1 reviews | Active since Apr 2013
Be Aware of Installing a UNICHIP
I bought me first new vehicle (Mazda BT50) after working for 33 years and always driving second hand cars. About 18 months later I wanted my vehicle to be special and since I love camping with my caravan I decided to install a "Chip" into my vehicle for extra performance. I did some research and decided on a "UNICHIP" for the ease of plug in and play. I then looked for a reputable dealer for the installation and got Guillaume Auto Speed % Service as a good reference and also since I`m form Ellisras and don`t have anyone close by nor the time to have the chip fitted, another reason for choosing the mentioned dealer is because I was planning a trip by plane to Durban and I usually leave my vehicle at a Airport Parking service, who then takes the vehicle for services etc. My "Chip" was fitted (06/12/2016) I made the payment and all went well. Two months (February 2017)later I had to attend a meeting in Midrand and on my way there the vehicle went into limp mode, I drove from Vaalwater to Midrand with the vehicle in limp mode. I phoned Midrand Mazda and they came and towed the vehicle to their workshop. They phoned me later saying they cannot find any fault. I collected the vehicle and drove back to Ellisras. In the following 6 months the vehicle went into limp mode about 3 times. I then phoned Guillaume and asked him whether the "Chip" can cause this, I also made an appointment (30/10/2017) to allow him to check the installation. His feedback was that the "Chip" was fine but he detected the turbo performance was down. Since then limp mode frequency became gradually more often, I had my vehicle at 6 different Mazda dealers and had terrible words with them cause none could detect the root cause for the vehicle going into limp mode, needless to say that towing was a nightmare and huge embarrassment. I counted the vehicle going into limp mode on a trip from Ellisras to Witbank to be 18. Every time when I`m in a new town I went to the Mazda dealer to check the vehicle diagnostics and they then cleared the faults and off I went, normally not very far before the limp mode kicked in, anything form 20 too 300 kilometers. In October 2019 I was invited to a wedding in Hazyview and there I just couldn`t take the limp mode anymore and decided to get rid of my favorite vehicle. I have made another appointment with Guillaume for the end of November to allow him to maybe pin point the problem but then had to change my plans since I just couldn`t wait to get rid of the vehicle, I asked him to install a dummy plug so that I could use the "Chip" in my new vehicle. So on the day that I had to go to the dealer to trade-in my vehicle I stopped at Guillaume to install the dummy plug and remove the "Chip". I left his workshop and went onto the highway and suddenly the vehicle pulled like if it was new, the vehicle had power, I could pass any car at any time and not once from Boksburg to Pretoria did my vehicle went into limp mode. The moral of my story is that this dealer never offered to installed the dummy plug nor did he want to assist me in finding the real problem or admitting that his "UNICHIP" was the reason I drove 150000 with a vehicle that went into limp regularly causing me to dislike all Mazda dealers and made me get rid of a vehicle I never would have, and now having a lot of debt.
