Thinking about an EAT chip

[wjbell]

I've heard a lot of good things about EAT chips from the board I usually frequent (roadfly) and wanted to get a few opinions.

I've got a very well maintined 90 535i with about 148K. It idles slightly rough and the milage is about 18 FWY 16 in the city. I know it's hard to get gauge anything from a message, but generally will the EAT chip smooth out an idle? I'm also concerned about it being too far away from stock. I don't want a chip that will remap my computer so much that now it feels like a racecar. I'm looking for added power smooth all the way up the powerband. Any power gains above 4500 RPM aren't important to me.

Another main concern is should I attempt to pass a California smog test with this chip? I plan on keeping the stock chip around for just such occations but if the EAT chip will pass smog that a bonus.

I'm new to this board and just looking for some added info on this.

TIA

[angrypancake]

booooooooo roadflea. The creator of the EAT chip is a frequent poster here, Mark D. search the forums and you should get quite a bit about the chip, probly everything you need to know and more.

[wjbell]

I haven't been post too long at the 'roadflea' board either but I'm just curious... what the story is with all the animosity within the bimmer boards. The roadfly board even goes as far as blocking links to other boards, which I think is a little childish, but...

[632 Regal]

roadflea is crap, when I fiirst was surfing their info was very commercial and the posters didnt know much about rocks, I accidently found this place and was hooked.

As for a 535 EAT chip you wont be disappointed, it sacrifices nothing runs better and may also cop a few miles to a gallon...too bad Mark is too busy to whip one up for the 530 boys, theres a few buggin here. The 535 chip plugs right in and you will feel it from the first trip out onto the roads.

[Qube]

Go ahead and do a 'shogun' reset and see if that smooths out your ride. If it doesn't then swapping and EAT most likely won't, but what do I know

[kev535i]

Ive had the EAT chip in my 535 for about a month and am very happy as already stated really makes a difference especially in the power range you mentioned,made mine idle a litte better but the 535's are known for a rough idle, go for it and theres even a sale on at the moment!

[Kalevera]

I like my EAT chip very much, but I think people can get unrealistic expectations of performance gains from the manner in which people speak of them. Most of what I have to say about the topic has already been beaten to death on the board in other threads.

I only run the chip when it's economical (based on what I calculated, gas has to be over about $2.50 a gallon for regular to allow the mileage gain to offset the price of premium).

The car WILL idle better, given that everything else is in good shape. Vacuum leaks are killer on M30s, not to mention any number of other things. So are valves that are out of adjustment. Higher octane gas + good mapping = smoother idle.

The car feels slightly faster, and in my opinion, sounds better. The chip takes better advantage of what's available in the M30.

I've had the chip out for about three weeks given current gas prices. There's a noticeable difference, but I'm not missing it, per se.

best, whit

[grave77]

I can say that 80% of the guys in this board owns this EAT chip and each and every one is a proud owner too ... non until now was disapointed at all ( talking about the 535i owners ) you will never regret installing this chip at all.

[Mendozart]

I took mine out in May to see if the emissions would differ, since the first time I smogged my car it had the EAT chip in. The #'s were pretty close, passing with both chips of course. But the gas prices went insane so I didn't put it back in till just this week. I could really tell the difference after driving my car with the stock chip for 6 months. Sport mode is where you really see the difference.

[grave77]

I didnt notice any difference in the consumption .. I would tell that it made more mileage too ... that's if u stay driving the way u were. but I have tested the emmission lately ... with a bad AFM it gave me 0.98 for the CO level ... thats without a catalytic converter ...