Many people are curious about the performance chips and wonder whether these chips are worth the investment and are there any risks they expose to their cars? Let’s read out this article and explore whether performance chips are good for your car or they will ruin the engine.
What is a Performance Chip?
Before moving forward to the risks, it is necessary to understand how the performance chips work and why people like them? When manufacturers manufacture modern cars, they install chips in them. The computer and chip of the car include some parameters such as the car’s timings, fuel to air ratio and much more. While manufacturing, the higher degree of performance is usually neglected because the manufacturers have to follow clear regulations. The performance chips are used to adjust and boost the parameters and increase the performance of cars. People install performance chips in their modern cars to boost the horsepower by 35 or even more.
How Does a Performance Chip Work?
During the BMW M140i remap, the performance chip is installed in the car. The purpose of this chip is to override the settings set by the manufacturer and give the car more power and torque. The technicians increase the horsepower by altering the parameters in the engine set by the manufacturers. Performance chips increase the power by making several intelligent variations to the set parameters. Amount of fuel supply to the engine, ignition timing, and fuel cut are the parameters that ultimately increases the engine power of the vehicle.
The performance chip makes your car responsive and efficient. However, the results depend on the chip you buy and the car you have. The results might not be the same for every car. There are several varieties in performance chips and are programmed in different ways. Some are programmed to increase the fuel mileage, some increase the throttle response, while some performance chips increase the horsepower of the car.
Can a Performance Engine Ruin your Engine?
No equipment is there that does not have pros and cons. Performance chips also have some cons. However, the chip will not necessarily ruin your car’s engine. But it has some drawbacks. Regardless of the benefits of performance chips, certain people raise concerns about the possible damages the car might experience due to its installation. Sometimes the non-professional or less experienced technician installs the chip incorrectly, which causes potential damages.
The consequences after incorrect installation are often difficult to handle. The performance chips result in the faster wear of your car’s engine, which means it shortens the life of your vehicle. One of the critical functions of ECU is to regulate emissions. A performance chip disables the system of emission control. It needs to emit all the fuel waste to increase the speed of the car. Mostly, the chip installed car fails their emission test. The fuel economy drops, and the engine wears out faster.
Are Performance Chips Legal?
If the performance chip is messing with your vehicle’s emission control, you might be going against the law. Your car will fail its emission test because of its performance chip, which means you are driving a car that is not safe for the environment. There are certain things you should consider before installing the chip. Let’s look at these facts.
- Performance chips can increase the engine power and performance of the car but can put the life of your car’s engine at risk.
- The engine will eventually fail faster.
- The advertised gains often do not match the results.
- Installing a performance chip will void the warranty of your modern car.
- You will end up consuming more money on fuel due to increased horsepower.
Conclusion
The performance chip is affordable, and the several costs associated with the installation of this chip are manageable. However, you should consider the drawbacks as well. Before installing the performance chip, it is better to do proper research and get information about the gains and losses. Many professional and experienced technicians can help you with this. It is recommended to talk to them about the performance, the costs, and the disadvantages of the performance chip. Always go for a well-known service to avoid regret.
