Be prepared for a story about gear ratios...

[Josh OH]

Well do I have a story for ya'll...



Listen to this $h!t....

If you haven't had the rundown yet on my situation, here's a quick summary. I had my 265/75R16 tires installed about a month ago with new rims by a ford dealership in California. Along with the change up in the tire size, I got my speedometer re-calibrated. Happy as I was, I found out some horrible truth just the otherday... The dealership did NOT re-calibrate the speedometer correctly, and that it was off by at least 6~7mph (Speedometer is slow) when I was traveling at 65mph..

So.. Today I talked to the ford dealership here in California.

First off.. I'll NEVER recommend this dealership to ANYONE ever! The name of the dealership is "Lincoln Valley Ford" located in Hanford, Ca. DONT EVER GO THERE!:angry::angry::angry:

After speaking with the customer reps, and them not giving me any answers.. I talked to the manager staff. Long story short on that is as follows. Ford dealerships can ONLY calibrate a speedometer within the stock tire sizes. Meaning if you go larger than stock tire, they can't calibrate the speedometer correctly, for some stupid reason.. Their comptuer isn't designed for it..:huh:

So leaving me out of this MAJOR piece of information BEFORE the install, and having my speedometer re-calibrated INCORRECTLY (Well.. They claim they calibrated it as close as they can get it) My actual RPMS, speedometer, and odometer is incorrect now!! SO I HAVE NOW VOIDED THE VERY WARRANTY THAT I DIDNT WANT TO GET VOIDED BY GOING TO THE DEALERSHIP!! Although the manager stated that "It shouldn't void your warranty", anyone that reads the ESP warranty package sees in print on page 4 as follows.



QUOTE: NOT COVERED BY THIS AGREEMENT "Repairs to the vehicle if the odometer is altered, broken, repaired or replaced so that We cannot determine the actual mileage on the vehicle"



The only alteration that IS ok with Ford is one done by a dealership that is VERIFIED correct.. Or so says the ESP center when I called their 1-800 number..

So.... If the odometer is off, then the warranty is VOID, PERIOD!:angry::angry: The dealership tired to blow smoke up my @$$ saying that I shouldn't worry about it, and that if I had any problems with the vehicle in the future my extended warranty was still good, even though when I drive the truck about 5000 miles, it probably only reflects 4000....:angry:

So... Madder than hell.. I had it out for a few with the managers there. They said that I am able to cancel my Ford ESP warranty and get my money back on that if I wish to. (Which I am going to tomorrow monring.)



This leads me to the Gear ratios. I planned on trading up on gear ratios from 3.73 to 4.10 anyway, since my ST is working its poor @$$ off to get those big tires turning. Plus now that my warranty is voided out, I might as well start working on aftermarket preformance parts..



After making a call to "West Coast Gears" (http://www.differentials.com/index.html) and now pretty much having an extra $2000 to spend on the trac since my extended warranty is hosed.. I gave them a call. I found out something more intresting there.. If I get my gear ratios traded up from 3.73 to 4.10, and have the Ford Dealership RESET my speedometer calibration BACK to stock when I got it.. (235/70R16 with 3.73 ratio) That my speedometer with a 265/75R16 with a 4.10 gear ratio would only be off by about 25 RPMs at 65 mph!!!! :huh::wacko::wacko: (Lost you yet!??!)

This basicly means that the speedometer, odometer, and RPMS it would be almost EXACT as stock when I bought the trac, WITH the larger tires!!! Suprise suprise huh!?!?! :blink:



So... Heres my questions.. What do ya'll think about this situation. (Todd Z, don't hold anything back man, let me know!) And more importantly, do you think that the ESP is worth fighting for in this situation, since I am going to change the gear ratios now? I think it's honestly MORE important to me t

 

[FlipTrac_511]

Uhm, how 'bout you buy an XCal2 that'll calibrate for you and then some!?

 

[Todd Z]

Your warranty will not be voided, because after a flash with the xcal it will read correctly...

Todd Z

 

[Nelson Atwell]

So your extended warranty states that putting oversized tires on your truck voids the warranty? What sort of bull is that?

 

[Dallas Starr]

same your time and get the xcal2 (better power and mileage are an added bonus)

 

[Josh OH]

I think thats the best choice, thanks to ALL (Especaly Todd Z) For the talk.. I've ordred the Xcal and I'll let you know Todd Z when I need your help. (Because I'm sure I'll need it!)

 

[Johnny O]

Since I lease mine, I put the bigger tires on and didn't change anything else. I just allow that the speedo is reading 5 mph slow and if the odometer is off, I'll plead ignorance. Shhhhh, it's a secret. Mine goes okay with the 3.73's and 265's, I just keep my foot in it when I need.

 

[Fudged Undies]

Josh, aside from you.... and us, no one knows that your odometer is off. Rest assured that every one of us that has changed tire sizes has had this problem and I have yet to hear any dealership call it into question. I, as well as a few other members have had our warranty "voided" by a dealer. To the best of my knowledge this will only void it at that specific dealer. I say this because after having my warranty voided, I proceeded to another dealer and had warranty work done. The same work that had voided my warranty at another dealer. The dealer voiding warranty tends to be at a dealers discretion for that particular dealership. Don't think you have anything to worry about.

 

[Josh OH]

Thanks for all the info all.