Is there any harm in doing a hard reset on my 98 XK8 for no reason other than because I can?
I'm the second owner in its 18 year history with 40k miles on the odometer.

We all have different drive styles, and was wondering if there would be any benefit, OR can I cause harm and raise an issue that may not be there at the moment?

 

Did a reset last week. Bear in mind you have to reset everything again. Memory of the seats, window settings, radio code. A think you will be better of if you don't do a reset.

 

It shouldn't do any harm other than wasting time.

A hard reset clears memorised settings for window drop, seats etc and adaptations for fuel trims back to default values.

As far as I recall from transmission documents, it does not reset transmission adaptations.

It also does not clear stored and pending DTC error codes. You would need to do this with a scantool.

Graham

 

It SHOULD be harmless but in very RARE cases you have some oddball issue that then prevents the OBD monitors from setting. That then tends to make fault-finding hard.

If I wanted to do it (I don't), first I'd check fuel trims and that there are no pending codes.

 

You could argue it both ways. Since your car is new to you, If it would make you feel better psychologically to 'start with a clean slate', go for it. On my car this requires resetting the windows, re-inputting the radio code, and readjusting the bass/treble controls (station presets remain stored). I can't address stored seat position setting since I don't make use of this function.

The flip side of the argument is, 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it'.

 

I don't mind resetting windows, and radio.
But what exactly else is going with the reset?

 

It clears the (PCM's) learned values and all the OBD monitors.

If there were any (pending or real) faults you can (rarely) end up not getting the OBD monitors to set and it may thus be unable to flag codes. Troubleshooting becomes awkward...

So long as that doesn't happen then after a few drives (or the drive cycle) you'll end up back where you started before disconnecting the battery.

 

If you've been driving the car for more than a few weeks, it's already learned 99% of your driving habits.

The idea of doing hard resets is foreign to me. Maybe it comes from people who are used to certain old versions of Microsoft Windows that needed to be restarted every day or two just to avoid a blue screen.

 

I'd go with that, too.

BTW, there are lots of things a hard reset does NOT clear. Most modules have non-volatile memory and can only be cleared with the likes of a dealer tool (if you have any need to clear them which generally you don't).

 

I've decided to leave matters alone.
Car's running nice. Smooth idle, lots of pep, and very responsive.

After redoing the suspension, it's time to enjoy my "new car"

 

Sounds good Anthony. Reminds me of myself 3 years ago. Just bought a 1998 with 40,000 miles. Problem is, these are so fun to drive and they put you in a good mood, I've put 50,000 more miles on her in 3 years. It sure was cool to be able to say "only 40,000 miles", I miss that.

I think you are in Tri-state area too. Take photos now, you're going to have door dings you never expected. Sometimes I wonder "how long has that been there/where did it happen?"

Enjoy mate, the folks here will help you get through any mechanical headaches I've ever seen.
John