Please need some feedback argent.

[swordfish 30]

Hey guys... I was browsing through the trademe and found this: http://www.trademe.co.nz/Browse/Listing.as...amp;permanent=0. Apparently its a performance chip for bmw tuned in Germany.

If anybody have any information related to it, please post it here. I am seriously thinking of getting one of these for my car. Cheers.

Edited January 13, 2010 by s_w_o_r_d_f_i_s_h

[Andre3000 55]

Link fail

[M3_Power 636]

Anything not tuned on a dyno is a fail - each car is different, there's no such thing as a generic chip that just work wonders.

[turboprop 0]

Anything not tuned on a dyno is a fail - each car is different, there's no such thing as a generic chip that just work wonders.

Well you can do a generic tune which will work on all cars, there will be gains, but without getting it tuned specific to your engine the gains are not as big as they could be.

[open40 0]

I have seen the same article, and I was wondering the same. I've got a Z3 1.9L that is in serious need of a power lift. These chips you just follow the instructions and you've got a 40-50hp leap for a few hundred dollars, take it to a dyno and you have a grand spent already.

[c.robertson00 11]

You will NEVER get 40-50hp gains from a chip

[Braeden320 0]

A dyno before and after fitting a chip is the only way to tell the true HP gain if there is one.

I would question if a generic chip can give you 10-20 more HP and have your car still running nicely, Let alone 40-50HP as above.

If you don't mind forking out the $$ by all means give it a crack but be prepared to be disapointed if you don't get a 50HP gain.

Also OP don't you have an M3? I would be very carefull chipping that!

[Silver Fox 43]

I have seen the same article, and I was wondering the same. I've got a Z3 1.9L that is in serious need of a power lift. These chips you just follow the instructions and you've got a 40-50hp leap for a few hundred dollars, take it to a dyno and you have a grand spent already.

They quote 7 to 10%, if that's 40 to 50 hp, I'd be satisfied with what I started with?

[open40 0]

I have seen the same article, and I was wondering the same. I've got a Z3 1.9L that is in serious need of a power lift. These chips you just follow the instructions and you've got a 40-50hp leap for a few hundred dollars, take it to a dyno and you have a grand spent already.

Ok then, now we have some comments flying in. Swordfish and I are wanting to wind up the power in our cars, in particular my sluggish Z3, I don't want to spend heaps of dollars and forever running into a dyno to keep it running right. I would like to increase the 0-100km from 8.6s to the early 7s. What is available to us ? so we look on the web and we see all these neat follow the instructions plug ins, chips, mods for the air intake, brilliant for the DIY kiwi and its all very tempting. Also I don't mind if I blow the thing up trying a few gizzmo's, its all a lot of fun but I would prefer not to do that if someone out there with a z3 has wound the power up who wouldn't mind telling me what he did. I have to 'man-up' the z3 somehow, its a chicks car.

[Greg111 13]

Ok then, now we have some comments flying in. Swordfish and I are wanting to wind up the power in our cars, in particular my sluggish Z3, I don't want to spend heaps of dollars and forever running into a dyno to keep it running right. I would like to increase the 0-100km from 8.6s to the early 7s. What is available to us ? so we look on the web and we see all these neat follow the instructions plug ins, chips, mods for the air intake, brilliant for the DIY kiwi and its all very tempting. Also I don't mind if I blow the thing up trying a few gizzmo's, its all a lot of fun but I would prefer not to do that if someone out there with a z3 has wound the power up who wouldn't mind telling me what he did. I have to 'man-up' the z3 somehow, its a chicks car.

The only way to do that is get a bolt on supercharger, there is no such thing as a cheap upgrade, get what you pay for.

[westy 614]

I dont wanna be a cock but, a 1.9 z3 will never be a high performance car.

I fear you are perhaps being a little unrealistic with it.

E: unless ofcourse you are willing to pay for a super/turbo charger kit.

Edited January 24, 2010 by westy

[swordfish 30]

I would like this discussion to go further... so far all I have found out about generic chips it that the gains are there however nobody know what they are exactly, most of the claims on the internet is just of the feel from the car before and after the installation... which tend to have the common placebo effect. nobody out of the people spending 30 usd on the chip ran two set of duno for approximately the same price for each run... then there are some drawbacks... some generic chips do the stupidest thing ever... exactly what it is? Apparently, it tells your computer that your car is always cold, as far as I know that is not good at all (decrease you engine life time, might get some vibration from the engine and so on). Then there are the guys paying 700 usd for a set of dyno runs and computer tunings... getting a reasonable improvement of 20-25 hp on the stock and up to 60hp with a reasonable modifications (intake, filters, exhaust, injectors, sparkplugs) that is all for M3 as far as I have read and tend to be close to reality... I have seen allot of very clever people here on Bimmesport and I would love them to kick in since that is a hot topic for most of us willing for a bit more seat pressure when you put your foot down on track, or response on the hills or just a bit more economical run around car or every day cruiser. I love my car with all the bits of my body, definitely wouldn't like to blow my engine up... since its a euro version especially. At the moment I am in the stage of fixing all the suspension components. Engine is next on the list I would love to hear everything that people think about the generic chips because that might be a very good solution for most of us. So guys please join the topic discussion. Thanks

[antil33t 90]

Can you do an Engine Swap on a Z3?

M52 Manual would go well.

Edited January 24, 2010 by antil33t

[dirtydoogle 383]

SWORDFISH - Alot of the generic chips advance the ignition timing somewhat dramatically and alter the injector pulse rates [yes and can tell the car it's running cool to increase the injector pulse width]

Sadly, the ridiculous timing advances can be very detrimental to your motor, especially your bearings. At the end of the day BMW had spent thousands of dollars tuning the already standard chip/eprom in you car and most gains made over that without expensive custom ecu work will not be worth it. I would rather save the money for a good service and/or a set of headers.

[DRTDVL 0]

One thing to be aware of is the conditions where the chip was created.

Fuel and Climate will play a big big part in what tune the engine can run. Japan use 100RON fuel to do most of their tunes and thats what manufactures use to get the performance figures, it's also why a lot of the top jap sports cars can't get the same 0-100 times in nz, it's because of the lower fuel quality, if i remember somewhere going from 100Ron to 96Ron can net a 2-3% decrease in performance i've also heard 2% decrease in performance for 100Ron to 98Ron.

It's just something to be aware of... a nz dyno tune/custom chip would be made for nz conditions and fuel.

E: Spelling/Typing was crap...

Edited January 24, 2010 by DRTDVL

[Guest Simon*]

As you can see "Plug and play" chips are likely to be more trouble than they are worth.

For a premium car such as your M3 would you not invest a bit more time and money to ensure you get good and safe results?

Headers, maybe a cold air intake and a dyno tune could be good options to start with?

[Greg111 13]

The old man's old 330ci had a Super chip put in it, from there after it used to pink like sh*t when climbing hills, those chips aren't cheap but yet the engine wasn't running as it should have been. For the price of a super chip you get a remap and dyno tune.

[open40 0]

I would like this discussion to go further... so far all I have found out about generic chips it that the gains are there however nobody know what they are exactly, most of the claims on the internet is just of the feel from the car before and after the installation... which tend to have the common placebo effect. nobody out of the people spending 30 usd on the chip ran two set of duno for approximately the same price for each run... then there are some drawbacks... some generic chips do the stupidest thing ever... exactly what it is? Apparently, it tells your computer that your car is always cold, as far as I know that is not good at all (decrease you engine life time, might get some vibration from the engine and so on). Then there are the guys paying 700 usd for a set of dyno runs and computer tunings... getting a reasonable improvement of 20-25 hp on the stock and up to 60hp with a reasonable modifications (intake, filters, exhaust, injectors, sparkplugs) that is all for M3 as far as I have read and tend to be close to reality... I have seen allot of very clever people here on Bimmesport and I would love them to kick in since that is a hot topic for most of us willing for a bit more seat pressure when you put your foot down on track, or response on the hills or just a bit more economical run around car or every day cruiser. I love my car with all the bits of my body, definitely wouldn't like to blow my engine up... since its a euro version especially. At the moment I am in the stage of fixing all the suspension components. Engine is next on the list I would love to hear everything that people think about the generic chips because that might be a very good solution for most of us. So guys please join the topic discussion. Thanks

Great comments Swordfish. I think perhaps not many of us have tried out the cheap go-fast options that are out there so can't really comment too much, hence my interest I would be quite willing to put my car up and setup a thorough chip evaluation trial and the results get published for all to see on this website and other sites, car mag's even, they would all love this sort of info since its always discussed, as you say, provided its setup properly. If some chip manufacturers were approached to see if they would like to put their chips on the line so to speak and we also line up with a local dyno company who would receive the kudos for their involvement, setup an evaluation protocol, it would resolve the impasse once and for all, eh! Its just an opinion though. A thing like this would take a bit to organise and may need a few guys with some influence to crank it up but I would put my hat in.