RamTech
Senior Member
- Joined
- Jul 20, 2011
- Posts
- 279
- Reaction score
- 4
- Location
- Johnson City, TN.
- Ram Year
- 2004 Dakota SXT
- Engine
- 3.7L
There really does seem to be a sucker born every minute. Today a young custoner come in looking to have his "performanc chip" installed on his truck. After checking it out and reading the instructions, I realized someone had sold this poor kid a $.25 resistor in a plastic box for $50 and promised him gains of up to 75 HP for his 4.7 engine. I tried to talk him out of it but he wanted installed anyway, so I did the job.
I brought the truck into the shop and grabbed my DVOM and checked the "performance chip". Sure enough it was nothing more than a 10k ohm resistor that ties into the IAT sensor to fool the PCM into thinking the incoming air is 80F cooler than what it really is. I brought the customer back into the shop and showed him exactly what it does on the scan tool and cautioned him not to expect any performance or fuel economy gains because the IAT is such a small part of the fuel calculation that would be overridden by the inputs from the O2, MAP, coolant temp and other sensors.
Aside from the empty performance promises, another potential problem is the connectors supplied with the chip. They're just generic connectors that will allow moisture in and corrosion to fester. I did solder the wires in to at least keep corrosion at bay and wired it in such a way that if it gives him problems, he can plug the IAT back in and the chip wil be overridden.
This poor guy wasted $70 on a $.25 part that will do him no good. He asked what he could do for more power and I suggested that he look into a programmer that will actually reprogram the PCM instead of just lying to it. What else can you do, yanno?
I brought the truck into the shop and grabbed my DVOM and checked the "performance chip". Sure enough it was nothing more than a 10k ohm resistor that ties into the IAT sensor to fool the PCM into thinking the incoming air is 80F cooler than what it really is. I brought the customer back into the shop and showed him exactly what it does on the scan tool and cautioned him not to expect any performance or fuel economy gains because the IAT is such a small part of the fuel calculation that would be overridden by the inputs from the O2, MAP, coolant temp and other sensors.
Aside from the empty performance promises, another potential problem is the connectors supplied with the chip. They're just generic connectors that will allow moisture in and corrosion to fester. I did solder the wires in to at least keep corrosion at bay and wired it in such a way that if it gives him problems, he can plug the IAT back in and the chip wil be overridden.
This poor guy wasted $70 on a $.25 part that will do him no good. He asked what he could do for more power and I suggested that he look into a programmer that will actually reprogram the PCM instead of just lying to it. What else can you do, yanno?
