G-Force Chip -- scam or real?

[silverfog]

Advertised on this site is "G-Force Chip" which claims increase of up to 60HP and up to 7percent mpg.
Anyone tried it? Any opinions? Is it for real?

[bisco]

real scam.

[SlowTurd]

NVIDIA doesn't make any of those claims at thier website

[Rokeby]

The real question is not, "Why wouldn't it work?
but rather, "Why would it?"

The ad copy for about 300 different makes and models are exactly the
same. Does that sound like it's customized to your car?

Save your money. Invest in something concrete.
I understand that you can still buy the Brooklyn Bridge, for only half price.

[xs650]

Originally Posted by silverfog

Advertised on this site is "G-Force Chip" which claims increase of up to 60HP and up to 7percent mpg.
Anyone tried it? Any opinions? Is it for real?

Obviously a scam. A full fledged custom dyno tune might get you 5 to 10 hp in a Prius and most likely no fuel economy increase. A chip will never match a good dyno tune.

[theloop82]

No, but i hear if you put on a different carburetor, you can get 200mpg... The Government stole the plans and killed the guy who invented it though. EXCEPT for the one I have!

Do you think that if Toyota could add 70 hp, increase mileage, and do it for 79.99$ that they would have done it when they were building your car?

[xs650]

Originally Posted by theloop82

No, but i hear if you put on a different carburetor, you can get 200mpg... The Government stole the plans and killed the guy who invented it though. EXCEPT for the one I have!

It wasn't the government it was the oil companies that stole the plans and all the 200 mpg carburetors except for yours and mine.

[josh2008]

Originally Posted by theloop82

No, but i hear if you put on a different carburetor, you can get 200mpg... The Government stole the plans and killed the guy who invented it though. EXCEPT for the one I have!

Do you think that if Toyota could add 70 hp, increase mileage, and do it for 79.99$ that they would have done it when they were building your car?

I honestly doubt it. This is the same company that has decided to stop adding tiny engraved dots on various valve timing components which make setting the timing chain easy as can be. Line the marks up, install tensioner. Done. We've discovered in doing multiple replacements of VVTI gears they have decided to stop engraving those timing marks. Their reason you ask? Because they can and it's cheaper to manufacture.

[SlowTurd]

this what somebody found in one chip box

Analysis of a "performance chip" scam - Grand Am Owners Club Forums

While browsing for data/examples to use for the Performance product wall-of-shame (scams) thread, I came across this:

eBay item #300136356589

Why does this one stand out? They were nice enough to leave the case open and share with everyone why this is 100% scam. I will show you why.


Lets ignore the homebrew qualities (hot glue gun, what looks like speaker wire, lack of IC socket, lack of wire strain relief, moderately-bad soldering job) for a moment. Note there are only 2 wires total, the ones that connect to a sensor on your car. Now lets look at the pins the connect to on the IC. (Note: IC = Integrated Circuit, aka chip) Notice only the 2 on the end are connected.

Now lets take a look at how the most basic IC works. At minimum, 4 things are required:
1. Positive power (Vcc)
2. Negative power or ground
3. Input
4. Output

Have you noticed that there's only 2 pins total connected on the chip? Ah-ha! Busted. That's right - the chip in this module is not even powered up! Almost all DIP IC's use pins on opposite diagonal corners for Vcc and Gnd. In this case, it is a 20 pin DIP IC, so pins 10 and 20 should be Gnd and Vcc, respectively. (and most IC's that don't follow this scheme would use pins opposite each other in the center) See this for reference:
IC power supply pin - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Additionally, IC's don't like having 'noisy' power that would be typically found in a car. Anything legit would have a basic power supply or regulator to supply the IC with clean, stable power.

So what is actually happening in this example? The scam artist probably grabbed some random surplus chips (such as some common TTL 7400 series, which go for under $1) and probed various pins with a multi-tester in resistance mode. An unpowered IC will show resistance between certain pins. This is likely the case here, although there's no proof that the maker even bothered to check that the resistance is desirable for use as "traditional" IAT bypass.

I have an electronics background (Electronics Technology degree) and can safely say that whoever makes this chip does not. If they did, they would not have posted the tell-tale picture in the auction. Buyer beware!

[macman408]

Wow, as an electrical engineer, I found that second photo absolutely hilarious. Wow. Just... wow.