Multiple Performance chips?

I have tried searching, but I am a noob and dont really know what to search for.

I was wondering if there was any way to have multiple performance chips that can be selected with a switch (on the fly or with the car off). That way you could increase HP when you want and then go back to the factory chip to maintain fuel economy.

Also, are there any ECU chips that are intended for superior fuel economy? Reducing/eliminating the majority of the performance of the car for the best economy. I realize that this is not ideal, but if you could enable/disable this mode whenever you want, you can zip around town on a performance chip, and take long road trips on a different non/performance chip.

If anyone has any ideas or "terms" that I can search, that would be helpful. Thanks in advance!

Howdy, RS! Have you been able to reconcile your "reliability" concerns?

Yes, RocketChip does have a setup where things could be switched. I believe it was accomplished with VAGCOM.

Other vendors may have similar strategies for switching performance levels.

Good luck.

That is great, thanks for the fast reply. I believe that I am going to go with a TDI. I appreciate all the info that I got from you all, and after talking with some friends, I think that this will be a fun car to have and learn on.

Since this is an "enthusiast's" car, I guess I had better become an enthusiast. Now it is just time to go shopping ;-)

By the way, there isn't really much of a reason to switch performance maps. When you are cruising down the road at constant speed, the engine is not in the maximum-output region anyway, and most "chips" (actually, re-flashes of the stock memory) don't affect the part-load calibration. In this situation, your right foot is as good a switch as any.

Most folks including myself find that a performance re-map has no effect on the day-to-day fuel consumption.

A loader would accomplish want you want to do. I believe RC has a system for MK3 and/or "socketed" ECU's that you could switch tunes via the cruise control switch. The fact is the only extreme tunes significantly impact MPG's What kills mileage more than most performance mods is switching to larger wheels and wider tires as they increase rolling resistance. I have a mild tune RC1+ on my PD which is about the same as an RC3 on an ALH and have seen no impact on mileage I can still rip a 800+ mile tank. The trick to better MPG's on a tuned or stock car is right foot discipline. I know of a owner with an extreme tuned ALH (RC6 3"pipe custom intake big turbo 11mmIP liftpump huge injectors 200+HP 300+ftlb) that still can get 50mpg's. The only way your Hwy mileage would drop is with bigger wheels or an inefficient performance tune that is over-fueling at hwy speed. You can add a taller 5th gear to help with Hwy mileage too.

I can't really get 50mpg anymore and I'm trying to figure out why. 48 yes, 50 nope... I have the same 16" tires I've had since it was stock.. they aren't doing it.. The change was noticeable when I went from the 10mm pump/PP520's to the 11mm/PP502's.. But then again I did a laundry list of mods all at once.. I'm going to swap the injectors back to the 520's the next time I go on a road tip and see how it goes..

A switchable chip on the fly is no problem. I have made a daughterboard in the past that allowed switching by just lifting throttle and flipping a switch.

Its kind of a useless mod, unless you have a teenage kid driving your car. The car will get the same fuel economy on oem as a RC stage 6. You can actually stuff 4 tunes (6 on older cars) into the ecu. auto/5spd mapblocks in high and low memory locations. You can also make a simple mod to your board by cutting a couple of traces and lifting 2 pins on the chip. This can be done on AHU/1Z and ALH's too. You must key off for switching, otherwise you can corrupt the eeprom if it's writing during a switch event, then you have a brick for an ecu ;-)

I did this stuff 10 years ago when tunings were violent and unrefined like they are nowdays. It would help mitigate shudder and smoke, and annoying drivability issues, like cruise and smoke screens, and limp modes.

Jeff