7up

No, I haven't bricked mine.

But I'm wondering if anyone has ever bricked their vehicle's ECU when uploading a tune, or uploading a simple user adjustable setting?

Let's assume, for the sake of this post, that all the manufacturer's directions were followed to the letter (e.g., items such as -- but not limited to -- not turning off the key before it's done, accidentally yanking out the OBDII cable prematurely, and so on.)


I get the heebie jeebies just watching the upload process -- that long bar graph inching along the screen -- and thinking the worst.

For the record, my fears stem from a few routers & other flashable devices I've bricked in my time (all were under warranty, luckily.) At least one bricked router was due to the company releasing bad firmware (they had a massive recall on their hands, consequently!)

So by no means am I new to updating firmware via flash programming, but I am new to the automotive flash tune scene.


Does Ford have built in protection within their chips to prevent (or resist, at best) such a catastrophic event? (i.e., is a bad flash from say, an unexpected power outage, recoverable?)


Obviously, this would just be an awful [more colorful language omitted] thing to happen. And I'm sure that Ford wouldn't be willing to cover the cost (under warranty) of replacing the necessary PCBs inside the ECU if this happened.

Yeah -- I realize the custom flash tune business is alive and well, with many 3rd party businesses writing tunes, plenty of tuner manufacturers, and thousands of enthusiasts uploading them to their rides all the time.

Still, I ask.

I can't help but think that other "n00bs" like myself -- who know what it's like to ruin a piece of computer hardware while updating the firmware -- would want to survey the field about this issue.

P.S. I did search for info on this subject, but I'm interested in hearing back from the Mustang crowd, or any others who've had an unfortunate mishap.

loudnlow

I've always wondered the same thing myself.

Mudflap

I haven't done it, but I've heard of it happening years ago on WRXs. For this reason, I never flash mine unless its sitting in the garage at home. I figure if I'm turning the thing into a paperweight, at least it'll be in my garage when it happens.

sycd

Yep, the original Ford Racing programmer bricked my ECU once, had to have the car towed to the dealership for a reflash.

SteveB_RET

I had my Xcal2 error out in the middle of the upload and boy the heart rate sure jumped up. Stang was dead in the driveway. I kept trying to reload the tune and after 2 more failures, it finally took. Talk about STRESSED OUT!!!!!

ejanderson05gt

Had a guy I know who owned a S95 and used tunes written for a New Edge on it.. Needless to say, his ECU had to be re-Ford-ified, and it wasn't cheap. Never heard of anyone using their equipment correctly and having problems, though.

Eric

AU2BOT

I havnt had any problems with my SCT X3 and I just had to re-flash back to my stock tune for my emissions test and then re-flashed back my 91 tune with no problems what so ever , I am sure there are cases of this, I guess its all part of modding for performance.

dagamore

i have had one tune fail to 'load' it looked like it loaded correctly but the motor would not start, so i re-flashed it with the same tune and its been running like a top for the past 6 months or so, until i put in a closer to stock tune for winter(dont need that snappy of throttle response in the snow)

Nuke

I've probably reloaded one tune or another at least a dozen times since I initially loaded a custom tune about 28 months ago. Never a problem using my Xcal2.

doctorstrobe

Even better, drive the car over to the nearest Ford dealership then program it in their lot. If it bricks then no towing charge...