This is true on a standard car and it is true on a car with a RaceChip fitted.If a gear is changed into third instead of fifth, this can also damage the gearbox and engine on a standard car, it can also damage a car fitted with a RaceChip.The point I am making is that an engine and gearbox can be damaged with or without a RaceChip. This is just one example of the fail safe measures/strategies a car manufacturer will build into its ECU to protect the engine and a RaceChip will not alter these settings in anyway.However, if a car is abused, for example revving the engine high and dropping the clutch violently, this may well damage the gearbox, parts of the transmission and maybe even the engine. Excessive knock for even a fraction of a second can destroy an engine.The car manufacturer will build in a certain level of knock volume and when the knock sensor hears this volume of knock (or more) it will retard the ignition timing or cut ignition altogether. RaceChip chip tuning products do not change the target AFR (Air Fuel Ratio), RaceChip products do not change the knock safety limit built into the factory software, basically RaceChip leave all the factory fail safe measures and limits as they were set from the factory.This means it is impossible for the engine to work outside of it’s design parameters.On a petrol engine, knock or pre-ignition is probably the most destructive conditions it is possible for it to experience.
(Street & Circuit is a factory approved dealer for RaceChip so the answer is going to be based on this specific product.)The answer is a 100% no.RaceChip products do not change any factory software settings. Maybe RaceChip works for you, but the question you have to ask is, is it worth the gamble when a company doesn’t stand behind their product? I’m just glad I removed it before something truly costly happened.Customers asking if chip tuning is going to break their engine or gearbox has to be the most common question we are asked. I understand that sometimes products don’t work out, but to charge me a restocking fee for returning a product that actually made my car worse it unacceptable. Then to add insult to injury, they withheld $100 from my refund for a restocking fee. Sure they were quick to get the product to me and allowed me to return it, at my own expense ($25 in shipping). The car ran better and my fuel economy improved with the bypass. After having it plugged in for a week I plugged in the bypass to see if I noticed a difference back to stock. Man was I wrong! What I got was no improvement to performance and worse gas mileage. I figured this was a good choice because it could be unplugged and back to factory when taken in for service. The site showed 25% gain in HP and 27% in torque, along with up to 5 mpg improvement. Michael Nalls reviewed RaceChip Chiptuning USA - 1 starĪfter doing some research on different tunes for my Golf R, RaceChip looked like the best option. I went to their Facebook page and this is the first review that I saw: