

- #How does chip tuning work install#
- #How does chip tuning work driver#
- #How does chip tuning work software#
You wouldn’t let some guy from Craigslist promising big improvements on performance come and install a shady copy of OS X on your $2000 MacBook, would you? And yet this is what hundreds of people have done to their $20,000 cars each year. Yes they promise big rewards but they also bring significant risks, especially if you aren’t cautious. “Are tuning chips safe?” I can’t even count how many times I heard these questions in the last 15 years as a mechanic. Also, if your car’s top speed is electronically limited, you can have that removed as well.Īnd for a workhorse, if you’re suddenly saving hundreds of dollars a year on fuel, an initial investment of a couple of hundred bucks is a wise move.

Well, as any gearhead would say, power is its own reward, and sure, if your Honda Civic suddenly shifts like hot shit off a shovel without any other modifications for a relatively inexpensive remap, then you’d think that was a pretty good deal. On the other hand, if your vehicle is a working vehicle such as a van, truck or company fleet car that does a lot of miles, you might want to remap the ECU to boost fuel efficiency at a slight cost of performance. Any performance add-on will require a different ECU mapping to get the most out of it. If you have replaced some other parts in favor of high-performance parts on your vehicle, like a performance exhaust, for example, you might also want to have your ECU tuned to fit the new mods. For example, if you want more performance, an ECU remap can change the gear ratios, air/fuel ratios and fuel flow of your car’s powertrain to boost power, usually at a sacrifice of fuel efficiency. While these default settings might be the best generic setting for your vehicle overall, they might not be the most efficient settings for your particular requirements.
#How does chip tuning work software#
When a car rolls off the production line, its Engine Control Unit’s software is set to a default that works anywhere in the world, taking into account factors like different climates, road conditions, geographical conditions, varying fuel qualities and so on. However, the ECU we’re specifically talking about here is the Engine Control Unit which controls things like fuel flow, gear ratios, engine speed, variable valve timing and so on.
#How does chip tuning work driver#
A car might have up to 50 or more ECUs, which handle things like the driver interface, door locking systems, airbag systems and so on. An ECU, or electronic control unit, is a ‘chip’ with software installed with default settings for those functions.
