Important SuperChips question:

[BillyGman]

SuperChips Tuner Question:

ultravorx will be meeting up w/me today, and he's been nice enough to agree to use his SuperChips tuner that he bought for his Marauder, to hook-up to the diagnostic port of my Marauder, only to see if there's a code that needs to be cleared which can be causing the battery light on the dash to remain on. Here's my question:

I presently have a chip plugged into the computer of my car that was burned by Lidio for my Supercharger set-up. Do I need to remove that chip from the computer before hooking the SCT into the diagnostic port? Or can the chip remain plugged into the computer while we look for codes to be cleared using the SCT???

[Murader03]

SuperChips Tuner Question:

I presently have a chip plugged into the computer of my car that was burned by Lidio for my Supercharger set-up. Do I need to remove that chip from the computer before hooking the SCT into the diagnostic port? Or can the chip remain plugged into the computer while we look for codes to be cleared using the SCT???


I would say "No." All your doing is reading the diagnostic code. This should not have anything to do with the chip. If you want to be safe, then pull the chip before you read the code. At best, the tuner may not comunicate with the ECC while the chip is plugged in, but then no harm, no foul.....

[martyo]

On the other hand, pulling the chip is easy and couldn't hurt.

[GarageMahal]

On the other hand, pulling the chip is easy and couldn't hurt.
But don't you need to disconnect the battery to pull the chip, there by clearing any codes?

jta

[MikesMerc]

Nope. Just remove the chip when the car is not running. Disconnecting the battery will wipe out any codes, so don't do that.

That said, there is no need to remove the chip to access codes from the service port.

[sailsmen]

When you pull the chip and reinstall it make sure the key is NOT in the ignition.

[BillyGman]

Thanks people.......I'm all set now.

[Zack]

The tuner is VIN locked to a specific vehicle.
It wont even work on your car Billy.

[cyclone03]

The tuner is VIN locked to a specific vehicle.
It wont even work on your car Billy.


It will read trouble codes,only,on all EECV Fords won't it?
Thats what the SCT guys told me last Sunday in Houston.

I know you cant move programming around.

[BillyGman]

Right. It will read codes, and can also be used to clear those codes. Frank (aka "Ultravorx") used his to check if my car had thrown a code, but just as Lidio told me, there wasn't any codes since it isn't the computer that has anything to do w/the battery light going on. I was kinda hoping it did since that would've been easy.

However, here's a new twist to this story, but one that was mentioned by Carfixer to me in a PM......I just looked at my Ford shop manual again, and noticed something that I hadn't previously seen. And I quote..."The generator (meaning alternator ofcourse) has an internal voltage regulator (I knew that part) that is NOT repaired seperately. A new generator and voltage regulator MUST be installed as an assembly." Now this relates to what Carfixer was telling me about how Ford doesn't even sell sperate voltage regulators nor individual alternator components, and that it isn't favorable to replace the voltage regulator by itself on the newer Ford alternators. I've never heard of this before, nor do I understand it. But because I've ruled everything else out that I can think of (including a bad grounding strap connection, bad alternator wiring, alternator fuseable link gone, bad battery, thrown computer code) that has to be the problem which is causing the battery light to remain on despite the fact that I had the alternator tested, had the voltage regulator replaced, and that it is charging just fine. So I have to either live w/the battery light being on all the time, or simply buy an entire new alternator(I guess I can also get a used one from Ford too).