http://www.streetbeatcustoms.com/Surge-Engineering/Performance-Chips/Surge-Performance-Chip/17558/

I am about to buy one of these...
35 horsepower or 4-9mpg....
I would take the 4-9mpg
If it does half of what it claims its worth it... Do these things actually work?
I drive a 2004 ford focus zx5... So I am guessing it could work. A better designed chip should be able to save gas/boost power

RUN far away from that. Definately will not help you gain any mpg.

IIRC there isnt a chip for the zetec. its ECU tuning. if they worked, everyone would be screaming about it

RUN far away from that. Definately will not help you gain any mpg.

you sure? Could you elaborate a bit? It seems too good to be true for sure and I think you are right.. the only reason I believe it is possible is because theoretically it could work and basically be the same thing as buying an ECU tuner just with pretuned settings for higher performance for the guy who doesn't know how to tune it him self, and because its false advertising if it doesn't do the minimum requirement.

you sure? Could you elaborate a bit? It seems too good to be true for sure and I think you are right.. the only reason I believe it is possible is because theoretically it could work and basically be the same thing as buying an ECU tuner just with pretuned settings for higher performance for the guy who doesn't know how to tune it him self, and because its false advertising if it doesn't do the minimum requirement.

It is false advetising. even Toms tune will not add much HP. if it worked, none of us would spend the money for toms tune, we would just buy this. for a car to be "tuned" it has to specific to your vehicle/mods.

You should look into 'truth in advertising' more. Generally, claims by ads can be untrue for some instances if there is truth in some instances. Take things like hair growth products, cold remedies and the like. If by the majority the ads are true, the advertiser can make claims that may not hold true for all.

Being the ad is not specifically for the Focus they can make this claim. But you should not expect any of it to be true ... because it isn't, not even close.


Everyone is correct in that a flash tuner (SCT) is the only method to go. There is not a workaround or cheaper alternative.

you sure? Could you elaborate a bit? It seems too good to be true for sure and I think you are right.. the only reason I believe it is possible is because theoretically it could work and basically be the same thing as buying an ECU tuner just with pretuned settings for higher performance for the guy who doesn't know how to tune it him self, and because its false advertising if it doesn't do the minimum requirement.

First.... when the website you chose comes up with MANY buyer beware/ ripoff reports, i would be a little hesitant to believe any claims from them. http://bit.ly/I2ORnC Theoretically a electric supercharger should work also, but it does not. I can find you many E-bay ads with theoretical "performance gains". Truth of the matter is MANY of us Focus owners have already found what DOES in fact work. As said before if you really want to tune (although you don't know how) get in touch with a company that uses SCT software. Tom here on the forums or FSwerks both could tune almost any Focus remotely (e-mail tunes using a SCT flasher).

I clipped this directly from the linked website; "quickly gain 4-9 mpg better fuel economy. Turn it to the max and expect to gain up to 35 horses" Your expectations can subconciously change your driving habits enough to see 4 mpg and if you gained 2 hp that is "up to 35." Like they said - RUN.

alright I am convinced. Mission aborted... too bad was hoping their was a secret short cut.

It is a slightly more polished version of the resistor to falsify IAT values tuning trick.

Basically there are zillions of these on Ebay but they all work the same way. They are a resistor that is wired into the IAT circuit (it even says so in their description). This fools the ECU into thinking the air temperature is different from what it actually is and then ECU then adjusts the amount of fuel delivered based on a ficticious air density (air density is a function of air temperature).

It may in some instances give a small HP performance gain if you trick the ECU into pushing in more fuel. But really unless your ECU tune is horrible, you are far more likely to cause performance problems and in rare cases even damage your engine.

yeah I would think ford knows how to tune a chip for optimal performance, chips have been around for like decades. Lame... I guess my car is peaked out then...

not necesarilly, you can do the xcal with tune and gain better mpg, better throttle and a slight increase in hp with the right bolt ons