I just got a 99 F150 5.4 supercab 4X4. After driving Toyotas for years I must admitt I am ecstatic about the increase in size and power. One thing I have noticed though, and through this board have learned that I am not alone, is the lagging shifting of the auto tranny. It seems you have to put your foot to the floor to cause the downshift, especially from O/D to 3rd. I have read all about the chips and am tempted but the thought of being limited to only premium gas is a little more than my wallet can take. I don't really need any more power but a little quicker downshift sure would be nice. From what I understand about the chips, which granted is not a lot, there should be a way to reprogram the auto tranny only to shift better. Is this even possible or am I dreaming. I got a link to a guy who sells some conversion to the auto tranny that makes it shift quicker but that seemed like a mechanical fix. I guess what I am thinking is just some type of reprograming of the computer. The couple hundered bucks for the chip is not keeping me from getting it... its the extra $$$ for gas each fill up. For the amount of driving I do for work it would run me about an extra $500 bucks a year... OUCH!! I would love some different shift points but not that much.... thanks for your thoughts...

 

Hi mtofell,

Welcome to F-150 Online!

Congraulations on getting into your first F-150 as well.

Sure, we can do a special function chip like that if you wanted, just give us a call when you get a chance (our contact info is below) & we'll be happy to go over that with you.

You mention in your post that you think you'd probably have to spend about $500 more a year for fuel to use the Superchip on premium gas all the time with as much driving as you have to do. I don't know if you may have been hanging out here reading the message boards before deciding to actually register & post here, but if not, we've got good data on those actual costs. It's not more than $100 per 10,000 miles driven, so you'd have to drive at least 50K miles a year to have that much added expense. Just mentioning it in case you hadn't had a chance to see any real world numbers on that yet. This assumes, by the way, a 20 cent per gallon price delta between regular and premium gas, and a 50/50 mix of city & highway driving. Just FYI..............

Give us a shout & we can take care of this for you, whether you want the regular unit or just want transmission controls only, etc., we can do just about anything.

Enjoy your F-150!

 

Thanks for the info Mike! I still have to look into my extended warranty to see if a chip is allowed. I guess the extra expense in gas per year for me would be closer to $350 - 25,000miles per yr/14mpg = 1785 gallons of gas burned X 20 cents = $357. With the $100 gas per 10,000 miles you would need to get 20mpg. From what I have read around here the guys don't care what the cost is they would never give up their chip. Once I get my warranty figured out I will likely be in touch. Thanks again!

 

You're very welcome, anytime.

Good luck!