What's a reflash??(newbie)
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Junior Member
Joined: Jun 2005
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What's a reflash??(newbie)
I brought my truck(04 f150) into the shop for some little crap that needed fixing, and i asked him about reflashing my truck. He looked at me like i was a retard. How can i explain to this jackass what it is. And who else is sick of these dealerships not knowing squat about the vehicles in their lots? Can sopmeone please help me out?
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Joined: Mar 1998
Posts: 13,385
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From: Virginia
Hi Big,
Try not to be too harsh on dealership employees - they don't use the same terminology that we in the performance aftermarket do in many cases, so they may very well not have a clue what the term "reflash" means, even though they DO in fact know very well how to reflash your PCM.
A "reflash" (in this sense) is loading a different control calibration program into your vehicle's powertrain computer, to change how the powertrain acts in some regard - now when we use the term "reflash" here, we are generally referring to one of 2 things - either a dealer update - meaning where there is some problem with the vehicle that the dealer attempts to address under warranty by "reflashing" the PCM with an updated factory program (tune). So in that sense, a "reflash" is also referred to as a "PCM update," and had you used *that* term instead of reflash, you would have gotten a different response. Or, we are referring to someone who has one of our tuning products and is changing to a different program - hence, they are "reflashing" the PCM.
"Flash" in this sense actually refers to the type of memory in the PCM - it's "flash" style memory - kinda like the BIOS chip on the mainboard of your PC, a "flash" ROM. So it's instructions can be updated by "reflashing" the memory chip(s), and those new instructions remain even if you disconnect the battery to interrupt power - as opposed to "RAM," which is volatile and dumps it's contents virtually the instant you interrupt power.
The bottom line is, unless there is an actual problem with the vehicle that will be FIXED by the dealer reflashing the PCM with a different factory program, you NEVER want to try to get a dealer to just reflash your PCM, or to "update" it thinking that it's going to somehow be better - it's not.
So remember - dealerships simply use a different terminology in many cases - though there are some that are indeed less than knowledgeable, by and large many of them are good people who work very hard trying to make us happy.
I hope that info helps,
Try not to be too harsh on dealership employees - they don't use the same terminology that we in the performance aftermarket do in many cases, so they may very well not have a clue what the term "reflash" means, even though they DO in fact know very well how to reflash your PCM.
A "reflash" (in this sense) is loading a different control calibration program into your vehicle's powertrain computer, to change how the powertrain acts in some regard - now when we use the term "reflash" here, we are generally referring to one of 2 things - either a dealer update - meaning where there is some problem with the vehicle that the dealer attempts to address under warranty by "reflashing" the PCM with an updated factory program (tune). So in that sense, a "reflash" is also referred to as a "PCM update," and had you used *that* term instead of reflash, you would have gotten a different response. Or, we are referring to someone who has one of our tuning products and is changing to a different program - hence, they are "reflashing" the PCM.
"Flash" in this sense actually refers to the type of memory in the PCM - it's "flash" style memory - kinda like the BIOS chip on the mainboard of your PC, a "flash" ROM. So it's instructions can be updated by "reflashing" the memory chip(s), and those new instructions remain even if you disconnect the battery to interrupt power - as opposed to "RAM," which is volatile and dumps it's contents virtually the instant you interrupt power.
The bottom line is, unless there is an actual problem with the vehicle that will be FIXED by the dealer reflashing the PCM with a different factory program, you NEVER want to try to get a dealer to just reflash your PCM, or to "update" it thinking that it's going to somehow be better - it's not.
So remember - dealerships simply use a different terminology in many cases - though there are some that are indeed less than knowledgeable, by and large many of them are good people who work very hard trying to make us happy.
I hope that info helps,