The unichip?
 

Thinking about getting a unichip but have been reading a bit of reviews. A lot of it seems like a hit or miss. Some people have issues getting the car to turn over after installation or even to get it turn. Is it a reliable piece? Would like some feedback on those who have it :thumbsup:

The startup issues are likely a user-error during installl; not pressing the crank position sensor connector down enough till it clicks is easy to do due to its location which is difficult for some people.

:search:

http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showthread.php?t=29018

http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showthread.php?t=42840

http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showthread.php?t=46442

http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showthread.php?t=41536

http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showthread.php?t=46176

http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showthread.php?t=30109


If your car sees sustained high-rpm usage, I'd recommend against a Unichip and instead getting an EcuTek tune flashed to protect your DI seals. Unichip is only a piggyback and cannot change or fill in the empty values in the stock transient retard tables that allow transient detonation which may cause issues with your DI seals burning up over time and eventually failing and allowing much bigger issues to arise. Most if not all EcuTek tuners include the newest A01 revision with the DI seal fix as a base ROM for their tunes. There is currently no other way to get the revision from a dealership anywhere in the world besides South Africa AFAIK.

An EcuTek tune allows more engine parameters to be adjusted than just timing and fuel and will likely net you more power gains than Unichip (nobody has proven otherwise yet). EcuTek also allows E85 or a flex fuel kit (DON'T BUY VISCONTI's) to be used for even more power without forced induction. Unichip reps have recently stated here that they will not be releasing E85 tunes after teasing it for a while.

Thanks
 

Thanks for input and mentioning Visconti.. They were my next option but w that incident in mind I will be looking elsewhere for a tune. Looks like piggybacks out the door. Would hate for it to ruin the DI

I recommend @moto-mike for a tune from Moto-East.

He does great work and keeps engine safety paramount. I've been running his E85 tune for a little while now and it has been fantastic.

NO, They said they are looking at the legal issues regarding changing a vehicle that was never designed for flex fuel. There are legal issues when making products that do this.

To the OP, I run a UniChip and its great.........best part, it has zero foot print on the ECU.......remove it and there is no way my warranty can be denied by Toyobaru. And I have a local tuner that can make a custom tune for me to optimize my FR-S and its mods. The UniChip also has expandability to control a forced induction system or other power adding mods if I want to later on. Not to mention the five separate tunes it has on board that I can switch to without having to re flash my ECU....hit a button and new tune is there..............

A ECU Flash tune on the other hand may leave traces of being there.......if the manufacture can prove that caused the issue you are screwed.

Get an OpenFlash Tablet and free stg 1 base map. It has the "DI seal fix" included and will give better gains than a unichip. And no additional hardware to buy if you want to go to a boosted tune or E85 etc etc. It's only 499.

Unichip cannot control cam timing without an addon box.

The Direct Injection Seals are mechanical parts, they fail due to poor design. Sure any tune will postpone the failure, but they will fail with or without any tune.

ITS A MECHANICAL FAILURE........no way a tune is going to "fix" a part that is being blown part from the firing of air fuel in a cylinder. The injector and seal will need to be redesigned to eliminate the point of failure.

Yep, UniChip would need an add-on box to do cam timing, but that just proves my point that the UniChip can make every bit of gains the flash tunes can........

You still missed the point though, when removed the UniChip leaves nothing behind that may cause the manufacture to deny your warranty.......your flash tune has.

And judging from the shear amount of complaining about knocking on some of the flash tunes.........well you should get my point.

If I need a new tune I can have it in a matter of seconds if it is one of the five in my UniChip, I can get one custom done at my local tuner in about an hour........

Open Flash Tablet, while I think it is a good idea its too new for the BRZ / FR-S........might want to wait and see if it is as good as they claim from others who do it. But then again, your leaving evidence that you screwed around with the ECU and you may get the dreaded "WARRANTY DENIED"

I didn't miss anything. OFT does not modify your stock rom in any way. All you have to do to go back to stock is plug it in and click a button, you can do it on the side of the road about 10x faster than removing your unichip.

The seal failure issue has been attributed to shift knock by toyota and they have modified the image to address it. Detonation breaks down the boundary layer that keeps the high combustion temperatures from reaching the walls and head of the cylinder.... the seals deteriorate due to the boundary layer breakdown that occurs during detonation.

How much does the add on box cost that control cam timing? How does unichip adress the factory ecu's maf output limit of 200 g/s? (you will almost hit that with a low boost innovate supercharger, you absolutely will with a high boost innovate or a vortech or a turbo). How does unichip deal with swapping the map sensor out for one designed to work with boost?

Unichip was a viable solution before re flashing was available, and now that the price point for re flashing has come down and you can go back to a 100% stock rom in minutes without the help of a tuner... well, not much else needs to be said.

If all you want to do is adjust fuel and timing on an na application and you don't mind spending $445 to do so.. then unichip is a great solution.

Unichip is not as good as you want it to be. Its is powerful but you have to get tunes sent to you every change. Go with something else.

I love my Unichip. Combine that with a header and it's a blast!

Here, I will answer your questions with how I found out the answers to them myself.....

:search:

I see no reason to hold a conversation about this with you as you have already closed your mind and want to keep trying to say how UniChip cant do.......when it can

If I was building a race car that would not be used on the street, and I did not have a factory warranty that I would like to keep (even though the manufacture has to prove the aftermarket part caused the failure) then I would not even bother with a reflash of the factory ECU or use the UniChip......I would use a complete new ECU to tune the vehicle (MegaSquirt or similar) and a heck of a lot of other things that are not street legal..............

But we are talking real world, street use, factory warranty......A flash will leave evidence in the ECU that it was messed with (there is a flash counter that the factory can access, I don't care how many tuners claim otherwise). If the manufacture really wanted to they will find out you flashed the ECU, even if you put the stock ROM back in, and if they wanted to be real $hittY about it.....well your on your own.

Everyone says they absolutely need the last 0.00025% horsepower out of the mods done, get real.....99.9% of us do not compete and 99.9% of us see a cop on the road and either slow down or get a ticket.

The OP asked for an opinion from someone who has one, I do....you don't.....the UniChip worth every penny and can do more than my daily driver will ever need. Best Part, I am not worried about the manufacture being an a$$..................

No, every UniChip owner goes to a web-page and downloads what ever tune they need. These tunes cover almost every combination of mods available for the FR-S.

Flash tuners need to have a new tune made every time, or sent to them from a vendor........

You still need to get the new tune. I can tell you they don't have every part ever made fro the frs/brz. I have seen so many people use Unichip and end up getting something else 90% of the time. Im not saying its not good for what it is, However it is still a piggy back system and with all piggy back systems its playing catchup constantly. Your just paying for limitations, why would you want to tune your car based on information from a different car with different variable like the environment. Im not saying it wont work, just saying every item produced has its differences even if it looks the same.

Coming from someone that switched from a unichip to the OFT, I would say both are great products. If you are looking for basic, install and go with no footprint, I think the unichip is a great product. I loved it on my car.

I switched because I plan on going FI, and no one local would tune it. That's the only reason. I would not touch ECUtek witha ten foot pole after how they bricked one of my previous ECUs