Chipped Engines

Pataman

I bought myself a new diesel jeep. A friend of mine told me to have it "chipped". I am told that this improves fuel economy. I presume this will invalidate the warranty. Anybody had this done? And if so does it really make any difference?

Blaster99

Don't know about fuel economy, but you'll get more power. It will invalidate the warranty (and probably the insurance if you don't tell them). There are essentially two solutions. You can either get somebody like SuperChip to modify the existing ECU in the car or you can get a piggy-pack ECU like TuningBox + millions others. You can just remove a piggy-pack ECU and nobody will ever know what happened. I believe the SuperChip solution is quite difficult to detect too, but not sure. I suppose another couple of benefits with a piggy-pack ECU is that they're easy to install so you can do it yourself and you can sell it when you're done with it.

If you want to see power figures, you can either check superchips.co.uk or tuningbox.com. Both are available in Ireland.

Ernie Ball

I wouldn't even think about not declaring it to your insurance company. Yes, some chips can be easily removed . . . if you're not being carried away in an ambulance or the bonnet isn't completely smashed, etc.

Blaster99

Have you ever declared modifications to an insurance company? It's not a big deal. They might charge you a bit extra, but on the other hand you now have a valid insurance policy and not a piece of paper in the windscreen.