I mirror Gordon's post.

I have a 98 AWD with the Wetterauer chip and an aftermarket dual cat-back exhaust. I bought my car in the middle of '97, and added the chip at 10,000 miles. I have over 40,000 miles on the chip mod with nothing but praise for the performance and mileage improvements. Never had the skip and dip, and still don't. Gordon, if you read this, what are the symptoms of the skip and dip, and when do you experience them? Hot, cold, high or low altitude, etc.

Regards,

Mike Harris in Sandy Eggo

Kevin,

I have the Wetterauer chip in my 98 XC, which runs $695 if you get the $100 discount for mentioning the Brickboard.

I have put about 10,000 miles on the chip now and have no concerns about reliability or long-term effects on the engine or tranny. It is very nice to be able to swap back in the stock chip when service is done under warranty, but now that I am out of warranty, it's not that big a deal. In any case, the chip wouldn't affect warranty claims unless Volvo can show that the chip actually caused the problem you are making a claim for.

Driving with the chip is very nice. The car feels about 500 lbs lighter, everything feels more "effortless". The torque comes on nice and low, so the power is VERY useable anytime, not just when racing.

My only gripe is that the chip has caused the "skip and dip" ECU problem that the car originally had to come back. This was fixed on my stock ECU by a reprogramming by Volvo, but evidently it is in the software of the chip as well. It is really just an annoyance, but it is irritating when the engine just intermittently stumbles, either at idle or at speed. So far Wetterauer has not been able to fix it, but they tell me they are working on it.

Try PES or Rica. Both of which will extend a discount if you mention Volvospeed. There is also IPD, SCT, SAM, and I belive Wetteraurer.