Race Chip... Good or Bad ?

[IT]

http://www.racechip.de/en/

Conceptually, in less than 5 mins following some basic DIY instructions, you can plug a black box in under your bonnet and gain a useful amount of extra power with apparently little effort and not much cost....

I recall Neil I think had one of these on his A7, and boy was that quick. Watching a D2 S8 dissapear in the rear view mirror whilst sat in a 3.0D is quite a notable event...

But how do they actually work? What are they plugging into in the engine bay, and do they really pose no risk to your engine ?

They seem almost too good to be true.

My S4 for example, here:

http://www.racechip.de/en/chiptuning...45kw/index.php

Looks like it can kick even more butt from a simple 299 Euro plug in. Really?

And our 4.2 TDi Q7 can start to burn even more rubber here:

http://www.racechip.de/en/chiptuning...40kw/index.php

... and it wasnt slow to start with.

My insurance will cover this mod fine, so its not that side of discretion that appeals to me, but the fact that I can remove it myself before I sell the car to make it 'factory' again has massive appeal. Its the thing that most prevents me from getting a remap from one of the big names we often talk about.

I'm also not bothered about dynos, and squeezing every last bit of power from it - 20% uplift seems pretty good to me. I'm not seeing much advantage is pressing hard for an extra point or two.

... and this seems significantly cheaper ...

Comments anyone ?

[PsYcHe]

They certainly seem to be more than the usual 'dodgy resistor' style units. Pretty sure my mate had a similar device on his Vectra that he raved about.

Though.. they claim that I'd go from 320 to 400 PS.... not sure how believable that is, given that normally it's about 370 that's the claim.

[HPsauce]

Yes I had something like that on my old Rover 75 2.0 diesel estate (company car).
Sold it (when the lease car went back) to another R75 owner with a caravan - he was well pleased with it too!
It really was a simple plug-and-play job you could do in a few minutes.

Mine came from the now-defunct Van Aaken and I actually took the car there for them to fit and "tune" it. The increase in power and torque was staggering (nearly 50%) yet overall fuel consumption actually went down in day-to-day driving.

It was an automatic too and the whole setup matched very well. Many a time I'd be alongside a boy-racer in a BMW of some sort and just leave them for dust when the lights went green - it really pulled away smartly!

[Adrian E]

I was going to quote Van Aaken as an example as their offices were directly below mine when they were based in Crowthorne! They did a lot of work on diesel optimisation and seemed to take their time getting jobs right in the main.

I would query the benefits/risks of any tuning box that didn't involve some sort of data logging to check you're not getting near the limits on temperatures etc, diesel or petrol.

You can argue the toss for and against all day long but it always pays to bare in mind that your existing ECU is NEVER fine-tuned to your car, which is why they're so conservative as one size has to fit all.

In terms of warranty - if your car is still covered by an Audi warranty I wouldn't risk it. It seems the latest cars have enough sensing technology in them to know whether components have been stressed beyond factory limits, irrespective or whether they can find evidence of prior or current tuning. Audi will reject a warranty claim and black list the car for future claims, even after its sold on, which is worth noting if you're thinking in terms of avoiding a buyer thinking a car hasn't been remapped.

[Singh]

I wouldn't even put this on my car if you paid me, not in a million years. Some of them make less power than OEM whilst letting the engine run dangerously outside of its safety parameters. I can see the appeal of quickly putting it back to OEM, however, if you're going to do it go for a half reputable one like Revo SPS, MTM or a Shark box.

[HPsauce]

Originally Posted by Adrian E

I was going to quote Van Aaken as an example as their offices were directly below mine when they were based in Crowthorne! They did a lot of work on diesel optimisation and seemed to take their time getting jobs right in the main.

Yes that's where I went.
They fitted it then connected various sensors and probes and started tweaking some internal settings in the box. Took it "to the max" in the end and it was still running sweetly throughout the rev range.
I think it went from a standard 116Ps to around 170.

They reckoned that as it was engineered for a 177PS petrol V6 anyway there would be no problems with gearbox etc. and there were none at all.

[IT]

ok, so lots of feedback but I'm nonethewiser as to how they work....

I get remapping will change actual parameters inside the ECU causing it to behave differently, but how can you reliably affect the way an engine performs by bypassing a few connectors in the engine bay.....

[HPsauce]

It mainly (I think) changes the turbo pressures and related settings for injector quantities and timings. Lots of scope with modern turbo diesels as a result.

My experience was very positive indeed; much improved driveability and performance and (astoundingly) better fuel comsumption!

[Singh]

Some are obviously better than others, others just 'fool' the engine into believing and/or reading sensors incorrectly which in turn give more boost/fuelling etc...
An MTM, Revo or Shark one will have been mapped properly. I’m not sure if you have an Audi warranty, Ian, but they will be able to tell you've had one of these on anyway, even if you remove it pre-service. It brings up a code, TD1, I think, which lets them know the engine was running harder/hotter or faster than OEM specs even if you've removed the box.

[Architex_mA8tey]

Time for my 6 penneth worth I guess as I have used these boxes.

the particular one I used was ordered specific to the exact model you had (rather than just a generic engine size) so information on that engine and its specs are stored in a chip in the box. They plug in to the end of the common rail on a diesel and use the same connector that you unplug to daisy chain the box into line and despite what Amar has said no codes have ever showed up on any workshop scan Audi have ever done on cars I have used them on. I guess if you were worried about that and had VAGcom you could run a scan and then reset everything.

Its a bit different for me I guess as I am using them for a mixture of fuel consumption increases plus a small power/response benefit and the particular box I use has settings from 0-100 which are settable, 100 being the highest performance and 1 being the highest fuel economy. When you set them up you go through a specific process of starting at a low number (20 or 30) and raise the codes gradually whist checking the car for idle and response and of course any warning lights. I've set mine at 50 to date as anything above 60 Isn't recommended for day to day road use but more for performance use and track days etc.

I do agree with Ian on the uplift benefits vs cost and inconvenience and all I can say is that both the ones I've used so far have had great power uplifts but still genuinely increased fuel consumption, which does kinda make you wonder in these fuel conscious days, why dont the manufacturers extract more of either from their engines in the first place? The answer, I think, is usually down to "Range/Model Positioning" for price vs spec etc and to ensure that everything neatly fits into the box they want it to fit into to market it

Racechip's explanation of how it works and comparison to OBD tuning is here - http://www.racechip.de/en/chiptuning-what-is-it/