Performance Chips and Remapping ECU
In this day and age we all like a little extra bang for our buck, especially when it comes to our beloved cars. It’s a surprising fact that some modern high performance production cars are now as quick as some of the professional rally cars of the 70’s and 80’s! (Take a spin in a Subaru Impreza WRX or a Mitsubishi Evo X if you don’t believe it!)
The motoring public’s ‘need for speed’ has created a demand for these kinds of cars that doesn’t look like fading any time soon. The good news is, we don’t have to trade in our trusty family motors quite yet to enjoy modern performance; we just need some electronic wizardry!
ECU’s (Engine Control Units) are electronic chipsets that the majority of modern day cars are heavily reliant on. They carry software that governs fuel consumption, traction control and, yes, even brake horsepower!
Car manufacturers almost always downrate the factory fitted ECU settings in order to accommodate the widest possible range of driver requirements. This form of de-tuning is done to create mass appeal to customers who are looking for practicality and economy over tyre-burning performance. However, by having new chips installed, those of us that are looking for performance can now unleash the untapped power hidden within the car!
Two methods are currently available to ‘uprate’ your car’s performance. The first is the installation of a ‘Performance Chip’, an after market chip which replaces the factory fitted chip housed within the ECU. These chips are programmed by outside companies and are designed to maximise your engine’s output and responsiveness. Amazingly, the same chip is also likely to improve your car’s fuel efficiency!
The second method is ‘Remapping’. This is a non-invasive procedure whereby the existing manufacturer’s software is simply re-written to give better performance. This method has a major advantage over new chip installations in that the ECU is not physically interfered with; the Remapping is done via the car’s OnBoard Diagnostics Port, so the ECU is in no danger of being accidentally damaged. In fact, Remapping will normally be carried out from the driver’s seat with a laptop computer. Some professional Remappers will even re-program your car while it is in motion, to give a fully ‘customised’ result designed specifically for your car.
The results of these upgraded software packages vary depending on your car but as a rule, a petrol engine without a Turbo will see an improvement in brake horsepower of around 10%, whereas a petrol car with a Turbo will enjoy approximately 25% more power! Turbo Diesel drivers have it even better; they can expect a 30% increase in power!
There are also several options in carrying out the work. For Performance Chips, specialist installers are the sensible choice due to the delicate nature of ECUs (prices typically £100 to £300). For Remapping, prices start at around £300 and you can either have the work undertaken by specialists or purchase a ‘plug and play’ Remapping kit and do the work yourself!