Active fuel management that is also commonly known as AFM, is a technology that is meant to improve the gas mileage of vehicles. This technology increases the gas mileage by deactivating about half the cylinders of the engine at times.
Although AFM seems to be great on paper, because of it a lot of people have faced huge engine failures and have had failed lifters. Hence, a lot of people have stopped using this technology. If you already have installed it, then you either have to delete it or disable it. To make your life easier, we will be showing you the entire process of how to disable active fuel management.
Should I Disable or Delete AFM?
If you want to be free of any problems that you could get because of AFM, you will have to either disable it or delete it. Both of these options are viable and will stop the job of AFM. However, the real question is which one is easier.
For those of you who have failed lifters, you will need to delete AFM. When deleting AFM, a lot of parts need to be replaced, and a lot of these parts are expensive and hard to find, not to forget that it requires much more labor.
On the other hand, disabling the AFM is cheap and a simple process. So, it is much more difficult than disabling the AFM. Therefore, we would recommend you disable the AFM instead of deleting it unless you have failed lifters.
You do have to keep in mind that there’s a small downside of disabling the AFM instead of deleting it, that is that your gas cost will increase a bit. This is because AFM reduces gas usage by around 5% to 15%. However, this sacrifice is absolutely worth it considering the damage that the AFM could do.
How to Delete AFM
As we have mentioned before, deleting AFM is a complicated and tedious process when compared to disabling it. Also, deleting it requires the replacement of quite a few parts which will be hard on your wallet. For this process, you will also be needing a disabler device or custom tune.
To start, you will have to get rid of the camshaft and use a non-AFM camshaft instead when you are deleting active fuel management. In this way, your engine will decrease the compression in the four cylinders by at least 25 pounds. Next, the AFM lifters should be exchanged with standard lifters.
After you have done that, you should swap out the valley cover for a non-AFM valley cover that is flat. You will also have to disable the AFM system when you are deleting it, so you will need a range technology disabler to do that. If you cannot find a Range Technology Disabler anywhere then you have the option to custom-tune the system out.
When you are done with deactivating the active fuel management system we would recommend you plug the pressure relief valve that is in the oil pan. To finish things off, you will have to install a standard oil pump and get rid of the high-volume oil pump in your car.
As you can see, this process is quite lengthy and can be complicated. If you are a newbie with cars and don’t usually work with them, then we would suggest you take your vehicle to a workshop in case your lifters fail. Nevertheless, learning this thing will help you with stopping AFM lifter failures.
How to Disable Active Fuel Management
We strongly believe that disabling active fuel management is a very easy solution to prevent any issues you could face due to it. For disabling it, you will have to get yourself an AFM disabler device like the Range Technology disabler. This device works by tricking the ECU of your vehicle to stay in V8 mode instead of shifting to V4 mode, which it does when AFM is enabled.
The AFM disabler is simply plugged into your vehicle by the OBDII port, and the device will start doing its job almost instantly. You will find the OBDII port right below the steering box. The reason why we recommend the Range Technology disabler over other AFM disablers is that it disables AFM without having to reprogram the ECU.
Reprogramming the ECU could be an issue at times because it will cancel any engine factory warranty that you might have left. So, if you have still had some engine warranty left then the Range Technology disabler is the way to go! A small thing to note is that this device comes in different colors, and there are lights on it which is really not a big deal.
The process of disabling the AFM is very simple as you can see, and it can be even done at home because all you need is an AFM disabler device.
Conclusion
From reading this article, we hope you are able to properly comprehend how to disable active fuel management system or even delete it if you need to. As you can tell deleting AFM is not a wise option unless you really have to, so make sure to always choose just disabling it if that’s possible. Also, before you act, make to find out if you have active fuel management system in your vehicle.
Deleting AFM can be confusing. So, if you’re not experienced with automobiles then take some help from professionals. On the contrary, disabling the AFM system is very easy if you just have an AFM disabler device.
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