drunk_on_diesel
Spartan lock out the ECU for writing or something? Good future knowledge, thanks for sharing.
Yes, they rename the strategy ID with their own custom name. They did this to prevent Ford from being able to "update" and wipe the tuning and leave a guy stranded after bringing his truck in for an oil change or something.
Flip side of this is they inadvertently hold those trucks hostage from being able to be reprogrammed by any other tuners which also reference the strategy ID in order to write the appropriate file to the ECM.
If you know what you're doing, you can fix it without Spartan. There aren't many out there who know how to fix it. I can do it, but a used ECM off of ebay for $200 would be quicker/cheaper than what I'd need to make it worth my while.
If a guy was local to me, I'd gladly help him out if that situation were to arise. But due to the very tight leash that Spartan has on their tuners and tuning, you don't run into that situation too terribly often. There was a soldier stationed at Ft. Hood on the org who ran into that exact situation. I was going to help him out just on general principle, but he ended up just buying a Spartan.
Now, I want to be clear that this is only an issue if the Spartan is left loaded to the truck. If it is returned to stock, there is no need to have Ford reprogram the truck, and there is no reason another tuner will be unable to load to it.
