I have never heard of you guys talkin' about ECU upgrades much, but people have reported gains as much as 45HP. Isn't it supposed to add 15% more power to what your car already has ? Why is it that no one really talks about it ? Am I missing something ?

 

its doable.. by advancing the timing and remapping the fuel curve.. however if you plan to run NOS or boost its a bad idea.. i am not saying this company can do it.. but it is possible

 

Search.

There are a couple of ECU upgrades fro the Maxima out there. But none that make more than 10hp or so.

 

I highly doubt anything over about 20 hp. A third gen owner dyno'd his Superchip(I believe that was the brand), he's had it for about 3 yrs now. Anyways, he gained like 15 hp and 17 lbs of tq. He's got a pretty stock GXE. Most chips should get about 15hp and 15 lbs of tq. An ECU upgrade should always be your LAST mod.

 

Damnet. It seems like everything for the Maxima has less gains than on other cars. My friend got a superchip in his 2000 Mustang V-6 5spd, and it tested a gain of 33HP.

Why can't the Maxima get numbers like this?

 

what chip is it? Jet Chip? Some people say it works, while others say it doesn't do a thing. Invest in other mods first like intake and y-pipe....

 

Because Maxima engines start out that much better than Mustangs. You can only advance things so much.

 

the reason that there are not too much ECU out for maxima is that the coding is too hard for aftermarket tuner to do... there are so many different set of ECU coding for different year and different model of maxima.. that's why no one want to do it

 

The Maxima engine is very well engineered to begin with. For example, a few of the folks here tried porting the exhaust & adding headers to make more power. After all that work, they only got about a 1-hp gain on the dyno. You do the same work on American iron, and you're in for a pretty big increase. I seem to recall an article on BMW's new M5. It seems the aftermarket guys were stymied in developing an improved chip for it. They couldn't coax 1 more horse-power out of that engine after tons of R & D, dyno sessions, and who knows what else... That's pretty impressive.

 

what about jettas and GTIs? a friend of mine said his GTI 1.8T gained at least 48 HP after putting in the chip. and this other guy gained around 50 HP too on his jetta (i think it was VR6). thats like 3/5ths of a supercharger for 1/12th the price. i want.

 

This is only true on 1.8T turbo engined VDUBS..

Reason is because it actually increases the boost settings of the turbo along with the associated fuel mapping..

Thats why they get such gains..

THe VR6 is another story.. I don't think you can get that much on a VR6...

ED
1999 NIssan Maxima SE (STOCK)
1996 Mazda Protege LX 1.8L 5speed (MODDED)

 

vr6 is 11 hp 15 ft lbs tq

 

I had a 99 passat with a 1.8 turbo,before I bought the max . I chipped it. my gain went from 155 to 195. not bad for a modest 400 dollar investment.

Sprintmax is correct it only changes the boost settings. It's one of the best car to get fast results however, I dumped my passat because of the turbo problem, blown cylinder bent rods.....everything wnet down hill after the Turbo fried. I like VW's don't get me wrong but the turbo problem needs to be fixed.

 

http://www.preludeonline.com/showthr...light=maxowner

 

Chips work on Turbo cars.

That's why I'm looking at the S4 for my next car. 250HP, AWD, and for around $600 you can get a chip to boost that to over 300HP.

 

On 5th gen 3.0L maximas, ecu reprogramming is especially important. the motor makes peak power at 6400rpm and rev cuts at 6500 rpm. This explains why thr 222hp figure doesn't seem to result in much faster times than before. one has to look at when the thrust curves intesect (using dyno and gearing info) in each gear but a good first estimate would be to set the rev cut at 6900 rpm and shift at 6800rpm. Even with stock fuel and spark maps, the mere revision of rev cut and shiftpoints will result in remarkable gains, wouldn't be surprised with 0.3-0.4 second reduction in e.t. and 2 mph improvement.

As for one post's remark on American cars leaving a loose calibration...completely untrue! One can't make generalizations other than the fact that boosted cars stand to gain more in PCM reprograms.

But the '87 Grand National for example left very little room (for a boosted machine) for improvement with 14psi on 8:1 CR iron head setup. If you wanted to stay safe for a wide range of engine wear and tolerances and within pump 92 octane limitations, this setup was pretty much maxxed out programming-wise. Same goes for the 16psi GNX. Same goes for the Typhoon/Syclone (esp. pre-'93), which made 15psi. Real gains for the aforementioned are plentiful but not until you use race-gas and/or move to more efficient turbo and/or intercooler and/or alum. heads. As for '93+ fbodies, GM's knock sensoring system is so phenomenal that real-world safe pump92 octane gains are 3-8 rwhp for chip reprogramming: negligible on cars that start out 225rwhp to 300rwhp depending on year and trans. Digressing a bit...The 1997 Chevrolet Corvette C5 had a 32-bit PCM - equal resolution to exotic standalone EFIs like those made by MoTeC. And finally, even before the EEC Vs came on the Mustangs the EECIVs of the earlier EFI Mustangs were plenty versatile for serious street use, capable of driving low-impedence 83lb/hr injectors!!!

 

I test drove an S4 last night.

[cartman]swwwweeeeeeeeeeeeettttt[/cartman]

Nobody from the dealer came along for the drive after they xeroxed my license, so I got to have some fun with it and not worry. Those little u-turns under the interstate were VERY entertaining, especially with the quattro. I wasn't expecting much since it was a tiptronic auto, not the manual (going back later this week to try the manual - they didn't realize they had it in stock). I must say, and it may have been because I am so used to a manual, but the tiptronic was dissappointing! Maybe because it was still "learning" my patterns, but it always seemed to be hunting for the correct gear. And it did feel a little slow, but what do you expect from a 13.8 second 1/4 mile. It only has 250HP in a 3600 pound car. The first thing I would do is chip it - good for 60+ HP and 90+ torque! (total of 310+ HP and 348+ torque) Not bad for $600 investment.

That's why turbo cars are so easy to upgrade in power (for the most part). Many from the factory are running only 6-8 psi of boost. Stick in a chip, knock that boost up to 14 psi, and VOILA!, instant power increase for not much money. After that, though, it gets expensive, because you have to start upgrading parts to handle the additional boost. Bigger turbos, blow off valves, exhaust, injectors, intake, etc.

But to be able to add 30% to a cars output for $500-$600 is quite nice.

 

Sprintmax

Sorry to hear that about the person with the 1.8 jetta buts its so freakin common

Breaux

read sprintmaxs' reply to me. Seriously I love the s4 it a great freakin car,but I lurk in the audi world net simply because I had a chipped Passat. These guys are talkin about problems with the Turbo left and right. Just do your research man....It's a beautiful car but the Turbo is a BIG problem.

 

VERY TRUE!

Audi S4 - Major Turbo problems.
Volvo S60/S40 (chipped) - Drivetrain problems.
VW/Audi 1.8T - No point messing with, for with a 1.1 bar Chip & exhaust, the car will do high 14's. Maxima does that stock!

Subaru WRX - AHH! Now we're talking. However, anything over 300hp at the crank, this tranny will blow. Also expect to replace the clutch every 20K miles with 300HP. But the stock WRX, I hate to admit, will eat our Maxima's for breakfast any day of the week. If only Max had AWD...oh well.

Conclusion:
----------------
Forget the Audi, VW and Volvo.
Keep your Max or get the WRX...just watch that tranny. Don't do 5000rpm clutch drops, etc...

My 0.02