NEWEST! eBay chip review

[nando]

voice of reason? or arguing for the sake of arguing?

Ebay chips have been around forever. Some of them may not be copies, but it's well known that most of them are. There have been binaries floating around of MarkD and JC tunes for years now, and it's not exactly rocket science to buy a $100 chip burner and some blank EPROMs.

The fact is, you have no idea what you're getting, and most likely, it's pirated. $250 is hardly a lot to pay for a tune, that's like 2 hours on the dyno which isn't even enough to do anything.

also, I don't even have a Motronic DME, I could care less about the tuning of them. The fact is, the E30 community is small, and the number of people who actively make new stuff for a 25 year old sedan is even smaller. you're stepping on your own toes and you don't even know it.

[Exodus_2pt0]

Voice of reason sounds about right. If you buy a $30 chip, you get a $30 chip. No need to accuse anyone of stealing, especially when you don't know where the tune on the chip came from.

[nando]

I never said I knew for certain, I said I'd put up $5 that it was a copy, because it's unlikely that it's not.

[Andrew318is]

Nando you forgot to consider that a good majority of the community are youngsters and don't have that kind of money to just blow on a chip. I cant even afford to blow $100 let alone $250. I'm a full time college student with a part time job and so are a good number of other people in the e30 scene. We're not all like you nando with money to blow..

[bernzpeed]

i did the same thing too. it did make quite a difference. but I would still upgrade my intake and exhaust. then... i know that I added 30 hp

[nickmcc92]

Haha everyone all has good points, but still dinan, eBay, mark d., bill e., ted chip doesn't make a difference. As long as it works.
Plus for such a small gain.. Lol
But I'm no racer either. This is a daily driver.

[Andrew318is]

This is a daily driver.

[LowR3V'in]

Power to price ratio.
The chips are terrible

[DmcL]

majority of ebay chips are one of 5 things.. complete rubbish, a copy of active autowerks, a copy of mark d, a copy of jim c or a copy of an alpina B3 chip. just dont confuse mine with any of those because i also list a couple of mine on ebay though mine are probably harder to find amidst the flood of weak or copied stuff.

also all ebay HP claims are bogus.. even HP claims on websites are usually overestimated because lets face it, people will buy more of something that lies and says +30hp as apposed to something well tuned with an honest gain figure of say +5 to 15hp. you see bigger numbers and think its a better chip/tune. its all a business ploy though, this is why i try to avoid HP gain talk on my stuff, i have bought chips from AA, JC, mark d, dinan, autothority, etc, etc. and run them in my own M20 to compare with and further my own tune and even at that peak gains are not earth shattering so id hate to see how the claimed gains on cheap crap stack up to actual gains.

also folks out there who do work alot with these motronic systems and sell decent quantities of chips usually have a supplier for blank chips sussed out. if you think you cant get an m27c256-10f1 or -12f1 for less than about $30 you would shit a brick if you knew what i pay per unit on the blanks i buy in bulk.. lol

i really cant get across just how much of a difference there is between "good" tunes and good tunes so heres a visual reference. here you have a typical M20 low part throttle ignition timing map, most of the "good" aftermarket tunes are this shape and in a similar ballpark timing wise, a bit over stock but with lots of room for improvement. 99.99% of aftermarket tunes retain stock shape and are essentially just "bumped up" a little from stock.


and here is my own personal low part throttle ignition map.. dont think i really need to say anything here, there is an absurd difference in <50% load power and overall feel between the two maps shown here lol

[fporro]

chips-a-hoy !

some came off parted cars :)

[Exodus_2pt0]

^ That photo makes my eyes hurt.

[fporro]

then you must be a young-one, 'cus look perfectly focus to me ;) lol.

[Exodus_2pt0]

I've just never seen an ALBINA chip before, lol.

[DmcL]

nothing special there.. millers big secret for their MAF is only a matter of tuning 3 AFM related maps. dinans full throttle tuning is decent but they did nothing bar full throttle maps so normal driving is identical to stock and the alpina tune floating around on "alpina" chips is from a B3 which has lots of engine tweaks compared to a stock M20 and is only a good tune if you were to replicate the alpina B3 engine's internal changes otherwise its weak (and below stock ignition values in many places).. the rest are either crap or copies of crap, and 2 stock chips unless those 2 have been erased and reprogrammed.

[nickmcc92]

chips-a-hoy !

some came off parted cars :)

How much?