Im have an appointment tommorrow to take my truck in. It has started hard a few times but nothing major. It has also gotton bad mileage (12 in town) but I havent towed with it at all and Im a hair under 3k miles. The more I read it seems like if a reflash doesnt work then It does more harm then good to the truck. What do you all think?

 

My vote is do the flash

 

I got the flash without knowing it when I had my paint issue fixed, but you can work around that darned horn backup thingy. I seem to be getting worse fuel mileage though. I have in the past gotten about 24-25 on the interstate at 65, but now I can't get above 20. I am going to wait and see if it is due to the winterized fuel. If not, I can't wait to get my Smarty and load something else. If I am going to suffer with bad fuel mileage, I might as well do it because the tires aren't getting traction.

 

Im sure its the winter mileage puddlestomper. This is relly getting me ticked now. The overhead reads 11.4 right now. I had a bit of a load in but this is ridiculous. Reflash here I come.

 

I was at the dealer getting the high idle feature enabled along with some warranty work and asked him about the "white smoke" reflash. He said that he actually did not recommend it as it fixes things via defueling and while your mileage may go up the performance isn't as good and once it's done there is no going back as it completely reprograms the ECM. If it ain't broke don't fix it. I don't have hard start but am getting about 12 mpg around town stop and go traffic 0 to 50 mph avg. I am currently at 4500 miles. I say give it time to break in more and see where you end up. You have 36K miles to still get the flash at some point if you still want it under warranty.

 

dealer said they cant do a reflash under 5k miles. he told me im off a whole bunch due to the low miles, not towing and the cold weather. im going to deal with it for awile and see what happens. there may be a smarty in the future as well.

 

What is your Truck's build date (on the door)? If it is prior to 11-05 then the reflash should work well for you. I had mine done when the truck was 2 months old and had 6500 miles or so and my mileage went up 1-2 mpg city and 2-3 mpg hwy with no loss of power.My tranny now shifts smoother since the flash. I have heard from others that it is a 50/50 chance of improvement for the trucks built post 11-05. On a side note, my worst unloaded mileage(hand calculated always) is 15.2 mpg city/hwy combo and that was the first tank.

 

is the build date inside the drivers door?

 

yes, and the the part about not having enough miles on it for a flash is BS mine has been flashed when it had 3,000 miles on it, then again with 5,000.

 

marco gets better fuel economy on his 06 with each chrysler update

Marco says yes to the 06 chrysler software updates

 

Could Marco`s mileage have anything to do with eng break-in...

 

I was in and had the white smoke update done last month. I am seeing a little better fuel mileage, but not really that much, maybe 2 mpg. Having said that, I am getting right at 17mpg now. I had been getting good mileage until I threw the P0191 code, after that was flashed my mileage dropped down to 13-14mpg.

All this flash stuff has me a little confused. I asked the tech my next questions and got no real confirmation from him regarding this flash stuff. When they do the flashes, do they also catch other current software upgrades at that time as well, are they inclusive or comprehensive on stuff to date? Or, do you only get the specifics of the flash they are directly doing for your specific complaint?

Then, is Marco including some of this update stuff with his programming updates? I just purchased a Smarty from Larry here at DTR and am going to install it's programming out of the box, or should I update it first?

There have been both good and bad sides reported here about peoples experiences with all these flashes. Seems like one gives benefits and also has losses, and another counters what another one has done. All becoming quite confusing in the overall. By the way, my build date is October 28, 2005 if that has any signifigance in all of this stuff.

CD

 

Update the smarty if the SW in it is not the latest. My 2006 runs better with the new SW .. a little more timing rattle on #5 + #7 (I assume #3 too)

I have had no reason to reload "stock" SW. Only time I will do that is when it goes in for service.

Last 2 fill ups 20.08 MPG and 19.45 MPG On #7 In the hills of VT. (rt 89 and rt 91 + Rt 9) 70 MPH on the highway.

About the same MPG as the previous update but more low end power. MPG does not drop as fast in the up hills with the new updates on #7 Unless I put my foot in it.

At first I was worried by the timing rattle since it was a new sound.... But have read here it is a non issue. Still less than my gen 2! It is mostly at low RPM and low throttle.

The new update is BIG. It takes time to D/L choose the years as your 2006 is in both files I chose the one with the 2004-2007 in it just "because".

(I wanted the 2007 in case someone wanted to borrow my smarty who had an 07)