chip

Hi again Bob.

Ive heard good and bad reports on the chips and to be honest,im not that technically minded.

You may find the answers your looking for on the RAC motoring chat forum.

Ive found them very helpful in the past.

Adrian

thanx once again bob

Hi Bob,

Not actually used one of these but after 40 years in the motor industry at manufacturer level would not reccomend chipping for the following reasons.

When a manufacturer determines the mapping for any vehicle they have to consider many elements. Power output relates directly to all elements of the vehicles performance. By this I mean suspension, brakes, drivetrain, gearbox, engine life, economy, fuel consumption etc,etc,etc. A manufacturer must select mapping to provide the optimum performance for all aspects.

It is comparatively easy to increase engine output but done without consideration of all other influencing factors will usually result in compromising one or more elements of the vehicle. If all you are concerned about is increasing towing performance in respect of power then you could chip. Is it worth Circa £300.00 to you to increase that performance without consideration of the other elements? If it is then chip but make sure that the chip supplier will give you a warranty on his equiptment as well as covering you for any consequential damage. After all the refund of £300 won't go far towards the cost of replacing the engine in a worst case scenario! Also check with your insurance company because you will have to tell them of the modification to the engine if you do chip.

.

My last car was remapped, and my current car has a tuning box on it, you can read all the horror stories, and I'm sure there are many, if your engine has a weakness then these modules will find it, but remember for every 1 horror story there are many happy customers, if you are asking me which is better, then remap without a doubt, my last car did 100k with me after remapping and is still going strong today, my current car has done 25kmiles on a tuning module so far so good, the difference these things make is amazing.

I'm in the proccess of remapping my Ford Kuga

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKONMNdNWEY&feature=fvwp&NR=1

You do it yourself, let you know how it goes.

.

Having just watched this on youtube,the best thing about it is the music.You certainly are not doing it yourself.You are just saving a keyboard warror from coming to your home.

This method is a very primative form of "pass through programming"and for the people who choose this product i just hope for their cars sake they dont recieve a corrupted data file on the download.Seriously risky bussiness.

I took my tuning box off my car today as I thought I'd do it properly and have the car remapped, I drove to their premises with the tuning module on , pulled up outside and un plugged my tuning module so I'd get a good indication of which is better, now it hasn't been on the car for 24hrs yet so I am going to give it time, but 1st impressions are that I've wasted alot of money, the remapped car feels smoother, yes, but compared to the tuning module it feels under powered and initial indications are that I'm not doing so well on Diesel...

Five years ago I bought an add on tuning box. Performance was excellent , diesel consumption not too badly affected. After two years , about 20k miles the Sorie started to smoke like a Cuban cigar. £600 later the exhaust recirculation valve and turbo intercooler pipes were changed everything back to normal. The box still lies on my garage shelf.

Just had mine remapped, what a difference [Ford Kuga] I can pull away in second gear when before it would stall. All manufacturers remap their models. They have to remap to take an automatic gearbox.

A friend of mine had his company car remapped, he was very impressed. His brother in law bought it off the company when it came up for renewal and he still has the car. Its now done 160.000 miles with no problems.

If its done properly then there is nothing to worry about.