Piggy back resistors?

Author
Discussion

chris_freebie

Original Poster:

955 posts

240 months

Wednesday 21st March 2007
quotequote all
Hi,

Anyone had any experience with a piggy back resistor? For those who don't know what I'm waffling on about these are the 20p resistors that are available on ebay for around £5 for virtually any Petrol car with engine management and multi-point fuel injection.

You can find them on the web simply typing in for example Focus Chip.

I am curious as to whether it would really work, I imagine it does something like fool the car into thinking it's always cold outside and so should create the right mix of fuel etc for a cold environment. However that to me sounds if so it may cause a bumpy ride?

Obviously a proper chip is the way to go but for company car drivers this sounds like a good sneaky way.......

Cheers for any advice or words of caution !!

Chris.

GreenV8S

30,208 posts

285 months

Wednesday 21st March 2007
quotequote all
Well apart from the fact that they're sold for approximately 100 times what they're worth, and just mess up your engine management system rather than actually improving performance or economy, I don't see any problem. It should work well with your ecotek valve, fool catalyst and lucky rabbit's foot.

chassis 33

6,194 posts

283 months

Wednesday 21st March 2007
quotequote all
Peter you're forgetting your Enginerestore too

Regards
Iain

chris_freebie

Original Poster:

955 posts

240 months

Wednesday 21st March 2007
quotequote all
So if you know the code for the resistor and can get one for 5p would you ? Are there any plug in chips that do work ?


Edited by chris_freebie on Wednesday 21st March 14:40

busa_rush

6,930 posts

252 months

Wednesday 21st March 2007
quotequote all
chris_freebie said:
So if you know the code for the resistor and can get one for 5p would you ?


No, all they do is tell the ECU that the intake air is cooler than it really is so for a short time, the ECU adds a little more fuel. Most modern ECU's will check the lambda reading they get from the exhaust and adjust it back so it's a pointless exercise that will raise your fuel bill slightly each time you drive the car.

Some work on the water temperature to fool the ECU into thinking it's cold so it injects more fuel, same as above. At the very best you will get slightly better performance for a short time, but probably not enough to notice and then only if your car is set to run a bit lean in the first place. Once the ECU sees the lambda reading going rich, it will pull the fuel back out and you're back to where you started before the resistor but having spent another £1 on fuel that you didn't need.

They are a scam, pointless, useless, a waste of money and the sellers sould be strung up by their balls and have dead hedgehogs shoved up their arses.

The best way to get your car to run better is to service it regularly with a good quality oil and give it the Italian tune up once a week, especially if you sit in traffic a lot. Adding an extra psi or 2 to the tyres will also help performance as long as you keep an eye on tyre wear.

chris_freebie

Original Poster:

955 posts

240 months

Wednesday 21st March 2007
quotequote all
Have to admit I thought it was a big scam, just dreaming that it was true....

Cheers for the info (but if you know of any good plugin devices for petrol mazdas or fords that would be really handy!)

Chris.

Mattt

16,661 posts

219 months

Wednesday 21st March 2007
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Bluefin.

I really don't understand why people think flooding an engine with fuel gives more power?

Avocet

800 posts

256 months

Wednesday 21st March 2007
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Even on a pre-cat car where there is no lambda sensor, you can still end up damaging it. it's like driving an older car with the choke out all the time. It's unlikely to go much faster but the excess fuel might wash the oil off the cylinder walls and cause accelerated piston ring wear - this, in turn will allow more unburned fuel past the rings and into the sump where it will thin the oil out and trash the bottom end of your engine. personally, I think there ain't a barge pole too long for those things!

GreenV8S

30,208 posts

285 months

Thursday 22nd March 2007
quotequote all
Mattt said:
Bluefin.

I really don't understand why people think flooding an engine with fuel gives more power?


Petrol makes it go, so more petrol must make it go more - stands to reason, init? Next you'll be saying that folding the seats down to reduce weight doesn't work either?

chris_freebie

Original Poster:

955 posts

240 months

Thursday 22nd March 2007
quotequote all
GreenV8S said:
Mattt said:
Bluefin.

I really don't understand why people think flooding an engine with fuel gives more power?


Petrol makes it go, so more petrol must make it go more - stands to reason, init? Next you'll be saying that folding the seats down to reduce weight doesn't work either?


Best bet is to take a crap before you drive, save valuable weight after a night on the pies!

ridds

8,222 posts

245 months

Friday 23rd March 2007
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GreenV8S said:
Mattt said:
Bluefin.

I really don't understand why people think flooding an engine with fuel gives more power?


Petrol makes it go, so more petrol must make it go more - stands to reason, init? Next you'll be saying that folding the seats down to reduce weight doesn't work either?


There is an optimum fuel quantity for maximum power. Any more and you waste fuel and reduce output, although you do reduce gas temps a little.

So in reality most of these people are de-tuning their engines with these things.

rollingroadtune

3 posts

206 months

Saturday 24th March 2007
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have to say they do nothing, we ran them back to back on the rollers just for a larf not worth the postage..

mike