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<misc> OBD II

Eric Stromquist wrote
>I’ve noticed a recent post or two on OBD II and the soldered-in chips
>mandated for model year 96 and beyond.  Doing searches on “OBD II” and
>reading what is available on the net, it appears -- if auto repair
>industry trade groups are to be believed -- that the new system kills
>the possibility of essentially *all* engine performance enhancements and
>may even interfere with the use of certain non-engine modifications that
>trigger the “check engine” light.

Since it was me who posted about chips for OBD II here is some more
info:

up to now most people figured with the new OBD II that aftermarket
chips would be a thing of the past.. *but* what I just saw in the
latest European Car was that

Neuspeed has developed a chip for '96+ 16V VW's with OBD II with a
chip for 8V cars on the way soon. The blurb in the magazine reported
that because the VW chip was not soldered in it was a quick and easy
swap. They are for sale in California so this is not a Euro only thing.

You can bet that if Neuspeed has done it, other companies can and
will.

JimC was a little surprised by this news because as far as he knew
'NO 96+ CAR sold in the US can legally HAVE a removeable CHIP'
He also told me that in the Siemens (328i/M3 computer chip) there is a
total of 256KB of assembler to decode.. which is a rather large
amount of stuff to figure out.

I guess time will tell. But hey, remember when FI first came out ?
People complained that it was more complicated and difficult to work
on then carbs. And then ECUs took over, same thing. This is just
another step.

chris pawlowicz
'89 325i