Chip Tuning, Remapping, ECU: Glossary to Your Car Computer

Know About Chip Tuning, Remapping, ECU

Looking to modify the computers in your car to get more power or efficiency? A quick Google search can be incredibly confusing. If you’re having trouble telling the different ECUs apart or comparing chip tuning vs. remapping, this quick guide can help you understand what they are.

Chip Tuning:

Early engine computers were first introduced in the 1980s and changed the way that engines were tuned up. Suddenly tune-ups were no longer about adjusting parts like a carburetor. In order to change key engine parameters, the chip had to be physically removed and replaced with a new chip. This was the original chip tuning, where the tune-up involved switching out the chip.

This term gets a little murky as technology evolved. The introduction of diagnostic ports meant chips didn’t have to be removed to be changed. The diagnostic ports allowed direct software access, so the chips could be reprogrammed without being removed. Today, chip tuning can refer to either replacing the chip completely or reprogramming the chip. But technically, it’s when the chip is removed and replaced with a customized chip.

Engine Remapping:

Remapping happens when the software in the chip is changed without changing the chip itself. The existing engine map is coded into the software of the engine’s computer. This software is then overwritten with a new engine map, or remapped.

If this sounds like modern chip tuning, that’s because many people will call it chip tuning, but technically it’s not chip tuning. A good way to remember the difference is that chip tuning involves changing the chip, while remapping involves changing the software.

Electronic Control Unit:

These are the actual computers in your car, also known simply as ECUs. The name refers to the entire unit itself, which consists of a computer board inside a casing with ports to connect it to the car. There are a wide variety of different ECUs scattered around your car, controlling things like your in-dash system, power steering, anti-lock brakes, engine, and more. Any time anything electronic is run, there’s an ECU behind it.

ECU or ECM:

Here’s yet another common place for confusion. The Electronic Control Unit that controls how the engine works is know as either the Engine Control Module (ECM) or the Engine Control Unit (ECU). This is the specific computer unit that controls engine settings like the timing, fuel injectors, etc.

Powertrain Control Module:

Just to make things even more interesting, there are also Powertrain Control Modules, or PCMs. These control both the engine and the transmission settings, and are more common in cars from the 1990s to early 2000s. Modern cars, however, have a separate ECU/ECM just for the engine controls.

Performance Chip:

These are the aftermarket chips designed to replace the manufacturer’s chips or software. There are a couple different types. Control modules are permanently installed between the sensors and the ECU, while power programmers are temporarily used to change settings through a diagnostic port. Both of these are widely available options, but don’t offer the customization of a professional chip tuning or remapping.

Chip Tuning vs. Performance Tuning

Chip Tuning vs. Performance Tuning

When it comes to getting more out of your engine, two of your big options are chip tuning and performance tuning. These are both types of engine tuning, each with their own benefits, and their own costs.

Chip Tuning

Originally, chip tuning meant that the chips in the ECU (Engine Control Unit) were removed and replaced with chips that had different software. The introduction of diagnostic ports to car computer systems opened the door for engine remapping, or rewriting the software without having to replace the chip. When a lot of people refer to chip tuning today, they actually mean remapping.

On the low end, you can simply buy a chip module that plugs into the diagnostic port to change the programming. This can have unpredictable results, since the module isn’t specifically made for your car and driving conditions. For the best results, chip tuning should be done by a professional. After installing a high quality chip, they’ll often put your car on a rolling road. They’ll run a series of diagnostic tests using precise machinery while the car’s running, then adjust the software accordingly.

Performance Tuning

While chip tuning deals exclusively with the software, performance tuning mostly concentrates on the physical parts of the engine. The vast majority of these hardware modifications or improvements concentrate on the powertrain, such as the cylinders, exhaust, transmission, and more. Performance tuning is almost always focused on getting more power out of the engine.

Performance tuning can be done by car owners in their garages, but they really have to know what they’re doing. Actions like boring out the pistons, installing a custom exhaust system and changing the compression chamber size are very complicated procedures that have to be done to very narrow margins. Owners will often find that they get the best results when they have the performance tuning done by a professional shop.

Combine the Tunings

If you really want to get the most performance possible out of your car’s engine, then you’ll probably want to combine both performance tuning and chip tuning. Performance tuning will allow you to switch out parts and tweak engine parameters to get as much as possible out of the engine.

Once you’ve got all of the physical parts fine-tuned, chip tuning will allow you to make sure that the software is lined up to get you the best response possible out of your upgraded engine. In fact, many of the pro shops that can help with performance tuning can also help with any chip tuning or remapping that needs to be done.

Costs and Benefits: The Numbers Behind Chip Tuning

Costs and Benefits Of Chip Tuning

When you’re considering engine chip tuning or remapping, it’s easy to run into conflicting and confusing information. It can be tough to track down concrete numbers for what it can and can’t do for your car. Believe it or not, there’s actually a good reason for that.

So Why the Ambiguity?

There are a couple reasons why chip tuning doesn’t always get the same results. The first is the variation of cars out there. For example, a 1997 Honda Civic has little in common with a 2007 Ford F-150 4×4. There’s also a large variety of environments where the cars are driven. Chip tuning for a steadily hot environment can give much more stable results than chip tuning for an environment that swings from cold and dry to hot and humid.

The other big reason is the chip tuners themselves. There’s a wide variety of ways to change your car computer’s software, everything from a cheap “plug and play” external chip module to having a professional remap the software or switch out the engine chip. As you can imagine, this produces a wide range of results.

By the Numbers

All of that being said, there are a few numbers that can be thrown out there. With upgrades like this, it’s a good idea to look at the upper ranges of what you can accomplish. Then you can adjust downwards depending on your budget or abilities.

Tuning for Performance:
Up to 30% more power and up to 25% more torque

To get these results, your best bet is to go to a professional. They’ll perform complete diagnostics and tuning with the car on a rolling road. Be prepared to answer questions about your driving habits, and be honest. A pro will tune the software to specifically give you the most power for those driving conditions, so the more accurate you are, the more power you’ll get.

Tuning for Efficiency:
Lower fuel consumption by up to 16%

This doesn’t necessarily mean sacrificing engine power. In fact, many software remaps can actually increase your power and lower your fuel consumption at the same time. Again, the key here is to have the chip tuned to specifically fit your car, your driving conditions, and to have consistent driving behavior.

The Costs of Chip Tuning

This is another area where it can be tough to track down numbers, but here are a few rough ranges:

Performance Chips: $300-$700

This is for a chip or module that you plug into the diagnostic ports yourself. Performance chips or modules are the cheaper option, and pretty easy to install. That being said, they’re also not going to give you the best results. That cheaper price tag might only give you a tiny fraction of what you could get.

Professional Chip Tuning or Remapping: $400-$900

This price is really an incredibly broad estimate, since every situation is different. The more precisely you want the engine tuned, the more time it’s going to take, which means the more it’s going to cost. This also varies depending on the car. Some cars are capable of a lot more fine-tuning than others, and a pro can help you get the most out of them.

Additional Costs:

Chip tuning changes how your engine runs, and you should be prepared for a change in how you use your car. A great example is fuel costs. Chip tuning focuses your engine to the point where you have to be a lot more choosy when it comes to the gas you use. This can lead to increased fuel costs. That being said, those increase costs could be easily offset by the increase fuel economy.

Ultimately, chip tuning is like any other car upgrade: The more you put into the improvements, the more you’ll get out of them.

Engine Chip Tuning and Your Warranty

Warranty On Engine Chip Tuning 

Engine chip tuning, or adding performance chips, can make a big difference in how the engine in your vehicle runs. However, if your vehicle is under warranty then you probably want to keep it that way, and no amount of improvements are worth having to shell out big money the next time anything goes wrong.
These tips can help you figure out what will happen to your warranty with engine chip tuning. This does not qualify as legal advice, and if you really want to be sure then you should consult a warranty attorney.

The Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act

The Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act is a federal law that was passed back in 1975 to protect consumers. The law specifically covers how warranties are treated by the consumer and the warrantor. There are a wide variety of protections and regulations that are part of it.

But what does this have to do with engine computer unit tuning? The protections of the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act mean that a warranty cannot be declared invalid just because you install aftermarket modifications, and that includes performance chips. Since performance chips or engine tuning add-ons leave the original components intact, the warranty is still valid.

Exceptions to the Rule

That being said, there are notable exceptions. The biggest one is Engine Management Systems (EMS). When these are added to your car, they bypass the existing onboard computer. Since this completely changes the OEM systems, it will void you manufacturer’s warranty.

The other exception is when the tuning modification can be proven to have caused the damage. This is true for more than just engine chip tuning. Your warranty simply isn’t going to cover repairs if you installed a radiator that didn’t work and caused the engine to overheat. The same is true if you added a chip that overrode safety standards and made the engine break down.

A perfect example of this is a Technical Service Bulletin (TSB) issued by Ford a few years ago. A large number of F series pickups with 6.0 Powerstroke turbo diesel engines were coming in with blown head gaskets. Ford found that almost every single one of them had a power chip installed that boosted engine output and damaged the head gasket. As a result, this specific damage was no longer covered under warranty, and Ford had every legal right to deny the warranty claim.

Do Your Homework

The very best thing you can do before your modify your vehicle is to research all of the data that’s out there. Professional aftermarket mechanics can be an invaluable resource for this. They’ll keep track of the TSBs that are out there for your car. Even if they don’t know the information off the top of their head, they know where to look to find it.

They’ll be able to recommend the best tuning modifications to get more out of your vehicle without harming your warranty.

Engine Chip Tuning: Is it Legal?

Engine Chip Tuning Legalized Or Not

The right performance chip or engine control unit can change the software in your engine’s computer, giving you more horsepower or more efficiency. In theory, it’s your vehicle, so you can do whatever you want to it.

The Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers would like to change that. This group of 12 automobile manufacturers seeks to prohibit car owners from changing the software in their cars. But do they have legal grounds to make that claim?

The Digital Millennium Copyright Act

It all comes down to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Passed in 1998, the DMCA was designed to specifically deal with issues of copyright and intellectual property in the digital age. At the time, it dealt with music, movies, software, and other digital products.

The Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers is petitioning to have the software within the car’s computer covered under the DMCA. They claim that they have a copyright on the software. Like software companies, they’d like to limit the ability of the consumer to copy or modify the software. If the petition is approved, then it could prevent car owners from performing any modification that changes the software.

The Argument for Limiting ECU Tuning

At first glance this push against chip tuning might seem like it’s out of left field, but there is logic behind the Alliance’s case. Early engine computers might have only determined one thing, such as the fuel/air ratio in the fuel injector. Modern cars can have over 80 different computers or chips scattered around the vehicle. They can control everything from the engine to the anti-lock brake system to the steering to emissions.

When a car leaves the factory, the software is carefully set to very specific parameters. Some of these ensure that the car meets emission standards. Others ensure that the car meets safety standards, efficiency standards, and more. If someone changes these settings without knowing what they’re doing, the results can be damage the vehicle, and may even lead to accidents.

The Argument Against Limiting ECU Tuning

Opponents and car enthusiasts are aware that there are risks to any customization, but contend that these risks are actually very minor. To put things in perspective, they’ll point to classic cars. For example, a car from the 1950s will not be up to modern standards, no matter how well maintained it is. Even if adding performance chips to modern cars makes them slightly less safe, they’ll still be safer, cleaner, and in more compliance with standards than older cars.

But the biggest argument they have against limitations is the infringement of ownership rights. Placing remapping or other software modifications under the DMCA means that car owners only have a license to the software, rather than full ownership. This would mean that the car companies would own part of your car, and have a direct say in what you do with it. Opponents are also concerned about it being a slippery slope. For example, a different set of rims changes the parameters the software works with, and could then no longer be allowed.

Before you get any performance chip, chip tuning, engine remapping, or other software work done, it’s a good idea to check with a pro. They’ll be able to give you the most recent updates on the progression of the debate to help you make your decision.

Risks of Engine Chip Tuning

Engine Chip Tuning

Engine chip tuning, also known as engine remapping or simply chip tuning, can be a great way to get more out of your car. It’s a relatively small modification that can drastically change how your engine runs. But those changes can also have a downside. Here are a few risks you take when you tweak the ECU or engine control unit.

It Can Push the Engine Too Hard

One of the most common engine remaps is to get more power out of the engine. The right settings for the fuel/air mixture and timing can get your engine functioning at a higher speed and getting more power with every stroke.

But that extra power can push the engine parts beyond normal stress limits. At the same time, the increased heat and repetition lead to higher wear levels. Both of these factors can combine to increase the risk of catastrophic engine failure. This is why engine tuning can often void your powertrain warranty unless it’s done with the right gear by the right person.

The Engine Can Be More Susceptible to Changes

The default chip parameters are set by the manufacturer to make the vehicle as versatile as possible. After all, consumers are all over the globe, and most of them just want a reliable car they don’t have to worry about.

When chip tuning brings out more power or efficiency, it often comes at the cost of that versatility. This means that the engine can be more susceptible to factors like a bad tank of gas or higher air temperatures.

It’s Easy to Make Mistakes

The ECU controls a lot of different systems, and most of them are vital to how the engine works. Many of these systems are interconnected. For example, the fuel/air mixture is tied to the spark timing which is tied to the transmission. Tweaking one of these settings without changing the others accordingly can actually make the engine perform worse than it did before.

The wrong adjustments can do more than just lower the quality of the engine’s performance—they can actually cause the engine to break down entirely. These breakdowns can cause irreparable damage, so it’s important to know exactly what you’re doing.

Other Parts May Need to be Replaced

Changing the tuning of your ECU will give your engine and vehicle better performance, but all of the stock parts are chosen with the manufacturer’s default settings in mind. So they might not give you the best results after tuning.

Parts that directly concern running the vehicle are hit the most by this. Things like spark plugs, distributors, wires, and valves should all be replaced in order to get the most out of the tuning. This risk is probably the least of all the others, but it can be a hefty hit to your budget.

The Pros and Cons of Engine Control Module Tuning

The Pros and Cons of Engine Control Module Tuning

The engine control module, also known as the engine control unit, is the computer that controls key functions of your engine. By hooking a chip tuner or performance chip into the system, the parameters from the computer can be altered. This can change key factors in the engine, such as the fuel/air ratio or the spark timing.

Here are a few pros and cons of ECU tuning.

Pros

More Power:

Vehicle manufacturers tend to be conservative with the settings on their ECM to account for changes in elevation, temperature, fuel, and maintenance schedules. Chip tuning can change the settings to get more power from the engine, adding a good chunk of HP to the car.

More Efficiency:

The main goal of chip tuning for a long time was power, but today’s higher gas prices and environmental goals have changed that. Modern chip tuning can help your engine run more efficiently, and can give boosts of 5-10 mpg.

Affordable Upgrades:

If you’ve shopped around for custom car parts, then you know how much they can run you, and how much they can cost to get installed. It’s best to get your chip tuning down by a pro, but even then it’s still less than getting a new custom exhaust system.

Cons

More Wear & Stress:

That extra horsepower translates to more force and heat being generate. Along those lines, a higher red line translates into thousands of more revolutions. All that force, heat, and revolutions translate to a lot more wear and stress on your engine.

Easy to Make Mistakes:

It might seem like chip tuning is as simple as plugging the chip into the right port, but it’s a little more complicated than that. Use the wrong chip or the wrong chip settings and you can easily cause your engine to seize up or break down. And the damage can often be irreparable. This danger can be avoided by having the chip tuner installed by a pro.

Increased Maintenance & Care:

One of the big reasons manufacturers are so conservative with their chip settings is that they expect people to perform infrequent maintenance or use lower quality gasoline. When your engine has a chip tuner installed, you’ll need to make sure that you perform more rigorous maintenance, and be choosy about the kind of fuel you put it.

Also, it’s important to note that better replacements parts will help you get the most out of your chip tuning. This isn’t really a con, since many people who get chip tuners are planning to customize their ride anyway. But it is something to take into account.