oresama99

hi all. just wondering if any of you out there have purchased an aftermarket chip for your E. i am considering doing it this coming summer but i am having trouble deciding which manufacturer to go with. i used a wetterauer chip on my 1.8t but their chip for the E55 doesn't seem to do very much besides removing the limiter, and i hardly ever drive in excess of 100. nowack seems to have some interesting numbers regarding their chip, but i need to do more research. any other ideas?

thanks for any input.

bkc

KenE55

For years I have heard about computer chips that magically improve some performance aspect of a given car. Is this for real?

If all you need to do is reprogram some software, why wouldn't the manufacturers do it?

Do they work by increasing performance at the expense of something else, like gas mileage, emissions, reliability, or what?

Or is this all a bunch of snake oil?

Air Marshall Eldritch

I've heard (read?) of real gains in horsepower, though I don't know at what expense. Corvette owners are fond of these chips. I've often heard of small power gains in the 15-20 horsepower range.

One thing is for sure though. Replacing the chip will definitely be detrimental to your factory warranty.

Lightman

I haven't put one on my E class, but I have a Jet Power chip (www.jetchip.com I believe) on my '97 tahoe 2 door. That particular computer didn't accept a chip so its actually a small computer unit, but it does the same thing as a chip essentially. It definitely made the tahoe run more crisply and faster. It also adjusts your automatic transmission shift points, so it downshifts much more easily or quickly for hills or towing etc.. I took the computer off (less than one minute) before I took it to the dealership for service the other day, and the truck was noticeably slower and sluggish feeling.

In any case to answer your question, yes these chips DO work, but they do come at some expense. How major or minor its hard to say. The chips usually take advantage of a safety gap the manufacturers leave in the timing, air fuel mixture, turbo boost pressure, etc. Maybe the maximum tolerance before your turbo breaks is 19psi. The factory probably has it at 14, and the chip will make it 18. It definitely will put additional strain on your vehicle, but how much strain, depends on how aggressive the chip is.

Many mercedes diesel owners and VW diesel owners swear by a chipping company called Upsolute.

apb

I thought that for non-turbo engines, all these chips did is advance the timing, increasing compression, and requiring higher octane gas to prevent the pinging that would otherwise result.
Some mercedes already have high compression, around 11:1, and it is hard to imaging that it could be modified substantially.
A Tahoe may be a different story, usually they are lower compression big V8s that run on 87 oct from factory.

joeyharp

I have reflashed or replaced chips in a few cars and it always seemed to bear a noticable difference. THEN, I changed the chip in my Audi S4. HOLY #$%*!! Torque jumped from 260lbs to 350 and hp. jumped from 250 to 318. The car was absolutely born again.
Moral of the story, it depends on how detuned the car is from the factory. I later found out that there is a european version of the S4 which has just about the same numbers for torque and HP. as I got as a result of the chip swap. I guess they don't think we can handle power here in the US!!

joeyharp

Lightman

those gains are virtually unheard of, i've never seen any chip company boast more than 35hp gain. I admit i've never heard about audi chips tho. Thats unreal if you're not bsing about those numbers of course

oresama99

those gains are common with turbo cars. when i chipped my a4 1.8t it bumped hp from 150 to close to 200 and torque from 150 to 215. let's take a look at what the nowack ecu will do to the E320 CDI.....bumps up hp by 40 and torque 115nm's.
nowack page, click on ecu tuning for all specs

joey:
did you leave your s4 suspension stock? when i had that car the handling was my largest peeve. with the chip i'm assuming the suspension is a little overwhelmed, especially with the p7000's. or at least that was my experience. also what colour, i had imola yellow.

joeyharp

I never changed anything but the chip in that car. The suspension in that car was designed pretty well, I thought . However, the rear end yaw was sometimes intimidating and over some time it really took a lot off my entry speeds. There was nothing like that car coming back off the apex, though. I was further into the throttle earlier and earlier while exiting. The car was a blast, but lacked a certain panache.
I had a silver s4...Like everyone else but you!! My dealer couldn't find a yellow one or I would have been all over it!

As to the question someone else asked of my b.s.-ing about the torque and hp jumps after chipping the car... I am certainly not. If you don't have any experience with turbo cars, I can understand the doubt.

joeyharp

Lightman

Joey, aren't you worried about the chip adding a lot of extra stress on the engine, especially the turbo and transmission, and affecting the longevity/durability of the engine?