MK8 1.0 Ecoboost 125 Bluefin and warranty

[Spuff]

I appologise if this has already been asked but I recently took delivery of a MK8 1.0 Ecoboost 125 Titanium.  I was going to get the ST-Line 140 but I preferred the Titanium trim (which doesn't have the 140 option ... and was £1000 cheaper!) and had the idea of just buying Bluefin to boost the underwhelming performance because it is reversible if I need to take it back to the main dealer.  Having today spoken to a senior BMW engineer, I'm having doubts about it because of remapping/Bluefin being detectable, although the scenario he described was a Motability car that had been modified and remapped for track use by the user and blew up 2 weeks before the warranty expired (tragic, but hilarious!).  With him being the person who analyses ECUs for BMW manufacturer warranty purposes, he has advised me not to do Bluefin on my Fiesta.  He did also mention that the ECU on the BMW he mentioned had been physically tampered with.  But for only a stage 1 Bluefin on a Fiesta, is it actually that detectable for the majority of warranty issues?  I'm not planning any other mods, just the Bluefin to get a few more horses!

Thanks

[Luke4efc]

Yes. Any alterations can be detected, it's not quite a case of minor remaps don't count. After all, the remap puts extra wear on the engine the standard map wouldn't do. In some cases this has caused the engine to blow up, so yes Ford will do whatever they can to detect any alterations.

I doubt Ford would care too much if it was remapped if you had to go back for a faulty headlight or power steering etc. They would show you the door to any warranty claims on the engine/gearbox though.

Having said that mountune (I'm not sure if there are any others) do some warranty friendly remaps, but if you're that worried about your warranty then car modding is not for you.

[Spuff]

What I'm lead to believe is that the Bluefin handset reverts the ECU back to the factory map if you wish, as it saves it.  A Google search suggests that it can be undetectable for most part unless Ford wish to dig deeper.

I got my 'modding bug' out of my system with my old Mondeo 2.2 TDCI (remapped, decat, straight piped, lowered, etc etc etc).  I'm just hoping to squeeze a little more out of the Fiesta.  Having test-driven a Fiesta Active 140 (eugh) before buying mine, there's definitely a noticeable difference in performace!

[alexp999]

It will be detectable if they want to look for it being mapped. Afaik the PCM logs how many times it been written to, so if the number of writes don't match what's on Ford's database, they'll know it's been altered by a 3rd party.

Obviously an engine map won't affect the warranty on any non transmission components, but if something expensive like the engine or gearbox goes, they could well investigate further and deny any warranty claim for them.

The main issue people had with bluefin on the mk7 was with the synchros on the gearbox. The old 5 speed was a 20+ year old design never intended for modern turbo engines and their torque. Ford were already pushing its stated limits from the factory and so place torque limiters on the low gears. 3rd party tuners usually remove or considerably increased these limits which is what can make it feel significantly quicker.

The mk8 has a new 6 speed box, which is rated higher than the old 5 speed, but it still has limits.

One thing to consider too, the 140 engine has traditionally been paired to a shorter final drive ratio which makes acceleration a bit quicker. So even if you map to 140 it's still not quite the same as the 140 factory version.

[Eric Bloodaxe]

17 hours ago, Luke4efc said:

Having said that mountune (I'm not sure if there are any others) do some warranty friendly remaps, but if you're that worried about your warranty then car modding is not for you.

Yes, the Mountune website does confirm that their MP 140 upgrade for the Mk 8 does not affect the base vehicle warranty. This would seem the best option as there would be no worries about reversing it when you took the car for service.

[Spuff]

2 hours ago, Eric Bloodaxe said:

Yes, the Mountune website does confirm that their MP 140 upgrade for the Mk 8 does not affect the base vehicle warranty. This would seem the best option as there would be no worries about reversing it when you took the car for service.

Yes, just found that one and it looks interesting and love the idea of it being warranty friendly!  However, is it only available from their base in Essex?  It's a tad of a trek to get there from Lancashire.

[Ryan_Tango]

6 minutes ago, Spuff said:

Yes, just found that one and it looks interesting and love the idea of it being warranty friendly!  However, is it only available from their base in Essex?  It's a tad of a trek to get there from Lancashire.

Imagine the drive back! 

[Stoney871]

If you had booked your car onto the club stand at Ford Fair you could have got it tweaked by Mountune there, they always have a stand there.

Sent from my SM-G965F (S9+)

[Eric Bloodaxe]

On 7/9/2018 at 6:25 PM, Spuff said:

Yes, just found that one and it looks interesting and love the idea of it being warranty friendly!  However, is it only available from their base in Essex?  It's a tad of a trek to get there from Lancashire.

Wondered about that myself, so have checked with Mountune who say local Mountune authorised Ford dealers could carry out this mod (dealer list on their website).

[Nick Y]

Eric, have you got a list of approved/authorised Mountune Ford dealers in Yorkshire?
I tried looking on their website but it's not clear which ones can actually do the mods for you (I'm assuming that the dealers will charge a lot for the installation though). 

[Eric Bloodaxe]

Sorry Nick, only got the website to go off. Suggest checking with Mountune direct to see if your preferred dealer is authorised for this.

 

 

 

 

[Spuff]

Just as an update on this, I'll be traveling to Mountune HQ tomorrow to have the MP140 upgrade installed, as they won't transfer to other dealers and dealers have to buy from them at retail price and charge fitting. The current £50 cashback offer pays for my fuel at least!

I'll let you know how it goes ...