Long story (skip if you reallyy want):
Past few weeks truck has been cutting out whenever it wants to. Never get a check engine light, it's at idle and at speed. With AC on and off, headlights on and off. Oil pressure, coolant are all fine. Sometimes engine would jump and drop off RPM and sometimes refuse to start. After $150 at an auto place (they said it was probabley just a lose ECU, and it threw no codes), it just cut off again tonite after about 3 days of clear sailing. I don't know what else it could be (other than some sensor, but it didn't throw a code).

Anyways, I found a thread of someone who had the same problems (or pretty close, he didn't go as in depth as I wish) but someone said the computer prongs will oxidize after awhile and need to be cleaned. What do I do to clean the prongs without damaging anything? And is there any ways to keep them from oxidizing?

 

Hi SD,

Sorry to hear you're having a problem, but I really can't help you here. It's against the rules of F-150 Online for vendors to provide Tech Support to their customers here - those matters must be communicated privately, between vendor & customer.

If you purchased that chip new directly from us here at Troyer Performance/Performance Products, Inc, then you probably already know you need to call us for Tech Support, as that is covered in our documentation. So for future reference, and to get the quickest help of course, please remember that you have to *call* us for Tech Support on any product purchased from us.

For those who did NOT purchase their product directly from us, then they need to get their Tech Support from whoever they purchased the product from. I'd also suggest using the Search feature here to retrieve & read any of the literally hundreds (if not thousands) of posts we've put up here already on this exact same topic, and is available 24 hrs.a day via the Search feature, with a few simple mouse clicks.

Just to give you some quick general info...................

*IF* that is related to the chip, then chances are it's just going to be a simple connection-related issue between the chip and the PCM (the computer) - meaning the PCM is occasionally loosing complete contact & communication with the chip, which can cause a no-start or cause the vehicle to stall while running. That means either the connector was not fully cleared of 100% of the conformal coating on any area of the connector that is covered by the slot on the chip when it is pushed onto that connector (you can't just clean the contacts only) - OR - if this is the blue or red colored module, then the chip is not properly taped to the PCM so it cannot slowly lose connection on occasion due to the normal vibration of vehicle operations. Either way, this is simple to solve, and this is actually an installation problem that is coming back to "bite" you later on - and that can happen after days, weeks months or even *years* of operation with no problems!

Remember, you can stop that problem immediately by simply removing the chip if you get stuck on the side of the road somewhere, if it stalls on you, etc. It only takes a few seconds to remove the chip, which reverts you back to the stock program. Just make sure your keys are NOT in the ignition any time you remove or install the chip, same thing goes for any time you disconnect or reconnect the battery - never have your keys in the ignition during those times - so that the ignition is OFF, and so that the chip in the keys of 1999 & newer FoMoCo vehicles is not damaged by a potential voltage surge.

Yes, the contacts can "oxidize" a bit over time - but that's actually extremely rare in reality. What we find is that this is almost always (and I mean like over 98% of the time) just a simple issue of at least a tiny bit of conformal coating not having been removed from the connector during installation - over time, it can migrate and cause problems, and that happens thousands of times more often than actual oxidation of the contacts themselves. The contacts are fairly well covered by the slot on the module, to begin with - so we generally do not see contact oxidation unless it's say, south Florida, southern Texas (Galveston, Houston, Corpus, etc.), LA, AL, GA, etc. - some place where it's *very* humid much of the time - and even then this is still extremely rare. It's almost always a matter of not having 100% of the conformal coating removed at time of initial installation, which will cause some of that coating to migrate over into the slot on the Superchip, requiring proper recleaning of the connector, *and* cleaning out the slot on the Superchip. To clean the slot, simply hold the module so the slot points down, and use a clean dry toothbrush to gently brush inside the slot a few times - then bow it out, but DON'T use high-pressure air - just bow it out with your mouth (making sure no moisture gets into the sot) or use the small spray cans of low-pressure air, like keyboard cleaning air, etc.

At any rate, this is pretty simple to solve - if you got that chip from us, please call us right away so we can help you properly with this, OK? Thanks, & hang in there!