A tune is nothing to be afraid of. Many of us have been running tunes for YEARS without any negative impact whatsoever. Heck it may even be better for the car in some cases.

I was a little intimidated by them at first but after 5 years of ownership I can't imagine the car without. If you have an auto the character of the car changes night and day.

Tim

 

Thank you so much for your sage advice... I was running 10.4 in the quarter when you were a twinkle in your dads eye...

Norm yes my transmission problems were taken care of it was the lead frame in the auto tranny.
Really the best advice that I have gotten here was weight reduction. Alum D/S and lighter wheels and what ever else I can do to lighten up the load seems to be the only thing I can do for the next year and a half, when my car is out of warantee I will definitly run a good tune.
All of the people that are saying that just run the tune must be living in another world. I have been at this too long to take chances with my warantee. Back in the day we didn't care about a warantee, it didn't take much money and time to fix anything that went wrong with our cars. Just used to change out the motor swap heads and go racing. This is a new world.

 

I have an aluminum DS and love it. Mine is 26lbs lighter than the stock DS. You should also look into 3.73 gears. I hear those are pretty awesome in the 2011s. The dealership could recalibrate the speedo for you and that should keep the warranty.

 

ok..not to beat a dead horse but tune and CAI and you will wake her up....as far as the Dealer goes..I too live in Florida (Tampa area) and the dealers here always puff out their chests and state that it would void this to that...but as all have said....that is all huff and puff and blow your house down talk... I had an 05 gt that had a saleen on it and tons of other mods...but guess what I had an issue with a code...and guess who fixed it?? the dealer...they HAVE To prove that your mod caused the issue..(In my case it was the dreaded Alternator issues that 05 had) they even argued smaller pulley on the saleen etc etc...and they still had to replace it under the warranty because they could not prove it...
on a second related note...a tune and pulley are a 20 minute install and thus replacement back to stock too(at least they are in the 05-09 s197, not sure on the 5.0)so if something goes bad...remove the cai..tune it back to stock...and when the problem repeats itself (has to go through drive cycle a couple times repeating the issue before code is thrown) bring it to dealer and have it repaired...unless its an obvious mechanical issue...then bring right away...either way ...they can bark all they want about was a tune done etc...but if its back to stock...regardless of what history tells them( which I believe it only tells them that there is no history prior to your reflash which is caused by a battery disconnect anyway..) again not a darn thing they can do about it...bottom line...a tune and cai will be your best and quickest bang for your buck and will surely acheive the results you desire....the transmission shifting firmness alone on a TUNED auto will surely put a huge grin on your face... good luck...

Be carefull though...it all starts with a little mod...next thing you know your selling your heavily modded car and buying a more expensive one with a different platform and you swear you wont mod that....but then you do..and it never stops

 

I'm almost as old as the OP. I didn't want to wait until my car was 3 years old before I could really enjoy her. I've been to the dealership for warranty work 2 or 3 times with the CAI and tune installed and the closest they came to mentioning anything was "Nice intake."

To each their own.

 

It's unfortunate that you can't spot good advice when you see it.

A warranty legally can't be voided by a dealer no matter how you look at it. To be honest, I wouldn't even go to a dealer that voided my warranty because of a tune because that dealership is likely full of total D-bags. You do know Ford has many many dealerships, right? You could always take it to another if one gives you any problems.

 

I'm young and stupid and think warrantees are useless if you can't enjoy the car you're driving. Installed a supercharger less than a year into the warantee and never looked back. Good luck whichever route you go, but be warned, if your dealer in unscrupulous enough to void a warrantee over a tune (or attempt to), then they will likely attempt the same ILLEGAL void if you replace your stock, crappy, heavy two-piece driveshaft with a shiny, light-weight aftermarket piece.

 

Amen to that, not to mention how easy it is to go back to stock.

I've enjoyed my car modded for nearly 5 years, and it's still under warrantly (powertrain) through the end of August. I've done extensive modificaitons and never had an issue at either of the dealerships I visit having warranty work done, which admittedly has not been much becuase these are well built cars.

Op, I understand if all this "computer stuff" is a bit intimidaitng to those from "back in the day".

Tim

 

sorry but if your dealer is so full of @**hats that they would ILLEGALY void your warrenty over a tune then you can forget any and all mods its just that simple

alum DS (ya its good but a crap dealer could claim it as a reason to void)
lighter wheels might require to much BS from tohem to void

go find a legit dealer thats not full of d-bags or your warrenty WILL be void and never ever go back to that one

 

Oh, really? You must be around 110 then. I also find it interesting that you could not "remember" any ET's the other day. The Lord gave us 2 ears and one mouth, and for a very good reason.