[Paul]

Currently more and more tuners are entering the market with chip upgrades for the Cooper S. Remapping the ECU etc.

Also, there has of course been a software upgrade to cure the 'cold start problem'. Which, according to those who have had it, seems to make great improvements all round to the car.

I wonder if the chip tuners have worked on pre-upgraded or post-upgrade chips, and if that would make a difference to a)The power gain and b)The overall effectiveness of their reprogramming?

Any thoughts? Anyone in the know care to comment?

[Andy@Ross-Tech.com]

From my experience in chiptuning other cars, the tuner starts with a stock file from a specific vehicle. The modifications are only made to the performance areas (timing maps, fueling maps, rev and speed limiters, etc) while leaving the "boring" sections alone (idle control, startup routine, etc.) So, if the original code was faulty then the chipped product will have the same faults. All chiptuners should be able to tell you what revision of the stock code they used as their baseline.

When a new stock file appears (as in the case of the cold start fix) the chiptuner can compare the binary images of the old and new stock files to find the changes. Then, they apply the changes to the chipped file.