I just took my truck into the dealer to find out why the truck would shut down around 3500 rpms and the shop forman was a really cool guy. we took the truck out for a ride and he was telling me about different stuff i could do to the v10. he mentiond getting an aftermarket pcm that would replace my stock one. so if something happend to the motor i could just swap the stock pcm back in and not have any warranty problems. Is there such a thing? or was he thinking about the programmers?

 

He must have been talking about performance programmers like superchips, diablo, or hypertech.

 

Yeah but he find out why your truck shuts down at 3500 RPM??

 

sct excal 2 only way to fly with a v10. yah did he find the shut down problem?

 

i dropped it off saturday afternoon so i won't hear anything until probally late tomorrow. he said it might have to do with the new flash that was installed.

 

I keep hearing about the "updated flash" syndrome. I was told it myself quite a few times in the very recent past. I can't figure out for the life of me what the heck these dealers are talking about???? I do programming for a living and don't understand why these, so called flashes, are to blame for a vehicle shutting down. Trust me when I tell you that any engineer or programmer checks and double checks a program change before it's implemented. And why in gods name would it work for a certain period of time and then just decide not to let you rev your engine over 3500 RPM's.

I certainly don't consider myself a pessimist, but I think we're all being lied to about this stuff. It's very easy to blame something you can't see, happens every day where I work, don't need to hear it from a mechanic that doesn't have the slightest bit of programming experience, just knows how to swap parts.

Just my .02

 

88svt -- I know what you mean about the flash issues. However, especially the 6.0L flashes have really been terrible. First, if all the PCM code worked out the box, then there would be no need for re-flashes. As much as programmers check and double check...there is always a reasonable amount of risk that a re-flash will toast your vehicle (application).

It is like adding a security patch to 100 computers within your network. All systems are identical in every possible way. One can always expect that out of the 100...one or two will crash or at least give the famous "blue screen". Why??? Living the life of computers...and the unpredictable is always mystical and enjoyable to say the least.

...my .02 + .01...

biz

 

i wonder if the pcm is thinking it's in p or n. were it can't rev over 3.5k ?

 

And trust me, after being a consultant for 23 years, and having written a lot of code myself, and been involved in many engineering projects:

Your first sentence is NOT true! If it is true where you work, please, tell me where that is, and I'll be on the job-application line tomorrow !

And, saying this with a sarcastic grin on my face, your second sentence reflects a sort of naivete when it comes to software engineering. Of course it doesn't make sense that it would suddenly stop revving past 3500RPM. That's what bugs (features) are all about

I'd love to see the source code for the firmware they have in these things...

art k.

 

and i'll put a case of cold ones up that you can write one 100% better with no bugs.

 

So I just got the call from the service guy and he told me they found at least one reason why the truck would shut down around 3500 rpms. He said they could not find anything when they hooked up the computer in the shop so they took a second person on a road test and when they hit 3500 or so and it shut down they took a pict of the computer, If i understood him right. Then he told me that the speed sensor was telling the computer the wrong info. he said that when he hit 75 the the speed sensor told the computer it was doing over 100 mph and it would kill the gas supply. this is the first time they ever came across this so they had ford on the phone trying to come up with a solution. so i might get it back tomorrow. we'll see.


Sean

 

sounds like the dreaded reflash coming.

 

By any chance do you live in Roswell,N.M..

Yup here comes the dreaded reflash! or a new pcm.

Maybe something to do with speedo calibration within the pcm.

Rich

 

A few years ago I had a truck that would shut down at 5 mph. If you could take off fast enough to get above that then it ran ok. If you took off slowly it would shut down at 5 mph. The VSS signal would go to 120 mph when the truck was actually doing 5. The PCM didn't like seeing 120 mph so it decided to slow it down. A new VSS cured it. I thought it was strange that the only problem it had was at 5 mph. I figured that it would act up at higher speeds too but it didn't.

 

If it's the speed sensor (I'm not sure if they use a prox. type or resolver) then I would think the service guys should look at this first without the need for a reflash.

Krewet:
I realize all code doesn't react the same in all PLC's (inherent scan time problems, magnetic effects, etc.) I also agree that "all" code writers don't double check their work, but in the case where you may have to update a couple thousand PCM's I think the engineers at Ford would find it prudent to do so. I wasn't saying that all computer based systems won't eventually have problems, it just seems this is the first thing everyone points to when it in fact it is the result of an external problem. My truck went through 5 PCM's with multiple updates until the guys at the dealer finally realized the code reader they were using had an internal defect that would corrupt the code when trying to load.

I work for a large food company (actually the largest) where we work with high pressure cells that could level half the building if there was ever a problem and you can rest assured we double check and then have it reviewed by another tech before any changes are implemented. If you're looking for work, we could use another V-10 owner. We're right accross the bay.