Hi, I've recently got another focus after having a cmax for a couple of years. I want to use Bluefin on it but don't know what the deal is with warranty on the car if I install it as its only 6 months old? I know I can uninstall at service time etc. Anyone have any experience with this? Also has anyone used Bluefin on their 1.5 TDCI engine?

Many thanks

 

I have the bluefin on my 1.5TDCi. It adds a lot of torque rather than horse power but it is quite nice. You loose your Ford warranty if they find out its remapped. 

Ok cool. How old was your car when you had it done? I wonder if it shows up on there computers even if it’s uninatalled. 

22 minutes ago, Randallsfocus said:

Ok cool. How old was your car when you had it done? I wonder if it shows up on there computers even if it’s uninatalled. 

 

It was about 2 years old, it did have an issue with the first map which bluefin fixed, my car helped develop that :)

 

 

Blue fin remaps the actual chip and that remapping is recorded. The focus sneakily records every time a map is uploaded

Blue fin remaps the actual chip and that remapping is recorded. The focus sneakily records every time a map is uploaded

How's does that record a map change?

There is a parameter on the BCU that increases its count each time the BCU is written to, cant be written to directly to reduce the count, so Ford can see that you have played with the settings

What about this option...? I'm sold just by the way it looks! and

If you want a chip, I can recommend the Spider Arachnid, I've had one on my 1.6tdci for the last 30K miles. Its adjustable, will not take your parameters out of the ford range and has a good reputation. I get great MPG and a ton of extra torque and power, very noticeable. Its also not a fixed map and adjust to your car and driving style

S

2 hours ago, madmole said:

There is a parameter on the BCU that increases its count each time the BCU is written to, cant be written to directly to reduce the count, so Ford can see that you have played with the settings

Whilst possible, its doubtful they would know what kinda of change was made. be interesting to read the paper with technical details of how they do that.  Typically the whole ROM is overwriten which would trash any counters.  But if they really wanted to its perfectly possible to record the info to a separate secure area that isn't changed. They could even go to extreme lengths and add fuses an all sorts but if folk really want to do it, theres always a way. BDM.

They dont, but if the count has gone up since the last time they serviced the car, Poof goes the warranty on absolutely anything associated with the can bus (ie everything, other than the wheels!)

33 minutes ago, madmole said:

They dont, but if the count has gone up since the last time they serviced the car, Poof goes the warranty on absolutely anything associated with the can bus (ie everything, other than the wheels!)

And it's not like Ford need any encouragement to weedle out of fixing something under warranty i.e. for free!

I just cant see that as being true, if there's anything that's printed that agrees with that then id hold my hands up but warranty is upheld if taken to ANY garage these days, it doesn't need to be ford, so what if another non ford garage does something to the car? perhaps applies an update, perhaps they applied the update a couple of times because it didn't work correctly or they were attempting some diagnostics and change some of the settings, what if there was damage to the BCM that wouldn't be covered by warranty and it needed replaced / repaired, does that void the warranty of the whole canbus system?

I can think of dozens of ways in which the BCM could be amended, which may or may not trigger a "count" don't get me wrong, I'm sure they will try and get out of any warranty wherever they can but firstly, I havnt seen any evidence that they do have a means of checking, and secondly, uphold it.

Id love to read the info on this count, if you can point me to a link it would be really interesting.

I know you like the mod chips, but if ford are going to go to the lengths of clamping down of remaps through complicated and expensive protection means, I'm also fairly sure they would simply log the data that your chip is erroneously injecting in to the system. that a 5 min job which doesn't require any new hardware or proprietary protection methods

 

1 hour ago, Dee_82 said:

I just cant see that as being true, if there's anything that's printed that agrees with that then id hold my hands up but warranty is upheld if taken to ANY garage these days, it doesn't need to be ford, so what if another non ford garage does something to the car? perhaps applies an update, perhaps they applied the update a couple of times because it didn't work correctly or they were attempting some diagnostics and change some of the settings, what if there was damage to the BCM that wouldn't be covered by warranty and it needed replaced / repaired, does that void the warranty of the whole canbus system?

I can think of dozens of ways in which the BCM could be amended, which may or may not trigger a "count" don't get me wrong, I'm sure they will try and get out of any warranty wherever they can but firstly, I havnt seen any evidence that they do have a means of checking, and secondly, uphold it.

Id love to read the info on this count, if you can point me to a link it would be really interesting.

I know you like the mod chips, but if ford are going to go to the lengths of clamping down of remaps through complicated and expensive protection means, I'm also fairly sure they would simply log the data that your chip is erroneously injecting in to the system. that a 5 min job which doesn't require any new hardware or proprietary protection methods

 

I'd also be very interested in finding out more about this:

• Do Ford actively monitor the "written to" counter?
• What specifically triggers the counter to increment?
• Any cases where Ford have used the above to decline warranty work or even just mentioned to the customer that they have noticed additional writes to the BCM?

 

Now i'm proper confused. Do I? Don't I?  I like the Bluefin/Superchip chip, had it on my previous Focus but was over 3 years old. Has anyone had it put on from new? and was it picked up on?

if there is any evidence to suggest you might lose your warranty with a Bluefin removable map, then it might be worth not doing that, however, ive not seen any evidence that is the case and none has been provided sooo, its your call. IMHO, adding a chip is the least desirable way of getting a performance increase. fooling the cars ECU, an ECU that spends a considerable amount of its processing making sure everything ticks along nicely, seems like a bad idea. but, in saying that, IF there is some truth in the claim that ford can somehow detect a remap and subsequent reversion back to stock then it might be a safer option, at least whilst its within warranty 

I thought the Bluefin warranty covered anything it damaged and would therefore not be covered by the Ford warranty?