Hi all,
I recently purchased a used SCT Livewire 9600 for our new-to-us 2006 F250. The first owner of the tuner did not return his truck to stock before he sold it to me, so, consequently, the device is locked. I still have all five unlocks left. How do I do this? As far as I can work out, because I still have unlocks left, I DO NOT have to contact SCT to do this? Any idea

Thanks!

 

Call,Email or check the web site SCT Performance - More Power! Less Fuel!
here is a link to a FAQ on the SCT site
SCT Performance LLC. - SCT SupportSuite

Most likely your going to have to pay an unlock fee. I think it's less
than the guy that is going to have to pay Ford to re-flash his truck.

Sean

 

You are SOL!

Contact SCT and pay them the $150. That charge covers their fee to unlock the device and to ship it back.

Sucks, but a danger when buying used SCT Flash units. The stupid menu is not intuitive and tricks people into thinking they are buying a unlocked unit.



the 5 of 5 unlocks means nothing with regards to unlocking the unit. it just means you have 4 vehicles left available to you. you start with 5 vehicles available. as you tune each vehicle, you "lose" an unlock. While that vehicle PCM is tuned, the SCT unit is "locked" to that particular vehicle by the VIN # in the PCM. This prevents you from going on a tuning rampage and getting more bang for your buck. The VIN locking ensures you only use the SCT unit once per session. After you tune, then subsequently return the PCM to stock, you "lose" an unlock.





When buying a SCT used, if the menu says "5 of 5" unlocks left, that means the device is still VIN locked to the prior vehicle. If the device says "4 of 5" unlocks, you are good. You must also check the married status. An unlocked tuner will say "Unmarried" as well. To be safe though, any used tuner should be plugged into a PC and the status checked in the SCT software.

 

Sounds like the seller got the best of both worlds ...
His truck is still tuned and he sold a paperweight :-)

OR

The unit was stolen and u will find that out as soon as SCT is contacted

 

that is what I was thinking. it's why I hate the Livewire. it just screams "Steal Me" when people have it mounted on their dash. I have a few buddies who had theirs stolen from Mustangs

 

Tylus,
When you return lest say your truck to stock
but don't use the unit on some other vehicle
the SCT is knows the vin so when you put the tune
back on that truck you don't loose any locks?
The theft issue with the Livewire is one of the reasons I stick with the 80's looking
SGII and my Garmin goes into the store with me when I am traveling. Yes the mount is
still in the truck but the hardware is gone and so is anything else that might be tempting.

Sean

 

lets put it this way.

Vehicle A (Superduty with 7.3 PSD motor)
and
Vehicle B (Mustang with 4.6 3v motor)
and
Vehicle C (Excursion with 6.8 2v motor)

take a brand new SCT X3 tuner and buy custom tunes for Vehicle A. You install the tunes and drive around happy. The screen will say 5 of 5 unlocks and status will be "Married". 2 yrs later You return Vehicle A to stock and trade Vehicle A in. You buy Vehicle B and buy custom tunes for it. load them onto the SCT X3 and program Vehicle B. the SCT X3 screen will now say 4 of 5 unlocks left, and its status will be "Married". 2 yrs later You return Vehicle B to stock and trade Vehicle B in. You buy Vehicle C and buy custom tunes for it. load them onto the SCT X3 and program Vehicle C. the SCT X3 screen will now say 3 of 5 unlocks left, and its status will be "Married".


now while you own Vehicle C, your buddy wants to see how a programmer will "wake up" his tired 7.3 powered Superduty. You take your programmer and plug it into his truck. The SCT refuses to work because it's still VIN locked to Vehicle C.aw crap, you now have 1 unlock left. be careful here. Sometimes SCT devices will let you return to a previously tuned vehicle and no unlock penalty. more likely though, when you unprogram your buds truck and reprogram Vehicle C you will use up your last unlock. Any further vehicles programming will require sending the unit back to SCT for reset.

 

SCT devices run in the past when displaying thier status. that is how so many people get bent over with them.

VIN locking is awesome! (sarcasm). I get the business benifits of the process, but it really sucks IMO. I paid $200-300 for the unit, I feel I should be able to utilize it however I want. I have an all Ford line-up in the driveway and it would be cool to use just 1 programmer. SCT deemed however that I needed to "Pay to Play".

also, you can program the current vehicle that the SCT unit is VIN locked to any number of times you desire with no penalties. only when you swap vehicles will the programmer subtract an unlock from you. I don't know how many test and tunes I did on my 2009 Mustang before I found a good working tune. 3 different tuners and too many e-mailed tunes to count. but at the end of the day, it only cost me the 1 unlock when I moved on down the line from that car to the next rig and used the tuner on it