Buzzing right passed the "you're an idiot" "you wasted your money" "loser" bits and jumping right to the real question:

Why are "performance" eBay chips bad for your Civic? I have an 08 Civic LX which has pretty slow throttle response compared to my last car, and I thought that the reason might be because I could use a chip as they all promise faster throttle response.

Well after trying to locate my IAT sensor with a bit of Google help, I found a thread on this board where everybody basically says that they are a horrible idea, and I am left wondering why. I know that it tricks the engine into thinking the air is in a different state, thus making some changes which seem to give more performance (and most people agree, they do give you slight gains in power).


Does anybody know WHY they are bad for your car? I imagine that since it's tricking the air intake sensor, it's probably going to try to just feed your car additional gas. However, most of them also say you should get MORE MPG afterward, because you have to use less throttle to move the car. Anyway I am just looking for a bit of insight.

Thanks for all your help, I'm glad I didn't go throwing this chip into my car.

 

This also kind of makes me wonder about the quality of air intakes you usually find on eBay as well, and how much performance you would get from them...

 

simple answer: they dont do sh*t. lol
99% of all ebay items do not have the R&D time put into them as respected companies such as injen or aem do. you will notice no gains at all. hell, even with aem or injen intakes you're not going to notice much difference.

you have bad throttle response because of dbw (drive-by-wire). not much you can do about it.

 

Are they harmful to a motor in any way?

 

I would have to agree with pd0019, The chips shouldn't hurt the car but think of this the sensor that you are taking out of the system by jumping it with this so called chip (resistor) is a fixed resistor which is replacing the factory sensor which changes resistance with different air flow rates and heat ranges to let the computer know exactly how hot and how much air is in the engine so it can make "max" efficiency of the engine. So you make the decision.


I say they are for the trash can and go with a e-manage or hondata, you will be much happier

 

Generally yes they are harmful. There was a thread awhile back that should be archived now comparing a REAL spoon and skunk2 "chip" or fuel map in proper terms to a ebay knock off chip and the results were pretty terrifying. These maps are very poorly writen and can actually be very harmful at certain points. They are not written with any real for sight or experience just what the person feels MAY increase power.

As far as the throttle response what your probably feeling like mentioned is the drive by wire. Fact that there is no more throttle cable you wont feel the instant response you expect once the pedal is depressed by your foot. What you feel is what the ECU determines based on its inputs how fast to accelerate.

Best to steer clear of these "performance" chips as your better off doing simple bolt ons until you can invest in a real fuel management system to properly tune for your modifications

 

Really its ebay thats the prob, its like going to the swap meet and trying to get quality products. The reality is that its not a great product and is just someones get rich scheme.


Modified by 100miles+ at 10:51 AM 9/16/2008

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by 100miles+ &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Really its ebay thats the prob, its like going to the swap meet and trying to get quality products. The reality is that its probably not a great product and is just someones get rich scheme. </TD></TR></TABLE>

 

yo man i have a 2000 honda prelude and i baught one of those ebay chips and it really didnt do shittt. i had it on for about 2 months and my CHECK ENGINE light came on. but i wasnt really scared because i already knew it was the chip so yeah its a waste of money when you buy cheap **** you get no gains at all...when you buy expenisive stuff then you should see gains on my behalf. its just junk dont buy it

 

Hahaha nice