FICM Who's better?
 

FICM Repair or FICM Fixer? And are those 40 or 80 extra horses real or fiction? As soon as I can get my motorcycle out I'll have to get this taken care of. I started seeing 24-30 V when it starts and it is only 20F out there. 2007 F350, no toys, stick, crank windows... AC is the only "luxury".
Thank you.

Ed FICM Repair
I gauge my opinion on quality but also customer service, they have been outstanding for me.

Ed is always on the board supporting folks.

Thanks for the kudos, guys!

Quince - whoever you honor with your business, just PLEASE be sure to yank your batteries and alternator and have both bench tested (not just on the truck). SOMETHING caused this module to fail, we need to find out what so that we make certain you don't have a repeat. The standing record for killing a perfectly awesome FICM is 15 seconds with a sufficiently trashed charging system.

Feel free to call in (515-897-4459) or email (ed@ficmrepair.com) with any questions that you might have.

:-drink

I have 14V batteries. It takes 2-3 minutes of engine running to get up to 40-48V. Obviously alternator does its job if the FICM recovers as it's worming-up in a few minutes.

Sadly, you can have an alternator seemingly charging just fine and still have a bad voltage regulator in it. I'd strongly suggest getting it tested on a bench under load. It may be just fine, but it's good to know, the test is free at any auto parts store, and popping the alternator off is five minutes.

Hope this helps!

Thank you. I'll stop at Auto Zone and find out.

You're welcome. If we can't help each other out, what good are we? :)

Let us know what you find!

Am I reading correctly that a battery or charging failure ruins an FICM? :eek:

Quince,


I won't doubt for one second that both are good services to work on your FICM. One reason is Ed at FCIMrepair.com is well known around here and you see he is a member with high amounts of REP from all of us.


Second I used FICMfixer.com on my truck about 5 months ago when my FICM failed. It is not to say that Ed was not on my list of companies to work with it just so happens I was short on cash and FICMfixer got me back up and running with the amount of funds I had to work with. I took the opportunity to get the added HP increase and from what I know my truck did seem different and woke it up. Though I have a few extras under the hood I don't really think none of that played a factor until FICM was fixed.


I had exceptional customer service with them as well! I'm not swaying you one way or another just offering my experience.


I worked with Shannon and I encouraged them to get familiar with FTE because it would help their business but I think Ed being a member himself deserves all the business he can get from us.


If I would do it all over again in short yes I would go with Ed this time. Only because I would like to compare the two!


Sorry for the winded reasoning but felt that you should know both sides.

Sadly, this is absolutely the case. It is well documented that weak alternators and weak batteries kill these modules.

1. Watch those batteries!

2. Get a better alternator.

:-drink

I have been a member since 2005 and this is my 7th post not much for typing! But this deserves my nod for Ed @ FICM Repair. Not only did he fix my ficm but twice. He helped me with my original repair and then when I had my second failure due to not having proper amps/voltage. Got me on the right path with a new alternator, relay,fuse and a ficm with the atlas 40 tune. IF I ever have another problem this is where I'll go. Been alittle over a year and his ficm and DC Power alternator are still going.

I also failed to mention yesterday that when I had my Hot no start truck towed back to my house I immediately got on FTE posted the photo explained what happened and Ed from FICMrepair.com responded in like 10 minutes no BS to explain some things to look for and offered to fix the FICM once I had ruled out all the reasons of why my FICM went bad.


So A+ customer service and friendly advice there! Without the help of him and many other on here we would be left stranded trying to source problems for days and $ tossed at it until we fixed it or gave up.

I have the Atlas 40 in my FICM from FICM Repair. For some reason, the PCM see's the Atlas 40 and has set a DTC that says incompatible software detected. BUT, the check engine light never comes on. I was really worried about this last October when I had to get the old girl smog-ed. But the testing station equipment did not ferret out the DTC and passed with no problems. Never look a gift horse in the mouth. I drove away from there as fast as I could (LOL).

I like the performance I get out of the Atlas 40. Just enough so the truck is not a slug. It is NOT a racer. I feel it is a good tune offering the balance between some extra power and not worrying about loosing head bolts and head gaskets.
B.

You shouldn't have that U0306 incompatible software code. It doesn't negatively impact the truck - at all and in any way - but if you'd like to rid yourself of that code give us a call sometime when you get a chance and we'll ship you out a tuner to change the tune that you have. I don't know why you were given a tune for the wrong model year truck, but that is the only thing that could explain why you have that code. Apologies for the trouble!

Ed