What's The Difference Between An 'off The Shelf' Chip Such As Apr And A Remap By The

There are many companies out there that will offer to rechip your ECU but what is the difference between them? Well, to be honest, most of them offer quality products and the answer is 'not much'. However there are some differences. Some companies (most in fact ) offer 'off the shelf' chips ie. they are all made to the same specification, are not tuned specifically to your car and replace the programming with a set level of different parameters eg. boost pressure etc. This is often seen as a negative; however, the results should be well within the engine's tolerances and yet still provide a very significant performance increase. There are many companies that do this - APR, Superchips, Upsolute, MTM, and Oettinger all being examples. Some may tweak a little on Rolling Roads but generally, this is not usually necessary. The APR chip also has the capability of switching between chipped and standard modes via the Cruise Control stalk, something no-one else reliably offers at present.

Jabbasport and other similar companies do things slightly differently. The car is put on a Rolling Road as standard and the characteristics of the ECU are mapped out. Then, the replacement chip is made, tweaks and adjustments being made over dozens of different parameters to obtain the driving characteristics you require eg. similar to standard power delivery, more low down pull etc. etc. In this way, the chip has truly been tailored to your car. It is often termed a remap for this reason.

More recently, companies have started tuning via the OBD ( on board diagnostics ) port and it is literally a case of plugging in, uploading the new parameters and the car is remapped! there is NO physical change to the actual chip whatsoever. APR now do this and retain their cruise control functionality, whilst REVO also do this and have the ability to switch, this time by using a 'dongle' that plugs in to the OBD port. Jabba are working on their own OBD programming but will continue to offer Rolling Road tuning. Other companies are also doing this and this is now undoubtedly the future of tuning. All the above regarding generic maps etc. remains the same, it's just the method of getting the program to the car which has become much easier and more stealthy.

As said before, the results are usually very similar between these two main methods.

The most important thing though is to do your homework. Find out who has got a good reputation (there are known to be some franchisees of companies whose ECU replacement leaves a lot to be desired), ask tons of questions, speak to people who have had it done, get a feel for the customer service. If you're not happy, move on. There are plenty of good companies out there.