do car performance chips, really work? Specifically, for a 2007 Honda Pilot? Does it improve HP and MPG?

Question

I'd like to improve horsepower and gas mileage, but what downsides are there? I'm familiar with the Dinan chips for BMW's, but have just found out about them for Honda's. Which one's are rated the best?

Answer 1

The cheap $20 are nothing but a resistor....which is used to fool the computer to thinking the engine is sucking in colder air.... it dosent work.....

Answer 2

DO NOT buy a chip from Ebay. a good performance chip can cost between $200 and $500, and Ebay has a vast history of 3rd-rate companies selling poorly made knockoff performance parts. the performance chip will work directly with your ECU to alter your engine's spark/fuel/air ratio, and this is really not something you want to trust with a $20 part. right now i'm running a Venom 400 chip on my Integra, and i'm probably only getting an additonal 15-20 horses when i have it switched on. when you're dealing with a smaller engine like a four cylinder, you're not going to see a dramatic increase in power from just hooking up a performance chip to the ECU. it does get slightly better mpg, but i'd say only 5 more max(there's multiple settings for both economy and power, you can't have both at the same time). a lot of cheaper chip companies will advertise a 30-50hp gain, but if you read the fine print you'll see that this is usually only for pickup trucks and larger-displacement engines(and even then it's too good to be true). don't buy a chip from Ebay, don't even buy a good one there. take a look at some sites that sell actual name-brand performance parts and compare prices.

Answer 3

in all honesty changing the chip does not make any huge differance. now if you was going to do extensive mods to the intake engine and exhaust system. you may see some gains. a good cat back exhaust system and headers will gain you much more power and fuel savings then any chip will. but then i ask if you can afford a 2007 car. why did you not buy a car that perform'd more like you wanted in first place.

Answer 4

mileage doesnt neccesarily go down with more power. things like headers, intake tuning, and even heads or a supercharger will gain you power, and will actually increase your mileage, as long as you dont use the new power it makes. a de-tuned, restricted engine will get worse mileage than a supercharged, free-flowing engine of the same size, but it youre driving around flooring them both all of the time, the low power engine will get better mileage. as far as a chip for your car, i cant tell you who makes them or how much it helps, but it will multiply anything else you do to it as far as performance and mileage.

Answer 5

You lose mileage with HP increase