davidd31415

Hi,

I just read an article at the blog Consumerist about Ford denying a warranty claim because someone allegedly drove their vehicle beyond the design specifications.

There was no information in the blog entry about evidence that Ford had found, how the car had actually been driven, and so on. However, in the comments many people were discussing the dealer scanning the computer to determine what average and peak driving was on the car, how many times the rev limited had engaged, how the car had been shifted, and other similar metrics which would indicate how "hard" the car had been driven over time.

I'd like to know what type of data like this is actually logged in the computer. Also, is there a way to pull this information without dealer equipment? I bought my vehicle used and while I have little reason to suspect that it was driven hard by the previous owner, it certainly would be nice to know...

In fact, it would be nice to be able to look at information like this prior to actually buying a car. I may ask my dealer next time I'm in but for now I'll just ask here.

I remembered hearing about an OEM denying warranty claims based on computer data once long ago but I thought there was such a negative backlash to it because of 'privacy' concerns that it was a trend which had ended.

Thanks,

David

Blacksmoke

If someone is denied warranty work purely because of something they installed they need to be talking to the dealer and asking them if they have heard of the Mag-Moss Act.

According to law the dealer must prove the mod they installed CAUSED the damage
that the car is being brought in to be worked on.

The car will however show if a CAI and tune has been installed.
You will be running a different program.
Almost all mods that have anything to do with the air the engine takes in
involves messing with the tune and computer.

I am not an expert on our computers though so I don't know if they have such logs as avg. RPM's, speed, etc.
I could be wrong but I would think if they did have such a log it would be a short term log.
I do know that for the 05-09's you can simply return an easy mod such as CAI and tune back to it's original stock shape, unhook the battery for a while, and the dealership will never know. Just tell them you unhooked the battery because
you thought it was a bad one and had it taken to Pep Boys for them to test it or some B.S. like that.

What are your exact concerns that you are worrying about this for?
Telling us this would help us a bunch in telling you whether you have something to be
concerned about or not.

davidd31415

Thanks!

If there were any interesting data logged I would ask the dealer to pull it so I could know more about the vehicle's history.

I have no worry or concern though- just curious, especially after reading the comments on Consumerist. It didn't seem right to me so I figured I'd ask where there were some more knowledgeable folks.

David

Nuke

Although I don't believe that our cars have long-term data loggers, I do know that insurance companies can obtain info after a crash indicating certain parameters at the time of the crash which would indicate short-term data storage. I'd be very interested to know if my car was collecting long-term driving info but I think that, if so, it'll remain a well guarded secret.

157dB

There is no long term.
5 minutes of data before the air bags deploy is about it.
Disconnect the battery, and it is gone.
But whats gone ?
The last 5 minutes perhaps?
The Spanish Oak processor is not capable
of much more than that.
Now the new Copperhead PCM might be a
different story alltogether.
05-10 Spanish Oak - 1 timing table to contend
with at a time.
2011 Copperhead - maybe some 14 timing
tables to deal with...
So watch out 2011 owners.
BigBrother is watching you??
Maybe the video from the back-up camera
is being uploaded in realtime and saved on
a big ol master server somewhere 24/7...
Darn SYNC System and its microphones
and cameras hooked to it...