If I were to purchase just a GIAC chip (not sending in the ECU), is it possible to install inside of the ECU yourself? Is there a writeup on this?

 

If you are talking about the thing that gets soldered into the board then I really really really wouldn't, unless you are a professional solderer (SP?) However they also do a "flash" of the ecu which is newer and easier and only takes them half an hour to do max. Also with the flash you can get a "flashloader" which you plug into the car and can switch your programs in a few seconds.

 

Yeah, I know a local shop that does it. I just wanted to save a few hunnert bucks on EBay.

 

you mean to tell me the prev. owner of your S4 did the headlights, rs4 bumper, rims, and whatever else and your car is stock? I thought it was chipped.

 

If you're talking about buying just a chip off eBay I wouldn't do that. I think the chips are coded to specific ECUs and can't be swapped between them. You could buy a total ECU off eBay and swap that in as long as the Box letter matches yours. Most of the time people selling them have changed programs and are trying to recoup some of their investment.Usually they'reselling their ECU at a discount if you trade them your stock ECU. I'll prolly do that when I go to K04s.

 

The only way the chip is matched to the ecu is by the letter of the ecu that defines it. PorschekidI assume that's why you started the other thread asking how you can tell what type of box you have. You should just come straight forward and tell us your exact plans. so we can best help you.

 

It's my understanding that to prevent people from copying a program from one carfor use in another car the programs are encoded to a specific ECU using an encrypted key. So that makes buying a GIAC chip from eBay for 75 cents kind of worthless as you'll have to buy the program anyway. So the chip itself probably isn't hardcoded but I doubt you could install it in a new ECU and run programs it may have without cracking it first.

 

This was my original plan. After deciding it would be too difficult to get just the chip I wanted to find out the Part # from my ECU so I can just get the proper software installed.