berok

Does anyone know WITHOUT A DOUBT if the smarty is undetectable by the dealer? I know what Smarty claims.. I'm on the verge of getting the JR..

berok

Any replies on this one?

White97GTVert

Before I got my turbo installed my truck went to the dealer quite a few times for little things like a blown intercooler, wheel bearings, u-joints, etc.. They did mark all of the connections (map sensor, injector connections, etc) with paint pen.

However when the intercooler blew I just removed Smarty and took it in. They kept the truck for a couple of days. They did ask if I had ever had a programmer on it, to which I said no (since the plastic intercoolers on the '05s sucked so bad they would blow stock) and when I got it back the service guy told me that the district manager WAS SURE i had a programmer on it but he nor star could find any evidence of it..

To which I told them I never did and thats why there was no evidence of it. They did look though.. Hard!

matego

I had a problem with my ECM and took my truck to the dealer a couple of weeks ago. I blanked my computer with a Diablo and Marco wrote me a program for the Smarty to recover the ECM. I gave the Smarty in the box to the dealer and they installed it for me. The foreman there read through the book and made a comment to me about how they can find ANY programmer and that it was B.S. Anyway, the next day he asked me for Bobs number because he wanted a Smarty for his truck. He told me there was no signs at all of a tampered computer. Usually the key counts are reset when a computer is reflashed. Somehow Marco wrote something in there to keep track of the key counts. There has been a LOT of people taking in trucks with Smartys for warranty and no issues with denial for a programmer. All of this was with a S-06 though, not a JR.

berok

Why would you willingly hand your SMARTY over to the dealer in the first place, admitting to using it??

matego

I am one of those people who took on the responsibility of repairing my truck once I started modifying it. It has been expensive for me recently not having warranty but I feel cheating DC warranty dept. is stealing and I will not do it, no matter what the cost. I do not preach to or condone anyone who does, but it is not who I am. I have too much done now to hide it anyway

Stevemil56

Heres to you Matego. I agree with you that if you play you should pay. I just bought a trans for my truck after 10,000 miles. If we all played by the same rules some of the costs would not have to be passed on to all of the buyers by the manufacturer.

95ram

I'm sorry, but IMO this is a load. It wouldn't matter if everyone did their own warranty work, the price would still go up. Welcome to big corp. If they can make money on any little thing they will. I'm not saying people should try and get warranty work when something they did caused the problem, but unrelated go for it. There has been numerous people on here talking about a dealer voiding the warranty on their pickup for having some type of power adder. Are you telling me I should be able to get my ball joint replaced because I have a downloader?

berok

No replies??

matego

This thread is going down that long, dark road that many before it have traveled

Anyway, if the Smarty stuff was BS, I think it would have come out by now.

pwr2tow

I had a Smarty Jr. loaded on my 2006. The famous cold weather injection pump leak started leaking so I downloaded the stock program back into truck. Next day took it to the dealership. Mechanic comes out and says come back with me. Shows me the star scan and points to the FUEL TRIP, It says 0.0, he proceeds to tell me the only way that can read zero is if a programmer had been installed. I bought this truck with 12 miles on it.

I'am beginning to think Smarty's claim of can not be detected is just a line of, "can not be detected, meaning you can not say it's who's programmer was downloaded. They can see something was done but can not say who's it was which doesn't do anyone any good when Chrysler denies warranty.

tritont

since the Jr uses the same programming as it's big brother it wouldn't be any different.

I've been to the dealer on test runs and I've been to a mod friendly dealer that knew I had it installed.

Bottom line... if you're concerned about loosing your warranty, don't do a thing. They can and will find that you have something installed. The parameters they look at can tell them if certain values have changed. The only way they could have changed is by a external source.

On a basic service trip to the dealer.... no, they won't know. If you have any real issues and the tech knows what he's looking at and doing... they will see it.

graphitecumnz

I'll first assume you started a thread on TDR about this too... if so, then why did you state on that thread you have never had a downloader?

http://www.turbodieselregister.com/f...star-scan.html

pwr2tow

I was fishing to see if one of the smarter mechanics on that website would tell me the only way it would read zero was if a programmer truely was installed.

Thanks for blowing my cover.

chipmonk

i think your answer should be put as a 'sticky' at the top of the 3rd gen perf page. it clearly answers the 'undetectable programmer' question, and lets everyone know that although the dealer may not choose to make an issue out of your use of a programmer, if you choose to mod your truck, you should be prepared to pay cash at the service dept., or do your own warranty work in your own garage,on your own time.