The speed limiter of Chevy Silverado is there to make sure you drive within the specified speed limit, that your ride is comfortable, and to ensure fuel economy. Driving with limiters can be difficult when you are passing through steep or high terrain. This can become even more difficult when you drive with a heavy load in your truck.
So, getting rid of the speed limiter can make climbing the steep terrains easier for you. This can be done by installing aftermarket performance tuners/chips, installing additional devices, or cutting the wires to the speed sensors.
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How To Remove Speed Limiter On Chevy Silverado: 3 Methods
The speed limiter is a program installed in the electronic control unit of the vehicle. This program is supposed to read the data collected by the vehicle’s speed and gear sensors. Then, these readings are fed to some algorithms and some parameters are considered to decide whether to limit your vehicle’s speed or not.
If the limiter program finds that you are trying to exceed the speed limit, it won’t allow the engine motor to gain any more speed. This can be quite helpful and allow you to drive safely. However, sometimes you’ll need a higher car speed such as while driving on uneven terrain or steep land.
Given below are the top ways by which you can remove the speed limiter on your Chevy Silverado.
Method 1. Aftermarket Performance Chips
Since the car’s engine is digitally controlled, like all computers, this too can be altered. There are No products found. available for Chevy Silverado. These will reprogram the electronic control unit (ECU) of the car in a way so that you get more power or fuel economy to the engine based on whatever the tuner wants.
Several brands make these aftermarket chips or tuners. But you have to be very careful while choosing these since you can also damage your car system by installing an incompatible tuner. Make sure you go through the reviews and check if the specific tuner or chip works for Chevy Silverado or not.
Method 2. Installing Additional Devices
You can get additional devices in the market that can allow you to disable the speed limiter of a Chevy Silverado. This is the easiest way to get rid of the speed limiter and is pretty cheap too. The control unit of your car has a limiter set inside of a program that can decide whether to activate the limiter as per the data fed by the speed and gear sensors.
Installing an additional device in your car can cheat the control unit by telling it that the readings of the sensors are incorrect. In other words, the added device will block the readings from reaching the ECU. Don’t worry because this won’t affect the normal functionality of the vehicle’s electronics. What happens is that the added device overrides the speed limiter system and hence, the electronic controller unit of the car will never create a situation where the speed limiter gets activated.
Method 3. Cutting The Wiring Of The Speed Sensors
You can cut the wiring of the speed sensor or disconnect a jumper to disable the limiter program of the car’s ECU. Make sure you only cut the wiring that is responsible for delivering the speed and gear sensor readings to the Silverado’s ECU. It will be hard to get your hands on the vehicular diagram that depicts this information available.
However, we can let you know that the speed sensor on your Chevy Silverado should be located on the rear side of the transmission. That is for the latest model and a 2005 and 2004 Chevy Silverado, you need to look at the right side of the transmission’s rear. For a 2003 Chevy Silverado, the speed sensor can be found towards the front passenger’s side.
FAQs
How fast does the Chevy Silverado go?
The top speed of Chevy Silverado goes up to 130 mph. It has a 2500HD power that allows it to generate 445 horsepower and 1234 Nm of torque. So, the Chevy Silverado’s high energy production allows it to be strong and fast. But, due to the presence of the speed limiter, its highest speed is restricted to 99 mph.
How does a speed limiter work?
There are speed and gear sensors placed in your car that will detect how fast you are driving. Then, this information will be transmitted to the engine control unit. If you try to increase the speed beyond the pre-determined speed limit, the ECU of your car will restrict fuel and airflow to the air. Hence, it limits the speed and does not let you cross the specified speed limit.
Does the speed limiter use more fuel?
No, in fact, having a speed limiter installed in your vehicle reduces fuel consumption. Since, it doesn’t allow you to drive at high speeds, thereby meaning that you’ll be driving at a less speed that will, in turn, consume less fuel.
Why do trucks have speed limiters installed in them?
In recent times, it has been made mandatory to have speed limiters on your trucks. These are responsible for transporting several types of dangerous goods and these can impose risks if transported at high speeds. So, most trucks come with pre-installed speed-limiting systems from the factory itself.
You can check out our Best Shocks for z71 Silverado.
Final Words
The speed limiter on Chevy Silverado can really restrict the vehicle’s performance. It is an Intelligent Speed Assistance system that prevents your vehicle from crossing the speed limit. However, in certain situations, you might need to override the speed limit. The above article lists down all the different ways to remove the speed limiter on your Chevy Silverado. Hope this helps!
