I have to say I am pretty interested in one of the tunes for my 11' Auto GT after reading some of the posts and the positive results for a relatively small amount of money. My question for the guys that have already done this, are you worried about voiding your warranty, or can the stock tune be replaced when it comes time to take it in for service?

 

Takes about 5 minutes to put the tune back to stock.

Now, if you have combined the tune with other mods then you might have to take those mods back off before returning the tune to stock.

 

I drove my v6 after I sold the supercharger for a week with no tune and the 4.10 gears still in, thought I was going...

 

If you buy a tuner such as SCT, it downloads the stock tune before it uploads the new tune, and then you can restore the stock tune any time you want -- that's what ltgndrvr is referring to.

If you take the car to someone to do the tune for you, then of course you'll have to take it back to them to return it to stock . . . and better make sure they save that stock tune for you.

I have heard different things about warranty hassles with a tune; I guess it depends on the dealer, the nature of the warranty issue, and your relationship with the dealer.

I have "mystery tune" in my car right now and it does make me a little nervous . . . the previous owner installed the Roush CAI (which does not require a tune) but apparently the shop did a tune also . . . the dealer I bought the car from has been unwilling to put me in touch with the previous owner (long story, not good) . . . the car is running great so I don't really want to mess with it, but I might have a dealer flash it back to stock just to be safe.

 

I've heard Ford is getting pretty smart about detecting past tunes. I guess its use at your own risk.

 

Most tunes are loaded using a hand held flash device, (SCT X3, Diablosport Predator), and you buy that with the tune from the tuner and it will have the stock tune saved in it. So, somewhere there should be a flash device with your original tune downloaded onto it. If it wasn't passed along with the car at the time of sale then I wouldn't have bought the car...

 

yah, it's a long story . . . I didn't find out that it had a tune until I had already bought it . . . even then the dealer still swore that it did not . . . no way to find out where that tuner is . . . which still pisses me off, come to think of it I think I'll give them another call right now . . .

 

personally, i dont understand why everyone wants to throw a tune on a car so early. let the motor breathe on its own, break in for a few thousand miles, minimum 5k, the computer has set its own parameters on the engine.. then dyno, then tune to see what kind of increases are there, then throw parts at it. at that point everything is loosened up pretty well.

just my .02

 

I do agree Rick but i think the main advantage of a tune for and auto is more to do with the shift points and the throttle response more than the hp gain.