Idle Control Tuning 3rd Gen ATs

ok, that's what I was wondering. Now that makes sense. Without returning, you can't make changes. Cool that the tuning program has this.

 

I thought you guys had gone into some special menu to find this. Not OP nor anyone else mentioned the VF tune, when I asked has this was done. In the other hiperf car world, when you go into menus you always mention "with SOSO Tune". I did not know that it was obviously the tune.

 

I just tried to understand this and comment on it, but now my head just hurts.

 

Just for clarity, these are the Cold Start maps that I have played with in the vF software:

 

Ahh, gotcha. None of that fancy stuff on these trucks. There is a sizeable community of regulars that have taken the available tuning software for these trucks and I guess I just recognized the screen name and didn't second guess what he was referring to.

 

Been away for some time in Arizona. @Mooseditty17 and I have talked about idle improvements in tunes. It's a major factor in the ones I've been putting out for use. Theory behind my thinking was that I've never had any other vehicle idle at 1600 while cold or even 1100 when warm/hot. If that happened in other cars, it meant something was very wrong or you had a vacuum leak. Toyota does this for emissions to bring the temps to target as fast as possible, but when you drive around it does not change performance. My RAM would drive at a higher rpm while cold until it warmed up a little, just like my F150 and GMC did. Hell even the wife's Acura does this, so why is Toyota different?

As painful as it sounds, revert back to a stock file. Notice the way idle surges when placing the truck into gear (also the way it lurches your transmission when you do it on a cold start). It's not healthy in the long run in my opinion.

Next, take note of when you accelerate gently during cold temp and sometimes when fully warmed up. The rpm will drop down before picking back up.

The key for me was logging and attempting to best match the numbers at all times, while maintaining a steady state of charge with the alternator. I've been able to keep numbers around 1100-1300 cold start, 800-950 warm, and 600-750 hot in drive and park (you'll need to play around to get them where your truck needs it). City stop and go I'm picking up an extra mpg, the pedal isn't touchy but still retains all the power, plus the low end lag in power is reduced significantly.

Keep in mind A Healthy Alternator Voltage is 13.5v to 14.5v!

Exceeding or falling short of those numbers could prematurely wear your battery.

I'm 1500 miles into my road test of an updated HnT file. So far it is promising slightly better mpg returns than 1.5 produced while keeping the whole idea around the tune intact.

EDIT:

Additional wisdom includes not dropping the rpm at hot park/drive lower than 550. I forgot what numbers I put in exactly but it runs like a classic hotrod with cams until it shuts off.

Bring your laptop and tune cable with you and be willing to pull into a lot and reflash to a good tune should you have experimented too much with idle rates. Chic-fil-a has been very accommodating in the past.

Test, log, review, and re-test different things. Each truck I've come across is similar but depending on the exhaust, numbers may vary.

Any tune you make to be given to someone else to use should be in a suitable range of rpms so they don't have issues. It might not be the cream of the crop perfection idle, but its better than messing with someone's truck