Anden L Schmitt
Active Member
- Joined
- Sep 11, 2019
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Hello guys, I'm here today to give you the low down on the differences between the JB4 and Racechip piggy back tune options. TL : DR is at the bottom.
Racechip:
I purchased the GTS version, which is the highest available version for the 3.3tt engine. Their price point is 450$ and an additional 50$ for the bluetooth control option. Once getting the box it was presented in a very classy box giving it a very professional and reliable appearance. The instructions were in the box and they were VERY detailed, so detailed that I had my 16 year old niece try and install it and she had no issues interpreting the instructions and completing the installation. Inside the box it included zip ties which is very convenient and well recieved. Syncing Racechip to your phone and the application was a breeze and took minutes to figure out. The app is very simplistic, not a lot of options to change or see other than what map you wanna use and the ability to change the level according to your cars abilities. After installing it you could definitely feel a decent increase in power availability but it felt like she could do more. After about a week of using the Racechip the car started to have knocks and I thought it was LSPI and not getting full fuel burn. But than I spoke to @Terry@BMS and he explained that it was turbo oscillation. After a day or so diagnosing it and a mechanic looking at it, they determined it was a combination of LSPI and Turbo oscillation. The cause was the Racechip but I couldnt really find out how or why. Racechip customer service is lacking severely, response time was 1 week and after a day of waiting I just ripped the damn thing out. Terry explained that Racechip didnt do the things it needed to do to achieve stable performance and he said that his piggyback tune was the solution to my dilemma. So I ordered the full thing, fuel wires, bluetooth and all the trimmings.
JB4:
In order to get this in California I had to send it to my family members house and then he sent it back to me, which wasn't the case with Racechip; I was able to ship Racechip straight to my house with no issues. Once I finially recieved the package let me tell you, I was less then impressed. It came in a little cardboard JB4 box that looked like it had been thrown around a few times and recycled. Opening the box I found no bubble wrap or anything protecting from shifting inside the box, which Racechips box was fully protected. In the box came a whole lots stuff that if you look at it youd say "well what am I supposed to do with this". It didnt come with instructions but instead told you to go online, and let me tell you, it wasn't easy to find, took me 30 mins maybe longer just to find all the different videos and instruction PDFs to even begin putting it in the car. After getting the instructions it was moderate in difficulty to understand, in fact I got so confused that I ended up cutting one of the red wires thinking I needed to splice it somehow, eventually I figured out that I was retarded and had to solder the connection together than splice it using the things they give you. It took me roughly 2 hours to install everything, RaceChip took me 30 mins. Jb4 did not come with zip ties unfortunately, or anyway to secure the box to the fuse box. Skipping to after the instillation, it was incredibly easy to link the phone app to the JB4 but the phone app costs additional money, which is kind of upsetting when it should come free with the purchase of the bluetooth or usb kit. Once driving you can tell a huge difference between JB4 and RaceChip. JB4 leaps miles ahead of Racechip when it comes to the performance increase of your car, coupled together with the fact that you can also run logging and than send the logs in to Terry and his crew to make sure everything is on the up and up with your car, this thing is perfect. Unfortunately, the app they have available is poorly coded and suffers from quite a few bugs, also the fact that it's not terribly user friendly or simple. It has a option to display up to 6 different things at the same time, which covers almost everything you could want to monitor. One of the bugs I ran into is that if you start logging, for w.e reason itll stop logging and not record a log file. Not really sure why it stops but like I said the app is far from perfect. All in all JB4 is definitely the way to go, immediately after taking off I could FEEL tlmy car giving it all shes got, 100% certain that it was WAY more powerful than the tune RaceChip gave me.
TL : DR
RaceChip
Price Point:
GTS - ~450$
Bluetooth App - 50$
Good Things:
- Full install kit and supplies all wrapped up into 1 package.
- No need for tools, all PNP
- Instructions included and easy to read
- Phone Application looks good and is simplistic
- 30 min install, 10 min uninstall
- Package comes with a professional look
- Includes accessories that are nice to have for installing the device, such as zip ties.
Bad Things:
- Customer Service is crap
- Their phone app works better then the actual Piggyback tune
- Doesn't control enough things to produce reliable performance.
- "Can" cause boost oscillation and shudders
- Performance gain is negligible especially since its unreliable if pushed to the same level as JB4 which it can never do.
JB4
Price point:
JB4 - ~479$
Bluetooth Kit - 140$
Application - 27.99$
PNP Kit - 59.99$
Good Things:
- Huge reliable performance gains
- Logging
- Code Wiping
- Monitoring a plethora of data
- User customizations are authorized
- Customer service is a 12/10
Bad Things:
- 2 hour install, 15 min uninstall. (If you didnt get the PNP kit than you cant reverse all of it but you can atleast make it "look" like nothing was there)
- Packaging does not present a professional appearance nor does it offer any extra protection during shipping
- Application is buggy when trying to log
- Application could use a face lift
- From the website it's hard to buy everything you need from one page, you have to visit multiple pages to get everything.
- Instructions are not included, nor are they dummy proof and you have to visit several pages to get all the instructions for everything. (Clearly cus this dummy f&*%ed it up)
- Setup time takes a while, granted that's mostly because of the lack of included instructions and the ability to interpret those instructions, due to the lack of PNP options.
All in all, I still think JB4 wins in this. I'd rather have a product that works, is reliable and has good customer service to go to rather than the alternative. My suggestion and hope to JB4, is they remove the ridiculous price on their app, and update the damn thing. Also, as a default make the base product come PNP, and any solution added on should also be PNP. Lastly, for the love of god please give better instructions, the videos and instructions I got from the links given were old as f*ck compared to the product I was given, and I HIGHLY encourage you to ship your product with any accessories a person would need to install it, such as zip ties and adhesive velcro or something.
P.S. I'll be doing a youtube install video and overview of the JB4; so that, hopefully, people who purchase the current version of the "JB4 w/ fuel wires" will have a quick and better understanding on how everything works. So keep an eye out for that video.
Racechip:
I purchased the GTS version, which is the highest available version for the 3.3tt engine. Their price point is 450$ and an additional 50$ for the bluetooth control option. Once getting the box it was presented in a very classy box giving it a very professional and reliable appearance. The instructions were in the box and they were VERY detailed, so detailed that I had my 16 year old niece try and install it and she had no issues interpreting the instructions and completing the installation. Inside the box it included zip ties which is very convenient and well recieved. Syncing Racechip to your phone and the application was a breeze and took minutes to figure out. The app is very simplistic, not a lot of options to change or see other than what map you wanna use and the ability to change the level according to your cars abilities. After installing it you could definitely feel a decent increase in power availability but it felt like she could do more. After about a week of using the Racechip the car started to have knocks and I thought it was LSPI and not getting full fuel burn. But than I spoke to @Terry@BMS and he explained that it was turbo oscillation. After a day or so diagnosing it and a mechanic looking at it, they determined it was a combination of LSPI and Turbo oscillation. The cause was the Racechip but I couldnt really find out how or why. Racechip customer service is lacking severely, response time was 1 week and after a day of waiting I just ripped the damn thing out. Terry explained that Racechip didnt do the things it needed to do to achieve stable performance and he said that his piggyback tune was the solution to my dilemma. So I ordered the full thing, fuel wires, bluetooth and all the trimmings.
JB4:
In order to get this in California I had to send it to my family members house and then he sent it back to me, which wasn't the case with Racechip; I was able to ship Racechip straight to my house with no issues. Once I finially recieved the package let me tell you, I was less then impressed. It came in a little cardboard JB4 box that looked like it had been thrown around a few times and recycled. Opening the box I found no bubble wrap or anything protecting from shifting inside the box, which Racechips box was fully protected. In the box came a whole lots stuff that if you look at it youd say "well what am I supposed to do with this". It didnt come with instructions but instead told you to go online, and let me tell you, it wasn't easy to find, took me 30 mins maybe longer just to find all the different videos and instruction PDFs to even begin putting it in the car. After getting the instructions it was moderate in difficulty to understand, in fact I got so confused that I ended up cutting one of the red wires thinking I needed to splice it somehow, eventually I figured out that I was retarded and had to solder the connection together than splice it using the things they give you. It took me roughly 2 hours to install everything, RaceChip took me 30 mins. Jb4 did not come with zip ties unfortunately, or anyway to secure the box to the fuse box. Skipping to after the instillation, it was incredibly easy to link the phone app to the JB4 but the phone app costs additional money, which is kind of upsetting when it should come free with the purchase of the bluetooth or usb kit. Once driving you can tell a huge difference between JB4 and RaceChip. JB4 leaps miles ahead of Racechip when it comes to the performance increase of your car, coupled together with the fact that you can also run logging and than send the logs in to Terry and his crew to make sure everything is on the up and up with your car, this thing is perfect. Unfortunately, the app they have available is poorly coded and suffers from quite a few bugs, also the fact that it's not terribly user friendly or simple. It has a option to display up to 6 different things at the same time, which covers almost everything you could want to monitor. One of the bugs I ran into is that if you start logging, for w.e reason itll stop logging and not record a log file. Not really sure why it stops but like I said the app is far from perfect. All in all JB4 is definitely the way to go, immediately after taking off I could FEEL tlmy car giving it all shes got, 100% certain that it was WAY more powerful than the tune RaceChip gave me.
TL : DR
RaceChip
Price Point:
GTS - ~450$
Bluetooth App - 50$
Good Things:
- Full install kit and supplies all wrapped up into 1 package.
- No need for tools, all PNP
- Instructions included and easy to read
- Phone Application looks good and is simplistic
- 30 min install, 10 min uninstall
- Package comes with a professional look
- Includes accessories that are nice to have for installing the device, such as zip ties.
Bad Things:
- Customer Service is crap
- Their phone app works better then the actual Piggyback tune
- Doesn't control enough things to produce reliable performance.
- "Can" cause boost oscillation and shudders
- Performance gain is negligible especially since its unreliable if pushed to the same level as JB4 which it can never do.
JB4
Price point:
JB4 - ~479$
Bluetooth Kit - 140$
Application - 27.99$
PNP Kit - 59.99$
Good Things:
- Huge reliable performance gains
- Logging
- Code Wiping
- Monitoring a plethora of data
- User customizations are authorized
- Customer service is a 12/10
Bad Things:
- 2 hour install, 15 min uninstall. (If you didnt get the PNP kit than you cant reverse all of it but you can atleast make it "look" like nothing was there)
- Packaging does not present a professional appearance nor does it offer any extra protection during shipping
- Application is buggy when trying to log
- Application could use a face lift
- From the website it's hard to buy everything you need from one page, you have to visit multiple pages to get everything.
- Instructions are not included, nor are they dummy proof and you have to visit several pages to get all the instructions for everything. (Clearly cus this dummy f&*%ed it up)
- Setup time takes a while, granted that's mostly because of the lack of included instructions and the ability to interpret those instructions, due to the lack of PNP options.
All in all, I still think JB4 wins in this. I'd rather have a product that works, is reliable and has good customer service to go to rather than the alternative. My suggestion and hope to JB4, is they remove the ridiculous price on their app, and update the damn thing. Also, as a default make the base product come PNP, and any solution added on should also be PNP. Lastly, for the love of god please give better instructions, the videos and instructions I got from the links given were old as f*ck compared to the product I was given, and I HIGHLY encourage you to ship your product with any accessories a person would need to install it, such as zip ties and adhesive velcro or something.
P.S. I'll be doing a youtube install video and overview of the JB4; so that, hopefully, people who purchase the current version of the "JB4 w/ fuel wires" will have a quick and better understanding on how everything works. So keep an eye out for that video.
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