Performance Chip for your Honda Civic Si – only $89? for real?


Yup it seems to be for real! Oh no it doesn’t – Thank you Bill! (see his comment) as he rightly points out ‘if it is too good to be true, it is!’. I did a bunch of other searches for ‘Surge Engineering’ and come up with report after report after report of ‘scam’, ‘doesn’t work’ etc. some of them are as follows:

  • toyotanation
  • Pennocks Fiero Forum
  • AllFordMustangs
  • SmokinVette
  • MercedesBenzWorld
  • Whew…how could I have missed all that! (sorry folks, will dig deeper next time)

    Anyway, what this ‘thing’ does (according to a few of the posts above is:

    “these are typically just resistors that trick the ecu into thinking the temps from the iat sensor are cooler than they actually are, causing the ecu to dump more fuel. it’s basically like running the car in warm up mode or with a choke on.”

    (I leave the original post below and hang my head in shame)

    Have a look at the Surge Performance Chip (available from yourhotcar.com among other places). It claims to add up to 35 Horse Power (from 7-10% gain in power from stock) and 20+ Ft Lbs of torque.

    Like all good performance chips it is fully adjustable for either Horsepower or gas mileage by using a knob (yes a knob)

    From the yourhotcar website:

    Fully ADJUSTABLE performance chip designed for your vehicle. The Surge Module will not only compete with other higher priced Jet V-Chip, but will OUTPERFORM it. The
    Surge module is designed with the finest, most precise components
    available out there today. Giving you the option to fine tune it to
    your favorite setting. Our modules are designed to be used in any
    weather condition. Doesn’t matter if you live in the east or west
    coast, the module will still perform as advertised.
    Step by step
    instructions will be included along with all necessary hardware to
    complete the installation. You don’t need to have any mechanic skills
    to complete the job. Takes no longer than 15 minutes.

    The Surge performance chip simply wires into the factory harness of the IAT sensor and just provides a new signal for your cars internal Electronic Control Unit (ECU – all modern cars have an ECU to electronically manage and monitor your vehicle’s performance, by default they are tuned to government regulations…which means that they are inefficient!) You could replace the ECU (at a cost in the $1,000’s). This performance chip negates the need to replace the ECU by giving the existing ECU an external controller.

    According to surge, it takes only 15-30 minutes to install and can easily be removed or re-installed at any time.

    I don’t know about you but this sounds like a mod for anybody!

    Pass people, pass!


    12 responses to “Performance Chip for your Honda Civic Si – only $89? for real?”

    1. Sounds like a con job. If it is really a chip, then why would you wire it into the factory harness and to make things worse, I can’t find the manufacturor’s website. I’ve seen on other sites that it is probably only a resistor that is being wired into your system.

      If it sounds too good to be true, then it probably isn’t.

    2. Bill is BANG on..please see edits to post above – thank you Bill and that will teach me to be more diligent! As you can see in the post, I did a little research and came up with a litany of complaints, suspicions – hey, if it is TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE, then it probably is!

    3. Yeah I’d stick with a reputable company and have a chip flashed.
      BTW I’m re-working the Honda Explosion site, I’d love to get some feedback.
      JC

    4. will i bought it of amazon and they said it will give 30hp or more
      but that’s BS for sure ..but it did somthing i assume around 5hp and the prof.. i have civic 2007 1.8 140hp first raced with a mazda6 2.0 2006 142hp and he was a bit faster not much difference though,, and when i installed the chip we raced again i took off faster and at 60mph i was ahead and at 120mph i was way ahead..so i guess its worth for its price

      • Hey, I don’t mean to knock it, I haven’t tried it myself so can only pass on what I am hearing others say. If it is working for you then great, glad to hear it…I would still be wary, as a lot of others feel a bit ‘burned’ by it.

    5. Well i bought one of these without any research installed it and put it in… everyone seems to be bangin it but it worked great for me. All i have is a cool air intake. Dual flowmasters, a descreaned MAS and this chip and i gained 43hp from stock 190 in a 05 chevy blazer extreme.. i dont know what did what but an air intake and exhaust doesnt add 43hp so it did something.. i also could never burn rubber before i had it. now its burning tire at 1/2 rev it might just be a resistor but it does work..

      • well, you never know what is going on…the only thing for sure is to put it on a dyno. How did you measure your horsepower increase by the way?

    6. Those are only b.s. You will notice that it is a chip that belongs nowhere in your car computer (ecu).

      They are just using different tricks over and over for selling the same scam resistor. They just change the name, the looks, but never, never, the quality. It will always be a scam. You don’t need to be too smart to realize that something that promise extra 15 hp or more, just by hooking it to the car’s circuitry, is nothing but someone looking for quick money.

      What it really does are three things, (1) Scam people (2) Serves as a placebo for people who want to believe and (3) Scam more people.

      YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED – DO NOT GET SCAMMED!!!

    7. How can I be on my own to put them in my car, there is no information how to install please Send Message on how to install them in the car without having to go to any store cars

      my e-mail is : qador_17@live.com

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