Share your Unichip mapping w/mods

[SCharged]

Originally Posted by jamesm

probably not much if anything in terms of peak hp, except maybe from the ability to adjust cam timing. driveability and the stability of the tune are the biggest benefits i'd say. of course once you consider the ability to run e85, it makes a lot more power lol.

i think unichip is probably the best piggyback out there, but it's still a piggyback, and there isn't much need for them when flashes can be had so inexpensively.

Makes sense. I guess we can see unichip as a milder tuning solution that will make 95% of people happy, as they will not be building a monster86. I think we may be biased on this forum, as we see a few radical builds, we feel we need the absolute best of each part.. but then comes the bill, and most of the time, the marginal return is very small. Some will end up paying double for a catback, for one extra HP...

I'm very happy with my unichip, and really appreciate the absolute no footprint aspect of it. When I bought, it was much cheaper than what tuners were proposing under the ECUtek platform; is this not the case anymore?

[jamesm]

Originally Posted by SCharged

Makes sense. I guess we can see unichip as a milder tuning solution that will make 95% of people happy, as they will not be building a monster86. I think we may be biased on this forum, as we see a few radical builds, we feel we need the absolute best of each part.. but then comes the bill, and most of the time, the marginal return is very small. Some will end up paying double for a catback, for one extra HP...

I'm very happy with my unichip, and really appreciate the absolute no footprint aspect of it. When I bought, it was much cheaper than what tuners were proposing under the ECUtek platform; is this not the case anymore?

no, the unichip (or any piggyback) is not anyone's ideal solution at this stage in the game. you can reflash your car with nothing but a $169 tactrix cable and free software. You can get pro-tuned OTS maps and a logging device from OFT for less than $500.

it's not about how much power you're aiming for, that's not the win you get with a reflash. it's about driveability improvements that result from not having to 'hack around' the problem, by editing parameters directly and fixing problems at the source rather than through signal manipulation. add to that the endless list of things that you can do with a reflash that just can't be done with a piggyback (listed above, but suffice to say 'anything except adjusting fuel and timing'), and it's a no-brainer.

i'd sell the unichip and get the new ecutek kit or openflash. there are a lot of exciting things going on in those areas you'll want to take advantage of down the road.

[tbertran]

Wouldn't a professional tune be an issue when comes maintenance time if/when the dealership detects it?
I always thought of the piggyback option as a good compromise to address that point.

[jamesm]

Originally Posted by tbertran

Wouldn't a professional tune be an issue when comes maintenance time if/when the dealership detects it?
I always thought of the piggyback option as a good compromise to address that point.

it's not. that's a selling point that piggyback fans/vendors point out, but in reality it's not an issue. by rights, when you modify your ecu in any way whatsoever you can't expect warranty coverage for related parts. the argument made is that the piggyback makes it easier to defraud your dealer because you can remove it without a 'footprint', but this completely ignores the fact that you can flash back to stock with a reflash and there is no 'footprint' left behind that a dealer could detect anyway. could they use forensic techniques to determine that you had flashed it? yes. will they? no. it's just not worth the money for them to do it to deny a claim that'd probably cost them less than finding out anyway.

i've confirmed this to be true with techstream and ecuflash reflash method. ecutek/OFT are no different. brzedit is the exception as it changes the seed-key algorithm to disable ecu reads entirely. this breaks pretty much everything that uses obd2. techstream can't even connect to the car with a brzedit tune loaded.

but then in any case, as a grown man who handles his business, you shouldn't be trying to defraud your dealer in the first place. just man up and pay to play. it's part of the game.

[SCharged]

Originally Posted by jamesm

it's not. that's a selling point that piggyback fans/vendors point out, but in reality it's not an issue. by rights, when you modify your ecu in any way whatsoever you can't expect warranty coverage for related parts. the argument made is that the piggyback makes it easier to defraud your dealer because you can remove it without a 'footprint', but this completely ignores the fact that you can flash back to stock with a reflash and there is no 'footprint' left behind that a dealer could detect anyway. could they use forensic techniques to determine that you had flashed it? yes. will they? no. it's just not worth the money for them to do it to deny a claim that'd probably cost them less than finding out anyway.

i've confirmed this to be true with techstream and ecuflash reflash method. ecutek/OFT are no different. brzedit is the exception as it changes the seed-key algorithm to disable ecu reads entirely. this breaks pretty much everything that uses obd2. techstream can't even connect to the car with a brzedit tune loaded.

but then in any case, as a grown man who handles his business, you shouldn't be trying to defraud your dealer in the first place. just man up and pay to play. it's part of the game.

I agree that dealers will rarely investigate that far, but the fact is, one is traceable, the other isn't...

I also agree people should man up and realize that a modded car is pushed to greater limits than a stock one, however, dealers are also often a bunch of asses and deny warranty coverage at the first little inconsistency in your maintenance history... It goes both ways IMO.

[nakamur21]

I love how every unichip thread quickly spins out into a "x flash is better" thread…

Seriously though, I am in CA and run unichip fuel~ and timing + on CA 91 octane with works muffler delete and mid pipe + avo air inlet and K&N drop in. It has passing power on the freeway in 6th, which it did not have before. I'm overall very satisfied, plus I got the unichip on sale from a special holiday promotion and paid less than $400.