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329: Ford Programming Update
329: Ford Programming Update
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About this episode
The discussion focuses on recent changes and challenges in Ford vehicle programming software, including subscription updates, increased costs, and new login methods. The host explains the transition from old license keys to a new subscription model, troubleshooting tips, and how to transfer existing licenses. Additionally, the episode covers the impact on aftermarket tools like Autel for Ford security and immobilizer functions, emphasizing the need for proper authorization through NASTIF. The host also shares a unique case involving VIN issues during BCM programming and recommends Forescan as a helpful backup tool for Ford and Mazda diagnostics.
Topics:
ford programming software
subscription changes
license key transfer
diagnostic tools
ford security and immobilizer
nastif authorization
aftermarket tool limitations
bcms and vin issues
forescan tool
ford diagnostic challenges
Ford programming software (IDS/FDRS/FJDS) recently underwent a change in the method of subscription and access. What's the updated cost? What changed about the access? What challenges have we faced during this transition? Listen to find out
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Welcome to the Automotive Diagnostic Podcast.
We're going to explore ways to sharpen our diagnostic skills, find learning resources, and hear from
experts in the automotive field.
Hey, have you ever been faced with a challenge of sourcing, installing, and programming a used
control module in a vehicle?
I know a lot of us have.
It seems to be happening more and more often today with the volume of control modules
on vehicles, the cost of some new ones, or even the availability of new control modules
in some cases used may be the only option.
So what do you do here?
I strongly recommend checking out SJ Auto Solutions and Tommy Oliva.
Tommy offers a cloning service for used control modules to make these things plug and play
for the vehicle that you're working on.
In a lot of cases, he is also able to source the control modules if you're unable to
locate one for the vehicle that you're working on.
But once you get connected with Tommy, he's going to offer fantastic support from
start to finish to make sure that that control module is going to work in your application.
He's also got tech support that he offers through his website, along with some free resources
there as well on information about used control module programming.
So make sure to check out SJ Auto Solutions.
I can't recommend that enough.
Hey, what's going on?
Automotive World.
Welcome to another episode of the Automotive Diagnostic Podcast.
My name is Sean Tipping.
I'll be your host once again for this week's episode.
Thank you so much for joining me.
Just me on the show this week, and I'm going to update everybody on Ford programming
software and the challenges that many of us have been facing over the last month
or so.
If you don't do a ton of Ford programming, this might be new to you.
Maybe you've already gone through the challenges and hopefully come out on the other side
with functional software, or maybe you do it infrequently and you haven't touched base
with where they're at recently.
There are definitely some things that you want to know.
I guess otherwise, maybe you're just considering getting into Ford programming, and again,
they do have some updates with how they've managed the subscription, what you have to
do and the cost.
So I should probably promise what we use primarily is we've done the yearly subscription
for IDS and FDRS.
Now this is still true today, but both of those softwares come together under one subscription.
So it used to be, there was a yearly script.
It was somewhere between $900 and $1,000 after it was all said and done.
And you get access to both of those softwares.
It used a 20 digit license key, at least for logging into IDS.
You would still do an actual login with FDRS.
And just to clarify, IDS is Integrated Diagnostic Software, FDRS is Ford Diagnostic and Repair
System.
So FDRS is for newer vehicles, roughly 2018 and up, although they didn't transfer all
of them.
There's a chart on Ford's website that tells you, we'll talk about that.
But you get both the softwares for the same subscription.
You could do all the diagnostics.
You could do all the programming that you want within that year.
There's no specific VIN limitation or there's no limitation per the amount of cars that
you do in that time.
You could do one or you could do $5,000 as long as you paid that yearly script.
It didn't matter to Ford, which is actually still true.
They haven't changed that aspect of it.
But in case you don't program with Ford's, that's the setup.
And again, this would cost you roughly $900 to $1,000 a year.
You get a 20-digit license key that you would put on to a laptop.
And then that laptop was the one that you were going to use.
Now you could return that license and put it on another one, but you're only using one
laptop at a time for that.
And that was the method they used, I mean, as long as I've been programming with
it.
Now there was also FJDS, which is Ford J2534 diagnostic software.
And that would work with a J-box.
So the difference between the two is if you're going to use IDS, you needed the VCM2 or 3
or I guess even a 1, but that's the Ford programming interface, the red box that allows
you to connect to the vehicle, the VCI.
Where FJDS, the J2534 version, you could use any J-box that meets the requirements for what
they have, which is most of them.
And you were limited on the modules that you could do through FJDS, but you could do a short-term
subscription to that and get most stuff done.
You could run some security functions.
You could do PMIs on Powertrain, engine control, transmission control, that sort
of thing.
A few other ones were included in that, but you could do a short-term sub, and to be honest,
it's been so long since I did a short-term sub.
I want to say it was like $50, $80, something like that, where you could get it for I guess
more of a reasonable price.
And that's one of the bigger changes to what they have on their subscription side
of things.
So what they've changed to is there is one subscription now that'll get you
access to any of these softwares, whether it be FJDS or the combo of IDS and FDRS.
But the shortest subscription that you can do now is a two-day, which is $120.
You can do a month for $300 or you can do a year for $1,200, which is probably the
method that will go, is just buying the year.
And of course, the cost's gone up $300, but everything else has too.
So that part of it's not the end of the world.
But for people doing short-term subs just to get a solenoid strategy done or a powertrain
control module programmed, that price has gone up for a single module significantly because
a lot of shops and some that we service, like we've been getting calls on Fords quite
a bit more recently because even though the shops had the capability of doing it with
a Jbox, they would just buy the short-term sub.
Now that it's $120, it actually is more cost-effective to have us come do it for our price point.
So that is something to consider if you were doing the short-term subscriptions for particular
modules.
Of course, you got to look at to see what the volume of programming is in your shop,
what the capabilities are.
If you want to purchase that month and say, okay, well, we get at least four
or five of them within a month, then that monthly makes sense or does the yearly
make sense at that point because if you're doing enough, even though it's $1,200, you can
make that money back.
Plus you get all the diagnostics if you have the full IDS, DRS capabilities.
So again, that depends on what interface that you're using as well.
But with their update, it wasn't just that we were going to jump the price, they've
also switched to a login method that even with IDS, you're putting your forward username
and password in each time.
And this is where there was a lot of trouble.
Now they've had a variety of issues with just the software itself and connecting to
the server to get the programming data and the as-built data.
That's been an issue.
I think they've cleared that up with the newest version, which is 132.04.
So if you're running an older version than that, it might tell you like, hey, you can't
run this software anymore, but there seem to be issues with accessing or connecting
to the forward server to get the programming data that you needed in order to program.
Some of them, IDS just wouldn't start up.
Some of them, it would give you login errors.
But again, with the 132.04, they seem to have cleared up most of that where the other
issue was, and this was an issue that we had as well.
And so for anybody who's just hasn't been using their forward software for a while would
want to be aware of this.
If you had purchased the license at any point within the last 12 months, going
back to like October 1st, and you purchased a yearly license, okay, so you spent
that $900, you got IDS, FDRS for a year.
And that license key, that 20-digit license key is good.
They will honor that 12 months.
So let me give you an example.
Let's say you bought it in August, right?
It would be good until August 26, but it is a 20-digit license key, which the
newest version, the 132.04, does not use that.
You have no place to put that number in in order to get into IDS and activate that.
So what do you do?
How do you use the time that you have on that license key?
Because again, Ford will honor that.
What you're going to have to do is get a hold of Ford, and I'll give you some
information on how to do that.
And they have to manually transfer that purchase to this new account version that they're
using or this subscription model that they're using.
So how you're going to do this is just about everything you're going to need is accessed
through MotorCraftService.com.
And if you've done stuff with Ford, you probably are familiar with the website, and you
most likely have an account there.
I think you have to have an account there in order to log into FDRS.
But MotorCraftService.com, and you're going to log in, although you can access
a lot of the stuff through the site without logging in.
But in order to check your subscription and stuff like that, you'll need to be logged in.
So where you want to go, if you're looking for any details on stuff on this website is
the very top page.
Once you're in, you'll see diagnostic tool support, and you'll see the software
where you can break down the different versions, IDS, FGADS, FDRS.
You can see what vehicles they apply to, what you're able to do with FJDS versus the others.
There's coverage list for FJDS.
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So I highly recommend you check this out.
The link is in the show notes.
If you go to the tab that says Ford Diagnostic Subscription, that's not only where you're
going to purchase whatever link subscription that you want, but right now there are a bunch
of helpful tabs there if you're having issues.
So again, let's say you already made your purchase in August and you're like, well,
I don't want to spend another $1,200.
You don't have to right now.
You will at next August, you're going to have to move to this new version, but
you could still use your existing one if it has time on it.
And this is where you're going to have some helpful links here.
So there's a job aid for purchasing the Diagnostic Subscription.
There's some communication resources of how you can reach out to people at Ford that
will be able to help you.
And then there's one, then this is the one that we had to follow in order to
get ours working because what happened was we had our old version that we had purchased,
but then we couldn't access it through the new software.
So we were basically locked out of our Ford software for about a week here trying to
figure this out.
So there's a tab that says customers having issues finding their existing subscriptions.
So you just click on that and it opens up a PDF which has a ton of useful information
on how to get this set up, and it has some contact for you to get a hold of people that
can help transfer your license over.
There is another one that the one that says aftermarket subscription communication.
That's going to have a whole lot of useful information as well, along with a procedure.
That's under note two of that document that has you do a uninstall a reboot of the PC running
what's called the IDS cleanup utility.
And for a period of time, it actually had this IDS cleanup utility that you could download
right from the Ford website.
But right now, as of 1130 2025, I actually don't see the link.
But if you Google IDS cleanup utility, you can find it there and download it.
A lot of you have already had it, but this procedure has you run this cleanup utility before
you continue on with the installation process.
And this is basically wiping stuff from the old version of IDS before it loads up the
new one.
And this process is part of getting rid of some of the errors that people were encountering.
So take a look at these documents and read through and look at the processes.
And then you can also find the contact information if you need assistance or like I say, you need
the license transferred.
And that was one thing we weren't able to do on our own is we had to reach out to
somebody at Ford.
They had to get it transferred over.
Even then we did have some issues again with the newest version.
It seems to be sorted out.
It seems to be working okay.
So that's all stuff that we've been dealing with on the Ford software side of things.
Now, in addition to that over the last few months, if you do any Ford security, anti-theft
key work, parameter resets that are involved with replacing control modules, and you used
aftermarket tooling, particularly the Autel IM series, they recently have taken away
a lot of the key and immobilizer functionality out of the software for Ford.
It's not 100% gone, but it's dramatically reduced from what it used to be on Ford's.
Autel used to be a great tool, even for newer Ford's for adding keys, performing parameter
resets on ones that would normally require a NASTIF login.
That's been taken away Autel's trying to appease the manufacturers by not putting
stolen immobilizer software on their tools.
And so we're losing those functions out in the field if you've been relying on them.
Now, the Ford software does have these functions built in.
However, if it's a NASTIF vehicle, then you're going to have to get the owner authorization.
Obviously, you need to be a VSP with current NASTIF credentials to be able to log in
for these functions.
But it does add a step if you were used to using the Autel to do some of these functions.
Now, you need the Ford version.
Again, it works, but you're going to have to do that extra step of making sure that you
get the customer information on every car.
Now, it's still good practice to do so anyways, but for parameter resets on powertrain control
modules, we weren't always doing that because they're just replacing a control module.
Now, if it requires a security function, we need to get that information so that we can
file the D1 with NASTIF.
So that might be an obstacle for you as well.
Now, there are other tools out there that will work with Ford immobilizer systems.
I have a couple.
They've been OK with keys, the parameter reset one, we've just been relying on Ford
software now and we're just doing the process of like, hey, if you can't get us on our
authorization, then I don't know what to tell you if you have to figure it out some other way.
We're not, you know, screwing around, trying to go out of our way to not get the information.
It doesn't make sense as a business, like it covers us to have that information anyways,
you know, that we've got the authorization to do these.
So we're just we're doing it that way.
We've got the process down the file of D1s pretty smoothly now and it's working
out just fine that way.
Plus the doing the parameter resets on the newer Ford's it's faster that way
because I tell would make you wait 10, 15 minutes to do it even on the newer ones
where these ones it's just a login and you're done.
And that's it.
We did have an interesting issue on a fusion recently where we were doing a BCM
and it was a remand part they bought off of eBay, but it somehow triggered two
different VIN numbers to pop up in the the VSP transactions of the SDRM website.
And I'd never seen that before.
And the people at NASDAF were also confused by it.
And so I had to get the log from IDS to say, hey, look at this is the time
stamp of when, you know, your VSP transactions were generated.
And the car I was working on and we looked at the IDS log.
OK, here's where I did because it made me do multiple logins on this car.
And I'm guessing I mean, I I'm pretty certain one of these triggered a second
VIN even though the log for IDS didn't show a second VIN number.
I'm guessing the module must have had it in there.
It was very interesting scenario.
And we just called NASDAF and emailed back and forth with them
and it was handled, but there was a few extra steps that we had to do.
Anyways, just something else to be aware of.
Again, if you haven't been doing a ton of Fords lately, there are some new
obstacles or things to be aware of as you go in to the programming.
Last note that I'll have is Forescan.
I've mentioned that before. That's definitely a useful tool.
It's really helped us out both with Ford and Mazda vehicles in certain
situations. There's, you know, some things where it's more user friendly.
Some things where you're able to do some custom things, which are very helpful.
It's not an end all be all.
There are some restrictions now with purchasing the license
due to the geographical location and the sanctions on Russia.
If you do some digging out there, you can figure out how to get a license.
Still, it's still possible.
That's a useful backup, in my opinion, but it won't do everything.
There's limitations and there's things that you're going to need.
The Ford factory software for, but I do always like having a backup.
So again, if you're doing a ton of Fords, it's worthwhile seeking out
getting Forescan capability as well, in addition to that factory software.
So that's where I'm going to wrap it up today. Nice, short and sweet.
If you got anything else to add to Ford programming or something
that you've run across, don't hesitate to reach out or post it up in the
Facebook group. The link is in the show notes.
But other than that, let's all get out there, start fixing the world one car at a time.
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