I'm planning on disconnecting my battery from my truck on put it on charge with the Battery Tender Plus for a week, just to keep the battery at 100%. If I do this will that hurt the OBC memory? I have a 1999 ford f150, this wouldn't erase the computers memory so bad that the truck would have to be reprogrammed at a dealer would it?

Thanks for any info.....

 

All that would happen is it would have to relearn your driving habits. For a few days it might run kind of funny, but it should correct itself in a couple of days.

 

On top of that, the emission controls will have to recalibrate themselves again. There's nothing you need to do except driving the car as usual - the ECM monitors the driving conditions while looking for a specific pattern (such speed for such time, then accelerate, stop, idle for x seconds ... that kind of stuff). If you ever had your car tested for emissions, the driving pattern they put the car through in the shop is very similar.

Having said that, don't take the car to an emission inspection right after you reconnected the battery, or you may fail it. Some OBD scanners - such as ScanGauge - will tell you if the engine is ready for an emissions test or not. The driving cycle that the ECM needs to see is listed in some manuals, if you need it let me know so I can dig for it and post it.

 

Always heard about "re-learn" after batt. disconnect, but have never had anything really out-of-line happen, mainly a bit slow to get back to normal idle speed, a few minutes, was all.

Ford's "Adaptive Strategy" allows the computer to kinda "adjust" itself to individual driving habits, but think about it: computer "learns" one driver, then another takes the wheel, different driving habits, maybe, altogether. How about rental cars? Different driver maybe everyday.

BTW, ever see one of those people who "get on the gas", then let off awhile, then repeat again, over and over, every couple of seconds or so? Such driving causes the torque converter clutch to go nuts, engaging and disengaging every time the gas pedal is stroked.

Sumthin', eh? imp