bully dog

[hapaschold]

hope i dont jinx meself,

bought a tripledog for the llm, only has one mode, tow-economy but what a improvement in pedal feel and tranny shifts.

fuel economy stayed the same, but i have been driving a bit more spirited !!

my powerpup for the lbz thats gone now is in the for sale section

[Kennedy]

One word of caution is that IF you have any powertrain related warranty issues GM will void your warranty due to the History records in the ECM showing that non std programming has been installed.

Also frequent regens may occur.

[christophersond]

Yep. So much for that warranty! Mr. Goodwrench loves ya. I've been told by the dealership that any alteration to the chasis/powertrain, such as a chip, air bags, lift kits, and so forth will void the power train warranty on my truck. They hastened to add that holds true even if installed by the dealership!!

[Kennedy]

There ARE ways around this, but you need to be smart/sensible about it.

[madmatt]

what are those?

[Mark Rinker]

Swap ECMs, entirely.

[madmatt]

So how do you get regens to match up then?? Say you take your stocker off with 10K on the clock. swap in the programmed ecm and run it for 25 thousand miles, have an issuse and need you warraty so you swap the stock one back on. Now you have a truck with 35K on it and only shows 25 regens??? Now what????? Not trying to argue but I know that'll throw up some red flags. Also the max torque value is stored in the TCM so if it reaches levels above the max factory spec, someones gonna figure out it's been tampered with.

[Kennedy]

Have you ever dug into the regen thing? I think you'll be surprised to see how vague it really is...

[madmatt]

No I haven't had too that's why I asked. The people I've had to call on mods made it pretty easy. Don't get me wrong though,, I didn't want to, GM put their foot down so I had to do as told. So whats so vauge about it? I just pay to play and make sure my customers know the posibility is there that they may have to as well. How do you get around the max torque value stored? I know how to get around that but most wouldn't nor would they even think to tinker with their tcm before going to the shop.
Also have you had any customers swap ecms and actually have a major failure that required extensive repairs under warranty? At a product development meeting at Dmax,,, they made it sound like their programming tattletale capabilities went way deeper then dealer level and only Field Engineers could access certain areas within the ecm designed at detecting aftermarket calibrations in the even of a major failure and an Engineer was sent in. Not sure if that was a scare tactic or something that is currently being implemented or being worked into the system.
GM has been pressing Fraud charges on customers trying to get present modded vehicles as stock to get warranty coverage as well. Wouldn't have believed it if it hadn't happened here but it did. That was a pretty extreme case though.

[Kennedy]

If there is a desire to deny warranty, it will happen plain and simple. Proof or no proof.

Here's how I see the general scenario:

Customer has a powertrain related hard part failure and takes to dealer.

Request for warranty approval is placed with GM.

GM requests a PHOTO of the Tech 2 screen showing: (Calibration and CVN for not LMM models and Programming History for LMM.

Generally speaking if this test is passed that is it.

Now there may be a request to look for regen history. Basically if 10 regens have occurred in the stock ECM this criteria is met.

If you really piss them off they'll keep digging, but I would not expect it to go beyond this point.

Using any programmer on the factory LMM ECU is essentially an immediate cause for warranty denial.

TQ is a calculation (read as made up number) that uses MAF and fueling etc. How many MAF related errors and programming/hardware updates have there been for the LMM regarding MAF related issues?


I'm not an advocate of helping stupid people get warranty for problems CAUSED by their mods. I prefer to add mods that have little to no risk of problems and allow them to be easily returned to stock.

My LBZ as it currently stands has an ECM program only and no other mods. It is my favorite truck (engine/trans pkg) to drive. I just wish It was configured like my 2005 (CC-Long 3500 SRW) which is my favroite truck (chassis etc) to drive...

[madmatt]

It all sounds good but I've not personally had a LMM in front of me that the ECMs had been swapped on to play with. The only Spare ECMs I've got are LB7s and LLYs so I've not got the ability to tune, swap check. IIRC doesn't the ecm also log "miles since last regen"? How would that match up? I am with you completely though on not selling parts/tunes more prone to cause damage. Unless of course max power is what they want and they understand the possible results.

[Kennedy]

I'd have a hard time counting how many ECM swaps I have done and can't recall hearing from any that have had issues and been denied warranty following my guidelines. This goes for LB7 thru LMM. I've had a few with warranty claims, but the ECM swap covered things. I've also fielded a lot of calls from guys running other mods who have had issues and been denied or flagged on warranty.

The regen thing is just as you stated. Miles driven since last regen BUT with no reference to actual miles.

[madmatt]

I didn't know if it'd put two and two together and show something like 32000 miles since last regen.

[gimpyhauler]

Remember, they have to prove that what you altered is the cause of the problem you are there to address. They don't a free pass on anything that goes on just because you installed bigger tires for instance.

[DmaxMaverick]

Remember, they have to prove that what you altered is the cause of the problem you are there to address. They don't a free pass on anything that goes on just because you installed bigger tires for instance.

Sounds and works well in theory. The practical application, however, is often a different story. They have more lawyers than we do. Change your radio knobs and they may deny a transmission warranty claim.