oshkoshbajawsh

1/1000

tomsa55

I took my 06 mustang to the dealer to have the latest firmware update to the pcm. (powertrain control modual), There was not a driveablilty issue, but one with the correct operation of a 06 Ford Nav Radio, anyway... I paid $46 dollars labor and left. At home I attached my sct-2 tuner to the car, doubled checked the calibration code sticker on the pcm, no change there. But the oem stratagy was different. I went ahead and uploaded a custom 89 octane tune. Car would not start, so I returned to oem tune, car would not start. I called my sct-2 vender, talked to him on phone, tried it again, car would not start. Used the ford roadside assistance to have my car towed back to the dealer. That afternoon the dealer tech called me, asked me what had happend, I told him what I did, and that he would probably have to erase and reprogram my pcm. The tech called me back about an hour later, told me the diag computer said it was a corrupted file in the pcm, this caused the pcm to fail on post (power on self test) and thats why my car would not start, he erased and reprogramed with my build data the pcm, then updated with latest update from ford. This cost me about $200 in labor. I sent the sct-2 back to the vendor, and he has reset it, reloaded my tunes, and has sent it back. Apprently ford does not require the tech to update the calibration code sticker when ever they do an pcm update. Normally this does not change the calibration code so your tuner will continue to work on your vehicle. But even if you have first returned your vehicle to the oem tune prior to taking to ford for service or a pcm update, if the pcm update is a significant one, the calibration code will change. Fords maintance system tracks this, and when they attach their computer to your car, it logs the vehicle vin and the pcm's calibration code and "stratagy code". The sct-2 tuner along with the other hand held tuners does not, the tuner is locked to your vin and calibration code the first time you use it, so even if you return your vehicle to oem the tuner is still locked to you vin.

The vendor for my sct-2 tuner called me and explained that this is a possibilty when ever ford does a pcm update. If you have not returned your pcm to oem tune and ford reprograms it, your tuner is locked out from updating your pcm again, you will have to send back to SCT with a letter explaining what happend and they will unlock it for a small fee.

I didn't think this would become such a problem, for I had tuned and retuned my pcm with the sct-2 a dozen times or more and never had a problem. I asked ford to put a note in their service records on my mustang, tracked by vin, that tells this vehicle has a custom tune from a SCT-2 tuner and to not do any pcm updates with out calling the owner first. I also am going to talk to the service manager about getting credit for the $200, as this was preventable if they had marked my repair ticked with the new pcm calibration code, along with putting a new sticker on the pcm, or at least using a perm marker to mark out the old one with a updated one. I was told that if the pcm update from ford is minor, then the calibration code is still good, but if its a major update, and thats what I got, then the calibration code changes.

The reason for the update, to get the pcm to send a pulsed speed signal on startup, the 06's do not do this, but the 07's + do. This is important to get the ford navigation radio to function correctly with out sending a dtc error. The update did not do this, so when I start my car, turn on the nav radio, I get an error msg saying to contact the dealer. The nav system works just fine, for as I start driving the speed signal is sent to the nav radio over the can-bus. For some reason Pioneer and Ford decided that the nav radio needed this signal on startup...go figure :?

Good luck with your tunes,