BAJASVT
FRF Addict
Let me preface my review by stating that I've owned several vehicles with tuners and custom tunes. I typically purchase my tuner/tunes from the company that seems to be the most popular and have the most experience with the vehicle I'm tuning; in this case, 5-Star seems to be far and away the most popular among Raptor owners. My last two tuned trucks were a 2004 and 2007 FX4 F-150 and the tunes for those trucks were from Troyer Perfromance.
I've had the tuner for a week and thus far have only tried the 93 Octane Performance tune.
POWER AND THROTTLE RESPONSE: Awesome! I filled my tank with 94 octane (Ultra) from Sunoco and uploaded the tune as the fuel was pumping. Just driving away from the gas pump, I could immediately notice an increase in throttle response and when I pulled out of the gas station into traffic, I immediately noticed the power increase. In this regard, I'm very happy with the tune and I would rate it with five stars... pun intended.
SHIFTING: This is a two part answer that I will separate into categories of performance driving and daily driving.
1) Performance - The performance shifting of the truck with the tune under hard acceleration is awesome... no complaints.
2) Daily Driving - Not good... I'm very disappointed in this aspect of the tuner and even though I know it's a "performance" tune, the truck is primarily used in normal daily driving conditions. The tunes seem to be way to speed/mph dependent and not dependent enough on engine load.
EXAMPLE: When I drive the truck to work, I drive about 5 miles on roads with a 35 mph speed limit and another 5 on a 45 mph speed limit road. I typically try to hover in the 4-5 mph over the speed limit range and this is what caused me to notice the shifting issue. When cruising at the 39-40 mph speed, the truck is constantly shifting back and forth between 4th and 5th gear. I even tried setting the cruise control at 40 mph (truck will be in 5th gear); if I hit the - button to decelerate 1 mph, the truck will downshift to 4th within about 3 seconds and if I then press the + button to increase 1 mph, it will upshift to 5th in about 3 seconds... over and over all day it will do the same thing back and forth between 4th and 5th gear. I even noticed that if I set the cruise at 39 mph and hit the slightest grade increase in the road or even have a head wind that the truck will search back and forth between 4th and 5th gear. The truck does the same gear searching between 5th and 6th gear at the 49-50 mph range.
Something else I noticed in regard to shifting is the downshifting on deceleration/coast. I wouldn't describe it has harsh by any means, but this is the first tuned vehicle I've owned that I can feel and hear (exhaust) every transmission downshift while I'm decelerating for a stop. When I exit the highway from 6th gear 70+ mph speeds, I can hear the exhaust note change and feel every downshift from 6th gear to 1st as I approach the stop at the end of the exit ramp. On some of the downshifts, most notably the 3-2 and 2-1 downshift, I actually have to adjust brake pedal application because the additional engine braking combined with regular brakes will start to slow the truck too fast/soon.
CONCLUSION: The tuner works great in performance mode and definitely adds significantly noticeably horsepower/torque that you can actually feel. My complaints about the tuner are not about it's performance, but I'm definitely not happy about the shifting characteristics during normal casual driving. To me, the constant shifting is annoying enough that I'd be willing to ditch the tuner and go back to stock and give up the power gains, but I hope that Mike @ 5-Star can help me out; I just sent him a note this morning and will keep you guys posted.
I've had the tuner for a week and thus far have only tried the 93 Octane Performance tune.
POWER AND THROTTLE RESPONSE: Awesome! I filled my tank with 94 octane (Ultra) from Sunoco and uploaded the tune as the fuel was pumping. Just driving away from the gas pump, I could immediately notice an increase in throttle response and when I pulled out of the gas station into traffic, I immediately noticed the power increase. In this regard, I'm very happy with the tune and I would rate it with five stars... pun intended.
SHIFTING: This is a two part answer that I will separate into categories of performance driving and daily driving.
1) Performance - The performance shifting of the truck with the tune under hard acceleration is awesome... no complaints.
2) Daily Driving - Not good... I'm very disappointed in this aspect of the tuner and even though I know it's a "performance" tune, the truck is primarily used in normal daily driving conditions. The tunes seem to be way to speed/mph dependent and not dependent enough on engine load.
EXAMPLE: When I drive the truck to work, I drive about 5 miles on roads with a 35 mph speed limit and another 5 on a 45 mph speed limit road. I typically try to hover in the 4-5 mph over the speed limit range and this is what caused me to notice the shifting issue. When cruising at the 39-40 mph speed, the truck is constantly shifting back and forth between 4th and 5th gear. I even tried setting the cruise control at 40 mph (truck will be in 5th gear); if I hit the - button to decelerate 1 mph, the truck will downshift to 4th within about 3 seconds and if I then press the + button to increase 1 mph, it will upshift to 5th in about 3 seconds... over and over all day it will do the same thing back and forth between 4th and 5th gear. I even noticed that if I set the cruise at 39 mph and hit the slightest grade increase in the road or even have a head wind that the truck will search back and forth between 4th and 5th gear. The truck does the same gear searching between 5th and 6th gear at the 49-50 mph range.
Something else I noticed in regard to shifting is the downshifting on deceleration/coast. I wouldn't describe it has harsh by any means, but this is the first tuned vehicle I've owned that I can feel and hear (exhaust) every transmission downshift while I'm decelerating for a stop. When I exit the highway from 6th gear 70+ mph speeds, I can hear the exhaust note change and feel every downshift from 6th gear to 1st as I approach the stop at the end of the exit ramp. On some of the downshifts, most notably the 3-2 and 2-1 downshift, I actually have to adjust brake pedal application because the additional engine braking combined with regular brakes will start to slow the truck too fast/soon.
CONCLUSION: The tuner works great in performance mode and definitely adds significantly noticeably horsepower/torque that you can actually feel. My complaints about the tuner are not about it's performance, but I'm definitely not happy about the shifting characteristics during normal casual driving. To me, the constant shifting is annoying enough that I'd be willing to ditch the tuner and go back to stock and give up the power gains, but I hope that Mike @ 5-Star can help me out; I just sent him a note this morning and will keep you guys posted.
