johnnymk

By JIM MOTAVALLI

Published: February 13, 2004


WHEN Scott Farrell, a Coast Guard instructor in Newport News, Va., wanted a big power boost for his 1998 Volkswagen Jetta TDI, he didn't lower the suspension, install a hot camshaft or add a free-flow exhaust. Instead, he had a business-card size electronic part installed — a so-called "performance chip" designed to reprogram the car's engine control module to provide more horsepower. "It was a night-and-day difference," he said.

Mr. Farrell is just one of an increasing number of car owners using computer chips or software downloads to get better performance from their cars. E-mechanics are reprogramming systems to overwrite factory settings and take advantage of higher-octane gasoline. That allows advanced timing, increased power, sometimes even better mileage. Steve Dinan, founder of Dinan Engineering, a maker of high-performance parts for BMW's, said he now sells more than $1 million worth of chips annually — a significant share of what he estimates is a $20 million market.

But hacking your car's electronic brain isn't always as easy as it sounds. Installing a new chip can be a daunting job for the owner who tries to do it himself. Garage operators across the country say they are seeing more cars with burned-out engines, partly because reprogrammed chips sometimes supply too much fuel and allow turbo pressure to exceed recommended limits. And even if the engine seems to be running better, it could be running dirtier and might not pass some states' emissions tests.

Spencer Cox, the owner of Speedsport Tuning in Norwalk, Conn., said that he had recently towed in a Porsche 944 Turbo with $7,000 in engine damage. The owner had "bought a chip and other performance goodies online and installed them himself," Mr. Cox said. "For a week he had a big smile on his face because he gained 40 horsepower. But then it all blew up. It happens all the time." And in many cases, hacking the engine can void the warranty, leaving owners to pay for expensive repairs on their own.

Until the late 1970's, a car's fuel-and-air mixture was regulated by the carburetor, a relatively simple device as old as the automobile itself. But today's fuel injection systems are controlled by increasingly powerful onboard computers that regulate combustion efficiency, govern fuel economy and regulate emissions to federal and state standards. In most cases, when setting up a vehicle's computer, carmakers choose conservative settings that will allow the greatest gas mileage and cut down on maintenance problems, but will not always deliver the to-the-limits performance that owners want.

That makes the chips easy prey to laptop-equipped hackers and Internet entrepreneurs who promise to "put horsepower and torque increases at your fingertips," as the DiabloSport Predator describes it. Ranging from $200 to $500, these devices include install-it-yourself chips, hand-held gadgets that let owners dial in their preferred specs and computer downloads of performance-enhancing software. (Perhaps inevitably, the hacker culture has also produced automotive pirates who buy legitimate chips from makers then copy the programming onto blank chips, selling the results at sharp discounts.)

Playing e-mechanic is not necessarily for the novice. To get better performance out of his 1992 BMW 325i, Chris Cagnolatti of Long Beach, Calif., paid $125 for an Active Autowerke chip, then spent "two stressful days and nights of blood, sweat and tears working on a $1,000 computer module" before he had it installed. The result: excellent "bang for the buck," he said, though he doesn't know the actual amount of his power gain. Still not satisfied, Mr. Cagnolatti is now on his third software package, and is eyeing a device for BMW's that plugs into the car's diagnostic port "and uploads the new software in less than a minute," he said.

Partly to combat hackers, many carmakers are using encrypted chips in new models or, like Toyota, have done away with removable memory chips altogether. That has the e-mechanics shifting strategies, either by downloading new software directly into the computer's hard drive or attaching separate electronic devices that piggyback on the factory-installed control module and override it. Some of these devices alter the "rev limiter" that prevents engine speed from zooming beyond the red line or remove the speed governor that limits top-end performance.

Don Jolley, a production manager at Bully Dog Technologies in Aberdeen, Idaho, which makes performance parts for trucks (and sells more than 1,000 chips a month), compares some overenthusiastic e-mechanics to the rock musicians in the movie "This Is Spinal Tap," who buy custom-made amplifiers because they go up to "11" instead of the usual "10." "They think if a little power is good, than a lot must be great," Mr. Jolley said.

THEN there is the warranty issue. "We don't advocate the use of third-party components like performance chips because it means we lose control of the process," says Kevin McCormick, the manager of sales and service communications for DaimlerChrysler. "We don't know the standards to which other manufacturers are building their products."

Indeed, some performance buffs adopt a "don't ask, don't tell" attitude regarding their warranties and reinstall stock equipment before every dealer visit. Others wait until the warranty is about to run out before changing the chips.

"It definitely creates a concern with new cars," said Shaun Blanco, high-performance manager at Newins Bayshore Ford in Bay Shore, N.Y. "Do you really want to pay $25,000 for a new Mustang, which comes with a three-year, 36,000-mile bumper-to-bumper warranty, and run the risk of having Ford drop you like a bad habit?" (Some chip makers, like Dinan, offer their own warranties.)

Peter Cheuk of Daly City, Calif., is a computer technician, so installing his Upsolute chip wasn't a big deal. And he gained 18 horsepower and 70 foot pounds of torque in his modestly powered turbodiesel 1998 Volkswagen Jetta TDI. Still, he plans to return to the stock chip. He said that the problem was that, because he now drives faster, he lost 10 miles a gallon in fuel economy and, even worse, is now trailed by clouds of black smoke. "But if it wasn't for the smoke, I'd be happy with it," he said.

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Grubbie

Nice read, once I get a nice car I will probably look into one of these. It sucks to go out and spend the money on a nice car to be limited by the chip.

bachviet

Chips gain most on boosted car (turbo or SC) not on N/A cars.

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shoeish

My buddy chipped his jetta 1.8T, made a HUGE difference. +50hp and +70ft/lbs of torque.

I reflashed the computer in my 2003 3/4ton chevy silverado w/ the 6.0L. Made a big difference (they claim 30hp and 35ft/lbs) and got rid of that stupid 95mph limiter.

In a modern diesel truck, you can tack on an extra 100hp and 250ft/lbs of torque, safely, for only $800 or so.

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Shoe

2003 BMW M3
2008 BMW 335i hardtop convertible w/ Dinan Stage 2
2008 Toyota Tundra Extended Cab 4x4 5.7

Horsepower is fun.

StonedWheat

Good read. The article is making me rethink reprogramming my cars ECU. Many people in the WRX community are eagerly awaiting this thing called an AccessPort by Cobb tuning, which is coming out later this month. You can switch between maps at any time by connecting to the diagnostics port in the dash, choosing the map, then disconnecting the AccessPort. It's also a diagnostic reader. Pretty good for $600 bucks IMO.

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shoeish

Hey StonedWheat,

Will you still need a separate boost controller to change boost levels or will the programmer do that, too?

mechmike0034

I guess it can be compared to OCing a PC. Just remember that (like in OCing) there's no such thing as a free lunch. In most cases, for every performance gain there's a loss in another area. "What am I giving up to get this additional performance?" is the question that nobody asks and that damned few (if any) of the chip makers address.

Also, like anything else, there are good chip programmers (individuals and companies) and bad ones too.

You never know where questions about this kind of stuff will pop up. In the late 1990s I was working at a GM Training Center in Charlotte, NC. I got a phone call one day from the South Carolina Bureau of Investigation. The caller (a Captain with the SBI) wanted to know how to eliminate the speed limiters in their early 1990s Chevy Suburbans. I told him to call Hypertech.

After I hung up, I wondered just how fast he was expecting a 350 Chevy TBI motor (200HP or so in those days, pre-Vortec) to move that 5000 lb. brick... Also, would YOU want to be in an old-school solid-front axle 4WD Suburban, even on the Interstate, at speeds approaching 100MPH? (I wouldn't - they weren't known for their high-speed handling capabilities...) He did say they'd put police pursuit tires on them...

Actually, when the SBI Captain first identified himself on the phone, my first thought was "Gee, I don't recall having any outstanding warrants in the State of South Carolina..."

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StonedWheat

You don't need a boost controller. That would just override the remapped ECU. I'm kinda new to turbos, but from what i've been reading I think you would either go with one or the other. The AccessPort for the WRX raises the max PSI's from 13.5 to about 15.5. Boost controllers aren't as good for your car IMO...whether electronic or manual. You can read more about it on cobbtuning.com. What kind of car do you have?

Nanotech9

only problems with chips is when the chip makers go to far, or over-look reasons why the car wasnt "tuned up" in the first place...

the engineers, knowing well that a particular motor wouldnt be making over a certain HP, might have put in some lower quality parts all around (i.e. valve train, crank, etc).

We've been adding "Power Commanders" to the bikes for years now. You just plug in a laptop, and reprogram the unit on the fly. You can even build your own custom maps.

Then again, theres this one guy i know with a triumph 955i that had his STOCK ecu re-programmed (they're designed to be updated from time to time anyway)... last ride in december that i went on, one of his rods blew out through the bottom end. Ouch. He was lucky Triumph didnt check the ECU and they covered it under warranty.

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shoeish

I really doubt a few extra hp was the cause of the bottom end letting go, unless he was spinning the engine 2-3k rpm faster than it was meant to go. Even if they did check the ecu, no way could of they proven the reprogrammed ecu caused the motor to blowup.

Usually, aftermarket chip makers gain more power by programming the computer for known-good-quality 91-93 octane, instead of anything you pour into the fuel tank. On some cars, they do things like open the secondary fuel runners earlier, make vtec "pop-in" a few RPM earilier, and alter automatic transmission shift points towards the driving style of a more aggressive, performance oriented driver.

shoeish

I have a 1994 Mustang Cobra with a supercharger. I was just curious about the new flasher for the WRX.

You guys have it easy either way, though. I have to change pulleys on my supercharger to alter boost levels =).

attgig

the vw's engine is one of the most popular to chip out. it'll beat out the v6 power easily once chipped.

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StonedWheat

Nice car man. I just saw a picture of it in another thread. Hey I saw something similar to the Accessport for the Cobra while I was flipping through a Popular Mechanics mag this weekend. Check it out!

shoeish

Its the Tweecer:

http://www.tweecer.com/index.htm

I'll be picking one up soon. They are pretty sweet.

StonedWheat

Nice car man. I just saw a picture of it in another thread. Hey I saw something similar to the Accessport for the Cobra while I was flipping through a Popular Mechanics mag this weekend.

psycho-

And the 1.8T has a rash of engine failures. It might have been a bad batch from puebla, but I've heard alot of non chipped 1.8T engines just failing. Turbos failure is pretty common on that engine.

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