So, my truck is headed to the dealer on friday for its first oil change. My questions is, do i need to remove my grypon before i take it in? not gonna have anything else done to it just oil change. should i take it out so it doesnt raise any questions, or can i leave it in with no worries??

thanks in advance for the advice!
slopjock

 

with as easy as it is to take out, I would.


It may only be an oil change this time, but if you need warranty work next time, and they saw it in your truck before, it might raise questions.


Just my $.02

 

I agree 100%, as simple as they are to remove and reinstall I'd do it for sure. A buddy of mine left his superchips tuner in the passenger seat for an oil change, and when he went back with problems, they asked him about his superchips. They had made a note on his account. His truck was no longer under warranty, but if they put that on his account, I'm sure they would for a warranty vehicle.

 

thanks for the input guys. i figured i would, like you said, as easy as it is to do, might as well.

not gonna take the S&B intake out though. that is some work. they will just have to make a note of that. LOL

thanks again

 

Make sure you return the tune to "stock" before you take it out too. This is just in case they decide to "reflash" your PCM. If they do, and the Gryphon is not back to the stock setting, it won't recognize your truck anymore and Bill will have to work some magic to get everything working again.

For those of you who don't think they could reflash you for "free", remember they did it to the 6.0L Powerstroke to "detune" it, so they wouldn't have fix weaknesses in the original setup.

- Jack

 

Who has this happened to? I've never gotten a re-flash while they were just changing my oil. I can't imagine why any technician would want to do that. Who has had their PCM flashed, and why? Or is this just an urban legend?

 

I'm taking mine in for an oil change Thursday. I'm not changing back to stock.

 

This happened to me during a routine maintenance visit. Dealer reflashed my PCM. Troyer and Superchips both said that my PCM must have been reflashed cus they didn't have any record of my strategy code.

 

Everytime I take my truck to the dealer I just tell them straight up not to reflash the truck because it has custom tuning in it. I also put the "Do not reflash" thing that Troyer gave me in and tape it too so it can't fall out.

I haven't had any problems as of yet.

 

Hey, it's ok with me if you don't want to take the extra small precaution of changing back to stock before giving your truck to the dealer. However, I don't trust Ford at all. They want to protect themselves against any possible claims of poor workmanship or bad design. If they decide a reflash (which costs essentially nothing and takes all of 30 seconds) might possibly "cover up" some design flaw, then I rather imagine they'll do it.

This, of course is in total contrast to the problems they are having with broken spark plugs and malfunctioning fuel injectors, which WOULD cost a ton of money to fix. For these problems they just cross their fingers and hope they pay less if the problem occurs than they would to fix it in the first place.

I suspect they would not be replacing brake hoses if it weren't cheap and easy and they weren't afraid of lawsuits.

Notice I'm not saying the dealer is going to do anything out of the goodness of his heart - I'm saying Ford might do something to "cover their six".

- Jack

 

stickin it to the man.

 

No urban legend. It has happened to a couple of guys and made their tuner worthless. It shouldn't happen while getting an oil change, but there have been cases where the tech saw there was an upgrade suggested for a particular strategy and reflashed it. There have also been instances when a truck was in for other maintenance and they ended up reflasing it. I always tell the guy writing the ticket that they are not to touch the computer without getting my permission. It should be less of a problem with the newer trucks as they are coming with better programs in them. Back in 2004 and 2005, the strategies were terrible and needed reflashing.

 

30 Seconds?! The process feels like it takes forever with all the key-on and key-offs as well as the DTC scans during the process. My guess would be a good solid 10 min if you were quick. I have seen some techs take 30min flashing a vehicle.

 

id say less than 5 minutes. unless you are the person that walks around the truck, checks the tire pressure, adjusts seat, adjusts mirrors, and fastens your seatbelt all before turning the key. unless thats a habit for you, i really dont see it taking that long.

i agree though. 30 seconds....

 

Oh well, maybe a minute, tops! Mine only takes longer when I'm modifying something (like a shift point) which involves going through some menus and then it has to create a new file before writing it to the PCM. Even then, it's got to be less than 2 minutes (once I tell it to save and start uploading).

And, what is this about "all the key on's and key off's"? Once I tell the programmer to save and upload, I simply turn the key off, then on again. That's one "off" and one "on" (which adds maybe 2 seconds to the process).

I know it takes no time at all to reload the stock setting to the PCM or to write a "saved", custom tune. Somehow, I can't believe that Ford would have to "create" a brand new file each time they wanted to flash the PCM in a truck. That creation process is the only part that seems to take any time at all when I flash the PCM.

Of course, if a tech takes 30 minutes to do it, remember they're being paid by the hour.

- Jack