Since installing my Giac chip in my 2002 2.7tip a couple weeks ago, I have experienced an unexplained failure, where my car refused to start after going to the grocery store. After putting back the OEM ECU, the car ran just fine. Since then, I put the chip back in, and twice, my hoses have blown off, causing vacuum problems. I have tightened all the hoses I could see.
My question is, how reliable is it to drive around with these chips? I've already done the silicone tube and DV, but I'm just scared of my wife getting stranded with the kids if she drives this car. Something seems to always happen when I gun the engine, so I was just wondering if others were having reliability problems with the chip mod? Thanks.

 

I installed a GIAC at 74k and now have 127k. No problems, other than wearing out my clutch after running the car at 150 mph. But that was at 89k. I also replaced the TBB and DV with heavy duty aftermarket as suggested.

 

Do you have a problem with any of your hoses popping off under acceleration? My hoses have popped off twice, so I've gone back and really tightened everything, but I still get timid when stomping on the gas! I keep expecting something to pop off.

 

No hoses ever popped off or broke. Runs as good as it does the day it was chipped. Admittedly, I had my indie shop do the work. Not sure if you're running OEM TBB and DV, but heavy duty are recommended and make sure you have good clamps on them.

 

I had EvolutionMS DVs put on when I got chipped at ~60K. A few months later my OEM clutch started going. When I upgraded the clutch,I also replaced all the hoses using the "Samco Hose Kit". No problems with the chip or anything else. I'm at almost 80K now..

 

Hey, CBOCK. Same thing. Chipped at 70k and had to replace the clutch and flywheel around 84k. One night I decided to see how fast it would go without the governor and had the speedo bouncing around 145-150. A few days later the clutch started slipping under moderate to hard acceleration. Stage 2 fixed that problem.