Unlocking Your Box After a Reflash (Very Important)

[Dave]

Hey Viv glad to see you back Hopefully see you at TS again

[zgerm01]

Originally Posted by !!!PainTrain!!!

no she means unlocking your xcal through the live load software. there is a bottun that gives you the option of unlocking the xcal. from what I understand, what that does is allows you to upload tunes for your truck when it gets reflashed with a different strategy from ford. if you don't your new tunes will be running off your old pcm strategy.

atleast this is how I think it is. I could be wrong though.

I just got through with my SCT dealer charging me $100 for clearing/reprogramming my xcal2. He said that the only other way was to send it to SCT and they would charge me $175. Not sure how accurate that was, but I paid the money because he spent about 4 hours just trying to deal with it. My truck was reflashed by Ford a few months ago which I assume gave me a new strategy. After that the tunes still worked but it didn't want to cold start on a tune. I'm trying to dig up a little knowledge on this subect matter and I think I may have been able to accomplish the same thing by unlocking my xcal2 myself. Any body else have advice with this??

[MOMBENZ]

Hi Guys,

It is really nice to say "hello". Things have been pretty quiet. Not necessarily a bad thing

I'm going to explain what my original post was all about. Back when SCT introduce the Livewire, (before the X3), they changed a portion of the software for the Xcal2 so that both the Xcal2 and Livewire could use the same tunes/files. This created a problem where if you got a reflash and loaded a tune onto the box, before unlocking the box, when you returned to stock you would go back to your original stock file and lose the reflash.

If you have an Xcal2 and get reflashed, in order to avoid losing the reflash, you must go into the Liveload software, with your Xcal2 connected and click the Unlock button.

zgerm01, it seems what happened to you is you were installing an SCT that the person who had it before you did not take it the vehicle back to stock. Since the SCT's marry the vin and your computer, in your truck, you would not be able to load a file unless SCT or a trained representative unlocks it for you. For that, $100 is not a bad price at all.

Thanks,
Vivian

It is not needed for the X3 or Livewire as they unlock themselves.

[zgerm01]

I did buy my xcal2 brand new from the box for my truck. What I'm really wondering is, would my problem have been solved by me "unlocking" my own tuner. MY SCT dealer said he did something that I don't have the ability to do...and told me it would've costed more with SCT. He told me he had to clear/reprogram it, thus giving me essentially a new xcal2 with fresh programs. Its just a little frustrating because I am a mechanic myself (a helicopter mechanic)...therefore I know or can catch on very quickly to whats going on. I'm always skeptical with trusting somebody else not mechanically nessecarily, but ethically as to the why's.

[nsrchofpwr]

subscribed

[MOMBENZ]

Hi,

Had you used the programmer? Did you try to put it on another vehicle? Did you have any problems downloading a file or a file getting stuck?

If the programmer had never been used you would not have to pay or have it unlocked. What I have seen in some cases is that the customer gets the reflash, downloads an old file but for some reason it doesn't agree with the truck and the stock files gets corrupted. You would then need to download a new stock file and that would lock the SCT. That would be a reason why you would need to unlock it and yes, in that case, if you had unlocked it in the software, previously, you would have avoided the problem.

Thanks,
Vivian

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Last edited by MOMBENZ : 12-08-2008 at 11:20 AM.

[zgerm01]

Makes sense. No, I haven't used on any other vehicles. The only thing that has happened out of the ordinary since I've owned the chip is its been reflashed by Ford...but it was returned to stock before they did this. Additionally, I had a mojor problem trying to do a cold start with it firing up. Tomorrow morning i'll see if the cold start is still there...if it is, as far as i'm concerned I wasted $100 on doing something I could've done myself.

[03f350strokin]

UH OH! Dangit!! So I was reflashed the other day and since loaded tunes on truck without unlocking XCAL2 device. So now what will happen when I try to go back stock?

Can I load different tunes on XCAL2 without returning to stock? Because I don't see myself going back stock.