Thread: Performance chips> Are they worth the money???

Hey guys

I just got of the phone to John Robinson-Tiger performance in Melbourne, 3km from my place!!!! very very nice chap, very helpful and imformative....

He does what Pete from BAS does.... he by-passes the ECM, and then you buy the BLUEFIN interface module, then it plugs in to the OBD (ON BOARD DIAGNOSTICS) port which you can then re-flash you vehicle with....

It is apparently detectable, although he says each individual case may vary according to the ECM.....

As Gordon mentioned the ECM has to be removed and the seals broken which can show tampering with, so if you do have a warranty claim and they suspect the ECM is the cause, well bye bye warranty 80k vehicle one would have to weigh up their options!!!!

you know , i'm so impressed with all these specialists, this forum is has been so good to help me get the info,

so thanks all again for your comments,

BTW please post any negatives related to piggy back chip.... i'm seriously considering mr CHIP IT

CHEERS

Bill

Bill,

Take a deep breath and calm down

All remaps are discoverable. The primary flash counter cannot be reset (there is a secondary counter that can, but that's another story). It can't easily be detected, but if it's suspected as the root cause of a malfunction, LRA can authorise a diagnostics test to determine if the ECU has been re-flashed.

There are several threads on here regarding chipping versus remapping. With some searching I'm sure you'll find the nitty-gritty!! In a nutshell:

* Chipping is simple, cannot be detected if the chip is removed and will give almost the same end-result as a remap. It is however, a bit like taking a sledgehammer to a nail. It only controls fuel load, and timing (some also play with turbo-boost, but they're far more expensive).

* Remapping can change every parameter available to the ECU. That's a lot to play with, and a good tuner can extract as much gain as a chip (or more) without running the engine as close to its fail margin as the chip will. But a bad tuner can be worse than a bad chip!

* There are some _very_ cheap chips around (eg $200 delivered to your door) that do as good a job as the $1000 chips. I personally know of several dealer principles that have chipped cars with these. They drink fuel and can blow black smoke, but they're fun.

* I'd never tow with a chip in the car. Too close to the EGT cut-out.

Cheers,

Gordon (and with that I'll sign off for a while - good luck).

Graehme

im with you they rip you for the privilage of having more power 10K, i wish could afford the upper spec models, the GPS would have been great $4k upgrade

I just cant afford it oh well, they do what they have to do to justify the price hikes

Still i love the car!!! what a nice drive!!!!

Hi all

A year has passed from our last conversation. I finally got a Roo re-flash. I was hesitant to get a chip. Based on some of the info Gordon and other respected members have posted. I feel I got ripped a little on the price and certainly had an average experience with the service here in melbourne. However wow what a top result. Whatever they did gave me smooth and very noticeable power increase. I'm seeing a saving of 2lt per 100km. Pleasant bonus.

While on previous posts I debated whether or not the injectors were different. I'm still getting conflicting opinions from the experts at Roo.

As mentioned on another post. I'm super happy by the seat of your pants feel. It's just a different animal now. Very refined power delivery. It just feels like the engine runs better.

Dyno run would have been nice for $1695. Still. At least it hums.

Best regards

Bill

Yikes!
For $1695 you could have purchased a new ECU and had it mapped by BAS...
Then, if you needed warranty you could fit the std unit.
Just be wary - LR will see the modified tune next time you service...

Agreed

Yikes big time ! Especially since I had no dyno run.

Anyway, they claim you don't void your factory warranty hence my acceptance of the price. They are a big company here in Oz.

So hopefully these claims of not losing warranty despite the re flash ring true. Otherwise they took a massive dump on me. I'll ring them today just to verify what they already told me.

I'm hoping that I'll never need to find out bout warranty cover. It would be nice if the disco proves reliable as everyone claims.