Can chip-tuning break the warranty? In order to answer this question, let us take a better look at the details of procedure. There are two possible ways of providing chip-tuning: changing standard electronic control unit programs or using additional electronic unit. The first method is classic chip-tuning. Technicians implement it in the following way: connect PC to the automobile, download software from its ECU and rewrite ECU memory with new control map. As a result, the power increases. There are some disadvantages of this manipulation, such as: official service stations can reveal the fact of intervention, new mapping protocol can cause vehicle malfunction or irreversible ECU damage. As you can see, ECU remapping is rather complicated procedure, which requires special skills. Usually, this kind of improvement is provided in tuning centers by experienced team of electronic and motor technicians, which allows to make precise engine tuning. Nevertheless, official service center will probably refuse to repair the car, if anything goes wrong, and here lays the main problem of such approach.
Installation of additional control unit is much easier. The device is connected to individual plug and stays under the bonnet or in the passenger compartment throughout all its functioning period. This unit does not rewrite any information in the ECU. It only changes the data, which is obtained from different sensors. For example, the device can simulate lack of fuel and pressure in the cylinder, forcing ECU to increase the fuel concentration in the mixture and time of valve closure during fourth stroke, and as a result, the driver gets power improvement. Additional control unit does not cause any problems during service maintenance and keeps the warranty valid, because there are no signs of its work after the device removal.
It is simple and to install RS-chiptuning unit on the majority of vehicles and connect it to the ECU. Anyone with the least technical knowledge can do it.