Which Chip for Australia E34?

[ss2115]

I'm sure its been discussed before, but I'd like opinions on the best Chip available for my 1993 525i Touring.

Mark at EAT seems highly favoured on this forum but here in Australia, we also have PowerChip http://www.powerchipgroup.com/products/showchip.asp?pid=Bmw0034&year=1992&make=BMW showing very similar figures.
Mark will ship to Australia.

There are a number of other chip tuners such as Racing Dynamics and I'm sure a few others.

Its not just a matter of out-and-out HP/Torque increases is it - its also smoothness, the delivery of the extra power, starting and fuel economy as well.

Love some feedback please - especially from any Australian/NZ members, but like to hear from everyone with good or bad experience.

[kev535i]

ive nothing but good things to say about EAT chips

[BigKriss]

I had both a powerchip gold and a eat chip in the 535. I kept the eat chip there. Does the powerchip still cost around aud$1000?

[ss2115]

I had both a powerchip gold and a eat chip in the 535. I kept the eat chip there. Does the powerchip still cost around aud$1000?

Hi BigKriss.

PowerChip Gold or Gold 98 is Au$690 - about $46 per Kw improvement.

They claim 156Kw with the Powerchip Gold 98 or 153Kw with the Gold, and 275NM with the Gold 98 or 267NM with the Gold.

Gold is 95 Octane as you probably know.

If you've had both, which was better?
Any particular reason why you changed between the two?

I'm more interested in torque and smoothness rather than high end. Its a heavy car I want to pull up to speed quicker, and then get good consumption figures while cruising in a strong torque band.

[BigKriss]

Hi Mate, you can read some of my posts for powerchip over the years here - http://www.bimmernut.com/forum/search.php?searchid=702540

I bought the eat chip thinking i had a standard chip but when I went to pull the standard chip the powerchip gold (95) was there. I tried the eat chip for a while and then the powerchip one, but went with the eat chip becasue i thought it was better. the torque around 2000 rpms seemed to be stronger.

I have made comments about it in the past. I cant comment on the chips compared to a stock chip becasue the car never had one. I dynoed my car once and it made 141 rwkw on a dynojet dyno in gladesville, nsw. But I never dynoed with the gold powerchip so I dont know what the difference was.

I think if the ecu numbers are the same in the usa as in australia the chip will work fine. australians fuels are the same / slightly higher in octane in the usa (they use a different rating scale also)

I would always recommend the eat chip. As you know powerchips are verty expensive comapred to eat chips.

[henryw525i]

I've got my own custom dyno tuned chip from Andrew at ALS and it works a treat. When I got mine done it was setup in such a way that it didnt need to receive data from the 02 Sensor...so we took it out and welded up the hole never have to replace that damn thing again :)

[ss2115]

I've got my own custom dyno tuned chip from Andrew at ALS and it works a treat. When I got mine done it was setup in such a way that it didnt need to receive data from the 02 Sensor...so we took it out and welded up the hole never have to replace that damn thing again :)

Hi Henryw525i.
That to me is a step backwards - not forwards.
It means your system has returned to a mapped or open loop system and cannot realtime adjust for all driving conditions.
It may reward you with better performance, but you'll never have the best fuel economy possible and if your still running a Cat you will do it in very quickly which will eventually cause you backpressure as it carbons up, and a drop in performance and yet even higher fuel consumption.

Much rather replace an O2 sensor every 150,000klms than a Cat every 50,000 klms!
You've just cost yourself a lot of money with the extra fuel consumption costs and expensive maintenance.

You'd have been much better to chip it with the O2 in place, or put a piggyback ECU in to fine tune the load and acceleration runs and leave the O2 to keep you on good fuel consumption for light loads and long steady runs.

My OEM Bosch O2 sensor cost me $160 at 187,000 klms and the chip will be about $245 by the time I get it here. With a 22hp increase, thats $11.14 per HP increase and I'll have a smooth running and improved fuel consumption motor to boot (and road legal).

[henryw525i]

Hi Henryw525i.
That to me is a step backwards - not forwards.
It means your system has returned to a mapped or open loop system and cannot realtime adjust for all driving conditions.
It may reward you with better performance, but you'll never have the best fuel economy possible and if your still running a Cat you will do it in very quickly which will eventually cause you backpressure as it carbons up, and a drop in performance and yet even higher fuel consumption.

Much rather replace an O2 sensor every 150,000klms than a Cat every 50,000 klms!
You've just cost yourself a lot of money with the extra fuel consumption costs and expensive maintenance.

You'd have been much better to chip it with the O2 in place, or put a piggyback ECU in to fine tune the load and acceleration runs and leave the O2 to keep you on good fuel consumption for light loads and long steady runs.

My OEM Bosch O2 sensor cost me $160 at 187,000 klms and the chip will be about $245 by the time I get it here. With a 22hp increase, thats $11.14 per HP increase and I'll have a smooth running and improved fuel consumption motor to boot (and road legal).

Hear what your saying and thought the same would happen myself when we first did the custom mapping. I've had this for 4 years now and still manage around 9L/100 highway driving and 13/100 ish around the city so have been pretty content with it.

[ss2115]

Hear what your saying and thought the same would happen myself when we first did the custom mapping. I've had this for 4 years now and still manage around 9L/100 highway driving and 13/100 ish around the city so have been pretty content with it.

Can't argue with your fuel consumption - your getting very good milage.
I've had down to 12.4 using about 2/3rds of the tank on a long drive, but as soon as I hit city traffic again in creeps back to around 15.6.

Replacing the O2 certainly helped a lot, but I feel that it could still be better.
I'll look at the injectors next, and the chip as well as the increased torque should help.

[henryw525i]

Can't argue with your fuel consumption - your getting very good milage.
I've had down to 12.4 using about 2/3rds of the tank on a long drive, but as soon as I hit city traffic again in creeps back to around 15.6.

Replacing the O2 certainly helped a lot, but I feel that it could still be better.
I'll look at the injectors next, and the chip as well as the increased torque should help.

Mine's manual M20...if your running auto then thats prob the difference :)

[compmore]

i'm also after a chip and everyone seems to recomend the eat.I've emailed Mark about it but haven't got a response.

its a bit of a worry if you can't get an answer from him

[BigKriss]

Normally he doesn't email straight away, so maybe PM him through here. he's definately not dodgy though.


i'm also after a chip and everyone seems to recomend the eat.I've emailed Mark about it but haven't got a response.

its a bit of a worry if you can't get an answer from him

[ss2115]

i'm also after a chip and everyone seems to recomend the eat.I've emailed Mark about it but haven't got a response.

its a bit of a worry if you can't get an answer from him

I'm finding the same. He's very informative when he does reply, but it goes for days without a reply until I prompt him.

I've tried to orgainise a chip from him before I leave on holidays today (20th), but nothing back from him even though I told him I was ready to purchase so it would be here when I returned from holiday.

Its all very well him being highly recommended, but he doesn't seem interested in securing sales even when offered to him on a silver platter.

I'm on a plane to Hawaii in 4 hours, so it will have to wait till I'm back on 1st february. Its his money he's mssing out on.