Considering a tune for the Tahoe, but...

[bigT63]

Anyone have experience with dealership issues after they tune their vehicle? Really looking into Black Bear, but nervous about warranty issues. A buddy has a Denali w/ 6.2 and he had to have the long block rebuilt because the AFM failed while driving. I believe a tune would help since you can program the AFM out.... I'm just worried about drivetrain issues down the road and not being covered when i could have been just because of a simple tune. I have been told a dealer cannot deny you of warranty work unless they can prove the tuner is what caused the issue. Any experience in this would be awesome. Thanks.

 

[HiHoeSilver]

Anyone have experience with dealership issues after they tune their vehicle? Really looking into Black Bear, but nervous about warranty issues. A buddy has a Denali w/ 6.2 and he had to have the long block rebuilt because the AFM failed while driving. I believe a tune would help since you can program the AFM out.... I'm just worried about drivetrain issues down the road and not being covered when i could have been just because of a simple tune. I have been told a dealer cannot deny you of warranty work unless they can prove the tuner is what caused the issue. Any experience in this would be awesome. Thanks.

If it's something you're really worried about, get the Autocal from black bear. You can always flash it back to stock to take it in.

 

[bigT63]

My ride is a 2016 Tahoe, 5.3.. I failed to mention that.

 

[bigT63]

If it's something you're really worried about, get the Autocal from black bear. You can always flash it back to stock to take it in.

Correct, but it still leaves a fingerprint on the ECM. Still detectable when it's not there. Like ******.

 

[Brian Wilson]

Not sure about ******, I hear bleach will cure that, but a tune is a great thing and blackbear lifetime tunes are a better than life thing. But an AFM failure has nothing to do with the tune and a tune is not in any way preventive maintenance as far as AFM failures go. They are, as far as I know and can figure, always a mechanical failure. No tune will ever be able to make AFM lifters as good as the general ls (7) style hydrolic roller lifter. A real AFM delete is the only cure for that. But a tune will make a huge difference in every performance oriented way. A car without a tune is like putting a 250 cfm 2 barrel carb on your 1000ci giant block v8. You won't make much power. Or putting a 2500cfm carb on your stock smogged down 100ci v8. Still, no power. A great tune will give you the most power at every rpm under any conditiin. And in modern cars, will help your transmission perform faster, strong, and last longer.

 

[bigT63]

Not sure about ******, I hear bleach will cure that, but a tune is a great thing and blackbear lifetime tunes are a better than life thing. But an AFM failure has nothing to do with the tune and a tune is not in any way preventive maintenance as far as AFM failures go. They are, as far as I know and can figure, always a mechanical failure. No tune will ever be able to make AFM lifters as good as the general ls (7) style hydrolic roller lifter. A real AFM delete is the only cure for that. But a tune will make a huge difference in every performance oriented way. A car without a tune is like putting a 250 cfm 2 barrel carb on your 1000ci giant block v8. You won't make much power. Or putting a 2500cfm carb on your stock smogged down 100ci v8. Still, no power. A great tune will give you the most power at every rpm under any conditiin. And in modern cars, will help your transmission perform faster, strong, and last longer.

I understand all of that. My purpose is to hopefully prevent issues AFM can cause (if it causes anything). I know it's a mechanical failure when it happens, but if it's tuned out to not perform as designed, I would think you would mitigate issues. That might not be true, but that is my method behind my madness and trying to clean up the slushy transmission feel. Not looking for serious performance jump.

My ultimate concern with any part of this, is any hell I will recieve from the dealer if I ever need warranty work done. That's my point in question. Will a dealer try to deny work if there has ever been a tuner present?

 

[RThomasII]

Not an answer to your direct question but when I took my Tahoe in for its 1st service I asked my service manager straight up about performance related mods. His answer to me was (and this is a direct quote) "You can put any CAI and Catback system that you want as long as the parts are emissions legal and we will not deny a warranty repair but if you put on a aftermarket tune your powertrain warranty is voided and we won't help". He went on to say that the dealership gets that people like to tinker with their cars and trucks. It's when you start messing with the internals that they have to draw the line.

 

[Brian Wilson]

I have never had a car new enough to get warranty work done. So I am clueless on that. But I do know for a fact a new tune will not cure an awful AFM lifter design. The lifters are mechanically flawed, you can't fix them electronically.

 

[Glocksub]

Answering your question is somewhat dependent on the dealership and their attitude towards tuners/programmers. My Chevy dealer sells programmers and speedo recalibrators in their parts department, and although I've never had warranty work denied (nor any major mechanical failures), clearly they are setting themselves up on shaky ground to totally deny a customer's issues that may or may not be related to a programmer or tune.

I've read where some say that certain brands of tunes or programmers are not detectable by the dealer if the truck is returned to stock settings, while others dispute that claim. I've always operated under the assumption that they can tell if they dig deep enough, and do return mine to stock before it goes in to the dealer for any reason.

I haven't bought a 2017 Tahoe or suburban yet, but will in the coming months and will most certainly disable AFM, correct the speedo for larger tires and likely try to improve transmission shifting a bit. There are tunes like blackbear and programmers like diablo, Hypertech and superchips that do all of the above.....although the three companies I mentioned with the programmers haven't released 2017 models for the 5.3/6sp yet.

 

[revolt]

If I were you, I wouldn't mess with a tuner yet until someone confirmed a certain tuner that works perfectly.