hi there. i am moving from PA to colorado and was wondering 1-if anyone has gone to colorado and had their gas door light or whatever come on? and 2?if a custom tune would correct it if it happened?
my brother has an 03 4.2L f150 and going from virginia to colorado it came on. he has lived there for about 2 years now and said it was on for about a year. then his father-in-law came up with his OBD2 scanner and cleared it. apparently it was off for about 6 months then came back on. i have an 08 4.2L f150 and if a light came up on my dash like that, it would irritate the hell out of me. already had my tire pressure one do it this winter from below 0F temps. was on for about a month since it was too cold to stand out there with my little air compressor for a half hour to fill them all up.
but just wondering if a custom tune is able to be written to get rid of the light. plus i am hopeing the thin air doesnt rob too much power away from me. but a tuner is in the plans anyways so i was just wondering. thanks

 

I think your Brother just needs a new gas cap. It's not sealing properly and his truck would fail an emissions test if he had to get one. You should not see this unless your cap is faulty too.

The tire pressure warning came on because you really did have a low tire. The cold temperature caused the pressure in that tire to drop below the "trigger" setting.

You don't use "tunes" to fix mechanical or emissions problems in a vehicle. If you don't fix the cause of something giving you a warning, you risk having very expensive damage to the vehicle later. In your case, low tire pressure can lead to tire damage.

Edit: Higher altitude will cost you some in power. Less dense air means less fuel in the cylinder to maintain the correct A/F ratio. A custom tune CAN restore some of the lost power, but don't expect miracles. I drive in Colorado a lot, pulling a trailer too. I have no problem going up over 11,000+ foot passes pulling the trailer with my custom tunes. I tend to pass all the trucks and the other RVs. Perhaps if THEY had custom tunes too, they'd be able to keep up with me.

- Jack

 

Less fuel in the cylinder also means you will be getting better gas mileage. I've traveled out there and I got 23.2 mpg on one tank between Durango and Colorado Springs, not taking any Interstates. That was also on the high altitude 85 octane regular grade unleaded.

If you are happy with the power you have now, you will be okay out there without a tune. I have no complaints with mine out there.

 

My brother is a police officer in colorado springs and he said a lot of people who work with him have that problem with the light in the dash being on. Out of the f150 owners, he said its almost half. He has an 03 V6, I have my 08 V6. Mine has the stock gas cap, I dont know about him tho. I did know about the tire pressure light, it went down to about 27PSI when it got down to 0 degrees but there was snow on the roads 95% of the time so it probably gave me better traction if anything. Once the weather got a little warmer...in the 20s lol, I pumped them back up to 35PSI. I checked them again when it warmed up and they are still around 35. Also thanks for the input on the tunes, I did not know if custom tunes would help with the light since it would rewrite the computer tune. and I knew I would lose some power out there but dont know how much. My brothers truck and his explorer seemed powerful enough still tho.

85 octane? is that safe to run? it probably is....when i had my 96 trans am it "required" 93 octane but the first tank i put in it was 87 since i only had about $20 to put in it when i bought it and it was almost empty. figured i would get more fuel that way for my money. just dont drive it hard...until the 93 got in there. then I gave it hell lol

 

Perfectly safe. Octane requirements go down the higher you get. I was at WOT quite a bit and it never pinged or hiccuped once.

 

Jack - who did your custom tunes? Mine were done when I lived in Oklahoma, but now that I live in Colorado, I'm thinking that i need to get them redone.

 

Bill@PHP
www.gopowerhungry.com

 

I've taken my truck out to the Black Hills(5K-7K in alt)in SD tons of times with my 87 perf custom tune and filled up with 85 oct with no problems.
Like said before part of the octane rating is based on altitude.

 

Your truck will be fine, welcome to the Centennial state!

 

X2 on what 88racing said. I've never had problems using 85 octane gas driving around in Colorado using Bill's tunes. I suppose if I LIVED there, it could be reasonable to get the tunes adjusted for the higher altitude, because I know Bill takes altitude into account when he writes tunes.

With less dense air, you don't quite achieve the same pressure level in the compression stroke in your engine, therefore, the anti-knock requirements of the gasoline are reduced.

I suppose the less dense air (lower ambient pressure) could put "stress" on a failing gas cap. It's designed, of course to keep fuel vapors INSIDE and out of the atmosphere. But, it has to allow air INTO the tank as the fuel volume inside drops or the engine is going to be starved for fuel or the tank could collapse due to the vacuum produced.

- Jack

 

P.S. I always ran 87 until the $4.00 a gallon nonsense, started running 85 and NEVER noticed the difference. Same MPGs performance and everything, pulls fine on it and everything.

 

I just moved to CO Springs and already hate what it's done to both my modified vehicles. I moved from VA where we were about 134ft above sea level and made 460rwhp, moved to CO and had to have it re-tuned for other reasons and only got 400rwhp! You know how much money it is to gain 60rwhp back? A LOT! If I upgraded the blower and cams I would still be like 20rwhp off and a set of cams for the slowbra is pretty pricey. The truck lost about as much I assume but I'm not sure how much, it was making 380rwhp and since the tuner was Troyer the MAF adjusted for most of the altitude but still doesn't run like she used to not to mention I was running 93 with at least 10% ethanol and here is 91 with at least 10% ethanol. CO is not for cars with power = gay, I thought that with a good tune and a MAF they would be fine but it's almost enough to get a re-tune here and when you move. Still got 4yrs before I can leave this place and go somewhere will less potholes, sand, alititude, and better octane gas. If I bought a new car here I wouldn't do any mods to it, it's just not worth it when you're taking multiple thousands of $ for the most minimal gains.

Sorry for the rant and if I offended any Colorado natives my bad but you gotta admit it sucks up here for this hobby.

 

It's all relative, MDK. Take your truck to the top of Pikes Peak. Park it, get out and jog around the mountain for a while. You'll quickly learn why your engine has no power at high altitude (and you'll appreciate the fact that it got you up there in the first place). But, everyone else's vehicle is experiencing the same lack of oxygen, so if you were among the 'high powered" bunch before, you still are.

High Colorado living is for the "tough". Wimps need not apply. Ford makes a truck that stands up to the special demands you find there. Hope you learn to love it the way I do.

- Jack

 

Yeah I don't even know if I could take it to Pikes Peak, might just choke to death. From running around the local area alone I feel it so I could only imagine what the vehicles are going through. The area is amazing as far as scenery goes and it reminds me a lot of Texas open roads. I will say it's far better than the east coast but I thought the roads would be better, seems that CO has plenty of money so why are the roads so dumpy? Especially downtown Springs, yikes!

 

The constant freezing and thawing in the roads really tears them up. The last part of the road to the top of Pikes Peak isn't paved for that very reason. There'd be no way to keep it serviceable. It's easier to just "blade" it when necessary. You'll get used to it.

- Jack