E-Bay Chips?

Has anyone added one of the dozens of add-on chips that are advertised? I'm not talking "name" chips, like Dinan, etc.,but the generic ones foe $10. Snake oil or any improvement?

Generally a resister to wire across the temp sensor to richen the mixture. Snake oil of the highest order.

Some of them are ripoff/counterfeits of the name brands, too.

The best $25 spent in my LeMons car's budget was the cheapest E30 chip on ebay.

laz wrote: The best $25 spent in my LeMons car's budget was the cheapest E30 chip on ebay.

is that the spece30 flag colored car?

We ran en eBay 'Greddy copy' in the soupRturd.

laz wrote: The best $25 spent in my LeMons car's budget was the cheapest E30 chip on ebay.

poopshovel wrote: We ran en eBay 'Greddy copy' in the soupRturd.

Was there any measurable(even seat of the pants) difference attributed to the chip alone?

Streetwiseguy wrote: Generally a resister to wire across the temp sensor to richen the mixture. Snake oil of the highest order.

+1. An acquaintance of mine sells these things. It's a resistor in a block of epoxy with wires coming out. Sometimes there's not even a resistor in the block! Generally they don't do anything at all, worst case you loose 5hp and get worse gas mileage from running way rich. Some cars will get a check engine light for a failed coolant temp sensor.

You could just unplug the coolant temp sensor for free to test drive this "chip".

I'm often amused when they show up in searches for parts for my carb'd z car...

Resistors are avaialble at Radio Shack cheap. Put in line from the air intake sensor it tells the ECU to richen the mixture because of the denser air. Benefits ?

Please dont ask me how I know

Wonkothesane wrote: Streetwise guy nailed it, it's just a resistor and some wire, and it depending on the model and what they found it either richens or leans the fuel mixture out. They go in-line from the mass air flow sensor and make the computer think there was more or less air ingested. Not the proper way to do it.

i think what the OP is talking about is an actual chip that goes inside the ECU, its just a generic blank chip with an unknown tune loaded onto it.

I don't think you can get real chips for the cars in the OP's profile. But that doesn't stop people from selling fake chips for them...

There was a guy selling copies of legitimate Esprit chips. The Esprit community is very small. The author of the code kept getting him blocked on eBay, and he kept coming back. Also, the chips he was selling were a very early version of the code and actually rather dangerous to the motor.

minimac wrote:

laz wrote: The best $25 spent in my LeMons car's budget was the cheapest E30 chip on ebay.

poopshovel wrote: We ran en eBay 'Greddy copy' in the soupRturd.

Was there any measurable(even seat of the pants) difference attributed to the chip alone?

Well, the turbo certainly helped on the butt-dyno side of things. We didn't want the budget hit/learning curve of going with the megasquirt, so we figured "berkeley it. It's twenty bucks. Worst case, we put it back on ebay." I can't honestly tell you if it made a difference or not. IIRC it ran like E36 M3 with the stock ECU. The plugs always look perfect and it goes like stink.

I know there are lots of pirated copies of e30 chips on FLeAbay

MadScientistMatt wrote: I don't think you can get real chips for the cars in the OP's profile....

Also have '98 Forester, '09 Mazda3, and '10 Nissan Versa.

I bought an ebay chip for my e30 like 5 years ago for $50 or something. The difference was worth $500, If I'd have had to pay it.

WilberM3 wrote:

laz wrote: The best $25 spent in my LeMons car's budget was the cheapest E30 chip on ebay.

is that the spece30 flag colored car?

Yes, my spec e30 is the german flag themed one pictured in my icon. My LeMons car is painted like a panda :)

Wonkothesane wrote: Streetwise guy nailed it, it's just a resistor and some wire, and it depending on the model and what they found it either richens or leans the fuel mixture out. They go in-line from the mass air flow sensor and make the computer think there was more or less air ingested. Not the proper way to do it.

Anything that alters the air flow sensor signal is also has the side effect of changing the timing as well. i've never liked that idea.

minimac wrote:

MadScientistMatt wrote: I don't think you can get real chips for the cars in the OP's profile....

Also have '98 Forester, '09 Mazda3, and '10 Nissan Versa.

There might be one for the Forester, but I suspect there isn't. Mazda3 tuning solutions exist but you'd use a flash (program loaded through the OBD2 port), not a chip. If anything existed for the Versa, it would also be a flash.