I have a 2006 AWD IS 250. I love it, but think it is lacking a little bit in the horsepower department. Does anyone know if there is a chip I can buy to give it a little extra boost? Or if not, what other modification I can make to help it out? Thanks.

 

If there is going to be any sort of ECU upgrade, it will hopefully be a flash upgrade or piggy-back computer. I tried a performance chip on a '91 Integra, and it did absolutely nothing. I will never try one again, especially since they aren't tunable.

 

BTW, there are several aftermarket intake and exhaust options, but many of them may not work with the AWD.

 

Besides that, anyone claiming they have a chip is lying. It isn't possible to remove and replace any chip in a Toyota/Lexus/Scion ECM without doing some precision soldering.

 

I'd like to see something that would improve throttle response, and reduce the amount of throttle "hang" while shifting. Power gains are very much secondary to me, as these other 2 annoyances are doing a lot more to keep me from enjoying the drive.

 

The Dinan chip for my Integra required an ECU swap. Dinan replaced the stock chip with a socket, then sent the socketed ECU with a copy of the stock chip and a copy of the performance chip. After installing the modified ECU, the original ECU was sent back to Dinan. Still not worth it...

 

I read about a HKS clip that will do the New IS, I wanna improve the gear shifting, you know if you shift up a gear in S mode the respond isn't that fast... I expected the IS gear box are more like the one on MR-S (MR2 Spyder)... When I dirve the MR-S in Sydeny I like the gear box so much...

 

I thought the MR-S 6 speed box was an SMG unit, not a manually shifted torque converted automatic, like the IS. At least that's what their website said.

 

there's actually a company working on a chip for our car, at least the 350. i was skeptical at first but i'm not holding my breath either

 

I have the RWD, but I am having the same concern. When I bought my car, I love the hp and tq of the 350. But due to the cruel reality - traffic, it seemed I really don't need such a fast car. I then got myself a 250 and hopefully that is going to save me some pennies. I love the car and enjoy every moment in the car, even in traffic. But I still think I need a little more power.

I know there are intake system, header and exhaust system for improving the 250 performance. But for around $2k, IMO 10% hp increase doesn't seem a good investment for me. I was thinking about if there's any performance chip out there for the new IS too.

 

Yeah, I have a stack of Supra ECMs on my shelf, and one of them is a G-Force (now Technosquare) modified unit with a daughterboard, secondary ECM and PROM. The nice thing is, it has no boost limit, raised rev limit, and no top speed limiter. The not nice thing is, I can't change anything in it without paying a small ransom (~$500) for a "new" program. I have no desire to do that again. At least I bought it used and didn't have to pay the $1350 + permanently modded ECM G-Force was asking to do the mod.

 

At least they offer custom programming. Dinan wouldn't do any custom programming at all. They said that if I did any significant mods (even I/H/E), I would need to go back to the stock chip.

 

Toyota ECU's are well engineered. There is no company out there that offers a "chip" mod for Toyota. Toyota ECU mapping is nearly impossible to decode unless you have access to Toyota or TRD's resources. That is why many import tuners go with Honda, because they are easy to modify. Toyota/Lexus however is not.

 

Yeah, I know all too well. I've been trying to find someone at Lotus who'll be friendly about sharing the code, but so far no luck. At least the Elise/Exige is tuned nicely and it's a full Toyota drivetrain with Lotus's engine code.

Even just a correct checksum generator would be really cool...

 

Honda's S2000 ECU is similar regarding the hackability. The only retuned ECU's for it have been released by companies close to Honda (Spoon and Mugen), but nobody has released a tuneable ECU based on the OEM platform.