When you choose an EcuTeK upgrade to your factory ecu, you are choosing a product which is designed to build upon (and enhance) your car's existing ECU by upgrading its onboard software.
You are also joining a worldwide group of people that also includes many race teams who know the benefits of a properly tuned solution.
This upgrade takes advantage of the thousands of hours (and millions of dollars) of tuning which yoiur vehicle manufacturer invests in, (before your model is released). It opens to you as the owner a wealth of information and tuning options which have been developed through our tuning (and dyno testing) by our well established partners and tuner network.

At EcuTeK, we recognise that we will never know more than your car's manufacturer, which is why we only changes the things we need to in order to gain the most in terms of performance from your individual vehicle.

This means less dyno time and less cost to you the user.

Your car's standard engine protection protocols for thinks like overboost, lean out and knock correction are enhanced (not sacrificed like some products) which means your engine is protected just as well as it was in its standard form, this offers a distinct advantage over all other tuning options as is outlined later on in this article.
Factory fitted options such as Air Conditioning, Cruise Control, and Satellite Navigation to name just a few all operate with 100% reliability. These are some items that can be effected when you incorrectly modify your car.
Through our software upgrades, your factory ECU can be enhanced with many of the features only available to people who opted for exspensive replacement aftermarket ECUs.
Features such as real time data logging, water spray or nitrous control, live map switching and variable boost control all become a reality without changing any hardware! Another distinct advantage is that factory OBD-II interfacing and Diagnostic Codes remain intact, which means should you have a problem with your car requiring urgent attention or you are unable to visit your local EcuTeK tuner for any reason, your local mechanic or dealership can still perform diagnostic tests and read trouble codes logged by your ECU as if it were standard. This is a very important advantage over cars fitted with aftermarket ECUs.

The Alternatives:

Piggy-back or "Power Chips" - For many years now, piggy-back chips have provided a realtively cheap alternative to very expensive replacement Engine Control Units. However this approach is not without its flaws. A Piggy-back ECU works by modifying the sensor signals received by the factory ECU, essentially tricking it into thinking the sensors are reading different values to what they are actually reading. This provides a cheap method for squeezing more power from the engine, however, the main disadvantage of this approach is that the ECU's built in engine protection features can be severely hindered or stopped from working at all. The ECU only knows what it is told, and if the signals it is receiving are not accurate, it can not make adjustments to compensate for problems such as lean out or knocking. This can result in excessive damage to engine components.

Aftermarket ECU - Another popular approach is to completely replace the manufacturer's ECU with an aftermarket unit. These units often add many additional features such as real time data logging capabillity, water spray or nitrous control, live map switching and variable boost control. However, replacement ECUs are extremely expensive and have the distinct disadvantage that they do not utilise the countless hours of tuning and adjustment which the car's manufacturers go through when developing new cars. The tuner effectively has to start again from scratch, or from base maps which they have in their own inventory. This means retuning for cold starts, varying weather conditions, variations in air pressure and even regulation of battery charge! This means astronomical cost to the customer for the many hours of dyno time required to tune the car. After Market ECUs often will not integrate nicely with your car's accessories either which can mean things like Air Conditioning, Cruise Control and in more modern cars, even Satellite Navigation and electronic adjustable seats and the like must be sacrificed.

For more information and a free report on how to look after your car with added links and even more information, please e-mail us direct here.