Auto Performance Chips??

Early B.

Has anyone installed one of those performance chips in their vehicle? If so, what was your experience?

There are tons of them on ebay for about $25 - $30. I don't know anything about them. Just wondering if it's worth it.

Thanks.

Serendipity

I did a google search and it seems to be a scam. See the following:

http://www.carbibles.com/fuel_engine_bible_pg3.html

To quote from the website, "This is a great scam doing the rounds of ebay in Europe. Search for "mod + 20 bhp" and you'll see literally hundreds of these things going very cheaply. (Better still click here to pop up a new browser window with the search in it). If you are suckered into buying one of these, you'll get a kit containing a resistor that you connect to the positive line of your air intake temperature sensor. The idea is that it fools the ECU into thinking the air charge is colder than it actually is. So why does they claim this works? The claim is that the ECU will be fooled into increasing the fuel in the fuel-air mixture making the engine rev better, and adding 20bhp to the power.
Of course like all these scams, that's not quite the case. First of all, it's the air which would make the engine run better, not the fuel. That's why turbos and superchargers push more air into the cylinders. By running more fuel, you basically run a richer engine which makes the engine run cooler. As well as that, all EFI engines have lambda sensors to measure the actual fuel-air ratio and the ECU takes this reading and adjusts the fueling accordingly. It doesn't simply do it from the intake air temperature. So if you fit one of these devices, this is what happens:
1. The ECU gets a reading from the IAT, and adds more fuel.
2. The Ecu then gets the actual fuel-air ratio info from the lambda sensor, realises it's over fueling and cuts the amount of fuel it puts in.
3. The cycle repeats until the excess fuel totally destroys your expensive catalytic convertor.
4. The ecu will also adjust the igniton timing everytime it gets new info. This means the ignition map is constantly changing which could eventually cause the engine to knock/pink, but will certainly make it run rougher than a tractor.

As with most of these scams, there's a Q&A associated with them designed to make you believe the device will work. In this case, it looks something like this. I've debunked each Q&A on a per-item basis.

What is this Device? It is a resistor chip that gives out a constant reading of air temperature to your ECU.
Sorry, it isn't. It's a 40¢ resistor that lowers the voltage coming from the sensor. A chip is made of silicon and has many layers of circuitry laid out in it, and it requires a special plug - similar to the chip inside your PC or the ECU in the car.

Will my car accelerate faster with this electronic device? Yes! This is the whole point! It has been dyno proven that this device will add up to 20 HP to your vehicle!
Really? Because the dyno graphs on e-bay are so obviously faked that I'd believe an untrained 3-year-old could do a better job. I'd like to see actual proof of this from a reputable dyno shop.

Will this device damage my car? Absolutely not. Since the altered signal will always stay within the manufacturer's specifications, there is no way for your engine to get damaged in any way.
Yeah - not technically true. You are fooling the engine into thinking it has a cooler air charge, therefore the fueling will be altered beyond the manufacturers specification for the given air temperature, and that could damage your engine.

Like I've said above in this page - if this really worked, why wouldn't the car manufacturers simply re-map their ECUs to perform like this? Or add this resistor to their circuits themselves? Simple - because it does not work." (Longhurst, 3)

blakeh

I had a 2001 Audi S4 that I had a chip in and it increased the HP by about 30. But, that kind of HP increase usually only happen when you're running a car with a turbo in it (the chip increases the boost). Most normally aspirated engines would probably only see a 5-10HP at the most.

That being said, depending on the chip, it may give you more performance outside of just HP numbers. For instance, if you have an automatic, sometimes the chips will change your car's shift points so that it shifts more aggressively.

There are a lot of chips out there for a lot of cars and it would be hard to sum them all up in one post.

AALEE

I thought the same thing about a year ago, bought a JET but never iinstalled it. My dealer installed an upgraded computer performance chip that was reconized by Jeep so I never over rode it with mine. It still sits in my storage. Thier upgrade did add punch to acceleration. I also added a new fresh air intake and noticed immediate power. I am thinging about changing my exhaust to an after market to gain mor HP, but why? Just sell the thing and get something you are content with. I thought this was a audio thread. The performance chip will not increase your audio performance, so don't get it.

Serendipity

Oops, I was referring to the ones that you can find on ebay for a few dollars. I don't think those work but I guess some chips do make a difference.

audiobliss

Oh yeah, you can definitely get chips that change various settings (timing, air/fuel mixture, shift points, shift firmness, etc), but they'll cost north of $100, if not even more.

Face

The only "chip" I'd ever have done is a dyno tune using a wideband O2.

Except for forced induction vehicles, most cars are pretty optimized from the factory. You'd be lucky to see more than 10-15 hp. Once you start modifying a car, such as a larger cam, headers, ported heads, intake manifold, etc..then you'll see larger gains. Then again, after most of those mods, a "tune" is almost always required to retain drivability.

exalted512

What kind of car are we talking about? If youre talking about a diesel, a programmer will make it seem like a new truck, but as with anything, it all depends on the equipment used.
-Cody

Sami

An ECU replacement will run you several hundreds, and in most cases are not worth it. If you have a turbo car, you can get a lot of gain out of them. My old A4 1.8T, I put in a chip for about 50hp increase and while I didn't dyno it, I think it delivered what it promised.

Free breathing cars, only thing they can do is play with timing and fuel delivery so expect only minimal gains and increase in fuel consumption.

Systems

From my Subby Sti days (sold about 2 years ago) it’s pretty well known now that chips don’t do much for most cars. It takes a LOT to crack a good fuel map without massive problems on today’s CPU's that are pretty much as efficient as it can get. They still work well with turbo cars by pretty much doing nothing much more then adding PSI to the stock turbos. Aka today that still works well on cars like turbo Subby's, Audis and the new BMW 335. However, in most cases they need to be done in conjunction with a decent amount of upgrades and even at that the cpu needs to be tuned for that engine specifically at that point. It’s all engineering now.

If not done right now-a-days.. Engine = blown real fast. The Sti's were a good example, they were blowing a lot of engines when it first came out tweaking.

The key to car sup ups that most people don’t see is engine problems. Everybody hears that this car and that car got supped up and got this much hp and that much faster quarter. But that’s all you see. You don’t hear 3 months down the road that the engine poped.

I headed up a world nation wide car club with 25000 members for a good 5 years and I saw the flip side of modification. You meet guys with damn fast cars that they strapped turbos on but in face they will tell you that they were on their 3rd engine already in a year

Face

The LSX world(LS1, 2, 6, 7, and maybe 3 now) has excellent after market support as far as tuning goes.

Luckily one of the best tuners, The Vette Doctors, are local to me.