I just called 5 star and talked to them. They said the key turns is how Ford tracks it. I know someone said that earlier but wanted to report that info in.
Yup that was what I posted.
Interesting. Well, whatever it may be, Ford has to be able to prove beyond reasonable doubt that the tune is what caused _______ to fail, otherwise, it would be covered. Initially they won't play ball, but after a quick letter/call from an attorney, they'll change their tune and just take care of it (cheaper than stringing it out in court, unless you're an *******, and then they'll take it to court, drag it out, and then you'll be out a ton of money).
Yeah goodluck with that. Wishful thinking on how it "should" work. You'll be out thousands trying to prove it otherwise and they've got way more money and more lawyers and more experience doing this exact thing.
So 5-star caused my Raptor to lose its virginity and popped its diode. I'm telling the dealer I tried to say no!
Seriously, as far as the key cycles... well who's to say what kind of program you were using? If you just modified the factory tune because you're running 37" tires, and you only altered the tire revolutions per mile to correct the speedometer reading...v/s running a 93-performance tune...how could the dealer tell the difference?
They wouldn't know what was changed, but they would know that with the key cycles reset, that the owner was tampering with the PCM. Whether it was a simple tire revolution change, or pulling in a full tilt kill mode tune. Since you can have Ford program a proper gear ratio or tire ratio, etc. they aren't going to give any slack if you try to say you only used a programmer to change tire sizes for your speedo.
This goes right back to both sides being correct. Ford can't see exactly what you had changed, but they know you tampered with something, and for denying a warranty, that's enough for them.