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This isn't Subaru related specifically, but a very good analysis and review by Mighty Car Mods of those eBay type performance chips.

Enjoy

http://youtu.be/VGtImIP6j3A

That shit was pretty funny

I think I should buy one for all my cars so I can have a cool light that changes colors when I flip the switch. Haha!!!

Damn, I was gonna get one of these to add some VTEC YO! to my Robtune. Guess thats out.

I'm not trying to defend those chips, but since it was designed for a MAF based car and they tried it on a MAP based car, I don't think the result was valid.

A few years back a friend of mine tried one on his 3.0L 4Runner. After opening the cheezy box, it contained a simple resistor. All it did was modify the air temperature sensor's feedback to the ECU, telling it the incoming air was cold. That made the vehicle's ecu run a different fueling map. Did the car make more power? Not any more than it would in the winter, but probably a HP or three more than in the dead of summer. Negative side effects? It used more fuel, lol. He could have gone to radioshack and purchased the resistor for 1/10th the price of the "chip."

Did you watch the whole thing? They tested the sensor leads with a multimeter and nothing happened. They then watched the ECU output when it was installed on a Haltec and no change again. Even though the car was MAP based, intercepting the MAP signal should have shown have shown something in the ECUs output. They later verified circuit board was designed to change the colors of the LED and that was it (though ill admit their forum member 'eletrical engineer' was hardly hard evidence to Youtube viewers).

And ill argue that the gains from chip that makes the engine think its running cold are much less than a winter day, because in winter you still have that cold, dense, dry air to account for vs just dumping a little extra fuel into warmer, less dense air when its not needed. May make a couple HP on cars that run lean normally I guess. But at that point, youre talking gains within the range of changingout your air filter. Plus the engine will likely correct for it overtime via O2 feedback. Maybe if it also intercepted the O2 sensor/coolant temp signal it could trick the ECU into staying in open loop, which would keep the extra fuel flowing. But as you mentioned, all of that comes at the cost of fuel economy for gains within the error margin of any dyno.

You'd probably make more power by using dryer duct to insulate your intake (I say this because ive seen it).

As James mentioned, the chip they bought did nothing.

I tried one of those chips that modified the coolant temp sensor and yes it just told the ECU to give more fuel. I actually think it ran worse and fuel mileage was worse as well.

So, I'm not a lawyer or anything like that but how can they advertise the chip the way they do and get away with it?

Because you haven't sued the yet. The government doesn't have a department that vets this kind of thing. Its up to consumers to say "hey, this guy is flat-out exploiting people", lawyer up, and sue their pants off. And then be sorely disappointed when $70,000 in legal fees later, they find out the company clearly displayed " results not typical" at the bottom of the ad in size 00 font and so they had no case. Or they discover the company is run out of (insert anywhere not in North America) and don't fall under US jurisdiction.