I found an ad telling me that for $69.95 I can purchase a performance chip that will increase my horsepower (by up to 60%), increase my gas mileage (by 4-7 mpg) and lower my emissions. Seems like a good deal, AND it comes with a money-back guarantee. I’ve heard of these (dim recollections from my teen years) but I don’t know if I’ve every actually known anyone that has one and can actually vouch.
The premise seems sound enough, but I’m skeptical.
So, what’s the straight dope? Are these things for real? I’m not asking for anyone to vouch specifically for this web site or manufacturer, rather the chips themselves (in a more general sense).
It looks scammy to me. I can’t find a picture of the product anywhere, and that’s probably because it’s just a magnet.
Their FAQ says their device intercepts and modifies the signals between the engine management module and the devices it’s controlling, and that it’s ‘non-intrusive’. Were I a betting man, my money would be firmly on this being a magnet in a box that does bugger all.
I ditto the BS. There are too many difinitive words for my comfort:
“absolutely no negative side effects”
“a ‘ZERO’ risk installation, and is guaranteed not to interfere with your factory warranty on your vehicle.”
“designed to work with any car in any weather condition and with any combination of different engine modifications”
I wonder how anything that will “reprogram your ECU” wouldn’t void a warranty.
I have one for my Dodge Ram 1500. It has improved the responsivness of the truck overall but actually lowered the fuel economy slighly. I knew this going into it that mileage would either stay the same or decease slighly and I am fine with that since the responsivness is much better. Most of the higher quality “chips” ($250-$450) do not guarantee any fuel economy improvment, but rather performance improvement, often at the cost of decreased mileage.
There is no free lunch. An engine with certain specs can be “improved” by computer code only so much. I would be leery of any cheap chip that boasts so much “improvment.”
Most ECUs don’t actually dynamically calculate the spark advance, injector pulse width, etc… they simply look up a value based on the current inputs.
From what I understand, the performance chips don’t “reprogram” anything; they just contain optimized lookup tables for performance as opposed to the usual tables optimized for fuel economy.
I think that there’s some circuitry that tells the ECU to use the tables on the chip instead of in its own memory. Once you take the chip out, the ECU reverts back to normal. I suspect this is functionality for dealership/factory upgrading and testing that happens to be useful for aftermarket people as well.
The modules fit onto the ECU external data connector, or at least the one on my old Ford Ranger did.
It also made a noticeable difference in the driveability, at least as far as the butt dyno could read.
There are real ones. GM Performance Parts (a branch of General Motors if it’s not clear) for example, sells a “tune” for some GM vehicles that does everything it says, is installed by the dealer and keeps the warranty.
Note that scamers are quite willing to promise a money-back guarantee; that doesn’t mean that you actually get your money back. What guarantee do you have beside the company promising you earnestly that totally they will give the money back and not vanish to the Bermudas laughing all the way?
Is there a real street adress for the company?
I’m not in any way an expert on cars, but I do know one thing: most major European and Japanese car makers are spending millions of Euros on Research to spend less fuel for years, because the gasoline price is so high in Europe that both consumers and lawmakers demand optimum effiency. We have 5 liter cars (47 mpg) and try to get to 3 liter (78 mpg), although the Auto Club caution that the rate the car makers get in the test lab is not the same as driving in a city.
And some guys in a garage find a better solution for 70 bucks that works on all vehicles, despite the wide difference? Some have TDI, others have similar highly complicated electronics, developed by the carmaker for this particular model, to optimize explosion power.
So how could this chip work? Plug and play is for PCs, not for cars. It would need a huge database for all different models of carmakers to really work.
As for not interfering with the warranty - either they don’t interfere because they don’t do anything, or they are lying. Or both.
Oh, and another big problem: a chip might optimize the explosion point - that’s what the electronics already in there by the car-makers do. But I see no way it could simoultanesly also reduce emission - that happens with a catalysator at the other end. No way can a chip cause the explosion/ burning of a complicated fossil hydrocarbon to happen cleaner to reduce emissions.
It doesn’t pass the smell test. If they really could do all of that, wouldn’t you think they’d be selling the technology to the auto manufacturers wholesale rather than selling it retail? I mean, most auto manufacturers would sell their first-born child if they could improve the mileage of their cars by 4-7MPG while also reducing emissions and improving horsepower.
How is it actually installed? Is it a box that you clip onto something (if so, does it run on batteries?), or do you plug something directly into a socket in the engine management hardware?
That is definitely a scam, as it claims to improve both performance and economy. Engine Control Unit mapping values are a compromise between the two. The ECU checks a number of parameters before deciding how much fuel to inject into the engine. A more aggressive mapping increases performance, at the cost of burning more fuel. The figures given (60% power and 4-7 mpg) are completely unrealistic. The car makes test and tune the ECU carefully to give a good blend of performance and economy. I also think the claim that it would not invalidate your warranty is also false.
Often, car engines in different models are physically the same, but the higher performance models run different ECU values.
Avoid any product that relies exclusively on testimonials (rather than objective test data).
For a complete list of aftermarket fuel saving technologies (and an informed discussion regarding whether or not they are bullshit), click here; The specific subsection on “chipping” is here.
It’s not going to improve performance and increase gas mileage but these thing do work to a limited extent depending upon what your expectations are.
I put one of Jet Performance’s modules in a V6 Firebird I used to have that I had a custom free flowing exhaust put on. It changed the range of fuel air mixture some to take advantage of the better flow and changed the shift points in the automatic transmission. When you jumped on the gas the car would run right up to the yellow line before shifting where the stock setting shifted at a much lower RPM. Definately made for more fun, and probably worse gas mileage. This product was a module with matching pins on each side, you disconnected the wiring harness from the PCM, plugged the module in, and then screwed the harness back on top. It fit between the wiring harness and the PCM body.
The one I bought cost some $300+ dollars and I was happy with the limited results. Then I moved on to V-8s. What in the world you are going to get for $69 I don’t know, not much. If you want performance you are better off to go to a local “tuner” who will run your car on a dyno and optimize settings based on your preferences. You can also buy a mail order “tune” that can be loaded onto a lap top computer and fed into your OBDII data port to program your PCM. As a general rule performance chips are laughed off the page of most car nut web sites in favor of a real tune by someone who knows what they are doing.
These things also depend upon whether your car’s PCM can be reprogramed at all, some can, some can’t. The OP didn’t indicate the vehicle application.
Speed = Money, how fast do you want to go? is the saying. If you want good gas mileage leave the damn thing the way it came from the factory, those settings are usually optimized for fuel economy.
Look around and you’ll find that some are definitely the real deal. The engine computer constantly and dynamically adjusts spark, fuel, air, and a lot of other stuff. A chip can change the programming to give you more power but less efficiency. Where chips will really help is in conjunction with other aftermarket performance parts.
Actually, proper aftermarket engine programming will improve both horsepower and fuel economy. Most aftermarket tunes are simply a moderate increase in timing advance and a leaner fuel air mix (i.e. less fuel in injected). The compromise in engine programming is not between horsepower and fuel economy but between performance and reliability. Advancing ignition timing and a lean fuel mix improves power and economy but increases the possibility of detonation. Factory fuel and timing maps purposely have leave some “margin” in their timing and fuel, running lightly less timing and more fuel (richer mix) than optimal, to avoid detonation in the case of, say, variation in fuel octane, or intake temperature, or to control NOx emissions, or any number of other things. By reducing these safety margins, both power and fuel economy can be improved. That’s essentially what the aftermarket stuff does.
It’s true that reprogramming the ECU can improve EITHER performance OR mileage, but not both. Increased performance comes with increased fuel useage. The fact that it’s claiming both means that it’s a scam.
Ding. I’ll add that most of these $70 generic chips do this by dickering with the sensor inputs rather than by overwriting the fuel and timing maps. They essentially trick the computer into being somewhere on the maps that leans out the mixture and/or advances the timing.
The thing you have to question is how much R&D did this company put into it? The automaker spent years and millions testing their cars in all environments, temperatures, pressures, altitudes, and engine loads. The chip company probably spent a couple days with the car, near sea level, probably at indoor room temperature. And once they figure out one variable (say, “we can reduce Toyota’s MAF input signal by 5% and we get good results”), they may just say “and that’ll probably work for all Toyota MAFs!” and not do any further testing.
So your butt dyno might feel great tooting around town, but when you load up the car with 500 lbs of extra junk and drive over the Rockies, the engine leans out and burns a up a valve or something.
That said, reputable tunes from reputable companies are usually designed to be paired with some other modifications (like Cobb) and/or for cars with turbos, where you can increase the boost pressure. And dollar for dollar, it’s the best money you can spend on a performance car.
Performance chips have been around for many years now. Some do add performance to your engine, however, the numbers the OP posted are far from accurate. These chips are most useful when other modifications have been made to the engine, and when premium fuel is used. I’d be real surprised to see any significant mileage improvement though, especially not anywhere near 4 to 7 mpg. Something that should be considered is that many times, increasing performance (horsepower) comes at the expense of driveability and reliability and potentially voiding a manufacturer warranty.
My vote, not snake oil, however, claims are highly exaggerated as to results.
It plugs into the ECU and writes over the factory settings. Takes about 10 minutes to install it. Factory settings can be restored in the same amount of time. Dodge Hemi engines do not allow a lot of “play” with their codes as much as Ford and Chevy do (so I have been told).