Supreme Performance Chip 4.0 Review / Teardown
To begin, if you have not already seen the tests by quarkslab on reverse engineering the Nitro OBD2 performance chip scam, check it out here: https://blog.quarkslab.com/reverse-engineering-of-the-nitro-obd2.html
We point you in this direction because this scam has been flooding the internet for a few years now, and has given birth to numerous copies with varying colors and logos. We provide our analysis below of the Supreme performance chip and show what is inside. To accurately understand the big picture you should first read the above quarkslab
article in its entirety. It is proven based on several different articles and tests that the Nitro OBD module is a verified scam. Don’t just take our word for it!
There are also several youtube videos proving the details of the Nitro-OBD light flasher scam and some of it’s variants:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XgXwfBTKLGU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-l9ohTjvkw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rdoIjt2mMEQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_OIO1tJPEy8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H1OmGDE1FLA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytwlDVaFbec
Reverse engineering the Supreme Performance Chip 4.0
Tags: CAN OBD Performance Chip Vehicle Tuning Scams Analysis Reverse Engineering Supreme Scam Greatlakesauto
This article involves reverse engineering and analyzing the OBD chip “Supreme Performance Chip 4.0” in order to identify if it functions as advertised or not.
It is advertised like this on the Ebay product page: “Our Version 4.0 performance chip is Dyno proven with the highest gains on the market! Our chip delivers you optimal power through our PROVEN & TESTED programming for your vehicle.We have extensively tested every vehicle model that is offered for our performance chip. You simply plug our performance chip into your OBD port, then get ready for proven performance!”
The seller greatlakesauto has 100% positive feedback on ebay, but there are conflicting opinions about this product elsewhere and we know ebay feedback is easily manipulated.
EDIT: At the time this article was first written their feedback was 100% positive. Well it seems the truth is coming out, as they now have 31 negative feedback reviews total. Here is a grab of just some of their most recent negative feedbacks:
I thought ‘Supreme” meant it was a better product – maybe not!
A major problem we see right away is the outrageous claim of 50-60HP power gains:
50 – 60HP gains are very difficult to obtain from such a simple upgrade, especially an OBD part, and if true, would instantly be noticed by the driver. Perhaps it IS possible though, since this is not just the SUPREME performance chip, but the SUPREME performance chip 4.0!! This alone should be a clue to anyone considering this product. Looking deeper, we see an obviously faked dyno run graph, this one claiming gains of 116 horsepower! Really?
There is no way a part this simple could deliver this amount of horsepower gains. We are beginning to suspect a major scam. (We also have a bridge we would like to sell you that will give your ride an extra 200HP!)
COST
The price for the Supreme Performance Chip 4.0 on ebay was $61.44 USD:
However, the product we last reviewed which looks IDENTICAL to the Supreme Performance Chip, could be found on aliexpress directly from the manufacturer in CHINA for $1.97 USD:
The Supreme Performance Chip ebay advertisement even accidentally left the true name on the photos as “Super OBD Performance Chip”, the last product we verified as a scam:
As if this isn’t enough: but wait, there’s more!
The photo which allegedly shows employees tuning the vehicle does not show their product they are selling, but instead shows a Kess programming dongle:
What does this product have to do with the Kess programmer? The Kess programmer is a widely known and used LEGITIMATE programming tool which has nothing to do with the product the seller is offering for sale.
You can find more information about the Kess programmer on youtube:
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=kess+programmer
Here is yet another misleading photo on the ebay advertisement showing a Kess programmer – where is the Supreme Performance Chip?
The seller even went as far as to list the product on a website prdistribution.com, which appears confusing to users, as it gives the feel of a legitimate newspaper / article source which makes the product seem more trustworthy:
The truth is, the website prdistribution will feature ANY product if paid, as they simply write / post articles after being paid by the seller. They offer different packages to help them get the word out about their products. This bunk about community choice awards also attempts to improve the product’s legitimacy. Whose community award? Prdistribution’s? They have done the same on several other sites such as 24-7pressrelease.com, techgeek365.com, sportsgossip.com, thesportsdaily.com and others, adding fake reviews and paid written articles with the purpose of fooling the consumer into believing that this is a genuine tuning device. What is the purpose of all these fake review sites? To flood search engine results with THEIR false website analyses and fake news articles to prevent the consumer from finding legitimate reviews about this garbage.
Also notice the supreme performance chip product above. Does it look similar to another product we have seen before?
The Supreme Performance chip and the previous scam product we reviewed look identical on the outside, but are they indeed the same inside?
CASE / PACKAGING
The case the Supreme Performance chip by Greatlakesauto comes in is an all-to-familiar one – remember in the previous review we were talking about a duck?
If it LOOKS like a duck, TALKS like a duck, WALKS like a duck, then it is a duck!
INTERNAL ANALYSIS
We obtained a Supreme Performance chip and disassembled the outer plastic shell. The inside was identical to
the previous Super OBD verified chiptuning scam!
Verified Nitro OBD scam chip circuit board, courtesy manocao https://mhhauto.com/Thread-EcoOBD2-and-nitroOBD2-Good-or-Bad?page=2 :
The circuit boards on both the Super OBD scam chip and the Supreme performance chip were 100% identical.
Just like the previous SUPER OBD scam chip, the Supreme Performance Chip circuit board on the right also has
three surface mount LEDs. They both have a diode supposedly for ‘circuit protection’, as well as a 5V surface mounted voltage regulator. There is also a PIC16F59 chip, mentioned in many videos proving the Nitro OBD tuning box scam. The PIC16F59 microprocessor is made by the US company Microchip, and has a memory size of only 3KB. This is way too small to contain a vehicle map table as claimed by the manufacturer:
Most legitimate vehicle maps are 512KB or larger, depending on the vehicle model and configuration:
https://mechanics.stackexchange.com/questions/69265/ecu-tune-file-formats
While this small memory capacity could not hold vehicle map data, it would hold a simple light flashing routine, which is exactly what the Nitro OBD Tuning box has been proven to contain. From these facts, we can clearly see that the Supreme Performance Chip is nothing more than another NITRO OBD light flasher scam with a round reset button added!
To confirm this, we connected the Supreme Performance Chip to a vehicle and drove for over two weeks, doing multiple fill-ups and noticed no difference in fuel economy, performance or any other vehicle behaviour. There was no change, absolutely NO WAY there was a 60HP gain.
To confirm further that the programming inside the microprocessor is indeed the same as the verified Nitro OBD scam, we connected both modules to a 12V power supply on the bench and noted the blink intervals of the led lights:
Blink Test Video: https://youtu.be/4959s0P3TO8
Both the Nitro OBD tuning scam (Left) and the SUPREME Performance Chip (Right) blinked at EXACTLY the same interval! Same board components, same blinking interval, same scam (but pretty lights though!).
CONCLUSION
From our research as well as testing we find that the Supreme Performance Chip by Greatlakesauto is nothing more than another Nitro OBD scam. Nice try! Don’t CHIP in your hard earned money for this (see what we did there?)!
If after all this, you STILL are considering purchasing this product, here is our response:
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What a joke , these things are everywhere I look
Who makes this junk I added one to my truck and now have a check engine light on, genius
A very expensive nightlight indeed!
Thank you for exposing the SUPREME Performance Chip.
Yes ,as soon as I saw the h/p gains claimed I knew it was bullshit and had to go no further. What kinda idiots would fall for this shit. If ANY chip(and none can of course) could deliver even half of what they claim it’d easily sell for $500 and he’ll I’d buy one myself. Part of me wants to reach out thru the ether ,into the cloud and grab these theiving bastards by the throat and do a Walking Dead on them ,then there’s the flip side of me that wants to follow the mantra of Eli Wallace’s character in the first and real Magnificent 7 movie where he tells the Yul Brenner’s character……If god had not meant them to be shorn then he’d not have made them sheep…….in other words if people are this ignorant then let the chips( no pun intended) fall where they may. I can’t decide so u decide for me. To be or not to be…….a fool. TY Rich…..PS: As we here in America spend the most of any nation in the world ,per Capita on our children’s education but receive the least for that money( another scam for another day) I believe it should be mandatory for every single male and female high school student to get a semester of instruction in automotive tech as A) it’s the second biggest investment of ur life behind a home and B) Almost everyone of those kids will get a car and begin a lifetime of driving with the attendant repairs all cars need and this instruction would keep countless adults from paying for replacement muffler bearings this ruining the muffler bearing business.Itd also likely be enough to have them realize horsepower gains like this ,not even 10% can be achieved in this way. 10% is usually the minimum gain ud need to have to notice any difference at the pedal by the way. I understand when 18 yrs old with ur first car and ur friend drives past u and embarrassed u in front of ur girl makes u wanna make ur secondhand Yugo double it’s 40 hp and zip past ur friends Hellcat to get even with an investment of only $64 from ur job at Micky D’s but it just isn’t possible so save up and put a nice high output small block in that Yugo becuz that’s far more likely to yeild the results u seek than this crap.