Track key working?

[BrianDeTienne]

Hello.... I've only had my Boss for about a week. Had roughly 3500 miles when I bought it. I've put about about 500 miles on it. Today is the first time I've used the track key at length. No ' track key activated' or any reference to' track key' ever shows up in the display. I'm assuming this means the key isn't working our hasn't been programmed. Ideas?

Thanks, Brian

 

[ArizonaBOSS]

You paid to have the dealer program it, right? It's not programmed at delivery--so if you're just using "the red key" without the program activated, you won't get any effect.

 

[BrianDeTienne]

I bought the car used.....just assuming the key was activated....

 

[ArizonaBOSS]

It probably wasn't programmed by the first owner; it should say "TRACKEY ACTIVE, TRACK USE ONLY" when using the red key at startup, if programmed.

Does it have a square, white CARB Exempt Order sticker in the engine bay anywhere?

Other than that, there isn't anything in the customer instructions that allow you to verify yourself; you dealer will have to plug into the car and run IDS to check.

 

[VoodooBoss]

Does it have a square, white CARB Exempt Order sticker in the engine bay anywhere?

Do people actually stick those on their cars?

Brian most likely your car hasn't been programmed. Order it from Toulsey Ford for a nice savings and have your local dealer install it.

 

[ArizonaBOSS]

I never even got my exempt sticker. I really don't care though.

 

[VoodooBoss]

I never even got my exempt sticker. I really don't care though.

You should contact Ford Racing and request it. I didn't get mine and called them and they mailed it to me. The reason I never got mine was because the dealer didn't register it properly with FR.

 

[ArizonaBOSS]

My car won't be street legal by the time it would need its first emissions check

 

[CaliMR]

I put mine on because my last fun car was an import, and I was used to cops popping the hood because they expected my stock car to have an illegal bov. Now all they pop is the thumbs up.

 

[BrianDeTienne]

Do people actually stick those on their cars?

Brian most likely your car hasn't been programmed. Order it from Toulsey Ford for a nice savings and have your local dealer install it.

Well, I did buy it from a Ford dealer so I would assume they could hook me up. I'll call them today.

Thanks everyone!

 

[BrianDeTienne]

According to Victory Ford in Dyersville, IA, the track key was programmed. "Something must have happened to unprogram the key"...Huh? Really?

I call a local Ford parts guy that I know. He says BS. I call Ford Racing and spoke with Ray. I give him the last 6 of my VIN and he tells me the car/key has never been programmed.

I do have email traffic with the salesman I bought the car from and he specifically notes that the "track key is there and is programmed". I guess we'll see how they want to handle this.

Hopefully this doesn't get too interesting. Here's to wishing they will be stand up guys and make this right.

 

[VoodooBoss]

Good luck. Most likely the sales guy didn't know what he was talking about. All the cars come with both silver and red keys so many think the red key is automatically TK. But it needs to be programmed.

 

[dabossinnne]

It probably wasn't programmed by the first owner; it should say "TRACKEY ACTIVE, TRACK USE ONLY" when using the red key at startup, if programmed.

Does it have a square, white CARB Exempt Order sticker in the engine bay anywhere?

Other than that, there isn't anything in the customer instructions that allow you to verify yourself; you dealer will have to plug into the car and run IDS to check.

The "TRACKEY ACTIVE TRACK USE ONLY" message will appear regardless of whether or not the TK program in the car's PCM has been activated. This does not tell you if your car's PCM TK program has been activated.

The only way to know for sure that TK has been activated in your car's PCM is to see the "TRACKEY ENGINE IDLE ENABLED" message on the center display (and hear the chime inside the car when this message appears) when the lopey idle enable temp/time parameters have been met. Also, your launch control feature won't work if TK hasn't been activated in the PCM.

 

[VoodooBoss]

The "TRACKEY ACTIVE TRACK USE ONLY" message will appear regardless of whether or not the TK program in the car's PCM has been activated. This does not tell you if your car's PCM TK program has been activated.

The only way to know for sure that TK has been activated in your car's PCM is to see the "TRACKEY ENGINE IDLE ENABLED" message on the center display (and hear the chime inside the car when this message appears) when the lopey idle enable temp/time parameters have been met.

So what happens if you disable the lopey idle?

That is certainly not the case on the 2012 cars and I doubt it's the case on the 2013 cars. Supposedly the only difference between the TK tunes from the two years is the skip shift being disabled on the 2012's.

 

[dabossinnne]

So what happens if you disable the lopey idle?

That is certainly not the case on the 2012 cars and I doubt it's the case on the 2013 cars. Supposedly the only difference between the TK tunes from the two years is the skip shift being disabled on the 2012's.

Disable lopey idle? Oh, you mean use the gray key...? Never!!

Well, on my '13 before I had (or thought I had... more on this in a sec) TK activated by the dealer flash process, that TRACKEY ACTIVE TRACK USE ONLY message would indeed come up when I used the red key (the Trackey).

What clued me in to this was that the first time I took my Boss to have the dealer do the TK PCM activation, they didn't do it right, although I didn't realize this until another Boss owner to whom I was complaining about not getting the lopey idle or launch control to work, asked if I ever got the TK engine idle enable message. I had not, he showed me on his Boss how it worked, and this prompted me to take mine back to the dealer and have them do a re-flash. Second time they finally got it right and it worked.

But again, at least on the '13s (I'm not too familiar with the '12 Boss message display), you will get the TRACKEY ACTIVE message using the red key, even if you haven't had the PCM activation done.

 

[racered302]

I don't remember the exact rpms but you shouldn't be able to rev it past 2600 rpm with the clutch in while using the track key if launch control is still at the default setting. It's a quick and easy check with out having to wait for it to warm up. Also there's a 91 oct. sticker that goes behind the the gas cap/door

 

[VoodooBoss]

Disable lopey idle? Oh, you mean use the gray key...? Never!!

There's a setting in TK to disable the lopey idle.

 

[BrianDeTienne]

Well, it sounds like the guys at Victory are going to buy the track key software and send it to me and I''ll have to work with a local dealer to get it installed. I can deal with that.

 

[TMSBOSS]

Well, it sounds like the guys at Victory are going to buy the track key software and send it to me and I''ll have to work with a local dealer to get it installed. I can deal with that.

Victory near Chicago?

 

[BrianDeTienne]

Dyersville, IA