Nezz10

I am goig down to Powerstation next wednesday to get my scooby lowered and they told me about the unichip ecu piggyback that they do.

Has anyone got this on their car?
How do you feel about it?
How much BHP and torue gain is normal?
What about reliability?
How does it compare to other piggyback and replacement ECU's?

Any other info/comments welcomed.

Thanks Neil.

Nezz10

sorry, missed one out:

Who did you get to do the mapping??

Mo

Hi Neil,

I've had one fitted for over two years so can probably comment

Firstly, if you are intending to do any ECU modifications whether it be Link, Unichip, GEMS etc etc make sure you have carried out the normal breathing mods first and any other mods you intend to do in the not too distant future. I would suggest that you if you haven't already fit a cold air feed to the original panel filter and fit a 3" decatted downpipe. May I suggest that you also flow the headers, this is a quite straightforward mod that you can do yourself.

Unichip does not control boost, you need to add on the price of a boost controller if you haven't been told this already. I have waisted too much money on boost control through never being told the whole picture

To run higher boost safely you should taper the boost at higher revs, the cheapest way to control this is with a Dawes, I would suggest fitting one of these before getting the Unichip if that's the way you decide to go. An electronic boost controller can also be used but is much more expensive if this does take your fancy ensure you fit one that can be mapped to rpm and throttle position.

I had never had my car dyno'd before fitting the Unichip so I'm not sure what power increase I got from this mod alone, however after fitting along with a decat centre and induction kit, I was running 245bhp and 220lb/ft. Interestingly, since fitting a decat downpipe and having it dyno'd again at PowerStation, power rose to 265bhp but torque remained the same at 220lb/ft - yet the difference on the road was something else

One other thing to consider is whether or not you would want to tinker with the map yourself. The unichip can only be remapped by an authorised dealer, Link you can do yourself.

For this reason alone I would fit the Link.

The Unichip fools the original ECUs readings above 3000rpm so you cannot control anything lower down the rev range, for this reason again I would fit a Link. Link with Lambda and KnockLink is not that much more expensive than a Unichip (which I hasten to add has neither) and needs no aftermarket boost controller. When modifiying at this level you really do need to know what is going on, ie Knock and Lambda gauges, add these to the price of a Unichip and you've spent more money

Saying all of this I have run the Unichip for over two years with no problems other than boost control, maybe that's my fault for not researching enough be fore spending the money, however I would have thought that reputable tuners would tell you the whole story in the first place.................

Good luck in what ever you decide to do, and happy motoring!

What model do you have? If it's a late version you could look at the Tek2 and keep the original ECU only with a map for your car