Has anyone had the superchip mess up the PCM?
The truck just shut down and had it towed to the Ford dealer and they said that the super chip screwed up the computer. And they have to put a new PCM in to correct the problem. And thoughts on this I know a lot of you have had no problems with the chip. And it has beem in the truck for about 3-4 mo.
Is there anything I can say to the service guy?

 

Pull off the chip, and start the truck. Pay the $60 diagnostic fee, say "sorry 'bout that", and go home. Next time pull the chip before taking it into the dealer.

This happened to me.

post link.

 

Thanks so much
I just hope there on the level, this is Calif.
Can you think of why the truck would have just stopped.
Could the chip be bad, they said it had not come loose and I did tape it in place.

 

did you remove the chip and try to start the truck without it? That would tell you if hte computer was screwed up. Most of the time a "no-start" situation is due to some conformal coating hitting the contacts on the chips...this can happen after months of working properly...I'm sure Mike will explain this in more detail.

 

What is a pcm and hte, is it one of the same? And when you say pull the chip you do mean to power down the unit first?

 

Bad PCM is what they read at dealer when the chip is installed. Your PCM is probably not bad.
Do like the others here have said. Disconnect the negative cable from battery, pull out the chip, turn your headlight switch on and wait at least 5 minutes. Reconnect battery cable and then fire up your truck...WITHOUT...the chip in it. If it starts, you know that you have to clean off the conformal coating better.


Good Luck,
Rocks

 

I do have one question...who did you buy your chip from? I bought mine from Mike at performance and so did alot of these others here.
Mike sends an additional install sheet that he wrote up and it covers all of this.
Man, everytime I read one of these posts, It makes me glad I did not price shop....LOL.
For the 30 bucks or so you may have saved, your in the hole for a towing charge.


Rocks

 

I did but it from Mike, and fallowed the instructions to a T.
And cleaned the contacts very carefully, I took my time so it was done right.
The truck just stopped on me and The first shop thought it was the Key
and was sent to Ford. I was not able to get the chip out before Ford got it and tested it. When The problem happened I was in traffic and it just stalled
would not restart I keep trying then Bang it started and drove 2mi. and went to work. late it started and in 4min. it did the same thing. this time it would start for 3sec. then everything woild shut down. and would continue to keep this up. Even at higher rpms it would just go dead all at once. no back fire, nothing.

 

sorry scuze1butt, "hte" is just "the" spelled wrong

 

That happened to mine...except I had it in for about 3 weeks or so...then suddenly, it stalled and gave me trouble starting and stalling again. I cleaned it again and also used compressed air to clean out the chip(there were little pieces of coating on it) and haven't had any problems since.

 

Sorry I should have previewed the post, I'm a little under the gun.
I did get it from Mike!

 

Your in luck. You can read the instructions that he sent you with the chip and it explains all this.
Or you can call him and he will walk ya through it over the phone.
They have responded in a positive manner every time I have called them.


Rocks

 

Those are all the symptoms of conformal coating issues. Again, read those instructions from start to finish. He even warns about sending the truck to the dealer with the chip and what it will cause.

Rocks

 

This thread should be titled EXACTLY WHAT NOT TO DO.

This thread is an EXCELLENT example of what happens when people do not follow our very clear instructions about what to do if they have a problem. Though you may have followed our instructions when you originally installed it, you sure didn't follow our instructions about what to do if you have any kind of problem.

I would give ANYTHING to be be able to turn back the hands of time and fix this for you, with all my heart. But since that cannot happen, all we can do that *might* have the potential for helping *anyone* is make this thread an EXAMPLE of exactly what NOT to do, and to do so most emphatically, even at the risk of offending some. Not because we want to cause you any more pain or discomfort than the plenty you have already gone thru with this, that's the LAST thing we want to see happen! We do this to hopefully help anyone else to AVOID this ever happening to them.

We point out in our Performance Products documentation to CONTACT US FOR TECH SUPPORT IMMEDIATELY IF YOU HAVE A PROBLEM. When the customer does not contact us, we who are the experts in this and where you obtained your Superchip from (this is Craig, right?) as happened here, nobody else can help with this except us. We provided the product to you and nobody else knows exactly all the potential issues involved or exactly what to do, why, when, or how that J3 circuit works for that matter, how to handle your dealer, etc. like we do. Only **WE** can help you with all of that properly and thoroughly, but instead of contacting us FIRST, you contacted us LAST, unfortunately.

Just to make a point here for others....................

What was done here were a couple of the WORST things that could have been done in a situation like this, which were: 1.) NOT following our documentation. 2.) NOT contacting us. 3.) NOT bothering to remove the Superchip to see if this was even related to it's presence at all. 4.) Leaving the chip installed & having it towed to the dealer like that.

We point out very clearly in a section titled "How To Get Technical Support" in our documentation that the ONLY way to get help is to CONTACT US. Why do we write a section called "How To Get Technical Support?" SO WE CAN HELP YOU AVOID THIS, we don't want you to have any such problems!

We even point out in our documentation that we can almost always save you from even having to go get service at all **IF** your problem is related to the presence of the Superchip, and we point out that we can usually save you from ending up with a huge repair bill in that situation, all you have to do is CONTACT US.

Please understand, I don't mean to sound rude (believe it or not), I'm just so very upset that *anyone* went thru this, that really bothers us when a custoemr has a problem. Especially when it was so easily unavoidable, when we could have easily prevented all of this, so I'll just have to beg you to forgive me for my tone here in making this an example.

It is our intention here to make this thread an example, so that NOBODY reading this will ever do something like this. I don't care if you bought your Superchip somewhere else, if you get into a jam and whoever you got your Superchip from can't or won't help you, when all else fails, CALL US so we can at least TRY to help you!! We don't want *anyone* to go thru this, and there is absolutely no reason anyone ever has to.

At one point in our very long phone call late this afternoon, you told us that your computer had already been removed from the vehicle and sent to Ford. If that is true, then it's already too late to avoid a large repair bill, and worst of all, you will NEVER KNOW WHAT ACTUALLY HAPPENED OR WHY.

This sounds like a very clear-cut case of a simple connection issue, due to it running fine for 7 months, then exhibiting a no-start, then starting up again and running fine after a no-start, but then not starting again later on etc., this was clearly an intermittant problem. That means the Superchip did not fail, and the ECU most likely didn't either, unless it had a failed cold solder joint, which we have seen happen and has nothing to do with a performance chip or any other modification. Given our discussion, the very rough dirt road you live on and the type of tape you used to secure the Superchip to the ECU, *if* this had anything to do with the Superchip at all, it was most likely a simple & correctable connection-related problem. But we'll never know now, that is, unless your computer is still in the vehicle when you go check on that and we can test it.

I can only hope our true intentions will be understood for what they really are, things like this keep me up at night wondering how we could have possibly done any more to help you avoid this.

When last we spoke, you were going to go to the service shop and see if the ECU is still in the vehicle and if so, remove the chip and try to start it. You are going to call us and let us know what status is at that point, but unless the original computer (ECU) is still in the vehicle, there won't be anything that anyone can help you with on this, you'll just have to pay a large repair bill.

We'll keep our fingers crossed for you on this as well as say a little prayer. I can only hope & pray that you'll understand why we made this thread an example and responded as I have, and not be offended by what I've written here. It is truly not our intention to annoy you, you've been thru enough!

We hope to help anyone else avoid going thru what you have endured in this episode, my friend, & we wish you all the best.

Talk to you soon,