The Truth About The $9 +40HP E-bay "Chip"

[X E Ryder]

The Truth About The Fake “Chip”

So you surf E-bay looking for mods for your car and come across a Performance Chip for only $8.99! and it makes 40 Horsepower! WOW! Wow? The only thing that should amaze you here is the brass some of these people have to make this claim. Here is one of these ads:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/PERFO...QQcmdZViewItem

Some money was deliberately wasted to see what the heck you get when you buy these, and the reality is pretty interesting. The Dodge Caliber and Dodge Charger “Chips” were purchased. In these tests, the units have been Weighed, Tested and Measured and have been found Wanting!
You will receive a single page letter with a piece of bubble wrap on the back, and it contains a single resistor with a piece of heat shrink over the center so you cannot read the resistance value bands. A quick test with my Fluke multimeter revealed BOTH the Caliber and Charger “Chips” where the same, a 32.7 K ohm resistor.

The direction sheet instructs you to disconnect your IAT Sensor plug, and bend the resistor legs into a U shape to jump across the connector. Once done you are instructed to Leave the IAT unplugged! This means you have now assigned a Fixed value to your IAT and it can never again provide Dynamic data to your PCM, it will Passively provide a Fixed Value Forever! But what value is that?

The test Charger IAT out of the car, at rest, on a bench, in ambient temperature provided a reading of 14 K ohm resistance, the IAT plugged into the Charger that idled for several minutes and was fully warm under hood was 2.7 K ohm resistance. Let’s find out what these values equate to shall we?

Connecting our Charger with a Predator programmer and cable to a Laptop using the Data Viewer function allowed a quick setup of a custom Data Log for the affected sensors. You can download the Data Viewer program free here:
http://www.diablosport.com/CMR/softw...er_3.1.5.3.exe
Then you can open this log file, and playback the recorded data of the sensors test that was made, here (note the file is zipped so it won’t try to open on download):
http://www.xeryder.com/predator/IAC_Test.zip

Logging revealed that this “Chip” tells your PCM that it has 32o F air coming into the engine, all the time. The test vehicle which sat idling through several tests, claimed the true air temp was 100o F. For accuracy, most drive tests of this sensor indicate about 70o F intake air temp.

If you are wondering why this sensor was chosen to tamper with, the theory is that by faking out the PCM to think the air is that cold, it will richen the mixture up for the denser air. It is not a bad idea in theory, but in practice it does not hold up too well.

[rwalshphoto]

Wow thats a lot of research! Thanks for putting the time in, although I never really considered tampering with hundreds of dollars worth of PCM and sensors with a $8 ebay "chip"

[Super T]

Thanks for that writeup! It's been no secret how those Bull**** "power adders" work, but it's really interesting to see what number they actually toss at the PCM. As long as you have the resistors, I think it's dyno time!!!! ;-)

[Redfox0099]

Don't feel bad...when we started with trying to tun these cars over a year ago we moved the IAT sensor inside the car into the A/C air vent to trick ti that way....if you don't try stuff you never know.

[Super T]

Don't feel bad...when we started with trying to tun these cars over a year ago we moved the IAT sensor inside the car into the A/C air vent to trick ti that way....if you don't try stuff you never know.

LMAO... don't remember reading that. Wow....

[X E Ryder]

Don't feel bad...when we started with trying to tun these cars over a year ago we moved the IAT sensor inside the car into the A/C air vent to trick ti that way....if you don't try stuff you never know.

Ha! too funny - yep - whatever it takes to get the power!

I actually put my removed IAT in the ice try of my freezer and was UNABLE to get it to drop low enough to match the "Chip" resistor! I thought there had to be a sane reasosn they chosen such a high value.

[36 chambers]

haha nice!!!!

[BoiseHemi]

So what was the final verdict?

[89grand]

So what was the final verdict?

The "Chip" performed as advertised!

[TxCowboy]

Wow! thanks for taking one for the team their. I always wondered what they'd actually send you. Geez you could sell resistors for $1 with free shipping and still make a %90 profit. Beans for ya!

[feros]

Great write up! Very nice. I guess I am headed to radio shack to buy a resistor...oh wait there is no radio shack for 1000's of miles here. Maybe another day. LOL!

[mhigham]

Yep, same thing proven with any car ever made. They don't work, yet people keep buying it.

You can buy 200 of these "magic" chips for $3.82. http://search.digikey.com/scripts/Dk...name=33KQBK-ND

Sucker born every minute.

Mike

[da BoMM]

Wonder why the Atty Genl doesn't squash these fake items???

[Jaak]

Yep, same thing proven with any car ever made. They don't work, yet people keep buying it.

You can buy 200 of these "magic" chips for $3.82. http://search.digikey.com/scripts/Dk...name=33KQBK-ND

Sucker born every minute.

Mike

Group buy! LOL!

[X E Ryder]

So what was the final verdict?

It is not recommended due to sending a fixed value to the PCM regardless of whatever real world changes occur. It should not be used with a real Chip or Programmer, and there is no way in heck you would gain MPG from this thing tricking your PCM into dumping a rich mixture in.

Based on this research, I am working on a dynamic IAT item that would be ok for a motor with no Chip available, like my gal's Caliber - hmm a test vehicle!