Car owners who want more power from their engines don't have to spend thousands of dollars. Aftermarket manufacturers have learned how to use horsepower chips to reprogram the computers every modern car contains and unleash hidden engine muscle.

How Do Horsepower Chips Work?

The car you drive is not like your parents' car. Modern cars contain sophisticated computer systems that regulate a variety of engine conditions, most notably fuel flow. Electronic fuel injections allow a car's "brain" much greater precision in controlling acceleration and engine performance. The problem is those computers may not be set up to give your engine the most power.

Horsepower chips work by intercepting signals from the car's temperature sensor. Those sensors tell the engine how hot the incoming air is so the engine can adjust the fuel mixture. The new chip adjusts these temperature readings so the fuel injection system will think it is hotter or colder than it really is and adjust fuel flow accordingly.

The driver has finer control and is able to get both better acceleration and better gas mileage from these high performance chips. This is all done in a way that doesn't void the owner's warranty and doesn't damage the engine or any other systems. Horsepower chips can be installed in minutes even by people with no technical expertise, and can be removed just as quickly with no permanent effects if that is what the owner wants.

Do They Really Do What They Claim?

People are suspicious of the performance of performance chips for two reasons. First, there are shady dealers out there who pass off cheap resisters as sophisticated fuel control systems. Others try to use a single control chip to service many different makes and models rather than optimizing chips for each car. These knockoffs are not the same as true horsepower chips.

Second, people are naturally hesitant when it comes to miracle cures. After all, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. However every now and then, products are available that really do the amazing things they claim.

To understand why horsepower chips work, you need to know some things about cars sold in this country. Laws govern automobile engines performance whether the car was made here or imported from another country. This restricts car makers from getting the most possible horsepower out of the engines.

Consumers are held to a different, laxer set of laws. They are allowed to modify their vehicles through methods the original manufacturers are forbidden to use. Modern engines are pushed to the limit allowed by law and it requires just a little nudge to push them over and get better performance.

Of course, not all of us are electrical engineers and can't make control system modifications ourselves. This is where horsepower chips make our lives easier. These units can be installed quickly and easily, giving a huge performance boost to any car with electronic fuel injection.