Unhappy with Performance after Emissions Recall Update

[stevei]

I did a road trip today after Sofa King update, waiting to hear from them. Hold your horses on buying this tune, I had several issues today, I'll let you know.

 

[John Jensen]

I did a road trip today after Sofa King update, waiting to hear from them. Hold your horses on buying this tune, I had several issues today, I'll let you know.

Sorry to hear that. Hope they are minor and fixable.

Here's what I posted elsewhere after testing my SFT tunes:

I'm happy to report they are performing as advertised and I am more than satisfied.
One nice surprise was the ECM tune automatically starts a cold engine in high idle and gradually reduces to stock idle.
I'm done putting it through my testing and just did a fill-up and forced regen. When this tankfull is done I can give a valid report.
So far SFT is giving me better MPG and is staying in gear on grades better than my GDE tune.

That said, this is all pre-AEM as I have done the AEM update. Don't plan to until I have to do my Califunny registration next March. (Califunny requires proof of the AEM update to re-register.)

 

[John Jensen]

Correction, should say:
That said, this is all pre-AEM as I have not done the AEM update

 

[Wil]

Everyone should file a complaint with Chrysler and the NHTSA at safercar.gov. This is more than a performance issue.....IT IS A SAFETY ISSUE. The more that express their dissatisfaction with the recall , the quicker the NHTSA will look into it. If you take the time to vent on this forum, take a little more time and vent to the NHTSA.

Like several have stated, we now have a sluggish truck to appease the EPA.

 

[Mando Michigan Mark]

Everyone should file a complaint with Chrysler and the NHTSA at safercar.gov. This is more than a performance issue.....IT IS A SAFETY ISSUE. The more that express their dissatisfaction with the recall , the quicker the NHTSA will look into it. If you take the time to vent on this forum, take a little more time and vent to the NHTSA.

Like several have stated, we now have a sluggish truck to appease the EPA.

I just filled out the form on the NHTSA site and indicated engine response is dangerously poor. I had another white-knuckle moment trying to make a left-hand turn this week; prior to the AEM flash it would have been no problem. Now the truck just creeps onto the road and moves like a sloth across the lanes before it finally decides to accelerate.

 

[stevei]

I hate to be so dramatic but this will have to be done in three posts. First I received my Sofa King Tune did all the necessary steps and sent back my trucks numbers. Received my new numbers from Sofa King congratulating me that I have been Sofa King Tuned, I down loaded this back into my truck and took it for a short test drive, it didn't seem really good, I knew it needed to be drove so the adaptive part of the update could happen. Took it for a road trip, engine didn't seem to run well, transmission was all over the place. Made it to my destination no real difference in the way the truck ran I was very disappointed. On the way back I had to take a piss along side the freeway, after relieving myself I prepared to merge back on to the freeway. There was a lot of traffic so I had to wait for an opening when one presented itself I floored it the truck took off made it to fourth gear and stopped shifting, I didn't look at what speed I was going but it was not fast enough to get out of the way of the truck I had pulled out in front of !!! I let off the gas but it still did not shift but rather slowed down radically being stuck in fourth gear I did not know what else to do but dive back for the shoulder of the road, thank goodness it was a wide enough shoulder and hard packed. I think the poor trucker though I had done this on purpose and was on his horn as hard as I've ever heard, third time I had the horn blown at me since the FCA updated tune. It was a good thing I didn't end up on channel 7 news as top story causing a major incident on the 10 freeway. Needless to say I did not floor it again and babied the truck the rest of the way home. No more problems thank goodness, first thing e-mailed Sofa King when I got home. They answered right away I explained what happened and Jimmy at Sofa King said he would look in to it and call me back on the phone. I was surprised it was only a matter of minutes before he called back, I had uploaded the transmission tune and no engine tune, what a dummy. I thought it was way to easy, Now here's my warning do not do the transmission update and use FCA's emissions update they are not compatible, it might lead to death !! I need to let my blood pressure come back down before I make another post.

 

[stevei]

Alright I've settled back down I hope. After talking to Jimmy at Sofa King he explained there are two different downloads one for the engine and one for the transmission. The transmission is a piece of cake the one for the engine is a bit more complicated, myself having no computer skills it seemed almost undoable. My grand kids have more computer skills than I do, thanks to Jimmy with his infinite patience and know how talked me thru all the steps necessary. For someone with a little computer skill I don't think this would be very difficult. I sent him the numbers for my engine, but you have to make a request for him to be able to send them back. I had to leave before I could make the request. I told him not to worry about it, I wasn't going to drive the truck again until the engine tune. To my surprise when I got home he had done the update and told me all I had to do was make the request, once again he had to help me to fill out the request, WOW patience is a virtue, Jimmy has it because he had to be getting tired of my incompetence. It was getting late by the time I installed the program, I also flashed the transmission again, I just took the truck around the block. Well it was not as good as the original that came with the truck it was far better, this was exactly what I was looking for !! Only got to drive it 4-5 miles but road trip was in the works.

 

[stevei]

Alright here's the fun part road trip this was only 102.2 miles. Not really far but enough to get a feel for how the truck is going to perform. This trip is to one of my fishing holes, it includes freeway about 60 miles, mountains about 30 miles and a little off road 4x4 maybe 12 miles. Before I went I did the adaptive protocol 0-50 low speed, 0-50 med speed, 0-50 high speed 10x each this is not included in this trip. I went up Cajon Pass its pretty steep, the truckers really slow down here, the cruise control was set at 74 mph it never slowed and down shifted once, FCA tune down shifted many times this is a real improvement. Where I drive in the mountains is not steep but its pretty curvy and uphill one way down hill back. The off road I really didn't need four wheel drive but wanted to test it out to make sure it still performed the same. All in all the truck performed flawlessly more power than its ever had, it got 25.2 miles per gallon, probably not Calif. compliant ask me if I care at least it can get out of its own way now!! I floored it several times minor turbo lag very acceptable, not sure you can ever get rid of this in a diesel, went thru the gears nicely every time. I'm very pleased with Sofa King, product, customer service, response. I would recommend Sofa King Tuned.

 

[John Jensen]

So glad it all worked out. Thanks for the candid reports, it's hard to admit oneself is the problem, you are to be commended for that. I also found Jimmy to be patient, helpful and knowledgeable.

 

[SofaKingTuned]

Stevie, glad to hear SFT tunes are working out better than when you got it!

Drive an EcoDiesel once, you'll quickly realize there is a lot of room for improvement. Just the way it comes to a stop and the shifting aspect, never mind the increase power but just the drivability is all over the place in stock form. As you can tell, we spent a lot of personal time making these improvements.

Curious if you caught any decent fish out there that day? Pictures or it didn't happen!

John, you rock too!

 

[stevei]

Unfortunately I took my yellow lab and not my fishing pole. I can't fish with him as he spends the whole time in the creek going after my fly line. Yes I do like the way it shifts now, seems to hold the first three gears a bit longer when you take off, I'm sure its part of what makes my truck feel really strong I like it. But I don't have enough miles on there yet to know all the benefits of the tune, its the third time I've had to learn how to drive this truck, original factory, FCA crap emission tune and now Sofa King tune. At least the Sofa King tune is fun with a responsive truck again! I'm going to do the same road trip again later this week to see what kind of fuel mileage I get now, hopefully with no near disasters. Its to the lower Colorado river Blyth, Ca about 200 miles one way for me on the 10 freeway I'll post again with the results.

 

[CCW]

I just filled out the form on the NHTSA site and indicated engine response is dangerously poor. I had another white-knuckle moment trying to make a left-hand turn this week; prior to the AEM flash it would have been no problem. Now the truck just creeps onto the road and moves like a sloth across the lanes before it finally decides to accelerate.

I filled the NHTSA complaint form as well. Not sure how many complaints it takes to get them to act, but...

 

[stevei]

I'll file a complaint to, but what I hate more than anything about this whole mess is if FCA would have sold this truck with the way it runs after the updated emissions they would not have sold one truck. Its sad to think FCA excepts us ECO owners to take this laying down. I think we need to start a new law suit but you know it took 3 years for this law suit to come to fruition another 3 years and our trucks will be worth nothing. Maybe this is what their hoping for, I don't know if taking the 3075.00 is the right thing to do because as soon as you sign the release from, you can do nothing. I've filled out all the paper work but I don't think I'm going to send it in right now, I want to see what comes next. I'm hoping maybe they can't sell the New ECO Diesel truck until they settle with the ones already out there maybe hoping for to much but we'll see. I hear the new diesel won't be called ECO but Diesel HO (High Output) but that's just what I heard.

 

[MarzMiller]

I just filed a complaint with NHTSA about the safety issues associated with the AEM recall. Hopefully if enough ED owners file a complaint as well, then FCA will have to issue a new recall. Possibly one with the performance issues fixed.

 

[TDI Guy]

Just had my emissions recall done a few days ago as well on my RAM Limited. Got suckered like others into thinking it was the right thing to do. Also, everything I read said "Performance, Drivability etc would not be impacted"...What a crock! I am having the same side effect as others - zero acceleration from a stop for 2-3 seconds. What I have noticed is that it seems very much related to engine temperature. When the engine is below 150 degrees the acceleration is terrible and downright dangerous (old ladies with a cane could walk faster). Over ~ 150 degrees and the performance improves. It seems they have added significant governing on the acceleration when the engine is below a certain temp. As others noted the dealer just washed their hands of it, claimed they couldn't do anything and gave me a recall complaint number to call...big frigging deal...they didn't have a clue either

Does anyone know what legitimate recourse we have? They have turned my truck into a $60K piece of crap!

Why don't you just get it deleted?

 

[stevei]

I don't know about the other states but in Calif. I have to have my truck smog checked every other year. So I cannot change or remove anything smog related on the motor and my Sofa King Tune I'll have to remove put the FCA crappy update in for smog check. Then remove the FCA sh** and reinstall the Sofa King Tune kind of a pain in the butt, but worth the effort, the difference is night and day. So deleted is not an option for me.

 

[needgeech]

Looking for advice. . .bought a '16 ram ED two weeks ago from a Ram dealer. Was being certified, and when I went to pick it up, they had started but not completed (i.e. emmisions testing) the AEM update. All checks still say no AEM update completed, but they went far enough to take out the previous owners GD ECM etc. and so I have the crappy performance, still eligible for the rebate I think though. I need to have it emissions tested by the state in the next two weeks(which I hope doesn't "complete" the former AEM update) and am hoping my ED settlement claim clears before that date, but further out than that, what can I do as far as at least getting the rebate, and then pay for a tune? And, no, I'm not trying to double dip out of the cookie jar. . .but since May 3rd, here at least, the prices of ED Ram's has increased at least by the $3k ED settlement "perceived" check coming. . .has in fact changed the pricing index to the point that even already AEM'd vehicles are riding that same $3k price increase. . .and even non franchised dealers are showing up not at auction but at the showroom floors to buy from unsuspecting dealers, claim the $3k, and then ride the $3k recent markup. . .

 

[Green Diesel]

I don't know about the other states but in Calif. I have to have my truck smog checked every other year. So I cannot change or remove anything smog related on the motor and my Sofa King Tune I'll have to remove put the FCA crappy update in for smog check. Then remove the FCA sh** and reinstall the Sofa King Tune kind of a pain in the butt, but worth the effort, the difference is night and day. So deleted is not an option for me.

Is your DEF system still active in your new tune?

 

[stevei]

No DEF but have to keep fluid in there so the nozzles don't plug up. Was told I could use distilled water until my smog check and have to go back to all the smog goodies that make my truck run so well.

 

[stevei]

Looking for advice. . .bought a '16 ram ED two weeks ago from a Ram dealer. Was being certified, and when I went to pick it up, they had started but not completed (i.e. emmisions testing) the AEM update. All checks still say no AEM update completed, but they went far enough to take out the previous owners GD ECM etc. and so I have the crappy performance, still eligible for the rebate I think though. I need to have it emissions tested by the state in the next two weeks(which I hope doesn't "complete" the former AEM update) and am hoping my ED settlement claim clears before that date, but further out than that, what can I do as far as at least getting the rebate, and then pay for a tune? And, no, I'm not trying to double dip out of the cookie jar. . .but since May 3rd, here at least, the prices of ED Ram's has increased at least by the $3k ED settlement "perceived" check coming. . .has in fact changed the pricing index to the point that even already AEM'd vehicles are riding that same $3k price increase. . .and even non franchised dealers are showing up not at auction but at the showroom floors to buy from unsuspecting dealers, claim the $3k, and then ride the $3k recent markup. . .

If I were you I would complete the emission update, collect the refund and go get it tuned. But it would leave you out of any further actions taken against FCA in this matter after signing the release from. I think there's more to come, these are just my though's.