Cheap chip tuning and a poor quality ECU remapping

The answer is simple. Like in any industry, the rule that good things are never cheap applies here as well. We see it every day. We can lament as we like over remapped cars that come to us to get checked or repaired.

There is no surprise when a remap is done by a friend who has read a book on how to go about tuning. What strikes us, though, is that there are cars remapped by someone who expectedly provide a quality tuning. The stumbling block is that there are a lot of tuners and chipers who think that they can just raise the fuel pressure, boost up the turbo and the rail pressure, and they are done with a great remap. It is even worse, when they have used some general rules and tips off the internet.

Typical sign of such a tuning is a noisier engine, a slipping clutch, excessive exhaust smoke, slow start of a turbo, and the worst scenario is an emergency mode upon stepping on the gas to the floor..

a high quality ECU remap is a modification tailored to a each car. Yes, everyone says that, but…
When you carry out a really tailored remap, it can’t be ready in 15 minutes or one hour. Why? Because if the ECU remapping is done based on firmware and software number, the ECU maps need to be selected manually.

A lot of tuners use programs that simplify their job (or don’t know any other way) and these programs find the maps for them automatically using some kind of algorythm. The issue is that error rate in pinpointing the map sequence in such programs is only up to 55 %! Yes, you read it right, more than half the engine maps are in the automatic recognition wrongly (or not accurately) selected and an overlap in individual maps occurs.

To help you imagine the problem: for example the run of pressure in a turbocharger with an autmatic recognition doesn’t get selected where it begins but no sooner that at 35 % and with an overlap to an engine map, which is responsible for fuel injection, for example. a Tuner can never find out, but as a result the turbo gets boosted by 10 percent more than desired and injection time gets altered by mistake.

A poor quality remap can very easily damage a driveline and its parts, therefore it is really smart to think twice, where to get your car upgraded. In fact, the price difference between low and high tuning usually equals one or two fuel tanks.