Thanks, Bluejay. I think we need to put you and Jack on our payroll.

 

You're welcome!

With that and what I make as moderator, I'll quit my day job!!

 

SO... Anybody ever here of someone actually HAVING a situation where their warranty was voided from having a programmer after something going wrong? I've got a bumper 2 bumper 75k but I really want a gryphon. ack, I'm on the edge... (no pun intended)

 

Whitesand,

Most programmers become locked when a tune is downloaded to the pcm. This is to prevent you from tuning other vehicles with the same programmer. If you bring your truck to a dealer and they decide to flash the pcm, you will lose your tune, and your tuner will be locked with no way to unlock it.

My Xcal3 costed $400 bucks and if the dealer reflashes my truck with the tunes installed, I would be out another $150 to get my unit unlocked by SCT.

Just another reason to flash your truck to stock before going to a dealer...

 

I wouldn't lose too much sleep over the warranty issue myself. If a modern, solid state electronics device works ok for a couple of months, it's probably going to be good for a long, long time. The failures, when they occur are normally early in the life-cycle.

So, I doubt there'd be much reason to pull the PCM on a vehicle once it has been working without trouble for a while. And, if you return the PCM to stock any time the vehicle is returned to the dealer for service, I doubt they'd challenge you on any warranty work that involved other components.

These are just my thoughts, and for all I know, I could be way wrong. But nothing I'm reading tells me anything different.

- Jack

 

One thing to keep in mind is that Ford tends to be MUCH tougher on the diesel guys as far as programmers because the gains are significantly higher and the possibility of damage to the engine or transmission is exponentially increased. Even with that, the diesel programmers have been very reliable.

With that said, I'm pretty sure there have been failures on F150s that Ford has denied warranty on. I don't recall any specific instances but statistically it's bound to have happened. However, the F150 programmers have been quite reliable and we've had customers running programs for years with no difficulty at all.

Where I have a problem is when people go in for an oil change or to get some other mundane detail checked and the dealership goes ballistic because they find a programmer or other modification installed and tells the customer their warranty is void. It is not only unfair to the customer, it is illegal for a dealership to void a warranty simply because of the presence of aftermarket products. However, if the device in question is directly related to a component failure then they are certainly within their rights to deny a warranty claim for that repair.

I know warranties are a huge concern and if it's not worth taking the chance, no matter how small, on losing it then you may want to wait until the warranty expires. If the current reliability track record looks acceptable to you, along with the risk to reward ratio, then the decision shouldn't be a hard one.

Hope this helps.

 

I have never been a believer in extended warranties on any product. I felt by the time I had reached the 36,000 miles of the factory warranty, the bugs should have been worked out. I got itchy and could not wait that long, installed the Edge at 31,000 miles. I have almost 77,000 on the truck now and the only problem I have had is a bad front bearing at 41,000.

 

Probably caused by the programmer! Let's see.... The programmer bone connected to the computer bone, the computer bone connected to the axle bone, the axle bone connected to the bearing bone - voila!

- Jack

 

Looking at my last post, I see I need to elaborate. You can put this to music and hum it along.

The Programmer Bone connected to the Computer Bone,
The Computer Bone connected to the Engine Bone,
The Engine Bone connected to the Transmission Bone,
The Transmission Bone connected to the Driveshaft Bone,
The Driveshaft Bone connected to the Transfer Case Bone,
The Transfer Case Bone connected to the Axle Bone,
The Axle Bone connected to the Bearing Bone,
Now, HEAR THE WORD OF FORD!
The warranty ain't gonna be honored no mo, .....

That's how it works!

- Jack

 

Roflmao!!! Now, to put it to music.

 

 

Last time i checked, it went...

1. Engine
2. Transmission
3. Transfer case
4. Drive shaft
5. Differential
6. Axles

1 out of 10, with 10 being the best, your song gets a 2.

 

I KNEW I could count on you to get it exactly right!

My version simply exercised a bit of "artistic license".

- Jack

 

Well fix your song then.

 

You miss the point. Artistic license gives you the right to compose anything any way you want. Nothing needs to be "fixed". The "feeling", "mood", or "sense" is what counts. In my case, I was simply trying to portray the sense of how Ford would view a programmer. Nothing more, nothing less. I was certainly NOT trying to accurately portray the linkage between the programmer and the wheel bearing, because we all know it doesn't really exist!

But, I acknowledge your correction in the placement of the transfer case relative to the drive shaft and transmission and my omission of the differential. As I said, I KNEW I could count on you!

To be honest, I was afraid my poor parody on the ancient "Dry Bones" song was so obscure that I figured only Bluejay would get it. But, Bill did too!

- Jack