Unfortunately, the majority of chip tuning tools that is sold on Ebay, Amazon and other websites are clone tools. Clone tools are fake chip tuning tools that has been copied and is being sold without consent from the original manufacture. Normally these tools retail for $ 100-200 while original tuning tools start from $ 1500.
The biggest risk associated with clone tuning tools is the fact that no support is offered to the tuner. Should anything go wrong during the reading or writing process and the car doesn’t start the tuner will not have any support from the tool provider, if it is a fake tuning tool. In most cases, the vehicle owner will hold the tuner responsible for damaging the ECU which can costs anything from 1500 to 3000 Euro to repair. Due to the risks associated with damaging an ECU with fake tuning tools and not being able to fix it, we do not recommend using fake tuning tools.
Original tuning tools comes with the required support and updates that is required to support the tuner should anything go wrong during the reading or writing process. In most cases, the support teams of original tuning tools can recover the ECU of the vehicle should anything go wrong during the reading or writing process.
Original tools are more expensive for a reason. If you are considering buying fake tuning tools think of the consequence and cost associated with locking out an ECU and ask yourself if the short-term saving is really going to be worth it.