Hola.

Just recently bought the Superchips tuner for the 04' 5.4L screw.

Went and installed the performance tune which req's the 91octane gas and the superchips default mods on shifting and rev limits etc. This was to be my starting point from which to play with the settings.

The truck has stalled at the stoplights several times now. It just dies as I start to push on the throttle. I do not see this problem with the stock program. The PCM was replaced by the dealer last July.

Anybody out there with any thoughts.

I have not reinstalled the stock program and taken back to the dealer for inspection yet. Should this be my first task?

Thanks in advance.

 

Hook up the programmer and go into diagnostics mode. See if there any codes.

Joey

 

A couple of other thoughts.

1) Are you sure the install went to completion? Any interuptions during the install?

2) Are you sure you're running 91+ octane gas? Were you running 91+ before the install? Or is this the first tank of 91+? If so, did you run the tank down to almost empty before filling with the higher grade?

3) You might try installing the tune again, making sure it goes to completion. Or you might try to install the 87 tune to see what happens.

Just some guesses and options from my perspective.

Joey

 

Thx.

Went a tank of 91octane prior to doing the tune to ensure that I was on the correct fuel.

Hooked up the tuner and went into the diagnostics mode. No error codes were present.

Talking with others they indicated that at our altitude (+3500ft above sealevel) that I could run 89 octane or perhaps even 87 and have the same type of throttle response as is the 91 and with the performance tune.

 

I tend to disagree with the train of thought, Not. I don't think I'd go that route.

Here's the only other thing I can think of. Return the truck to stock. See if she still stalls. If so, look at possible filter problems. Fuel or/and air.

If she runs good back at stock, my only suggestion would be to talk with someone at Superchips.

Best of luck.

Joey

 

Hey brotha, come up with any answers?

Joey

 

I had exactly the same problem as you with my 04 Screw. It seemed to me that the performance program was setting my idle way to low, and that was a possible reason for the stalls. I tried returning to stock and then back to performance, letting it idle with AC on and with it off so that it could find a good idling point, but no luck. I sent my 1714 back after having it for a month, I hope to get the Troyer custom tune, its just a little spendy for a college guy. Just wanted to let you know your not the only one with this problem.

Drew

Also, I live at 4700 ft if you think elevation could have played a part.

 

Hi.

You folks with Microtuners & having problems are advised to call Superchips customer Support asap ( or use the Tech Support contact info in the manual that came with the unit).

http://www.superchips.com/policies.phtml

This is the most expedient way to get your issues resolved.

Cheers
Grog
Genus: Homo Habilis

 

Yeah, but Vic, if someone else has had this similar problem and got it resovled, wouldn't it be nice to have the answers shared here? You, and others, could even use the favorite response, "use the search feature".

I mean, after all, not all problems happen "M-F 8:00 AM till 5:00 PM. EST."



Joey

 

Hiya Joey;

You misunderstood - contacting the vendor can occur in parallel with the posting - and any reults can also be reported, whichever method resulted in a fix (or not).

I merely indicated that vendor contact should occur soonest - since sometimes getting an answer here can take a while.

In addition, more than a few MicroTuner owners are not members here. The vendor however will, (if owners report their problems to them as indicated in the literature), have the best insight into the nature, invasiveness, impact and/or resoution to a given issue, over the widest user base.

FYI: Supporting Vendors can't supply formal tech support in the forum.

And.... that's what the warranty is for.

Cheers
Tree Climber

 

Vic, that is a very lucid, thought out, well reasoned, response.

My objection is over-ruled.



Joey

 

Hi Everyone,

Just a couple quick comments in general.

First, when you reflash the PCM, you are clearing out all adaptive adjustments that have previously taken place, so the idle speed & quality can and will fluctuate until you get some miles on it - sometimes just a few hundred, sometimes it takes a couple thousand miles for things like idle quality & tranny shift characteristics to settle in.

Second - the 5.4 3V F-150's have far too low an idle speed in gear anyway, IMHO - many are as low as just 525 rpm in gear, and none are above 560 rpm in gear, and that is just way too low for proper power steering response and other concerns. We raise that in ALL of our Troyer Performance custom tunes, and you do not see anyone stalling with *our* tuning - and you have much better power steering assist when the truck is stationary, too - like if you need to parallel park, or are trying to maneuver a big camping trailer into a tight space, etc. That is just one of many aspects of how our custom tuning goes much more in depth than any off-the-shelf tune ever can.

For those with 1714's & 1745's, I;d say just flash it, and leave it on that same program for at least 1000 miles and see if that settles in for you - and if not, then contact Superchips inc directly at the number that is provided on your unit's documentation,a nd take it up with them for remedy.

Good luck!

 

Thx all for the responses, was out of town for awhile so I couldn't keep track.

I am considering all points and will contact the Superchips customer service soonest. As Mike Troyer indicated in the point above, there has only been a few hundred clicks on the truck since the reprogramming. A possible engine stall still seems about every time I use the gas gently from a standing start. It may be that the 'adaptive' programming of the engine mangagement module may still need a little more time.

Ahhh well, sometimes what seemed to be a good idea turns out not to be quite so great. Perhaps I'll give Mike's shop a call for a different tuner.

 

Hi Not again,

Normally I would say a few hundred miles should be enough time for adaptive to settle out idle speed & quality issues, just speaking in general - however, like i said above, I do feel that some of these 5.4 3V trucks have an idle speed that is just too low - 525 rpm in gear just isn't' enough for proper power steering effort in a parallel parking situation, for example, in my humble opinion - so we bump that up just a little bit in all of our custom tunes for that very reason.

The stalling could potentially be something else, though - I just had a thought - here a little while back, there were some 5.4 3V's that were stalling like that, and it actually turned out to be an issue with failed throttle bodies in some trucks. I didn't think of that before, as it's been awhile since we discussed that here - and of course I can't tell you if that actually has anything to do with your problem or not for certain, it's just something I happened to remember when reading your last response & thought might be worth mentioning. Though not really frequent, we have, over the years, seen numerous situations where something else goes wrong in the same basic timeframe as whenever the last modification was made to the vehicle - and of course, it's perfectly normal to suspect that last modification, whatever it might have been, is the culprit, when it later turns out to be something else altogether.

It might be worth going back to the stock tuning (which will once again clear out adaptive strategy, of course), and stay on the stock tune for a little while - at least a few weeks to a month or so, and see if this *ever* happens when running on the stock tune - if not, then reinstall the Superchips tuning. If it comes right back, then it's certainly a good indication of some kind of link, and thus time for a call to the good folks down at Superchips. Of course, you could go ahead and call them now to see if they have had any other such complaints or might know of a particular issue - sometimes you can get a bit of file corruption in just one tiny data bit that affects only certain vehicle strategies (PCM codes), and can affect only 1 small but annoying issue of driveability. I'm just thinking out loud here.......

Just to let you know in general, we are Superchips Inc.'s oldest WD, and we do not see any "pattern" of similar complaints from our customers who use those units - for whatever that little tidbit of "data" may (or may not) be worth to you. SO about all we can say with certainty is that we have not had this reported to us on any kind of regular basis, and not any time recently. I just checked with our staff to make sure, and they too, remembered that same kind of stalling scenario where it turned out to be failing throttle bodies in 2004 5.4 3V F-150's - our customers had called to report this problem, we checked it all out as did Superchip back at that time (and this was a year or so ago or a bit more), and we instructed our customers to return to stock and take it into the dealership to be checked out - and it turned out to be failing throttle bodies. Thankfully, several of our 2004 customers called us back to let us know that was the actual culprit, and once the throttle body was replaced, they had no more issues stalling at stop signs & traffic lights, etc. So I think I would check that out as well with your dealership after retuning back to stock.

Anything is possible, I just hate to see you having a problem - do let us know what happens, & good luck!

 

Appreciated Mike. Shall do.