JIMMY

I know a fair bit about cars, but I don't know one thing. What does chipping a car exactly mean. Thanks

JSB

Reprograming or replacing the stock main chip located on the engin control unit (ecu) with one that's be modified. Tuners (shops that specialize in car modifications) can swap out your old chip and have you back on the road in less than 15 minutes. I have an .8 bar chip (smallest HP increase at 42 with my 97 1.8T) and love it. My only regret was waiting over a year to have it installed.

gdewitt

It is amazing how much of a car is computer controlled these days. Your engine's computer, or chip, controls things like fuel injection, timing, knock and, if you have a turbo, turbo boost. The software installed by the manufacturer balances factors such as fuel economy, pollution control, engine life and performance in what the manufacturer things is an optimum way. The software in a performance chip uses a different balance and thus gets more performance, usually at the sacrifice of the other factors.

Chips for normally-aspirated engines can improve horsepower a bit. But the real improvement comes into play on turbocharged engines because the amount of boost, or air compression, can be increased. How much they increase boost is described with the number of bars of compression. One bar is normal atmospheric pressure, so a 1 bar boost doubles the amount of fuel-air mixture, while .8 bar increases it by a factor of .8 and a 1.2 bar increases it by a factor of 1.2.

With a 1.8T Audi engine a 1 bar chip increases HP by about 50 (my GIAC chip increases by 47) while a .8 bar chip increases HP by about 40.

Unlike mechanical performance tuning, chipping simply changes the software. If you were to reinstall the original chip your car would be in original condition. It takes about 5-10 minutes to swap ECUs.