Innovative Performance Chip
From our Analysis:
From our research and review, it is our opinion that the Innovative performance chip module is a dangerous IAT resistor scam. It may also cause ECU damage, so we suggest avoiding it at all costs. If there is a good side to it, it is the claim that the company offers a 100% money back guarantee. While this is a good thing, we would not suggest relying on this, to begin with – it is not a chip, but a resistor! You definitely want to pass on this one!
Scam!
Company Profile
The manufacturer is a company called “Innovative Performance Chips”, and their website is http://www.gainmpg.com. The product is also available on ebay.com. The direct link to the product page is here:
https://www.gainmpg.com/choose-vehicle
The chip we are reviewing is also referred to as an ‘IAT’ chip. Since this product has a somewhat unique case and design, it should be interesting to see what it actually does.
Cost
The cost at the time of this review on the website for the Innovative performance chip was $69.95 USD. This price is a little low to be a genuine performance chip. Hopefully the chip will produce better results than most of the previous scam chips we reviewed.
Product Appearance
The module comes in the anodized black aluminum case shown above and includes the install guide and install kit, which consists of two wire clamps, an alcohol wipe, and a velcro adhesive. While the design looks impressive, we already have suspicions of what is actually inside the box. There are only two wires coming out of the chip, which is very common with dangerous IAT resistor scam chips.
From the gainmpg.com website:
“Whether your vehicle has a gasoline or diesel engine, an Innovative Performance Chip is the answer to today’s high fuel prices and all of us looking to squeeze that hidden power and fuel economy out of your vehicle! Our affordable performance chips easily install in less than 10 minutes and unlock your vehicles full potential, allowing you to safely gain up to +35 horsepower and up to +5 MPG in fuel mileage!
We strived to create the most high-quality product in every aspect, delivering you the most affordable product without sacrificing quality. All of our performance chips feature a high-end aluminum enclosure with an extremely durable, high-quality anodized finish available in an impressive range of colors. When you consider that Apple applies the same anodized finish to their aluminum iPhone 6, MacBook Air & MacBook Pro product lines, you can rest assured that you’ll be getting an extremely high-quality product. It’s a thousand tiny details that add up to something big.
With over 75,000 performance chips sold to customers on every continent, our performance chips are truly one of the most time-tested and proven products available on the market! Now you can get very similar results from an expensive power programmer for a fraction of the price – now that’s a cheap performance chip!”
We have some suspicions due to the fact most of the above claims deal with the case material and coating rather than the chip itself, but let’s look at the unit itself in further detail.
Internal Analysis
We purchased one of these modules from eBay and examined the inside of the module:
We were immediately disappointed after unscrewing the aluminum end cap and sliding out the thin circuit board shown above. The circuit board itself was glued in with epoxy to prevent inspection, and the white residue of superglue can be seen all over the inside of the module. This does not suggest the best in quality so far. However, we will give it the benefit of the doubt and see what we observe.
One troubling thing we see upon closer examination is the fake traces connecting to the chip on the top side of the PCB. The connections appear to connect to the chip, but actually, they do not. They are drawn close to the chip but do not actually connect to it. The only two connections to the chip are the top left and bottom left (see photo below):
If we turn the board over, we see more unsoldered connections, essentially the same as the top – only two pins from the chip are even connected. Also, the pins are bent over the unsoldered solder pads, so some may connector may not, depending on if the module is shaken or moved – this is not something we would want to connect to a vehicle we care about:
Essentially, we only have two connections to the chip, out of 16 total pins. This is odd, as a real microprocessor will always have many more than two connections. What is this chip if it is not a microprocessor? The answer is in plain sight. The ID engraved on the chip is “4116R LF 1-393”. Research on this part number returns the truth – it is not a microprocessor chip or a logic chip. It is a resistor pack:
This explains why only the left two pins are connected! The ‘chip’ contains 8 isolated resistors as shown in the lower diagram above. The left two pins, 1 and 14, are the first 38K OHM resistor! So essentially what we have here is a circuit board with two wires and a 38K OHM resistor. This is just another dangerous IAT hack. We verified this by connecting an ohmmeter across the two wires:
This proves there is nothing but a 38K Ohm resistor connected to the two wires. The only reason they chose to use this resistor pack instead of a traditional resistor is to hopefully fool the user into thinking it is a real chip and not a resistor, but it is essentially the same:
How much does this resistor ‘chip’ cost? Wow – a .75 cent chip!
No wonder the website said the chip was cheap – it literally is – it is TOO cheap!
Operation
We connected the Innovative performance chip module as instructed to the IAT sensor in our test vehicle. The guide said to disconnect the battery and wait at least two hours for the vehicle to ‘reset’. This is another major red flag, but we did so. Upon reconnecting it and starting the engine, we immediately noticed rough idling, as well as a new error code being set. No improved power, just more issues! We immediately turned the vehicle off and removed the chip. After starting the vehicle again, the idle immediately returned to normal.
We followed the instructions to give it the benefit of the doubt, and…… nothing. No power increase, no mileage increase. We did, however, have a nice looking case under the hood!
Analysis
It is clear from our analysis so far that the Innovative Performance Chip module is nothing but a resistor and cannot hold real vehicle ECU maps. The circuit, like the numerous other IAT chip scams, connects across a sensor on the engine, telling the engine to alter the ratio of fuel going to the engine. While it may improve power on some engines, on others, like ours, it causes rough idling, and on others, it can cause ECU damage. We would not recommend it as IAT scams have been widely known to cause random vehicle issues.
Conclusion
From our research and review, it is our opinion that the Innovative performance chip module is a dangerous IAT resistor scam. It may also cause ECU damage, so we suggest avoiding it at all costs. If there is a good side to it, it is the claim that the company offers a 100% money back guarantee. While this is a good thing, we would not suggest relying on this, to begin with – it is not a chip, but a resistor! You definitely want to pass on this one!
Where to buy?
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