For reference, I have a 3v 5.4 2010 F150...

Ok, so I loaded a tune by 5-Star Tuning (which I highly recommend btw) this past July. I've been running it ever since, no battery disconnects, no reprogramming.

I went in this past week to have the regular emission check done. They said the sensors were not ready and asked if I had disconnected the battery recently.

So I put the truck back to stock and drove about 50miles. Then I cleared the DTC that came up (more on this later). When I went to have the emission check done again, the truck failed...for the same reasons.

So, should I disconnect the battery and try another drive-cycle (letting the code clear by itself), or what? I would have thought that the time elapsed between July and now would have been plenty of time for any sensors to "become ready".

Also, after looking through the various options in the SCT LiveLink software, it appears that I can monitor the "readyness" of the sensors. Does anyone know more about the following readouts, and if they are any indicator to when the vehicle's sensors will be ready?

"CAT TST RDY"
"EGO MON READY"
"EGR TST RDY"

Sorry for the long post and two-part question.

EDIT: I'm using an SCT X3 programmer

 

Sorry haven't played with those yet.....

I'm surprised that the custom tune and being loaded since July didn't clear the readiness of the sensors....

Call Mike@5star and maybe get on www.sctflash.com and contact the sct techs....

In stock mode it might take some more driving than 50 miles to clear the readiness codes...

 

Thanks 88. Yeah, I emailed Mike last night, and he was the one that suggested I re-load the stock tune. I guess next up is SCT. This is very disconcerting as my tags expire soon...

 

Whatever you do, DON'T disconnect the battery. That would put you back at square one, readiness-wise.

I'm really puzzled about this too - you MAY have a genuine component problem in your truck. They do happen.

- Jack

 

I still think its tune related....

 

I really appreciate the help. I'll drive a couple hundred miles this weekend, and then see what happens

 

Could be. This is the second failure in quick succession on vehicles tuned with SCT devices. *shrug* But, it's never happened before.

- Jack

 

It makes me feel happy that the guy who wrote our tunes has the forethought to change whatever he did to avoid this....eventhough I'm running a sct device now....

 

haha, well I hope this is just from being tuned and not a hardware problem.

In the meantime, does anyone know of a reference explaining all the SCT LiveLink engine parameters? Some are pretty simple (e.g. rpm, coolant_temp, etc.) but I would really love to know which parameters the dealer looks at to determine if the vehicle is ready for emission tests. I assume it's an OBDII standard, and not specific to any single PCM model. I've looked everywhere and can't seem to find a reference * shrugs*

 

CAT, EVAP, SEC. AIR, O 2 , O 2 HTR, EGR are the monitors most states and localities use....

These are the most common one but it depends also on the year make and model of any vehicle on the market.....

Depending on which state it can be some or all of these....

Also since your vehicle is 2001 and newer your only allowed one of these not to be ready during an emissions test according to the epa.....but then again thats up to your local authorities too.....

 

Scan tool also makes a tool to see which ones are not ready>>> http://www.scantool.net/catalog/prod.../46/image/417/

 

Thanks a lot 88!

 

Update: contacted SCT today. They wanted my stock file to see if there is a problem with it.

I also noticed that I am not getting the P1000 code when reprogramming, or when the battery is disconnected. Yes, I went ahead and did that because I was getting desperate. And because I'll be driving a couple hundred miles this weekend, getting that OBDII driving cycle in shouldn't be a problem.

Should you always get a P1000 when the battery has been disconnected?

EDIT: I am getting a "U0100" code that states, "Lost Communication with ECM/PCM A", when the truck is flashed. If I clear it, it doesn't come back unless it's reprogrammed.

 

On the -08's it was there going back to stock but in these +09's and especially the 11's who knows what ford is doing......but being obdii compliant it should be there...

 

Update: Fixed!

Ok, so here's what happened. Perhaps someone smarter than I can decipher what I did and skip the garbage and cut to the core of why the following worked. In any case, here's what I did:

1) Return the truck to stock
2) Disconnect battery for 1.5 hours then reconnect
3) Program truck with custom tune
4) Return truck to stock
5) Drive ~250 miles and make sure you get in as much of the OBDII drive cycle recommendations as possible (found here)
6) Check your sensor "readiness" with a code scanner that also checks emission sensors (I used one just like the one recommended by 88racing above)
7) Take truck to get inspection
8) Tune truck with custom tune!

Hopefully this will help someone out in the future who runs into this...