Cheapo Upgrade!!!

[lolathemini]

I have read about the cheapo upgrade that you can buy on ebay and the like, that you have to connect a resistor to the IAT sensor. I know everyone says there a load of rubbish but i'm one of those people that just have to try it for themselves! I have looked in all the forums and searched the web but noone actually tells you where the iat sensor is located!!! I presume its near or on the intake manifold, there is one clip that kinda looks like it might be it but dont want to go to the effort of removing it if its the wrong thing.

Someone must know where it is!!! If someone tells me i will fit it and let people know if it actually works. I am sceptical but also curious!

Thankyou

[Richard Crofts]

They don't work. I have a mate who bought one of these for his Citroen...not a dickie bird!

Even if they did, fitting something that fools the ECU by giving a false reading from a sensor is not a clever thing to do. The ECU has set perameters that it uses to dictate fuel and other settings on a car (all of which are based of safe working levels for a micx of performance and longevity of the engine). If you fit something that provides the ECU with a false reading you are causing the car to perform an operation that is outside what it would normally consider the sensible thing to do...bad idea!

Example being that if you tell the ECU that the cars intake temp/flow is lower/higher it will adjust fuel accordingly and therefore cause problems in the long term, even if you do see a performance (defo not an efficiency!) increase. If you run an engine too rich you end up with fouling, if you get it to run lean then temps sky rocket and you get wear and possible broken parts like valves! Either of these can mean expensive work to strip clean and possibly replace parts....things like this are best left well alone. Save your few quid and get something more viable like an induction kit or exhaust system.

The claims from some of these resitor kits are silly...I have seen as much as 20bhp bandied about...to fool an ECU into changing timing and fuel etc to provide as much BHP increase as this you are talking (if it were possible) serious alterations from normal working perameters...that means serious problems on down the line as the mix would be so far out of kilter.

Once again...I WOULD NOT FIT IT!...infact I would implore you not to, think of the poor MINI

[Boddington]

If you want a cheap upgrade, use MTH, not some dodgy ebay fix.

[ScienceGuy]

Quote: Originally Posted by lolathemini

... noone actually tells you where the iat sensor is located!!!

Someone must know where it is!!! If someone tells me i will fit it and let people know if it actually works.

I am sceptical but also curious!

Good for you being skeptical, but willing to do the experiment!!!!!

There are two different sensors depending on what kind of car you have:

Cooper: T-MAP sensor
-----------Intake-air-temp AND Manifold Absolute Pressure combined sensor
-----------Located under the plastic fuel-rail cover.

Cooper-S: T-MAP sensor and additional seperate MAP sensor.
-----------Intake-air-temp AND Manifold Absolute Pressure combined sensor
-----------Located at the front of the intercooler.

The Cooper-S looks like it has 4 wires, but I can't find it in the schematic,
so I can't tell you the colors, or which wires are for which sensor. Sorry.

[Porco Rosso]

Seems to me the best this type of mod could do is shift the existing performance profile of the ECU, whereas a true ECU remap (which isn't all that much more expensive) can tweak the whole profile. It's the difference between just pushing the existing curve higher versus truly reshaping the curve for better performance across the board.

And as Richard points out, if you push it too high without an actual remapping, you'd run the risk of doing some serious damage, methinks.

You certainly wouldn't get me to use this if any other mods were in the car, since I'd want the ECU responding to the reality of what is going on in the modified car, not some electrically whitewashed version of reality. And even with no other mods, I'm with Boddington - I'd probably lean toward an ECU remap ala MTH.

Braver souls than me have to exist to invent and test these things, though, so more power to you if you have the courage to risk your baby trying this out. Let us know the results if you do.