Improve MPG without voiding warranty?
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9,147 Posts
Drive slower.
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691 Posts
Resist any and all impulses to "lift" truck.
Use cetane boost regularly.
Always drive with a tailwind.
- Don
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193 Posts
Plan your routes so you always drive DOWNHILL!:lol:
Make sure your tires are filled properly..that's a freebie...
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175 Posts
There are things you can do to improve mileage, and as others have said, slowing down is the biggest one.
Driving 60-65 instead of 75-80 on the highway gained me a 20% savings in fuel economy.
Don't lift the truck, don't put retarded huge tires on it, and don't drive it hard. Those things will save you fuel as well.
I did the math, 10K miles worth, and never saw any measurable mileage increase from any additives. Although I'd suggest a bottle of injector cleaner about every oil change.
But if you do a majority of city driving, you can give up on it now.
That said, I have deleted the emissions stuff, and tuned my truck, and my dealer is still happy to do warranty work. Depending on the work involved, they don't even require me to turn it back to stock about half of the time.
They replaced my upper radiator hose and O rings yesterday, all under warranty, I left my DPF and DOC at home, and they never plugged into the computer, so I kept my Superchips flash on the truck the whole time.
My suggestion is to find a mod friendly dealer.
My truck is now the truck I thought I was buying in 2008.
Driving 60-65 instead of 75-80 on the highway gained me a 20% savings in fuel economy.
Don't lift the truck, don't put retarded huge tires on it, and don't drive it hard. Those things will save you fuel as well.
I did the math, 10K miles worth, and never saw any measurable mileage increase from any additives. Although I'd suggest a bottle of injector cleaner about every oil change.
But if you do a majority of city driving, you can give up on it now.
That said, I have deleted the emissions stuff, and tuned my truck, and my dealer is still happy to do warranty work. Depending on the work involved, they don't even require me to turn it back to stock about half of the time.
They replaced my upper radiator hose and O rings yesterday, all under warranty, I left my DPF and DOC at home, and they never plugged into the computer, so I kept my Superchips flash on the truck the whole time.
My suggestion is to find a mod friendly dealer.
My truck is now the truck I thought I was buying in 2008.
Joined
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691 Posts
Everyone at my local dealer (from whom I bought the truck) is afraid of Ford and, when I asked they warned me against any DPF/tuner/etc mods to avoid completely losing warranty coverage.
I'm in east central Idaho and the next Ford dealer of any kind is several hours away, driving over one of our 7000' summits. Wish I knew of one in southern ID (and/or southern NV) that was "friendly". If I did, I'd follow your lead on the delete etc.
- Don
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7 Posts
This is what Spartan has to say about there tuner.
Will your tuner void my dealer warranty?
Answer
Will your tuner void my dealer warranty?
Answer
Possibly, but not likely.
Lots of rumors surround the current situation as to if aftermarket tuning devices are detectable
in the new 6.4L Powerstroke Diesels. For most devices on the market, the answer to that
question is YES. Ford Motor Company has special algorithms in place within the factory
computers to detectthe download of a program from a non-Ford programming device; which
triggers the diagnostic troublecode "P167F", defined as "Non-OEM programming detected."
This code is only viewable with Ford dealer or Ford Engineering diagnostic equipment, and will
not be read or cleared by any other tuning device or diagnostic code reader on the market.
This code is also stored in multiple computer modules scattered about the vehicle, meaning
that "clearing" or resetting the engine controller alone will not force the code to go away.
Other in-line devices (tuning devices that plug into the engine harness connections rather
than being downloaded as a programmer) claim to be undetectable since there is no actual
download of a program through the computer system. However, this is not true, as the
factory computer(s) collect and store information from the engine in the form of
"freeze frames". These freeze-frame data collections WILL show evidence of the use of any
in-line tuning device even after the product is removed from the trucks. And unlike
previous model trucks upon which the computer can be "cleared" by the practice of
removing/unhooking the battery cables, all information on the 6.4L vehicles is stored in
"non-volatile" memory, meaning the information is stored permanently until overwritten.
A traditional "reset" cannot be performed, meaning the evidence of use of a in-line device
will be shown to any Ford dealer or Ford engineer for a very, very long time.
Our tuning devices use a proprietary process when saving the stock tune and downloading
our custom tuning to "emulate" the presence of a Ford factoryprogramming device. In
doing so, the presence of the "P167F" diagnostic code is prevented. Likewise, when a
vehicle is returned back to stock using our device, multiple computer modules are internally
reset to prevent and delete other tell-tale evidence of aftermarket tuning. This gives our
Spartan Phalanx programming device the highest level of undetectablilty available on the
market, helping to preserve your factory warranty and preventing warranty denial by Ford.
As Ford truck owners ourselves, our crew members share the concern about preserving
factory warranty and understand the stress involved when choosing an aftermarket device
in this respect. This is why we take every measure to protect our customers' confidentiality
and spend tremendous development effort to do so.
Lots of rumors surround the current situation as to if aftermarket tuning devices are detectable
in the new 6.4L Powerstroke Diesels. For most devices on the market, the answer to that
question is YES. Ford Motor Company has special algorithms in place within the factory
computers to detectthe download of a program from a non-Ford programming device; which
triggers the diagnostic troublecode "P167F", defined as "Non-OEM programming detected."
This code is only viewable with Ford dealer or Ford Engineering diagnostic equipment, and will
not be read or cleared by any other tuning device or diagnostic code reader on the market.
This code is also stored in multiple computer modules scattered about the vehicle, meaning
that "clearing" or resetting the engine controller alone will not force the code to go away.
Other in-line devices (tuning devices that plug into the engine harness connections rather
than being downloaded as a programmer) claim to be undetectable since there is no actual
download of a program through the computer system. However, this is not true, as the
factory computer(s) collect and store information from the engine in the form of
"freeze frames". These freeze-frame data collections WILL show evidence of the use of any
in-line tuning device even after the product is removed from the trucks. And unlike
previous model trucks upon which the computer can be "cleared" by the practice of
removing/unhooking the battery cables, all information on the 6.4L vehicles is stored in
"non-volatile" memory, meaning the information is stored permanently until overwritten.
A traditional "reset" cannot be performed, meaning the evidence of use of a in-line device
will be shown to any Ford dealer or Ford engineer for a very, very long time.
Our tuning devices use a proprietary process when saving the stock tune and downloading
our custom tuning to "emulate" the presence of a Ford factoryprogramming device. In
doing so, the presence of the "P167F" diagnostic code is prevented. Likewise, when a
vehicle is returned back to stock using our device, multiple computer modules are internally
reset to prevent and delete other tell-tale evidence of aftermarket tuning. This gives our
Spartan Phalanx programming device the highest level of undetectablilty available on the
market, helping to preserve your factory warranty and preventing warranty denial by Ford.
As Ford truck owners ourselves, our crew members share the concern about preserving
factory warranty and understand the stress involved when choosing an aftermarket device
in this respect. This is why we take every measure to protect our customers' confidentiality
and spend tremendous development effort to do so.
Joined
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691 Posts
Interesting, thanks. The magic words "proprietary" and "emulate" give it a real solid feel. I wonder if any 6.4L owner has actually been caught after-the-fact from using one of these tuners (assuming tuner removed from vehicle prior to warranty claim). Does the tuner mfgr actually guarantee that its not detectable and hold you harmless from claim denial due to tuner use?
Thanks,
- Don
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