Considering ECU tune (livernois)

[kmarnes]

My 2017 Sport is out of warranty now though I have a 10 year extended and I'm well under par for mileage. Since the day I bought this car, I haven't had anything officially break down, yet.

But I've always been unsatisfied with a terrible ECU programming. Harsh sudden downshifts, etc. Damn thing does a harsh shift every time I accelerate up a steep hill (CLONK), even sometimes when applying the gas carefully. After three years of ownership and the fact that internally the ECU learns your driving style and adapts, I feel like it's got into some weird state.Twice now in the past six months, I would attempt to accelerate and get no power, not even revving -- almost like the gas pedal was disconnected. First time I turned the car off then on again. Second time, I just shifted into sport mode... confirming my suspicion that it got confused temporarily.

Took car in for service today, but my extended warranty will only cover something that codes. So if they diagnose and can't find anything, I'm out of pocket. So I guess I will just wait until it breaks outright.

That said, I could be convinced to go for a tune, I've heard the tune solves the terrible programming. Before that though, I'm going to disconnect the battery to reset the ECU memory and maybe things will go back to normal. I'd love to hear from people that have already done this and if they've had any warranty issues.

 

[san~man]

Get in touch with Matt Robinson and get yourself a GearHead tune.

 

[Kyle Baker]

I just put on a tune from unleashedtuning.com. Really easy and their support is unreal.

 

[peterk9]

FYI, Livernois is an Explorer Forum vendor and supporter.

 

[SJExplorer]

My 2017 Sport is out of warranty now though I have a 10 year extended and I'm well under par for mileage. Since the day I bought this car, I haven't had anything officially break down, yet.

That said, I could be convinced to go for a tune, I've heard the tune solves the terrible programming. Before that though, I'm going to disconnect the battery to reset the ECU memory and maybe things will go back to normal. I'd love to hear from people that have already done this and if they've had any warranty issues.

I have the SCT tuner, and have had a tune on my 2017 for about 25K trouble free miles. (43K miles on the clock)
In my opinion you have to consider a couple of things. The SCT has a lot of stable tunes available that really wake up the Explorer. (unleashed, 5Star, Gearheads, etc) If you decide to get into a 2020+ down the road, all you need is a new tune with the SCT. That will set you back an additional $150 or so. If you go Livernois, you get their tune. Unless their greedy stance has changed, you have to buy a new tuner AND tune. They will give you a few bucks for trading in your old tuner, but it is ultimately going to cost you a lot more to go the Livernois route. They MAY get you a few more HP, the may not. You're paying for the name.

My $.02.