Do any of you guys have any experiance in putting a chip in your car to give it more horse power, take the top speed limit off and improve your gas milege? Does it work and is there ANY negative side effects?

 

Haha I remember doing that back about 10 years ago. I had a Lincoln Mark VIII and once it was chipped (with a "SuperChip" it was called) it was actually noticeably quicker and would leave about 5 feet of rubber on the pavement between the 1-2 shift, and it was an automatic. Had that chip for a few years with no ill experience. It really depends car by car though, some are already pretty well optimized.

My story aside, there was a thread about this: https://mbworld.org/forums/showthrea...hlight=chip+cl but it is about 3 years old, so if anyone has done this recently I would be interested to know more about it too.

 

has anyone else put a chip in their car?

 

I think the word "chip" may be an old term, as cars nowadays technically can't have their engine management map altered with a simple swap of chip like the older models do.

That being said, I still have an older BMW that I tinker with from time to time. As far as I know, even the BMW 3 series could not have its engine management altered with a chip after the 1996 production year. Instead, a software upgrade was needed for minor performance improvement. I would therefore imagine that Mercedes has followed the same, if not more advanced pattern on its cars.

I believe you may have your engine software upgraded by an aftermarket tuner. The results are generally inconsistent depending on whom you speak with. I have replaced both the engine chip and transmission chip on my BMW with reputable BMW tuners (J. Conforti and Dinan) and frankly, the psychological effects were much more apparent than actual performance increases.

Also, you'll want to take in consideration that any power gain advertised by chip manufacturers may be misleading. For instance, if XXX company states that there will be a 20hp gain on a car that has 300hp in stock form, it doesn't mean that you'll get the full 320hp with a chip. The reason is simple, if the chip is giving the gain only at a RPM point where the car isn't making its full power, then the advertised result can be misleading.

Given the complicated nature on modern cars, I can only bet that the science involved in it is probably much more in depth than I've ever known.

Jon

 

So I take it that it is not worth fooling with?

 

Actually, whether it's worth it or not is really up to the person who makes the choice.

If I were you, I would spend that few hundred dollars on a Sprint booster device instead.

Jon

 

Whats that?

 

Sprint booster is a device that adjusts the sensitivity of your electronic throttle.

Notice that the CL often "lags" when you want to give it a go on highways? It's due to the fact that unlike older cars that utilize throttle cables, newer Mercedes throttle is controlled by electronics. The drawback is that usually, the electronic mapping is rather conservative and computer often reacts very slowly when you put your foot on the gas pedal.

Sprint booster essentially minimizes this problem, just like how one can "tighten up" the throttle cable for a more instantaneous response when you go off the line. Instead of getting the full throttle when you need to press that pedal to the metal, you're getting the full feed by only having your foot 1/3 of the way.

I really like the convenient and quicker response that this device has provided. In my opinion it's more worthy than a computer software upgrade.

There are of course, pros and cons about this device. For your reference here's a huge discussion/debate about it on another MB forum. You can also read about my feedback about this device toward the back of the discussion.

http://www.benzworld.org/forums/r170...-facts-15.html

Jon

 

Thanks. a friend of mine told me that car adjusts to the way you drive, meaning if it notices that you drive fast and you keep on stepping on the throttle a lot it wil know adjust to that type of driving so it will downshift faster. Is this true or is this just in my head since i sometimes i feel the car shifting quicker?

 

..

 

Just to update you guys I ended up getting the chip in my car. The response is a lot faster and the MPG improved. Price was $840.00 and it took and 45 min

 

Oh wow...

Since you're close we may be able to see how my Sprint Booster stacks up against your chip upgrade one of these days.

Jon

 

what chip did you get?

 

i used power chip

Jon, where are you at? and whats a sprint booster?

 

I am in San Gabriel Valley.

If you scroll 4-5 posts upstairs, you'll be able to read about the SB device.

Just to clarify, Sprint Booster does not increase a car's overall performance but rather, it helps the car react better (it's like having a horse that can run fast when you simply whispers to its ears rather than having a horse that can run fast only when you whoops its *** really hard).

Jon

 

We have a very nice ECU set up for the 500. We are yielding roughly a 10% increase in hp/tq, broaden the power band and remove the limiter. Overall we really reveal the sporting nature of these cars.

 

it will help if i can read, hugh?