The other day I was towing 8000lb boat/trailer and the truck began to knock/ping and have less power going up a hill. I have had this truck since new and its the first time I have seen this. The truck has 5,000 miles on it and I have 5stars 87 perf/tow flashed. With no load there is a very slight ping/knock when I accelerate hard. Otherwise, no problems.

 

my 09' has done that also, <20k miles on it w/ 5star 89 tow/perf tune. BUT, I pulled a travel trailer over a steep grade down hear in SoCal, had a ton of power, and I don't remeber it pinging then. Seems like a random thing to me.

 

My 09 has done that a lot with 5 star's tunes. I haven't used the tuner in a long time because of that.

 

Did either of you contact Mike at 5 Star?

 

I didn't contact him.

 

I've also had a ping with an '09 and 5 star 87 tow tune, still haven't called them, only think about it when I am in the truck and hear the ping it seems. I finally took the tuner with me puling a load and went back to stock and sure enough only heard it with the tune.

 

Contact Mike. He will back of the amount of timing advance allowed. Both my truck and my dads truck started having some knock in the higher rpm range at about the same time. Mike sent me a revised tune for both and it took care of the knock and didn't affect power at all. I figure the fuel that we both were using had an increase in ethanol content since we both get gas at the same two stations the majority of the time.

Every truck is different and fuel varies. Don't be surprised if a tune needs a tweak from time to time. This is why you get a tuner from a guy that stands behind his tunes like Mike.

 

I need to contact Mike, he is a great guy to work with.

 

From what I've read here this couldn't be more true---he can't help without knowing there's an issue!

If you guys get this corrected please let us know how it was done---useful information I'm sure.

 

You can easily PM him here at FTE, and/or email him. He's VERY responsive to emails.

Actually, I have never actually spoken to him

 

I've only ever e-mailed him to contact him. He sent me a revised tune on Thanksgiving the other year after I sent him an e-mail that morning.

 

I emailed him again this am, he's out today for family emergency. Sounds like there are a number of us with the same issue. He defininetly should know about it.

 

dkf, did Mike send you an email with a new tune to download? I got an email back from 5star that said "try using your user options to reduce global timing". I'm not really comfortable messing around with the tuner not knowing what it will or could do.

 

Yeah he attached a new tune.

You can take a small amount of global timing out as he suggested and see if that removes the knock. You just go and reinstall the tune you already have in the truck and when promted by the screen adjust the optional parameters. This will take to you to a list of options like idle speed, shift firmness 1-2, shift firmness, 2-3 and etc. Global spark should be on the list. Retard the global timing like two notches and see if that gets rid of the knock. If not retard little by little until it goes away.

 

When you say he attached a new tune, what did he send you? Did you have to do what you just explained above?