Does anyone know if diablo or 5star is coming out with one?

 

You're going to have a truck without a warranty if you do that. And I don't think you can hide it like in the past. I've read there are counters that increment each time the ECM is flashed. The dealer will know.

I have an Ecoboost, too, and with as new and unproven as that engine is there is no way in hell I would want to forego the warranty.

 

Read where? This is the first I've heard of this.

 

Sorry, I didn't keep a bookmark. You might find more information and discussions about this at f150forum.com If I had to guess then I would say that's where I probably read it.

 

My brother just went through this a couple months back with his 2008. Yes the ECM reads that it was flashed but it doesnt specify by what. If you remove the tuner and put the vehicle back to stock before it goes to the shop for anything theres no way the dealer can prove that it has/had a tuner. It could have been a code reader flash or anything like that. Ive never had an issue with SCT tuners and warranty. Plus the dealer has to prove that the tuner is what caused or is the problem if there happens to be one. I only ever had one issue with SCT on my 2005. I had the trans pressure turned up a little to far and blew a seal to the transfer case. Powertrain Warranty repair.

 

My son recently graduated from Ford ASSET, which is Ford Motor Company sponsored service training, and I asked how a tuner can be detected. He said there are a few ways like parameters way out of factory spec, like if the motor went past set rpm's, and timing over spec. It also leaves a mark in the PCM, often referred as a "tattoo." If the truck was out of warranty I would tune the Eco, but I wouldn't do it otherwise. There are also paint marks on the waste gate that could possibly show an increase in boost that would surely occur if it was tuned for higher power. Just know that if the Eco is tuned, there are ways for the dealer to find out.

 

Now why do you suppose Ford would spend money and company resources to train people (like your son) to know how to detect tuners?

I like to tinker with cars as much as anybody but I got the message loud and clear from my dealer when I bought my truck a few weeks ago. I really don't think Ford is giving out idle threats these days.

 

It's already known that, in the case of 6.0/6.4/6.7 PSDs, in the case of an engine meltdown, the PCM gets pulled and goes to Ford engineering for analysis. They can and will detect the presence of tuners.

Tune if you want, but don't expect warranty coverage...

 

Yep. The diesel tuner craze has trained Ford to put tattle-tale features in the PCM just for warranty purposes, and these are features you cannot cover up. You can bet your bottom dollar that the Ecoboost is going to be scrutinized carefully because the twin turbos are capable of massive HP gains with just a tuner.

 

Yes, the "counter" is in there these days and it is easy for Ford to verify if they have flashed it before or not, as that record is kept by VIN in the system. If they did not do the flash, it was not authorized. It's not a new thing either, the first I ran into it was when they went to the Delphi ECMs with the Spanish Oak processor in the 05 mustangs. They just weren't as picky yet. Yes the burden of proof under the Magnuson-Moss act is on them to prove that the modification caused the failure, but with ECMs and engines tuned as fine as they are today, it is real easy to say and get the judge to believe that something out of parameter caused an engine failure.