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Warranty with tune question.

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Location
Winter Springs
#1
I know that it can be largely up to the dealership with what they do and do not see, but I've been doing some reading and am seeing differentiating responses on weather or not the dealership can actually see if you've had a tune on your car.

Do anyone who actually works at a dealership or knows of anyone at a dealership have a real definitive answer?
 


rooSTer

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Miami
#2
No definite answer but the majority believe that dealers can tell if they dig deep enough..most dealers won't care unless you happen to blow up the engine which would not happen just from an OTS tune.
 


BlueBomber

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#3
I know that it can be largely up to the dealership with what they do and do not see, but I've been doing some reading and am seeing differentiating responses on weather or not the dealership can actually see if you've had a tune on your car.

Do anyone who actually works at a dealership or knows of anyone at a dealership have a real definitive answer?
Definitive answer from Cobb:
If you have uninstalled the tune from the car when you take it in for service, the breadcrumbs left behind by the tune are so hard to find that short of flying a software engineer out from detroit, there is no way a dealership has the tools or the technical ability to see you have used a tune.

UNINSTALL YOUR TUNE BEFORE SERVICE OR SMOG AND YOU WILL BE FINE.

I have had a tune since about 3k miles (12k miles now), have been in for service several times, am clearly not stock and uninstall my tune before service, and have had no issues.
Source: Ken Grody Ford
 


iso100

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#4
^^++ thanks for the definitive answer from the masters
 


BlueBomber

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#6
And also the people who are selling the exact product..... might want to get a less biased answer from a Ford service warranty employee.
IDGAF whether or not you buy one, I have gotten the same answers from my friends in the service department over at Ken Grody as well as consulting former Ford Service Technicians (now doing things that pay better) and got the same answer.

Once I run into problems at the dealership I'll let you know, but I have yet to have a problem, and having a thorough understanding of the principles involved in running a dealership's service department (I wrote Honda's "Best Practices" for their dealerships for the 2008 year), the fact remains that your Ford dealer doesn't have the time or inclination to try and find out if you have a tune, and it's simply not possible to do for them with the tools that they have at their disposal.

Let me put it to you this way, do you know, offhand, how you, personally could check and see if a Fiesta ST had ever had an accessport installed to it?
If you can't find the answer, I've made my point.
 


CanadianST

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Location
Prince Edward Island
#7
My dealer seems to be pretty relaxed and the head warranty guy stated I can "go nuts" with mods as long as I don't touch the internals of the engine. When I asked about a tune he just went "as long as we don't see it, but we won't be looking"
 


BlueBomber

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#8
My dealer seems to be pretty relaxed and the head warranty guy stated I can "go nuts" with mods as long as I don't touch the internals of the engine. When I asked about a tune he just went "as long as we don't see it, but we won't be looking"
That's basically the answer my friends at dealerships gave me.
 


Messages
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Location
Chicago
#9
Definitive answer from Cobb:
If you have uninstalled the tune from the car when you take it in for service, the breadcrumbs left behind by the tune are so hard to find that short of flying a software engineer out from detroit, there is no way a dealership has the tools or the technical ability to see you have used a tune.

UNINSTALL YOUR TUNE BEFORE SERVICE OR SMOG AND YOU WILL BE FINE.

I have had a tune since about 3k miles (12k miles now), have been in for service several times, am clearly not stock and uninstall my tune before service, and have had no issues.
Source: Ken Grody Ford
Perfect answer.
 


iso100

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#11
No, that would be a bad idea. New cars are just plugged into an OBD scanner for emissions related codes.

If you uninstall, it resets the ECU and might clear codes. They can see the last time DTC's have been cleared and if it's been within 14 days (in MD at least) they will make you wait and come back for the test.
 


Messages
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Location
Tarzana/Oxnard
#12
No, that would be a bad idea. New cars are just plugged into an OBD scanner for emissions related codes.
This depends on your location. In Los Angeles at least the emissions test includes measuring exhaust gasses from the tailpipe. There is talk of going to an OBD scan in the future.
 


iso100

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#13
Ahh, good point. I ASSumed it was the same everywhere.
 


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Location
coopersville
#14
ok i've looked into this and talking to our electrical guy at the dealership i work at, (he's already told me to get a bigger turbo, and has given me more bad ideas lol!) and depending on the warrenty concern ford will ask for the tech to send them module data using the ford IDS, and if its tuned they will see the dates which it was recalibrated, and if its a ford calibration. so everytime you switch tunes the pcm saves that data, even when you revert to stock all the footprints are there. we can find this info out too with the IDS, but most tech's dont know how to, or dont care to look this up because of flat rate pay.

the good news there is a way around this! first you need a car with a virgin pcm that has never had a tune or a factory re-calibration, and then using the ford ids you can get the AS BUILT DATA and save it to a flash drive, then you can tune it to your hearts content, and if you ever need heavy warrenty work where you might be worried about someone finding out about a tune, just load the as built data to the pcm from the flashdrive and everything is reset in the pcm to the way it was upon first start up with NO footprints. the downside is you need the ford IDS to accomplish this, or an accomplice at a dealership. lol i still havent had time to save my as built data yet, but if you have an IDS i could steer you in the right direction, but dont have any step by step instructions yet.
 


Messages
242
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Location
Los Angeles
#15
ok i've looked into this and talking to our electrical guy at the dealership i work at, (he's already told me to get a bigger turbo, and has given me more bad ideas lol!) and depending on the warrenty concern ford will ask for the tech to send them module data using the ford IDS, and if its tuned they will see the dates which it was recalibrated, and if its a ford calibration. so everytime you switch tunes the pcm saves that data, even when you revert to stock all the footprints are there. we can find this info out too with the IDS, but most tech's dont know how to, or dont care to look this up because of flat rate pay.

the good news there is a way around this! first you need a car with a virgin pcm that has never had a tune or a factory re-calibration, and then using the ford ids you can get the AS BUILT DATA and save it to a flash drive, then you can tune it to your hearts content, and if you ever need heavy warrenty work where you might be worried about someone finding out about a tune, just load the as built data to the pcm from the flashdrive and everything is reset in the pcm to the way it was upon first start up with NO footprints. the downside is you need the ford IDS to accomplish this, or an accomplice at a dealership. lol i still havent had time to save my as built data yet, but if you have an IDS i could steer you in the right direction, but dont have any step by step instructions yet.
Yeah that's more along the lines of what I was thinking. Good info!
 


Kip2MyLou

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Gaithersburg
#16
I just took mine to the dealership last week for the 7500 mile service and I just uninstalled the whole AP, and they didn't say anything about it. Then I just reinstalled it when I got home.
 


re-rx7

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Ardmore
#17
Lots of good info and bad info in here. My dad is a GM at a dealership. If the engine blows and Ford gets wind of multiple engines blowing you better believe that car will have its PCM inspected. Usually they fly a district rep to the dealer and he inspects the car and sends the PCM into Ford. This was a big issue on the first 5.0s as they had problems with cyl 8 blowing. Although completely stock engines were blowing the tuned ones were as well. So to discern the warranties Ford started cecking PCM's. Believe me if they want to know, they will. It all depends on the dealer. Find a gd one and be loyal.
 




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