I do.

 

Skipped a few classes, did you?

Ever hear of Write Once memory? Fuse bits?

You only flash the area storing the active calibration - in other words, the APPLICATION (running in firmware) that happens to be running in the PCM. You are not overwriting the embedded supervisory code (O/S) or boot code areas. There is no reason to, as it's not related to the calibration functionality itself. And likely not even allowable And probably a number of other protected locations, as well.

This practice of tracking PCM flash activity is routine in the diesel world - no reason to believe some form of same isn't implemented in the modern EECV+ PCMs. It's absolutely trivial to implement into the reference design.

The question is: have you given the Dealer's master techs any reason to suspect a flash has occurred - given the symptoms/nature of any failure that has occurred -e.g stretched head bolts in aformentioned diesels, or holed pistons in a N/A truck due to overly agressive tuning.

If this is a key piece of forensics that could be used to deny a costly warranty claim, you better believe they'll go looking.

MGD

 

I wonder in your example MGDfan who would be on the hook for the costly claims. If it's only Ford & I was a dealer I wouldn't go looking. I'd repair it, get my money from Ford and forget about it. Happy customer and I got paid.... I imagine Ford wouldn't ask you as a dealer to go looking unless something similiar happened multiple times.

I'm sure you fellas have spent a lot more time than me thinking about this stuff though.

 

I hear you.

The potential for Claim denial - ulimately rests with Ford (seems to be one of their pastimes, lol). And this would leave the dealer risking holding the bag. Which they, of course, are kinda reluctant to do.

Hence the many posts related to said denials for things that are totally unrelated.

My position is this: it's prudent to assume this activity can be sensed - if not by a local dealer then by the factory propellerheads. So - if you are not 100% willing to take the risk, just don't. Wait until the warranty expires. Otherwise - enjoy, as those risks from a good programmer, with quality, accurate & safe ( usually connotes custom) tuning are small. And as stated before - simply remove all traces that a device was ever in the vehicle.

This includes the horsepower-enhancing stickers

And here's a Catch-22 for ya IF you are strategy-matched-tuned, and decide not to tell the dealer a programmer is active, but DO ask them NOT to reflash with any available Ford-specified PCM updates (because that will pecker the tune), that's kind just hoisting the red flag. Even if you return to stock, a Ford reflash will render the current purchased tunes useless, as the calibration Hex code revision will change. Nice, eh?


MGD

 

ive found that it depends on the dealer.

some will void you for the simplest things. Others dont care at all

id still take the tune off my truck before i go in for work tho. this is a good idea regardless because dealers are notorious for flashing the ECM and disabling downloaders

 

I also want to add to my previous post that my local dealership that I bought my truck from tried to void my warranty because my rear seats were removed. The fuse panel went while I was driving, and they tried blaming it on me. It basically went

"Hello mr. XXX?"

"Yes?"

"This is Sal from the dealership, we found the problem, but noticed something else"

"What was the problem?"

"The fuse panel went, but it is not covered under warranty since the seats were removed"

"Can you explain why its not covered?"

"Because you modified the vehicle"

"I did not modify the electrical system at all. Please explain to me how removing the seats would cause this problem"

"Well we do not know what caused this problem, but the vehicle was modifi"

"So you said you can't place the seats as being the problem. Am I missing anything when I say that?"

Thats basically how the conversation went. They tried saying that because my seats were removed my warranty was voided. Well I know the warranty well enough where I know that they can only void it out if they determine that the modifications I made caused or could have caused the problem. Thats one of the major things about the warranty, if it could have caused the problem, and they notice it, then it DID cause the problem as far as they are concerned.

 

^^ wow.. thats crazy