My engine chipping experience so far

[vscorsa Member Find all posts View Profile Close vscorsa]

I am guessing that he prices on the On the Chip-It web site are for the chip and EGT sensor and not fitting. What is the fitting cost?

[puregeek Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close puregeek]

Ive been quoted around $440 in sydney. However it doesnt look hard. Hardest part looks to be fitting in the EGT probe into the dump pipe. Has anyone done it themselves? If so did you find it easy to do?

[Chip It Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Chip It]

or if you are towing.

I'm not using the EGT setup because I'm not punching the engine to its maximum. I've got the chip running a mid level tune with stock exhaust. The Chip-It guys say I only need an EGT if running high level tunes.


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[bigCake Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close bigCake]

Hi, bought and installed Chit IT (chip only) for MY10 Prado Kakadu last Friday. I am experiencing the same engine start issue mentioned by others earlier in the thread. It doesn't happen all the time, but I started worrying about the reliability.

Robert from ChitIt Sydney has been very helpful. Disconnected earth as he suggested tonight, and so far no issue with starting. Will see how it goes in next few days.

Might be just my illusion, but feeling the car is not as powerful as with earth connected? Should earth affect the chip performance?

[BNEGXL Member Find all posts View Profile Close BNEGXL]

I ordered a Chip It today,

Good news, the 10% discount applied! Plus the service was great.

Bad news (maybe) bigCake's experience as above.

Why are people still experiencing these problems?

Whilst I appreciate Chip It backing the product and sorting the issue on a one on one basis, surely if the R&D was as in depth as their advertising states the problems would not be happening?

I will update with my experience after the chip arrives, fingers crossed I'm one of the "lucky" ones and don't have any problems.

[VXWesty Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close VXWesty]

No, removing the earth won't result in a power drop. The starting problem can be solved by running the earth strap trough a relay which only grounds the strap with the engine running.

This solution was performed on my vehicle and it absolutely fixed the starting problem.

The earth strap is still needed to reduce or negate limp mode issues caused by poor grounding of the chip. It has worked for me so far.

VXWesty

[rbert Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close rbert]

I have been running my Prado with Chip-it for 4 weeks now without any issue, mine is a manual with standard exhaust, with chip set on tune 6. Very happy with the extra performance, Have also noticed a 10% improvement in Fuel economy since fitting the chip

Did a camping trip up in the Snowy mountains on weekend fully loaded with family and camping gear, Indicated average fuel usage on returning home was 8.0lt/100 over 360 km, my actual figures are about 0.5lt higher than computer.

For the last couple of days have been on tune 9, feels much smoother to drive than on tune 6 and have noticed fuel usage has dropped to 7.7-7.8lt/100 indicated, previously was getting 8.1-8.2lt/100 over the same route which is a mix 50, 60 & 80 kmh zones. Will be interesting to see if it stays around this. This now equates to a 13.5% fuel saving for around town driving.

Am very happy with my decision to purchase the chip, makes it a better vehicle to drive.

Sorry to those that have had teething problems, but to those that are thinking about purchasing a chip, it is well worth it.

[Chip It Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Chip It]

No sweat guys. if we need to supply a relay so that the earth is supplied ONLY AFTER engine start we can of course. It is not supplied as standard as the Prado NORMALLY is not affected by the additional earth. We stand corrected as it seems however if your vehicle does not need an earth ... no probs ... leave it off.

Cheers guys and thanks for not flaming us to the ground ... we are human, but do provide back up where back up is needed

Thanks again

[puregeek Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close puregeek]

What tune is everyone running at the moment? I just fitted mine and im running tune 5. I think i have more power I feel a slight difference. Im running stock exhaust. Anyone running anything higher on stock gear?

[puregeek Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close puregeek]

The no engine start problem just happened to me twice aswell =( What is this relay thing?

[bigCake Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close bigCake]

Update:

Had bit chat with Robert (ChitIT Sydney), again he's has been really helpful. Nice customer support!

What I've been told was that the earth was used to overcome a check engine light when the mainly had higher tunes. The earth stopped the check light coming on. It will not cause any issue to the engine AT ALL.

At the standard tune setting the Prado probably won't experience the check engine light anyway however if it does, then we simple add the earth through the relay.

I've left earth disconnected for the last night and whole day today, and there has been no issue so far. Anyone who is having the engine start issue with Prado 150 might try disconnect the earth if you are running under factory tune.

I'll keep updating my experience.

Oh, one thing worthy to mention. The earth was connected directly to the battery negative when I was having the engine start issue.

[puregeek Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close puregeek]

I have to agree with you bigCake the support you get from Robert (Chipit) is amazing. He's very patient and helpful.

In regards to the earth cable, it too had it connected straight to the battery terminal, i have disconnected it aswell. No failed starts yet so far.

What tune are you running bigCake? I just figured how to upload different tunes. I was there for ages trying to figure out how to connect the laptop to the chip. It just wouldn't connect with any com ports i used. Then i thought maybe i need to have the engine running?. And then there it was... the magic all happened. Laptop talking to chip, laptop reads chip, laptop uploads new tune. I thought i would try tune 6. I dunno if its in my head or not but tune 6 (previously tune 5) makes a huge difference. Now im thinking whether i should try tune 7 =)

What else is everyone running safely?

[barryswanson Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close barryswanson]

What gets me is why the exact same vehicles have different problems. It doesn't seem logical that identical chips on identical cars have varying problems.

Robert, any chance you could enlighten me as to why this happens?

[rbert Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close rbert]

puregeek

you should only need to turn ignition on and not actually start engine to upload tunes as that's what I do with mine.

I was using tune 6 ,felt the performance down low was good, but when changing gears and coming back on the throttle I would get a slight hesitation or surge, so didn't feel very smooth, tune 7 felt sluggish for some reason, Am trying tune 9 at the moment and is smoother to drive and have noticed a fuel improvement over tune 6.

My testing has been done with just how I drive normally every day, just to get a feel for the different tunes, I don't have EGT gauge installed so won't go higher than tune 9 at this stage, Hopefully EGT's wont be a problem because I'm not a full throttle type of driver ( If i'm wrong about this , hope Robert from chipit reply's and sets me straight.)

Just try a few tunes and see what you and your vehicle likes

[VXWesty Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close VXWesty]

The no engine start problem just happened to me twice aswell =( What is this relay thing?

The relay simply disconnects the extra earth wire until the engine is running. This WILL fix the engine not starting issue, and also provide a better ground for the chip while in use, which in turn should stop any check engine lights / limp mode issues.

I'm running Tune 6 at the moment and will leave it that way for a while until I'm sure the chip is stable. I've had it on Tune 10 before and had a noticable increase in power but I did get more black smoke from out of the exhaust.

VXWesty