On various car sites advertising offers from companies dealing with a chip-tuning can be found. The car owners are promising to reduce the fuel consumption with simultaneous increase in power and noise from the engine. Before spending money on these "mutually exclusive paragraphs", you should consider the options that change when you reconfigure the electronic control unit, and how they affect engine performance and resource.
What's a chip-ing chip?
Even if this term is for the first time, you can guess what you're referring to: "chip"-something related to computers, tuning. It is. Read-tuning is an improvement in engine performance without mechanical interference. This type of development was possible when electronic controllers (ECUs) were introduced to drive the engine. The basis of the ECU is the chip (memory chip). In it, car manufacturers install a program that controls a number of parameters-injection, ignition, and so on.
The main driver of the development of the chip-tuning in Russia was the need to correct errors in the management programs of domestic automakers
You can use the chip-tuning to modify the standard settings of the software that is installed by the manufacturer. This is done to improve engine performance and to fully disclose its potential.
Aims and Purposes
Most of the time, the chip-tuning is used as a means of increasing engine power. The second most popular goal is to reduce fuel consumption. It is also possible that the tuning chip is used to adjust the control program after replacing parts of the engine operating systems (e.g., replacing the nozzles, etc.).
Relatively new direction is the introduction of changes in the program in connection with the transition to food from the gas-coil equipment. In this case, the chip-tuning is unavoidable-to work on liquefied gas, at a minimum, it is necessary to change the setting of the optimal spark timing angle.
An unverified program can cause serious harm to the engine during the operation
Finally, the tools of chip-tuning are often carried out by a kind of self-adaptive "adaptation for Russian conditions of exploitation." Typically, foreign producers install certain "average" programs into the control unit. In this case, economic considerations lead to the setting up of software for each market. It is possible, for example, to make a correction for the individual peculiarities of Russian fuel.
How the chip is running
The original program is read from the control unit through the diagnostic connector. To do this, it involves either a special scanner or a laptop with an adapter for the slot. The firmware then adjusts and rewrites to the controller.
Software that does not require specialized skills is used to adjust the firmware. The basic skills of the chip-tuner-the understanding of how changes to a parameter will affect engine operation. In addition, the expert must present an overall picture of the interaction of processes, as they are all interrelated.
The simplest prochus editors exist even for the key operating systems, under which modern smartphones work
Incidentally, it should be known that many so-called sealing companies in Russia do not edit the copied files themselves, but send them to specialized firms abroad, for example, in Greece. Therefore, their services are, in fact, limited to mediation, which means that they cannot be held responsible for the result. We recommend that you find out these nuances before you pay the money. Perhaps the more correct way will be to search for the local engine of your model, which has a portfolio of positive reviews.
The results of the chip are tuning.
For air motors it is possible to achieve a torque and power increase by about 8 to 12 per cent (ignition and fuel characteristics). For turbine engines, the allowance reaches 30 to 40 per cent of the reference value (by increasing the boost pressure).
The Gaps of the Chip
If the chip is incompetent, it is possible to violate the system of vehicle systems that ensure that its emissions comply with environmental standards, and this is the most "soft" effect.
In addition, each original chip contains protection programs (protecting the engine from emergency situations by moving it to the emergency mode). If the chip itself or its program is changed, there is no guarantee that the security program is not removed or damaged.
The most stringent development scenario with serious errors in the ECU configuration after a chip-tuning chip is the complete destruction of the piston group
Some manufacturers protect their programs from interference by making chip-tuning impossible without replacing the electronic engine control unit.
Alternatives
You can install the so-called tuning boxes and various modules of power and optimization.
The heating-box is connected between the stationary ECU and the fuel injection pump. The module is equipped with its own injection optimization program and gives signals to the original control unit, and the latter, in turn, calculates the parameters of the injection and serves them further. Thus, two blocks are running in parallel. This method allows the stationary ECU to be left unchanged, giving a number of advantages over the first.
Conclusion
To run or not to the services of the tuner companies, each owner decides for himself. However, it should be remembered that any interference in an avit electronics is always a risk: by changing some parameters, you can balance the rest. However, a well-executed chip-tuning is able to significantly improve the performance of the engine and to disclose its potential.