So is the claim in the ad that it doesn’t interfere with the warranty a lie, then? Because I have a hard time believing that a normal car maker would not void the warranty if unapproved gadgets tinker with their specialized, tested, settings that are optimized for the engine. Maybe you get more perfomance at the cost of damages to the engine.
Just to add to the consensus that engine re-mapping is quite well established here in the UK amongst enthusiasts. Not that expensive, either - it’s not $70, probably a few hundred.
I have a VAG group 1.9 TDI engine in my car that is a common substrate for a remap. Sticking an extra 70 bhp on top sounds like it might be good for a laugh, until you think that I’d be driving a powerful car around with the brakes, tyres, suspension, transmission etc of a basic family hatchback. Doesn’t strike me as such a good idea unless you’re really into maxing out the performance of your car in toto.
Also insurance implications - I believe there would be consequences to your coverage if you were in a crash and it became apparent that your engine had been re-mapped. No idea how likely it would be for this to be discovered.
Legit remapping is legit, and non-legit remapping isn’t. Good chips are expensive, and so is custom reprogramming by an engine shop.
One need only enter a professional engine shop and watch an engine – maybe their engine – be dynoed and tuned electronically. Often, you creep out a few HP. Peak HP ain’t the whole story. There are things called power curves and drivability and what not. Yeah, that’s right… things… like that. 
Seriously… I’ve just had a marine engine rebuilt… all 8.2L/502 cubic inches of it. Chevy/Mercruiser engine. Dynoed. Tweaking the engine computer put up HP from 415 to 425… but that was the end/foot notes to the day. The issue at hand was about power curve, and one that put torque where it was wanted/needed. Sucker could smack down 450-500 HP like it was nothing, but the wrong mapping would push torque too far up in the curve. She’s better with lower numbers overall, but a beast of a power curve: Power everywhere in the RPM range.
Good intake, cams, exhaust… they all feed into, and off of, reprogramming.
Wait, they’re “custom tuned, designed and tested per application”, but they’re also “designed to work with any car in any weather condition and with any combination of different engine modifications”? Which is it?
The chip you posted is a scam (the fact that they advertise a chip for the $1,200,000 Bugatti Veyron is a dead giveaway). However, there are many “performance” chips/reprogrammers out there that are not. They are all targeted towards specific engines in specific cars, and include revised programming designed to deliver higher performance at the expense of fuel economy and/or long-term durability.
The most well-known chip for my car (2003 BMW 325Ci) seems to do little more than tweak the throttle response and increase the RPM limit to 7000 from 6500.
Turbocharged engines are especially amenable to aftermarket reprogramming. Most turbochargers now use electronic systems to control the boost pressure delivered to the engine. Increasing the boost is often just a matter of reprogramming the ECU - instant horsepower.
This is especially popular for engines that operate at low boost to begin with, in which case increasing the boost slightly can result in huge performance gains, with (hopefully) little effect on engine durability. My friend’s BMW 335i came from the factory with 300 hp and 300 ft-lbs of torque. 20 minutes in the shop for a reprogram and it leaves with 380 hp and 400 ft-lbs of torque. Freaking nuts.
If you decide to get one of these chips, buy one from a well-known company that makes chips specifically for your brand of vehicle (most aftermarket tuners specialize in just one or two makes exclusively). It takes a lot of work to do better than the factory when programming these things, and you want someone who knows what they’re doing and has a reputation in the market to protect.
you can see significant power gains with a chip under the following conditions:
- you have forced induction (turbo/supercharging)
- the chip is able to increase the amount of boost,
2a) without exceeding the limits of the related sensors (MAP,TIP, etc.) - you use a fuel with an octane rating that precludes pre-ignition or detonation.
Most chips for naturally aspirated engines aren’t worth the bother.
I’ll also add that all of these modifications will void your warranty, no question. However, certain aftermarket companies will provide their own warranty and guarantee to match the factory warranty coverage if such coverage is denied because of the modification.
Dinan does this for BMWs. I don’t know about other tuners for other brands, but I’m sure there are some.
Provided no other work was done to the engine.
With a spark ignition engine, you can’t get very much more power out without drawing in more air, and it is pretty hard to improve a normally aspirated engine using software. One thing that can help the car accelerate better is to delay the up-shifts so the engine revs higher. Not good for fuel economy, but impresses the butt dyno.
Turbo charged engines often limit boost, and as mentioned above, you can push the boost higher with high octane fuel, water injection, or improved charge cooling. (intercooling)
Diesels can benefit a great deal. Many pickup truck diesels are de-tuned to help the transmission survive longer. If you don’t mind tearing up your transmission, it is possible to gain a LOT of power. No only are they turbocharged, but diesels are lean burn engines, so there is normally plenty of air just waiting for more fuel to burn. It is also possible to burn up your exhaust valves if you don’t keep an eye on EGT.
Bought a new truck in March (Dodge Quad-cab, Hemi). Summarizing the fine print* on my warranty: “If you chip it, don’t ever call us 'cause you’re on your own. It ain’t our problem anymore.”. They used fancier language, but that sums it up pretty well.
*Yes. I read every page of the warranty, and the entire owner’s manual, cover to cover. I do a lot of trailering and didn’t want to invalidate any warranties.
They do this anyway. Just about every car I’ve ever been in, if you hold the accelerator to the floor, it’ll wait on each upshift until the engine RPM’s hit the redline.
Or are you talking about tweaking the shift points so that it delays shifts until the engine exceeds redline? That would require chipping the engine (to overcome the rev limiter) as well as the transmission control unit (unless those two computers are integrated these days, which would mean a single chip could conceivably do the job).
The problem is that engine torque and power fall off rapidly once the engine gets much past redline, so there really isn’t much to be gained by doing any of this.
If you make it so that less than full throttle is required for the delayed upshifts, then the driver well sense that he is getting “high performance” and not even having to floor it. Essentially you are making the throttle more sensitive, which will be perceived as extra power.
This is actually VERY useful when towing a trailer uphill, where the engine does not have enough power in high gear. Normally it shifts back and forth, but the chipped ECU will hold the lower gear without shifting constantly. Yes you can manually shift the transmission down, but so few drivers are willing to do that the lower gears were discribed as “useless feature” in a recent IMHO thread.
Some chip makers whose products offer little real-world benefits can legally claim they boost peak H.P., especially if the programming allows the engine to spin past redline (which is sometimes the practical limit set by the manufacturer, rather than a technical engine limit that risks valve float, performance drops, oil starvation, etc).
A certain engine/trans combo might be chipped for the health of the trans, limiting engine RPM at wide open throttle so the tranny can deal with it. A given 330 HP engine might be capable of 360 HP at 6500 RPMs, but shifts at 6000 RPMs because this works better with the transmission and helps the longevity of said tranny.
If a chip maker can unlock a few hundred RPM, they might not not exceed the technical limits of the engine, and easily uncork some peak HP (they are usually up there near redline). Meanwhile, the trans life is shortened and they advertise ‘almost 10% more horsepower!’. In the real world, it gets you just about nuttin’.
…except for grief.
.
Haha, this looks like a SCAM website with NO product after you pay them. I checked it out for one of my cars, an LS1 Trans Am and it’s listed at $69 with the same picture of a chip that looks like it belongs in a 1980’s computer. There are power programmers for my car, but they plug into the OBDII test port. I’ve had a Hypertech programmer and it was $300 new (bought it for $160 used, sold it for $150 later on when I bought a better tuner for $600, HP Tuners).
But chips & power programmer usually do work. Sometimes they don’t. The Hypertech did work for a little while in terms of better throttle response and noticeable power increase…but then it tripped the knock sensor, which caused the PCM to go to the low timing table, which cuts timing to prevent possible, serious motor damage but it also caused a lost of significant power over stock.
In general, a chip or a plug in programmer with canned tunes, will increase timing to raise power and also gain fuel efficiency. The factory setting is very conservative. The air/fuel ratio is rich, to stay safe and the timing is at a medium, safe level, so the car is not operating at it’s peak fuel efficiency nor power…in order to lessen under warranty repairs. Often, dealers will cut even more timing after they’ve sold you the car. The demo might be badass though, with jacked up timing.
A chip alone will not do much on a wimpy Civic with wimpy base power. On forced induction cars, they will though. Same thing, the factory will tune down supercharged & turboed cars (even more so) to a safe setting, leaving lots to be gained with a chip. Some, but not all b/c a canned chip can’t account for all cars being different, different climate where it’s driven, different driver’s habits, etc. so the canned chip can’t go too radical as it will very dangerous on an FI car.
The best tuning is the custom dyno tunes done by performance shops. For older cars, they custom burn a chip that piggybacks onto your computer. Or they reprogram through the OBDII test port for newer cars. The car is put on a dyno, and ran through the RPMs while the tuner sets the air/fuel ratio, etc. at the level of your choice (street tune, race tune, or w/e) while accounting for air temp, fuel type, etc. Cost for my 530 HP Cobra was $1100 (parts/labor). Retunes after the first initial setup is $300-600 depending on how much more modifications I put on later. The chip was mandatory since I spent $6k on the built motor, $8k on the S/C, $2k misc parts, etc. But on a wimpy, econocar, a $300 chip might gain 3-5 BHP (not the BS that they advertise) and a custom dynotune, 5-10 BHP.
The best thing is to research for enthusiast forums for your type of car and do a search on what others think, which chip to get or none at all. If you have a very popular car, there will be tons of input & advice. Usually, money is better spent on other mods, such as exhaust (if it’s not done yet). Some cars you can just crank up the timing with a timing light and net the same gains of a chips or even better.