I've now seen several performance chips fitting my 2001 XK8. I have owned a Corvette with one, all seemed fine. Thst is my only experience. Any thoughts or experiences with these on the XK8?
Thank you
Mark

 

Two words : snake oil....

Don't waste your money....

 

Based on experience?

 

Based on the many, many members of the four different automotive forums I utilize who for many years now have reported the various performance chips that come and go to be nothing but garbage. Still don't believe me? Go ahead and purchase one. Just be sure to report back with your results....

 

I don't think you can really effectively trick the XK8/R's ECU which is what a chip does as they are self learning ECU's that change the tune depending on many variables. Lots of people put tunes on these cars but no improvements will be made unless you actually make hardware changes. The ECU will just replace the tune with it's own tune. Only way to do it is to replace the ECU with one like an Emerald unit that you can programme yourself but you will also probably need to change other parts to get the car to run properly. I doubt the transmission will work with an aftermarket ECU so you would need to go manual probably.

If someone has a dyno of a car before and after a chip tune then I will welcome such results but so far I have never seen any. On other cars I've seen it but I have also seen lots of engines and gearboxes blown up due to such chip tunes.

 

Thanks, I always look for the why, I always have. For me it's the reason behind something that I remember. It's also how I like to manage. Sharing the why, with my team always helps build consensus and helps them to understand and provide new feedback. I don't mistrust you, just wanted the why which now holds much more weight with the why. Thank you.

 

Wow great feedback. Makes more sense now. Thank you.

 

The pain will far outweigh the gain if you mess with the ECM in these cars.
A quick look at the CAN message section in the electrical guide will show you the extent of the communication between modules.

 

Thank you!!! That's a great why.