Superchips Flashpaq for JK, Initial Impressions
JK Super Freak
Joined: Apr 2009
Posts: 1,139
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From: Tulsa, OK
Thread Starter
JK Junkie
Joined: Jul 2008
Posts: 3,017
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From: Lakewood, OH
there are a lot of threads and the search sucks, I just wanted to know if anyone had any theories, didn't mean to call out the "there's already been a thread on this" hawks. I guess that makes sense, just seems odd that you see more flashpaqs for sale on here than any other 3rd party part.
I also looked on ebay, and there was only one used Jeep Flashpaq up for auction and no completed auctions for a used one.
In all, I don't see this as epidemic in the least and the vast majority of people that own the product are happy with it.
JK Enthusiast
Joined: Dec 2008
Posts: 126
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From: Inland Empire-SoCal
there are a lot of threads and the search sucks, I just wanted to know if anyone had any theories, didn't mean to call out the "there's already been a thread on this" hawks. I guess that makes sense, just seems odd that you see more flashpaqs for sale on here than any other 3rd party part.
This may have been mentioned by others (don't "hawk" me, lol) but JP Magazine did a hand tuner comparison a few months back. I already had my superchip but it seemed fairly unbiased. I thot it showed the SC as the better unit, but they really didn't make a recommendation, just compared features. Might be worth looking for.
FLASH! er UPDATE: Here is a link to the online version of the article:
http://www.jpmagazine.com/techarticl...s_unichip.html
JK Newbie
Joined: Jun 2010
Posts: 1
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From: Atwater, CA
OK, so I get my first opportunity to run the Superchips Flashpaq this evening. Plug it in before I had returned to stock the Hypertech settings. Unfortunately, the data acquisition isn't installed and pretty much I guess it's one of those things that you need to download. So no opportunities to even remotely do anything but use the Butt Meter for performance gain.
I drove to the park so I could kind of enjoy the outdoors on a beautiful day and upon arrival made sure I was outside of the vehicle before I had the Hypertech do the return to stock thing. When it was finally complete, I got to plug in the Superchips Flashpaq. One thing that has always stood out between the two programmers is the backlit display and although there was plenty of light, it always seems like I'm doing this sort of thing at dusk.
With the Superchips good to go and ready to take on the tuning setting I took a quick peak around at the other settings. The only thing I saw that was different than what I had read about or expected was the varied fan speed for coolant temperatures. Played around with the settings to make the fan come on at the slow setting somewhere in the 180s and high at 210.
With a tank full of 94 Octane I opted for the 93 Octane Performance tune. The Flashpaq pretty much runs through installing the tune at better than twice the speed of the Hypertech. Went through the usual ignition on and off sequence but was left with a blank screen just about where the sequence would have you turn the ignition to the on position. A few miles from home, I didn't want to brick my Jeep so I patiently waited. After about 5 minutes, I gave up flipped the ignition to the on position and the program completed (I'll call there support in the morning).
My plan had been at this stage to take a couple of jaunts down the freeway with a GPS and make sure my speedometer was dialed in. Upon completion of doing the program the speedometer calibration had failed. I tried again to no avail and decided I would just take a couple runs up my usual hill where I have measured 330' times with my truck and also made a couple runs without measured times with the JK.
Without my speedometer and ready to see how well the old butt meter was working I dropped my JK into 4 wheel drive, proceeded to my usual starting point, stopped popped the clutch out and made a WOT run up the hill. As I approached where the 330' spot is I was already out of gear with a pretty big grin on my face. Never would have needed to shift with the Hypertech and the jump in performance was more akin to what I got out of my Hemi Ram after installing a Flashpaq on it.
At this point I had to get something to eat, took a couple highway onramp blasts, headed to the local watering hole for a burger, but it was definitely haunting me that I had a quicker jeep but no speedometer. Garbaged down a burger and washed it back with a beer in close to record time.
With a full belly I went outside returned the vehicle to stock, took a short cruise with an again functioning speedometer and then proceeded to redo the 93 Octane tune. This time everything took fine and with a working speedometer I did the GPS calibration of my speedometer. Only needed to do a 1/4" change from my measured tire settings and all was good.
That's all I have for now. My JK is without a doubt quicker and pulls harder. It has a little sound of toughness emanating from under the hood that wasn't present before. It moves quickly through the soft spot in the low rpm range and if I were to single out any one thing, the torque has dramatically improved on the low end.
I'll try to run some more tests over the next few days and get the data acquisition portion downloaded so I can quantify what I felt was a pretty dramatic improvement in power. I'll also talk to their support in the morning as the blank screen in the process could definitely hang someone up who hasn't used their product. It definitely wasn't a perfect debut, but it provided all the power I had come to expect from Superchips.
I drove to the park so I could kind of enjoy the outdoors on a beautiful day and upon arrival made sure I was outside of the vehicle before I had the Hypertech do the return to stock thing. When it was finally complete, I got to plug in the Superchips Flashpaq. One thing that has always stood out between the two programmers is the backlit display and although there was plenty of light, it always seems like I'm doing this sort of thing at dusk.
With the Superchips good to go and ready to take on the tuning setting I took a quick peak around at the other settings. The only thing I saw that was different than what I had read about or expected was the varied fan speed for coolant temperatures. Played around with the settings to make the fan come on at the slow setting somewhere in the 180s and high at 210.
With a tank full of 94 Octane I opted for the 93 Octane Performance tune. The Flashpaq pretty much runs through installing the tune at better than twice the speed of the Hypertech. Went through the usual ignition on and off sequence but was left with a blank screen just about where the sequence would have you turn the ignition to the on position. A few miles from home, I didn't want to brick my Jeep so I patiently waited. After about 5 minutes, I gave up flipped the ignition to the on position and the program completed (I'll call there support in the morning).
My plan had been at this stage to take a couple of jaunts down the freeway with a GPS and make sure my speedometer was dialed in. Upon completion of doing the program the speedometer calibration had failed. I tried again to no avail and decided I would just take a couple runs up my usual hill where I have measured 330' times with my truck and also made a couple runs without measured times with the JK.
Without my speedometer and ready to see how well the old butt meter was working I dropped my JK into 4 wheel drive, proceeded to my usual starting point, stopped popped the clutch out and made a WOT run up the hill. As I approached where the 330' spot is I was already out of gear with a pretty big grin on my face. Never would have needed to shift with the Hypertech and the jump in performance was more akin to what I got out of my Hemi Ram after installing a Flashpaq on it.
At this point I had to get something to eat, took a couple highway onramp blasts, headed to the local watering hole for a burger, but it was definitely haunting me that I had a quicker jeep but no speedometer. Garbaged down a burger and washed it back with a beer in close to record time.
With a full belly I went outside returned the vehicle to stock, took a short cruise with an again functioning speedometer and then proceeded to redo the 93 Octane tune. This time everything took fine and with a working speedometer I did the GPS calibration of my speedometer. Only needed to do a 1/4" change from my measured tire settings and all was good.
That's all I have for now. My JK is without a doubt quicker and pulls harder. It has a little sound of toughness emanating from under the hood that wasn't present before. It moves quickly through the soft spot in the low rpm range and if I were to single out any one thing, the torque has dramatically improved on the low end.
I'll try to run some more tests over the next few days and get the data acquisition portion downloaded so I can quantify what I felt was a pretty dramatic improvement in power. I'll also talk to their support in the morning as the blank screen in the process could definitely hang someone up who hasn't used their product. It definitely wasn't a perfect debut, but it provided all the power I had come to expect from Superchips.
JK Enthusiast
Joined: Jun 2009
Posts: 182
Likes: 0
From: Graham, WA
Scott
- Scott... thanks for all your input into this forum. I've been reading through the last few pages here and I'm must say I'm impressed with your input.
I need to get caught up on all the changes... Can you provide a list of all the updates that have been release for the Flashpaq? Is it posted online somewhere yet? It would be nice to have a a list of each released update with the features that were added or changed within each release.
Thread Starter
JK Junkie
Joined: Jul 2008
Posts: 3,017
Likes: 0
From: Lakewood, OH
JK Newbie
Joined: Jul 2010
Posts: 90
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From: Texas
That would be great! I've asked about this in the past with no response. (It's been a while though) I bought my Flashpaq some time ago and I expected this to be an option out of the gate with the way things were worded. "Use lockers in 4 HI"... never expected the need to have the stupid thing plugged in to do it by pushing the buttons on the tuner. I must say I was very disappointed in that feature. It made that feature more or less useless for me.
- Scott... thanks for all your input into this forum. I've been reading through the last few pages here and I'm must say I'm impressed with your input.
I need to get caught up on all the changes... Can you provide a list of all the updates that have been release for the Flashpaq? Is it posted online somewhere yet? It would be nice to have a a list of each released update with the features that were added or changed within each release.
- Scott... thanks for all your input into this forum. I've been reading through the last few pages here and I'm must say I'm impressed with your input.
I need to get caught up on all the changes... Can you provide a list of all the updates that have been release for the Flashpaq? Is it posted online somewhere yet? It would be nice to have a a list of each released update with the features that were added or changed within each release.
Thread Starter
JK Junkie
Joined: Jul 2008
Posts: 3,017
Likes: 0
From: Lakewood, OH
I can tell the difference between the Milage XS tune although between the others, I really need to load them up to differentiate them using a steep hill as a measuring stick. The other indicators are frequency of downshifts and calculated fuel milage. Seat of the pants, not so much outside the tow tune.
Thread Starter
JK Junkie
Joined: Jul 2008
Posts: 3,017
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From: Lakewood, OH
Even with the tow tune...I just can't tell a difference on anything. I know I've said this on my soap box before, but I had higher expectations of this product...I had better results that I could actually feel come from my Ford Escape when I hooked up SCT's XcalII to it....I could dial in my speedo PERFECTLY...no +/- 3% or w/e....I had every bit of excitement and precision with it. Flashpaq...it's just an 
thing to me that recalibrated my gear set and got my speedo "close enough" by some peoples terms. Yes it shifts firmer...but I can't tell any seat of pants difference.
Ok I'll step down now...
thing to me that recalibrated my gear set and got my speedo "close enough" by some peoples terms. Yes it shifts firmer...but I can't tell any seat of pants difference.Ok I'll step down now...
JK Enthusiast
Joined: Mar 2008
Posts: 173
Likes: 0
From: Hendersonville, TN
I could tell a difference with the 87 tune but my wife couldn't really tell much difference but with the tow tune even she says that the Jeep responds better and the acceleration lag is much better. I love the tow tune.