This is a review and analysis of the “InstantHP” chip from instanthp.com that recently appeared on the net. If you are looking for a REAL Instant HP review, this is for you! What is this product and what does it do? Let’s take a look:
Company Profile
The manufacturer is an unknown company located at instanthp.com, but we already have our suspicions on this product’s origin due to its shape and color. A direct link to the product page is here: http://instanthp.com/#buy
Cost
The cost at the time of this review was $59USD. This price is very suspicious, as no genuine tuning product can be manufactured this cheaply.
Product Appearance
The OBD tuner modules come in one color, yellow, and claim to “instantly add more power and torque”. It claims to fit “all vehicles 1999 and newer”. This also is a BIG red flag – one size fits all claims are almost always a scam.
The product instructions are almost IDENTICAL to that of the Yellow NitroOBD2 scam.
Internal Analysis
We purchased a module for analysis and looked inside:
The circuit board is built around a PIC16F59 IC, and the board looks exactly like the NitroOBD board below:
Right away we see a problem here, because if one pulls the datasheet for the PIC16F59 IC, we can see from the manufacturer, Microchip, that this chip has a maximum program memory size of 3KB:
From several searches, we verified that ECU maps for a vehicle will be at least 20KB or larger PER MAP! This is way too large for the PIC16F59 IC to contain. So, if this is the case, there are no genuine vehicle maps onboard the module. What can be stored in such a small 3KB sized space then? We have our own suspicion.
Operation
We connected the InstantHP module to our 2012 BMW 530i 3.0L L6 as shown in the instruction sheet and lights began to blink, in EXACTLY the same pattern as the NitroOBD2 scam chips. We followed the instructions and drove at least 200+ miles to give it the benefit of the doubt, and…… nothing. No power increase, no mileage increase. We did, however, see a neat light show!
Analysis
It is clear from our analysis so far that the InstantHP module does not have the physical capacity to hold real vehicle ECU maps. 3KB of memory IS large enough for a light blinker program however, and we believe this is exactly what it truly is – an overpriced light blinker. The circuit appears to monitor the pins from the OBD port and the small microprocessor blinks the lights when activity is detected, giving the appearance of the chip’s operation. While some users online claim to have seen small gains in pickup or fuel economy, we believe this is due to either the placebo effect or other vehicle / environmental factors. While we did not get any error codes set by our InstantHP module, others claim it does set error codes, and if so, this is a major red flag.
The second issue is the claim that it fits SEVERAL different vehicles – this is not possible, even for one vehicle, with such a small 3KB program capacity.
The third issue is that the same circuit is used in the NitroOBD scam, giving us more evidence to support the conclusion that this is a light blinker scam.
Conclusion
From our research and review, it is our opinion that the InstantHP module performance chip is a scam. It may also cause ECU damage, as reported by some users on the net, so we suggest avoiding it at all costs. It is a nice light show at best, damaging at worst. You want to pass on this one!
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