Nitrous oxide

[xr4x4]

i used to have a chip on my MG ZT CDTi, it rasied the power from 135 to 150 bhp...used to smoke like a bitch also.

 

[nickso]

Brill post, Mr. Avocet.....
'Get your diesel chipped! 240 BHP instead of your lowly 110!'
Presumably the dual mass flywheel / clutch / transmission is at the owners risk.
John

There's a story doing the rounds that VOSA intends to make 'illegal engine ecu modification' an MOT failure in the near future.
VOSA admitted that the MOT tester has no practical way of checking if the original ECU has been remapped, so it's down to the tester spotting any piggyback unit hanging off the wiring harness.

Of course what that means for the dozens of companies selling ECU remaps or how you'd insure a car that would be an MOT failure is still an unanswered question.

They'd LOVE to do this - and have been trying for years! Unfortunately, as you say, it's spotting it that's the trick! What's more, the car manufacturers would help them if they could.

When a car has it's type approval tests, it does a MUCH tougher emissions test, with the engine under load on a rolling road. The MOT emissions test is a walk in the park by comparison. Most of these "chips" that improve power would also fail the type approval emissions test and, of course, invalidate the engine warranty. The manufacturers do it themselves up to a point. The (say) 110bhp and 150bhp versions of the same engine are often nothing more than a "chip". The difference is that they do the emissions test on both (oh, and they charge a lot more money for what is, in effect, a "chip")!

Im sure that if they could find a way of spotting "chips" quickly, cheaply and easily, they WOULD make it an MOT fail. It's just a case of making that happen - unfortunately! That said, they've been talking about it for close on 20 years, so I don't imagine it will happen tomorrow!

it's a minefield that one. the truth of it is they don't really need to make it cheap to spot them as the cost will undoubtedly be passed on to the consumer.

the real question is would they be looking for a difference in the map or a difference in the ECU? you can get multimap ECU's and tools that will change the map on your behest, would they spot that?

another thought, i have a car that doesn't even have it's original engine and hence it has the ECU that came with the engine, will that be outlawed or will it get away with it because it's an old car.

VOSA are getting some very dangerous ideas lately that will make my life a dull thing indeed.