Bundus

Well its £400 + vat just for fitting and mapping, that doesnt include the chip or harness. Luckily I picked one up a while back so all I'll have to pay is the £400 but in reality the cost is around £650 all in.

From the sounds of it I will get exactly what I want out of it. Im not looking to go FI all I want is my restriction gone and a few gains from my existing mods. So it seems that the Unichip will be fine for that.

So I guess my only question is do I spend the £400 having it fitted? Does that price seem reasonable bearing in mind that it is purely fitting and mapping?

Mark you said that I could fit it myself if I have the harness? Is this easily done? Could I fit it myself then give it to the garage for mapping? Might save me a few quid!?!

Thanks for the input guys!

Any more thoughts on what we discussed at DMS mate. Combining that with the BBQ!?!

try an ECU reset and see what happens. if it brings the power back maybe worth doing everynow and then. would be interested to see if it works

If it does work then Ill be doing an ecu reset every morning - cheaper then an ECU upgrade

Cheers mate. Dont put yourself out over it though. Did you post up about the dyno day we were discussing? Just catching up on posts now so sorry if Ive missed it!!

I would advise you to speak to 3fiddy, he tried the unichip and it didnt work very well. To remove the restrictor just get the HKS defensor about 300 quid ish

 

Dan

Yeah I spent Saturday with 3Fiddy over at DMS. He originally said that the Unichip wasnt the way forward but also said that if I need the car de-restricted and I already have the unichip then I may as well go for it. The HKS SLD is around £200 if not more nowadays so if my Unichip will do the same job and more for not too much more money then Im thinking its worth it!?!

If anyone can give me a reasonable alternative (please nothing as expensive as some of the ECU's you guys are using - I dont consider a £1,200 ECU as a reasonable alternative to a £400 unichip, not in terms of price at least) that would be great. At least then Ill know if I have some options.

Thanks again.

Yeah I think I can make that date

Just need some advice from those of you in the know regarding chipping my zed.

I have a JDM Zed and its therefore restricted at 112mph. Im booked in for a track day in a couple of weeks and really wanted to remove the restriction by then. I picked up a Dastek Unichip and the Zed harness a while ago and just rang a unichip dealer near me to have it booked in.

They are quoting £400 + VAT for fitting & mapping of my chip.

So here is my question. Do I have it done, which means I can get rid of my restriction and make the most of my engine mods for track day, or is that too much money to throw at a unichip (plus what I paid for the chip in the first place too) and would I be better off waiting and investing in a better engine management system (even if it means doing my track day with the restriction). Ive also heard rumpours of the unichip not working on JDM so if this is the case whats my best alternative ECU modification?

Any advice would be great and also rough price of a better alternative would be appreciated so I can weigh up my options.

Cheers

Awesome mate. Was looking forward to seeing the pics.

Was a great day too. Thanks a lot for coming along with me mate.

Photos looking wicked. That last one photoshopped is now my background. Cheers Mark

Havent got a pic yet but ill take one. But rest assured its the drivers side and its totally clear.

Bullet since you spoke first Ill bring it to mod day and you can have first refusal.

Rosssco - dont think you can get a silver bulb for it as you need an LED. To be honest though you can barely see it through the cluster once its fitted. Get some silver indicator bulbs if you havent already, they look

Im up for this as soon as a date is confirmed and I know I can make it!

yeah I think you may be right mate. Ill see how it goes now its tightened to hell but should it happen again ill be swapping the battery for a uk one and switching the terminals.

Ill get one up for you but to be honest it looks perfectly normal and fine (other then it being JDM sizes). There is a lot of what looks like grease all over it. I may be stupid but I thought it was supposed to be there. It may be what caused it to slip off and on.

Does anyone else have this? If not Im going to clean and dry it right away!

Im interested in this mate. I have the Amuse R1 Titan on mine which I love but you can no longer see it as its Blue and my rear underside has just been painted black. Im on the look out for something nice and shiny

Does anyone know how this will compare to my current exhaust just so I know what Im getting into?

Ill get a pic up soon of my rear end but thought Id fill you guys in on something. When I was changing the indicator bulbs I realised that the red section of my cluster was just red paint or marker over the lense. So rather then have to remove the rear cluster I broke out some sand paper and some t-cut scratch remover and within 10 mins I had a symetrical rear end with no need for a cluster change.

Not sure ho many other cars may have had this bodge job done but its worth a look.

My clear rear cluster that I bought will be up for sale soon too if anyone wants it?

OK I dont want to tempt fate but I think I have this sorted.

I removed my grounding kit entirely. Disconnected and reconnected the battery and checked all connections. Did everything up nice and tight. I then took the car out for a spin and everything seemed fine. Turned the engine off then went to restart and absolutely nothing. Even my immobilizer light had gone out so I knew power was gone completely. Checked under the bonnet and the positive connection to the battery was completely disconnected (even after reattaching and tightening). So I reconnected it and did it up so tight that I almost broke my ratchet and since then Ive not had a problem.

It seems likely that what was happening was the positive cable was bumping loose then reattaching or something silly like that. I dont know for sure what the problem was but its been fine since tightening it up as much as I possibly could.

Bullet - the one I have is 330Amps Im pretty sure. Not sure if that means anything to you?

Marzman - the thing is that after the car stalls I can then restart it straight away with the key. If it was an immobilizer problem wouldnt I have to disarm that again before it would let me restart?

Ebized - Yes indeed the car battery was dead when I collected it where it had been sat for a while. It jump started no problem and the 6 hours or so that I was driving for after it was jump started were totally problem free. Since getting it home the only thing Ive changed is put a new battery in and thats when the cutting out started happening...........

.........

.........actually something you said about an earth problem has just rung a bell with me. When I was fitting the battery I noticed that one of the cables from my grounding kit was not attached so I reattached it in the place where I believed it had come from. Could that be a problem? Surely refitting a grounding cable couldnt cause a car to just stall at random intervals? If Ive reconnected it in the wrong place could that have this affect?

Thats good info and great to know. Cheers guys. Puts in to perspective how the dyno could differ from real road driving.

Yeah Mark lets sort out a swap and test session and see what results we can come up with.

Leave it where is is mate, its better there, but happy for you to try my typhoon on there to see if there is a difference as I wanted to try out a long tube!

We could trade for a week and review if you want Mark?

yeah it uses the same clip but clips into the pipe just on the side we cant see. I have the long version of this on my car and I love it.

Glad you are enjoying it mate!!

Just out of interest does anyone know if I would be better putting mine on the short kit like in this thread now that I have an air duct in my new front bumper? Or is it generally colder down lower anyway?

Cheers Bullet. I had thought that the general theory was get the biggest battery in there that will fit (on the JDM's anyway). The one I bought is exactly the same size as my old one and has the exact same terminals. Ill need to check the power rating etc to be sure they are the same but I cant see they would be too far different. My other option is to switch it for a UK one with UK terminals then change the posts over with the convertors.

I used to get the exact same pant-wetting experience when I had an MG-B a few years ago.

 

Turned out to be the fuel pump simply cutting in and out. Basically like running out of petrol mid-journey despite the gauge showing the tank full.

 

My solution used to be pull over open the boot, give the pump a whack and it'd spring back into life ! Not sure how it would work with the Zed though.

 

Good luck.

Yes thats exactly it mate, exactly like the fuel running out. The power just stops but it seems all the electrics are still fine. Im not sure if the brakes would stop working and the steering would become stiff if you just run out of fuel though which is what is happening on mine.

I may just take it to my local garage and ask them to check the battery, alternator and run a fault dignostic to see if anything shows up.

Just to add another strange thing is that after collecting it from the garage and for the entire 6 hours I was driving it home that day the car drove perfect with absolutely no problems. Then I fit a brand new battery (using the existing terminals as I was able to get a battery with the correct JDM ones on it) and its cut out twice in two days.

Yeah that was my worry. I opted for my own garage and the only thing they were working on was the bodywork as there wasnt any engine damage according to the engineer from the insurance company who checked the car over.

No it wasnt that the revs dropped (not that I noticed anyway). It seemed to happen as I was coasting (or possibly when I went to change gear). The car looked as normal from the inside but I do recall the airbag light coming on. When I went to restart the car thats when the electrics re-booted themselved but Im almost certain they didnt turn off until I turned the key off then on again.

I have to drive the car home tonight so will take it easy and see if it happens again and if I can gather any more details on it.

Im going to speak with the guys at the garage but in all honesty the guy hit me so slow that it didnt appear there was any damage at all other then cosmetic. I guess it could be the radiator since that is the furthest forward part in the engine bay.

I dont recall the engine lights coming on when the car cut out. Even the stereo and sat nav were still running which made it even harder to notice. It was only when I went to apply the brake that I realised the car had stalled. It did re-start instantly and without problem both times.

The voltmeter is showing 14v when running and the battery is brand new.

Hey guys

Well I guess with my luck it was only a matter of time before something went wrong with the car after not having it for 6 months and finally getting it back.

The battery was dead when I got it back so I replaced it for a new one which worked fine and actually meant the car fired up quicker then ever before. Drove the car around for a bit and everything seemed ok. Then last night and the night before when driving the car home it just died mid drive.

Im not talking stalled whilst sat at a lights or anything here, im talking doing 30 and 40 mile an hour around bends. I can honestly say that there is nothing more scary then loosing power like that in a corner at speed. The steering stiffens up so much that I can barely turn and I loose practically all braking. I had to pull the handbrake and stop the car in the middle of the opposite lane just to stop me from writing the car off.

There is no warning that this is going to happen so unless I drive the car with one hand on the handbrake and one on the key (to attempt restart) there is a good chance if it happens again I will crash the car.

Has this ever happened to anyone else? Anything I can look into?

The car recently sufferend a front end bump at low speed and has been in having insurance work done. Is there anyway I can get the insurance company to pay for it to be checked over since surely its the insurance companies job to get my car back to me in safe working order?

Im terrified to drive the car now and I just got it back. Any help much appreciated.

Cheers.

lol been stuck with this for a while myself- who do i PM once i got my photoshoot done??

No need to PM anyone mate. Once you have the file reduced in size (think it was 90 x 68 pixels on photobucket that worked) then just save the image. Then go into the User Control Panel and upload the new image as your avatar (its under the profile tab) and jobs a goodun

This we need to do a photoshoot Andy so you can get a decent pic to use for your avatar and sig!!

Yeah we really do mate. Im desperate for some decent quality pics.