Hello all. First, thank you to those who have responded to my recent inquiries. While I am not a knowledgeable mustang/ mechanic forumite, I am familiar due to other hobbies with forum courtesy. I have searched and am trying to learn but I admit, i just cant grasp this which is why I ask for help.

I am purchasing a 2007 V6 mustang for my son. It has a volant closed airbox with SCT logo attached and has some other aftermarket mods. The used car dealer has attempted to reset the computer so they can get the car ready for inspection after they replaced the exhaust system but are not having much luck. They have put about 200 miles on it and it still has not reset.

I learned here that the smart junction box may need to be reset at the dealer and advised them of that. Volant no longer makes a closed box or support my car and has no info for me as they were purchased by another company. I contacted SCT and they advised having the ECM reset at the dealer.

Also i have learned that many brands of aftermarket intakes require a tuning after being installed. SOOOOO what do I do?

If I have the car brought to Ford to have the sjb/ecm reflashed will I then need to have it tuned to get it to pass inspection? Assuming that it needs tuning due to the intake? That woulkd then require yet a specialist mechanic or a significant purchase for a tuner.

Normally, I would negotiate with the dealer to take x off the price and let me deal with it but they have already spent quite a bit of time and are not having success so I am hesitant to do so. Im just a dude with internet access. YOu would think they could figure this stuff out too?

Other than this, the car seems to be perfect for my needs. I am willing to spend but I dont have the knowledge when it comes to this type of issue.

I kindly ask for advice, suggestions, etc.

 

I wouldn't expect a used car lot to have any idea how to handle a car with an aftermarket tune and parts.

Get a stock intake and have it set back to stock. The used car lot won't be able to set it to stock though. However, what other modifications have been done? Those may need to be addressed if you want the car to pass inspection as well.

 

The only visible modifications I can see are the Volant closed box air intake and it has an SCT logo applied. That is why I am assuming it has been tuned. Local Ford dealer wants to charge me 145 just to diagnose, which I dont mind paying, but i am not sure how the used car dealer will feel about that. The Ford service guy was noncommittal about rebooting the computer and and wouldnt say anything one way or another. I understand that. Local junkyards have the stock airbox and duct for under 100 before mass air sensor and whatever else is needed if I weant to return to stock.I do not know if there is an aftermarket throttle body and how all of this would work together.

There is a mustang specialist I can bring the car to who can diagnose at an un yet determined cost. They are experienced with tuning etc. I have a bit of cash available over the cost of the car but I really dont want to get into a situation of paying 2K to get the car to reset to pass inspection.

First world problems. Other than this ( yikes) the car fits the bill.

 

An ECU reset as you call is downloading the stock factory tune to the car. If/when the tuning device that was used to upload an aftermarket or custom tune is not available to reinstall the stock factory tune, you have no choice but the dealer to reset it.

By resetting your car back to the stock factory tune you run the risk of a few things - Hidden mods that require a tune not working correctly or causing problems with the car, visible mods causing the same thing. It's unlikely a V6 has much more than the modified air intake but that is just a guess.

Go buy a factory intake and have the dealer reset the tune (flash the ECU) back to stock factory.

They can't/won't guarantee that a reset will fix it because of the risks mentioned above. Even a specialty shop may have a hard time saying if there are any internal mods unless they know what to look for in current tune or they know the car.

 

Thank you for the advice. That is the direction I am leaning to.

 

The used car dealer ended up removing the tuned airbox and throttle body extension and put on a junk yard factory box with new MAF sensors. Added a K&N airfilter and its good to go. Since the car is for my son and it needs to be hassle free i am not going to play around with tunes etc. until I have a lot mre knowledge of the situation. I was able to retrieve the old parts and they are hanging in the garage waiting for the future.

 

Glad you got it figured out and posted the solution to close the thread!