Some guy is selling a brand new Hypertech programmer on Kijiji. Says he bought it for the wrong car and can't return it. It is for a 1996 LT1, so it will work for me. He is asking about $300 CAD for it (235 USD) so it is a good deal.

How can I tell if he has used it and there is already a program in it? As I recall (it has been 15 years since I last used one) they can only be used on one car, right?

I might grab it. Seems like a good deal. In the original box and everything.

Thanks!

 

You have to make sure that the programer is cleared ? By that the vin number of the last car it was used on is cleared by the user hooking it up to his car and uninstalling the programming ! It than will be ready for use on new car? You can find them for sale on eBay for under a $100.00 also on forums related to LT1/4 cars! Hope this helps, John 😎

 

What do you plan to use it for? A magazine test showed that the "power program" lost HP, unless you also used the 160-degree thermostat. You could get better results from a mail order tune for the same money or less. Unfortunately it's getting harder to find anyone who even wants to do LT1 mail order tunes, but they can be found.

 

Thanks for the info guys! It is brand new in the box (so he says) and he never used it.
I live in Canada so buying one in the USA and getting is shipped/duty/taxes etc makes things a little more expensive now because our dollar is so bad. I will def look on Ebay but it has been so long since I bought on there...back in the day you didn't have to worry about customs, duty, brokerage fees.

I will be using it for some slightly larger tires I just put on, the shift points (auto tranny), and for the 160 thermostat I was going to put it. Definitely not going to use it for the performance tune.

I looked into mail order tunes but I don't want my car to be down while I wait. Again, I live up in northern Canada and the wait would be longer because of distance and customs.

Am I wasting my money?