I would like to know if anyone has problems with Evotech ECU upgrades? How do you like it? Is it worth the money?

 

I had the EVOtech ECU installed with the pulley last July by Randy during one of his now famous pulley parties. Since we dyno'd my car right after these changes, it was nice to see 178 HP on a very hot day (95 degrees), and hot motor (right after a "test drive" by Randy). I have had no issues except for a slight stumble in 1st gear when first starting out in the morning. Other than than, I am really happy with it! The pricing is another matter. Most ECU upgrades for other vehicles seem to be in the $300 range, but I am still happy with my decision. Randy does sell another version though that I would probably choose today over the EVOtech.

 

Thank you for your info, Gosharks!

What made you decide to go with the more expansive EVOtech vs others, i.e. shark??

Does anyone else have input regarding other ECU? :smile:

 

I went with the EVOtech because it was what Randy was recommending at that time. Today, I would probably pick the Webb Motorsports/Powerchip solution at $690 (see Randy's website under "Catalog" and then "Performance&quot. For me, it comes down to demonstrated and "safe" performance and Randy's testing confirmed this.

 

I did the EvoTech ECU at the same time as the pully at the Florida Pully Party. I'm having a great time with the car since then. No problems. Just had my 10,000 mile service done. No worries at all with the ECU. I think it was the best available at the time. It still may be, but you'd have to ask those that probe the dark places of the MINI and this web site for all the facts. Too scary for me.

 

I went with EVOTECH also, standalone not at a party. I have not seen any data on the powerchips stuff. Be careful that it doesnt turn off any factory safetly features and get some data.

So far I have not seen anything better than evotech. The shark injector seems like the cheap low end solution for performance if you compare them.

 

The Evotech upgrade worked very poorly for me. Luckily, I did before and after dynos and was able to figure this out immediately. (I was at the same pulley party as Gosharks above.) Even after receiving a tweaked version of the program from Germany, the Evotech gave me a less than 5 HP improvement over the stock ECU. the non-tweaked version gave about me 4 HP *less* than stock. It also made my car run pig-rich. Most people have better luck than this. Something about my car does not like Evotech's programming.

-Dave

 

Don't do it. I wasted the $$$

 

>>Don't do it. I wasted the $$$

I did it and love it. Over a year now and I have one of the fastest MINIs in South Florida that is not race setup. Smoke all JCW kits and all others. If you wasted your money then you should be mad because Evotech guarantees all its ECU upgrades and backs it up by re-mapping it for the life of the car. So you should call them and let them make it right before you bad mouth them here. I would do it again in a heart beat.

 

I have the EvoTech ECU upgrade and have been very pleased. When my dealer reflashed the ECU during a check-up for a "limp mode" problem , the folks in Florida were most helpful. I had to send the ECU to them (on a Monday) and they upgraded the mapping after consulting with their technical department in Germany. The ECU was sent back, and I was up and running on Wednesday. I must say that the people at EvoTech were most helpful and personable, and they didn't make me feel like I was just another number. My concern is they can't do any sort of e-mail upgrade; however, they did suggest that more of their distributors might be carrying the Mini modifications, which could make upgrading a bit easier.

I know there are other ECU upgrades, including some with better pricing, but I sure would want to know that everything worked and that there were no camptability issues. Just my $0.02... :smile:

 

I also have the EVO ECU upgrade.

I think when making such a purchase, one not only buys the current chip, but it's future iterations, as well as the service/support that goes with it. Questions addressing those concerns are equally, if not more important...

The last I heard (a few weeks back), a tuner shared that EvoTech (here and in Germany) was not returning calls or emails in a manner that I find disturbing. After repeated attempts to get answers for customer issues, and inquire about, or get clarification on a supposed new release with 6 more hp... no response.

I'd be asking questions along those lines as well...

_________________
2003 IB MCS

 

I totally agree that service is very important. At the price of $720+, there should not be any problem with post-sale service. :smile:

 

. So you should call them and let them make it right before you bad mouth them here. I would do it again in a heart beat.
>>


Nobull, in all fairness, dave did ask for opinions...including satisfaction vs. money... :smile:

 

In the December issue of European Magazine their project MCS had some problems with the Evosport software. They installed a Mini Mania Stage II kit and the software from Evosport.

In the next issue this was solved by bringing it back to evosport and have them lean out the mixture. After that the car registered 186whp! A big difference considering that was all that was changed.

 

Maybe a little checking of history is in order. Anyone wondering why there are so many EvoTech ECU upgraded members on NAM? The reason is that earlier in the year when the first pulley parties across the country were being done by Webbmotorsport the most common ECU upgrade was the EvoTech for about $720. It was being bundled with the 15% reduction pulley install. At some point over the summer this all changed with the improvements done to the PowerChip ECU upgrade which cost a bit less like $680 and performed a bit better than the EvoTech. The two are not compatible. Some owners of the EvoTech upgrade were given the opportunity to switch over to PowerChip but did not get full credit for their EvoTech investment. Many stuck with EvoTech since they offer good support and lifetime software version updates.

Now Powerchip sells their version for $680 while Webb/Powerchip is a slightly different version (a bit less when bundled with the pulley) and sold through Webbmotorsport.

I have not seen a head to head comparison of the various ECU upgrades with the most current versions of software and that is what we need to access what our options are at this point. Other choices include the upcoming GIAC (unknown date of release) and Shark Injector.

 

just bumping this back to the top. would like to here a little more info before this topic is retired