Anders

I remembered reading this article back in the spring of '98 but neglected to clip it out and save it. I figured out that I could search through the newspaper archives on-line (I had to pay $1.95 to download it). I figured some of you might be interested in learnign more about Garrett Chips. And no, I have no affiliation with Garrett....in fact, I have a Wett chip in my A4.<p>Anders<br>'97 A4 1.8Tqms, Wett 1.0 Bar<p><br>PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER<br>SUPERCHARGING ENGINES WITHOUT GETTING GREASY <br>Thursday, April 16, 1998<p>Section: TECH.LIFE@INQUIRER<p>Page: F01<p>By David J. Wallace, FOR THE INQUIRER <p>Tires squeal, gravel takes flight, and other drivers notice as the conservative-looking four-door sedan accelerates from a red light. The speedometer needle leaps toward 60 m.p.h. before the car uses up second gear, and a wide smile creases the driver's face. <p>This car is radically different from the mild-mannered new Volkswagen Passat that left the dealer's lot less than 5,000 miles ago. It has more horsepower, quicker acceleration and a faster throttle response, thanks to Garrett Lim. A soft-spoken 29-year-old medical student and part-time "car hacker" in Fairless Hills, Lim transformed the car without picking up a wrench. <p>By rewriting parts of the computer code that controls the auto's "brain," Lim unleashed additional performance that had been toned down by Volkswagen engineers. All the tools he needed were the computer in his spare bedroom, a small machine that burns memory chips, and a soldering iron.<p>Lim is among a growing number of individuals and companies that are hacking the family car.<p>Starting in the late 1970s, carburetors have been replaced by electronic fuel injection, knock sensors, and other computerized controls. So, the shade-tree mechanic has had to get a high-tech education. Computer tuning is primarily aimed at performance cars such as BMWs, Camaros or Porsches. But many cars can be reprogrammed, Lim said.<p>Before you start making plans to change the chips in your Escort to turn it into a pocket rocket, Lim said, you should know that this technology won't work in just any car. Chip-tuning is most frequently useful in high-end European cars with engines that have been electronically limited to meet U.S. emissions and safety standards. Some expensive U.S.-built cars also can benefit from this electronic makeover. <p>"It's a transformed car. It's crazy," said the car's owner with delight. "I'm amazed by the power and why Volkswagen didn't build it this way in the first place. It's a wolf in sheep's clothing."<p>But there are consequences. The owner didn't want to be identified, fearing Lim's adjustments might jeopardize the car's warranty.<p>Also, mechanics who don't know the car has been "chipped" may make misadjustments to the engine. The new chip settings also could cause a car's emissions to fail inspection, heat engine oil beyond safe operating limits, or push the car's speed beyond the suspension and steering needed to control it.<p>All that and more can result from a few lines of rewritten code within the Electronic Control Unit, a silver-color metal box about the size of a paperback that sits under the car's hood. Disconnect the box and the car won't even start.<p>The ECU, which is often encased in a tamper-resistant box and uses encryption to protect it from electronic tampering, contains the car's inner limitations and capabilities. Those limits prevent the engine from revving too fast or the car from accelerating above a maximum miles-per-hour. If the car exceeds those limits, the ECU will know.<p>And it will remember. <p>And it will tell your mechanic the next time he or she checks the ECU. Everything from the temperature to the barometric pressure can affect a car's horsepower, and the ECU can recall those details. On Volkswagens, the ECU can tell when a gas cap was left off after a fill-up and tattle to your mechanic, Lim said.<p>"I'm changing things like the carburetion and timing, the kinds of things you can't do unless you get into the chips," he said. "Timing and fuel is where the power is. That hasn't changed. It's fun and easier to do this than little mechanical fixes. I like acceleration - that's why I got into this."<p>The second-year student at Allegheny University of the Health Sciences medical school has been a frequent visitor to New Jersey's Atco Speedway, taking his 1977 Volkswagen Scirocco out on nights when the public can use the quarter-mile drag strip.<p>Lim's interest in auto chips led to his creation of the Garrett Integrated Automotive Corp., which has rewritten code and shipped <br>chips worldwide for cars ranging from Ferraris to Volvos.<p>Buying a "Garrett chip" costs a few hundred dollars, depending on the car and model. A software kit for creating your own chips is priced at $5,000. Yet Lim said he was not in this to build a business. Most sales have been to individual owners who contact him via e-mail or from his home page. Recently, two West Coast companies specializing in Volkswagen parts signed deals to use his chips.<p>"If $400 gets you 20 horsepower, that's a cheap deal," said John Rose, who owns the Southampton garage where Lim tests his cars. "We have a 1986 Monte Carlo with the owner paying $1,500 for new headers and carburetors, and she's also going to gain unreliability. Because aftermarket stuff can't possibly match the engineering done at the factory."<p>Lim wrote software to monitor a car's performance from a laptop computer that displays acceleration, horsepower, timing and other vital signs. Most new cars have a computer port near the driver's seat for a probe to be used by mechanics. The new Passat has one in the dashboard beneath the steering wheel.<p>"I have to see what the car needs," he said. "There are 64,000 numbers and you have to figure out which codes control what. You also have to know what's going on mechanically with the car."<p>That means some old-fashioned knowledge of fuel-air mixtures that can run too rich or too lean and cause engines to knock. Factory chip settings can handle variations in gas quality or other factors. Aftermarket chips are set for specific cars and drivers, so owners may have to use premium grades of gasoline with higher octane to maintain improved performance. <p>Frank Montgomery said he'd seen only a half-dozen cars with altered chips at Devon Hill Motors, which sells Volkswagens and BMWs. As service manager, he said, he has to break the bad news that aftermarket chips, parts or other tinkering have ruined a car's performance or voided its warranty.<p>Enthusiastic BMW owners have installed chips from Dinan, a Mountain View, Calif., company that reached a deal with the German automaker to offer its own warranty. Devon Hill can sell used BMWs modified by Dinan as long as the dealer informs buyers of the modifications and the differences in performance, Montgomery said.