Hi guys just wondering if anyone has tried the eclipse performance chip on ebay that is £50 and if its any good or not? and what sort of power i would be running after the chips been installed? Thanks in advance Adam

 

Dont waste your money mate, most of those chips are no good and you will prob end up with det and a broken engine. I enquired and for my 94 ra and a new ecu or daughter board and live map was suggested.

 

Hi mate. The best chip you can get will be POLAR PERFORMANCE chip or Major_Sarcasm Chip. Check in For Sale section on here or EBay. These are the ONLY chips I would consider. I'm running Major_Sarcasm chip on my V2 STI and all I can say is:

BEST £100 SPENT EVER !!!

 

ok thanks guys well a fella has offered me a mines ecu for 160 he said its a learning ecu what do you think about these??

 

well he said by it being a learning ecu as i put more mods on it it will up the power is this true?

 

This sounds like a load of tosh to me mate. When it comes to engine management, the only sure solution I'd recommend is a professional remap of the standard ecu if that's possible, or replacing the ecu with a well known and trusted ecu like Hydra, Apexi ect ect.

 

mines ecu is not suitable for uk fuel. it does not work any differently to a normal ecu either.

 

I was running a U8 ECU with mines chip. I ran it on my 94 Impreza for over 2 years. Never had any problems. Also had it on the rollers to check and everything was bang on. Always ran the car on V-Power, which you should do anyway if you own an Import

Im selling it due to an ECU upgrade. £100 if you want it?

 

what boost were you running and what power were you getting ?

 

Its was running 1 bar made 290 on the rollers

 

Just sold the mines z4 ecu my car came with and made great power on right fuel but very aggressive map and not much fun to drive every day.going down simtek route now

 

I got a chip off ebay couple of years back for the early cars. Most of them are the same just copied and rebranded.

I paid £40 for it and the car made 301bhp with exh, panel filter and £40 chip

 

what power do the mines ecu run then? with a decat?

 

Mine made 280 but was really pushing fuelling etc so got rid and have a standard z4 now.was running walbro pump,induction kit,forge manual boost controller and cat back system.

 

Mines ecu's tend to over fuel at little anyway so this was never a problem. I also had walbro. 285 bhp on the rollers and the fueling was bang on. This was at 0.9 bar.

 

When i fitted the de-cat the car was boosting 1 bar and made just over 290

 

Hi guys. I just saw this thread about our chips and thought Id throw in some info...

The software in the chip is based on Prodrive maps and is tuned for a car running a TD05 Turbo, Decat exhauaust & pannel filter, using UK fuel. So if your car is to that spec you will see the best gains. Obviously there are many different varients & specs, however you will still see an improvement with the chip fitted. It also allows you to manually adjust the boost higher without hitting fuel cut.

The only issue we hear about is sometimes Z4 ECU's dont like the chip. When we have fitted them here in the workshop they work fine, but we have had a few customers who have fitted it themselves who have reported some running issues.

We do offer a complete 100% satisfaction guarentee with them, so if you are not satisfied you can return he chip for a full refund!

To date we have sold over 500 chips, and only had around 5 or 6 issues, all with Z4 ECU's.

 

so did you create the map or did you just steal someone elses work ?

 

We havent stolen anything??? We buy the chips directly from the guy who maps them. We dont do any of the programming in house, they come mapped & ready to go.

We could amend the software if we wanted to, but theres no point. They work brilliantly so theres no need to mess with them.

 

Do these increase the factory boost settings? If so, what to?

 

They increase the factory boost cut limit to 1.1 bar, its the boost control solonoid that bleeds away the boost pressure to control the actual boost limit (not the ECU) therefore you need to fit a form of manual boost contoller to increase the amount of boost. (I hope that makes sense!)

However, due to the improvements in fuelling & ignition timing maps we find that on most cars the boost level increases anyway.

 

LOL you obviously have a very good idea on how this all works then !

 

The ecu does control boost, via the boost control solenoid. If programmed properly the chip should control the solenoid and hence the boost....as per the standard ecu.

 

Interesting read, as i need a chip , will be making a decision very soon about this. I will say however that anyone who mods a Subaru, and that includes decat and induction kit or filter should get the car on a set of rollers and check it out. The ECU in the Subaru was built to a cost and can only run safe within limited parameters. Subaru engines have both a good and bad name, most of the latter is from manual boost control and mods without a map change and revving the nuts off them. I don’t see if you are not trying to get 100% out of the engine why a chip is not too bad, but its never going to replace a map for that car. I am not a 100% Subaru expert but have spent a long time around turbo engines and as ever old WRX's are prime targets for power increases , I am after more, but I am under no illusion that the old motor is on borrowed time !
The reality is before a chip then a partial rebuild is required before the bearings cause big money problems.
But aren’t we all wanting an engine build really !! to last it’s a question of ££.
Det is a big problem with imports and I expect a chip will help this, just hold off on the high boost levels. (If you can LOL)

 

I understand very well how they work, just did a bad job of trying to expalin it in plain English!

The amount of boost increase varies depending on the condition of your turbo/intercooler/pepework/actuator etc... and sometimes its not enough for some people - usually when there is a problem somewhere, so to get the increase you may need to fit a manual controller (remember these are fitted to 15 year old cars so rarely are they 100%!)

If your car is running sweet, with a healthy turbo and actuator then there is no need to fit a controller.

 

I imagine that is why they are so cheap, so you can also factor in a manual boost controller. A chip which is mapped and designed to run a certain amount of boost costs more.

 

he says they do control the boost now.
i imagine you have had problems with the z4 ecus because they dont have a chip holder, mind you, not many of the import ecus do so i dont know why z4s have been a problem. probly just conincidence.

 

Boy you lot are hard work! I was trying to say that the boost control solonoid controls the boost, not the ECU directly, and you can fit a bleed valve to affect the way the solonoid works, but didnt choose the correct words to describe it.

The Z4 doesnt have the 'holder' but it does have the space for the chip. Not many ECU's are fitted with the holder so we supply the holder with the chip. We've fitted a few to to Z4's at the workshop and never had a problem, its only been with people fitting it themselves.

Musso, you are right to a degree, but the only way you can map a chip to give an exact amount of boost is to do it specifically on the car, with all its components fitted - which is a bespoke map - with a mappable ECU, therefore obviously it will be a lot more expensive.

Like I said, the chip was mapped on one specific car, so will work best on cars with the same modifications, but thats the same for any chip you buy. Just because you might pay £100 for another type of chip doesnt neccesarily mean you are getting a better product.

 

Your getting closer, the reason the amount of boost varies is because the map is generic and the amount of wastegate duty cant be changed to suit individual setups. The condition of the stuff you mention (within reason) has little to do with it, its just all slightly different. FYI simply adjusting the actuator is usually enough to get the correct boost level without fitting a separate controller. You get similar issues with the fueling as well, for example if the fuel pressure reg on target car is not holding quite the same pressure as the car the map was created on there will be differences, this might be nothing to worry about or it might be ! Same with ignition timing, some cars take it some don't.

But im sure since you know your product 100% im sure you advise all your customers of this !

To the OP, fit an ESL board circa £500 with a safe and reliable map for YOUR car or take a punt on a £50 ebay special up to you but £500 is cheap if you need a new engine !

 

I wouldnt say fitting a chip is more likely to blow your engine than NOT fitting one, especially if your running an Import! An import is mapped to run on 100 octane fuel, which you cant buy here in the UK, as opposed to the 96 that the chip is mapped for. Yeah, the boost is increased slightly on the chip, but the benefits of ignition timing adjustments to suit our fuel are far more important!

Of course spending £500 on a remap is a better way to go, but thats like saying why run a TD04 turbo when a VF23 is better, or why use standard brakes when Brembos are better! Not every Subaru owner wants to spend a fortune modifying it!