CitizenPro's Unichip Story

Finally got to putting in the Unichip this past Monday in Dallas, with the help of mx3ownzjoo "low-psi" at his friends garage.........

The install went pretty smoothly at first.......got everything connected and ready to go. We had a couple of problems with the LED on the "MAP A/B" button staying on at all times (supposed to be lit on Advanced timing only). Cranked up the car for the first time and my baby purred better than ever........I went out for a quick test drive at low boost (5psi), and Advanced Timing turned on......the car ran smooth, nothing i havent seen. Drove back to the garage and the car started idling funny, figured the car is trying to learn the new ems with the maps. Turned it up to Hi Boost this time (13psi) and Conservative Timing turned on and went out for a drive.......smashed the gas from a 40 roll and BAM!! Fuel cut at 13psi along with an Engine Light, wtf!?

We reset the ECU with the very cool and easy "ECU Reset Button" engine light off........went out for a drive again, and BAM!! Fuel cut again at 13psi along with the damn Engine Light on. Decided to go hit up AutoZone this time and see what the deal was........Code P0103 MAF Voltage Max'd. So at this point im pist and wanting to send this unit back to Unichip and get my money back.........So to cool down, i decide to head back home to Houston and figure all this out in the morning.

On the way home i get pulled over by a State Trooper about 20 miles out of Dallas........A $591 ticket for doing 84 in a 60, and no updated Insurance Card. I keep my cool, and start going the speed limit......speed limit was 65 at this point, and i was cruising at about 70-75. Not even an hour from getting pulled over the first time, i get hit with the lights again!!! Im like **** this s***, i just want to get home......This Trooper was nice and decided to just give me a warning after hearing my car tuning failure in Dallas. (Prolly felt bad that i was trying to modify a protege) Finally got home safely in Houston at about 1:30am with a potential warrant in the works.......(first)

I wake up in the morning and take everything off the car except the boost controller and vaccum lines.........i get on the phone with Unichip and get immediately get connected with Joshua. I explain the situation with him about the Engine Light at full boost and the F'd up switches.......end up finding out my Exhaust Cutout is causing the turbo to spool up insanely too fast for the EMS......thus causing the engine light. After contemplating sending the chip or putting it back on for about 30minutes.......i slap the bad boy back on for the hell of it..........I close up my cutout and go for a run down the street.....i let her rip and hit full boost, and viola! no engine light. Problem #1 Solved......I chat with Joshua a little more and come to find out, there have been more complaints about the switches. After more talk, he tells me that the switches are mislabeled and one of the LEDs is on the wrong switch, wtf!? .....The "ECU RESET" switch happens to be "MAP A/B" switch, and vise versa........and the LED that was attached to the "ECU RESET" had to be moved over to the "MAP A/B" switch. And BAM!!! Problem #2 Solved! So all in all the trip to Dallas and the ticket was worth it.......just wish i could of met up with the Dallas Crew

Yes, there is a happy ending to this story......now we just need higher temps down here in Houston, i cant see full boost for more that 2 second without hitting fuel cut. I finished hiding everything last night, and mounting up 2 switches......i just need to get one more dummy button for the "ECU RESET" Switch. Ill be hitting up the track ASAP as soon as i stop hitting fuel cut at WOT.

Here are a few pics of my switches, dump, boostcontroller, etc..........


.......One more dummy button to install the ECU Reset switch.

.......pic of the where i mounted the Boost Controller.

.......ignore the dirty valve cover, i had the Mazdaspeed one off, i was changing my plugs.

.......where i was dumped when i was throwing the Engine Light at Hi Boost

.......i dumped it after the second cat to rid of the Engine Light.

.......my blurry night shot.


Thanx for Looking.

s*** son!!! clean

ps- i think i'm gonna ditch my uber-jdm metal switch holder and wait until I'm back in Houston so we can do the same treatment with my switches

mx3ownzj00 said:

s*** son!!! clean

ps- i think i'm gonna ditch my uber-jdm metal switch holder and wait until I'm back in Houston so we can do the same treatment with my switches

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Come on over buddy and i'll hit u up with my jdm dremel skillz yo.

That is strange. Your switches are completely different. Yours had separate LEDs? Mine have the led included on the switch itself for Map A/B and Boost. I wonder why yours is different.

dirtysouth_msp said:

That is strange. Your switches are completely different. Yours had separate LEDs? Mine have the led included on the switch itself for Map A/B and Boost. I wonder why yours is different.

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They were taped on the Boost & MAP A/B switch......i just cut the taped and seperated them, the switches and LED's have there own seperate conections. I then dremeled a box cut on the dummy switches for the "Unichip Switches" and a small hole above that to insert the LED's.

Nice! Glad you like the Unichip! Yeah, any large diameter exhaust that is very free flowing will spool up the turbo so fast, your ECU/Unichip doesn't have time to react! If there is a custom tuner around you, you can possibly make a map setting for when you have your cutoff on.... and a map setting for a normal daily driving or something.

dirtysouth_msp said:

That is strange. Your switches are completely different. Yours had separate LEDs? Mine have the led included on the switch itself for Map A/B and Boost. I wonder why yours is different.

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Here is what my switches look like. I kept the ECU Reset switch hidden since I've never had to use it. Sorry the picture is kind of crappy.

dirtysouth_msp said:

Here is what my switches look like. I kept the ECU Reset switch hidden since I've never had to use it. Sorry the picture is kind of crappy.

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that looks great! I was planning on doing this too... right now i just keep mine in the glove box. did you have to cut the wires to put it through the blank spacer?

So Unichip does not get rid of the FC? or does it till it gets to 13psi? and does the switchs come with the Unichip?

ChopstickHero said:

Nice! Glad you like the Unichip! Yeah, any large diameter exhaust that is very free flowing will spool up the turbo so fast, your ECU/Unichip doesn't have time to react! If there is a custom tuner around you, you can possibly make a map setting for when you have your cutoff on.... and a map setting for a normal daily driving or something.

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I really mean no offense... but that is just BS... there is NO excuse for an EMS not being able to keep up with turbo spool speed..

ChopstickHero said:

that looks great! I was planning on doing this too... right now i just keep mine in the glove box. did you have to cut the wires to put it through the blank spacer?

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Yeah, I just labeled them on each side of the cutting point, (1,2,3,etc), cut them one at a time and used quick disconnects to splice them back together. This way if I need to take them out or anything, I will not have to label or cut them again. All you really need is a dremel and a razor to cut out the dummy switches.

Pretty expensive tuning if u ask me!!

TurfBurn said:

I really mean no offense... but that is just BS... there is NO excuse for an EMS not being able to keep up with turbo spool speed..

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I don't think that it's that the unichip can't keep up. I think that it is just not tuned for such a lack in back-pressure. However I'm running Vibrant exhaust and the only problem I've had is that the Unichip EBC causes a bad spike with big exhaust. MBC seems to work fine though.

damn chuck.............i could have told you to slow it down south of dallas. ive been pulled over twice there. worst part of the whole state as far as cops.

CitizenPro said:

i get on the phone with Unichip and get immediately get connected with Joshua. I explain the situation with him about the Engine Light at full boost and the F'd up switches.......we end up finding out that my Exhaust Cutout is causing the turbo to spool up insanely too fast for the EMS......thus causing the engine light.

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I would call that Unichip saying that the EMS can't keep up.

In ref to:

dirtysouth_msp said:

I don't think that it's that the unichip can't keep up. I think that it is just not tuned for such a lack in back-pressure. However I'm running Vibrant exhaust and the only problem I've had is that the Unichip EBC causes a bad spike with big exhaust. MBC seems to work fine though.

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TurfBurn said:

I would call that Unichip saying that the EMS can't keep up.

In ref to:

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I hear ya, but I've never hit fuel cut with the Unichip, so I have no reason to do this.

FlyinMSP said:

Pretty expensive tuning if u ask me!!

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Huh?

TurfBurn said:

I really mean no offense... but that is just BS... there is NO excuse for an EMS not being able to keep up with turbo spool speed..

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its the dump causing the fuel cut. now that the weather has cooled down, the MAF is easily maxed out at higher boost levels. the dump has caused spike issues ever since CitizenPro put it on his car and with the boost level the UC boost controller is set at, he gets a higher spike. not having the UC get rid of the fuel cut is double edged; it keeps a safegaurd in place, but doesn't let you have any fun in the cold.

its not that the Unichip can't keep up, its the stock computer still having fuel cut control.

stock pipes (boom07)

YellowSpeedInNY said:

stock pipes (boom07)

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yes he does.