Is it just the VW engines that make the huge gains for comparatively little expense ?

I know the Beemers and Mercs do but I think my next motor may be further down the food chain !

Current plan is something under ten grand with the 130 pd unit in, plus a chip, any other suggestions ?

 

Can you not get a SEAT Leon FR 160 for around the 10k mark?

 

Seat Ibiza FR/Leon FR, Skoda Fabia vRS

 

Any Vauxhall with the 1.9 150 CDTi diesel engine will easily see 200 Bhp and 330 lb ft torque with a tuning box fitted, see Diesel Tuning UK

 

BMW 320D can be had around the 10k mark, the 150 re-maps to 204 nicely..

J

 

Tuning boxes are old technology now

I can only speak for the TDI PD engines, but remaps are the way forward as you can get something custom

 

You had it chipped yet Jason?

Hope its going well, was good to meet you the other week.

Si

 

Yeah but when you can get 20hp and 40lbft torque for £46 who needs a £400+ remap for the same effect.

I just bought a 2nd hand Dragon Digital tuning box off eBay for the above mentioned £46. Revo et al all want £400+ for a standard remap alone, custom remaps are even more. Then come service time you can't reflash the ecu unless you then spend another £100.

Having seen Fabia vRS AMD one click cars making 160 -165bhp on a recent rolling day, when my standard car made 144bhp. No thanks, my tuning box does the trick very nicely.

 

newer 2.0 TDI VAG stuff can be had for under £10k now

 

A good custom remap in a VW PD130 should get you 170-180bhp and 280-310 lb/ft of torque.

Tuning boxes only dump more fuel in which will make a diesel smoke a fair bit. But then so does alot of remaps lol

Most turbo diesels are fairly "tune-able"

 

Funny how the French kind of broke Turbodiesel's into the mainstream yet theirs are generally lower poweroutputs and dont sems to have the tuning capacity, is this Germans overengineering ?

 

Its crazy times aheads of us. 200bhp and 300ft/lb torque from a deisal from nothing other than a remap (no bigger injectors, exhausts, filter, fuel pumps, etc,etc,etc). On the road and moving, thats going to be quicker car than a UK scoob or even a early WRX. Having similar BHP but loads more torque. And it will be dead quiet, comfortable and make very little fuss about it.

Can't wait to see what someone does with the new BMW335D Twin Turbo. I reckon it could be supercar territory with just a few cheap tweaks.

 

I read that compared to petrol, diesel engines are infinately tunable as well as they (obviously) can't suffer from det etc.

Not sure how true that is, as i'm a petrol man at heart, but do love our diesel

 

My wife has a Polo Sport with the 110 Bhp 1.9 engine, fitted a PD Digital box from Diesel Tuning UK ran it on a RR to test as it's the newest box available for the VW, showed 167 Bhp, not a bad increase for a few ££'s and no smoke

 

If it doesn't smoke your not trying hard enough!

 

Do the tuning boxes affect the warranty?

I had heard that Honda could detect if the ECU had had a tuning box fitted, so don't fancy ruining the 3 year warranty on our Civic just yet

 

If you know where to go it shouldn't cost £400 - mine cost £295 and has already been taken off for main dealer work (air con probs) and then put back on for free...as I say it depends where you go. Mine had four map tweaks before i was fully happy. Even went back a week later for another tweak - all free.

I'm on my third PD engined car - used to have a 130PD Golf with a tuning box which was absolute rubbish - lost all the low down torque. Currently have an Ibiza running daft power for its size, and a standard Fabia vRS that is very reluctant to rev (even though it was thrashed senseless from day one, and has now done 20k).

Think you need to drive a remapped car to see how mind-blowingly different they can be - mine revs like a 16v petrol (up to 4750rpm anyways lol )

 

The emission controls on the new civic make it impossible to tune via a box, yes u can fit one but the gains gained before the ecu drops into limp mode are minute and not worth bothering with


As for the BMW 335d weve recently tuned one of those with some fantastic results....

CLICK HERE

Im currently selling my re-mapped Astra as the boxed cars are making more power than a £550 re-map

 

There's a chap on SeatCupra.net with a Fabia PD100, Allard hybrid turbo, injectors, LPG powershot etc giving 221bhp

As James said above, maps can be had for well under £300, Upsolute offered a group buy on remaps to UKPassats members for £200 IIRC

 

Hi,

I've got a 51 reg 1.9 Laguna DCi i was unaware that they were so easily tunable. Are these the type of tuning boxes you are on about.

Renualt Diesel Tuning Box

I am really warey of buying tuning items like this off eBay has anyone got any experiences?

On another note. On the "diesel tuning uk" website i get 2 options for which diesel car i have there is "1.9 DCi" and "1.9 DCi DPF" whats the difference?

Craig

 

Craig,

DPF means that the car has a diesel particulate filter. It just stops all the smoke. Most new BMW diesels have them.

Regarding ease of tune and the results available with diesels, I've heard that the 335d can produce 340bhp and 500+ ft/lbs with a good DMS or Thorney motorsport tune.

Matt

 

Cheers for the info.

Do these eBay boxes do what they say they do? or is it just all sales hype?

Craig

 

Sounds like Jason's car. bodyshell is a PD100 but it's got a vRS engine in it.

The chap is mad and has spent alot of time and money on it, but it's not the most powerful of the Fabia's

250bhp is the top one! (I think)

 

That's the one

My old Volvo T4 used to torque-steer, god knows what a 200+bhp Fabia is like

 

My Saab isnt torque steering as bad as it did, the garage bolted the front subframe back to the body and its much better !

 

The reason revo software and the likes is a lot more expensive is the fact a lot of R+D has gone into the product.

Cheap normally means exactly that, and its your pistons and rods at the end of the day, Fuelling and timing etc

Thats why people pay the £££ for tried and tested software

 

I suppose that would help a bit!

Which model is that? 900 / 9000 / 9-3?

 

Now ain't that a coincidence?

How do they do it? what are the chances of me returning my Co car to the nearest dealer minus a tuning box, but dribbling a trail of oil from the engine?

 

where does that site get its figures from? it quotes 110bhp being equivalent to 150ps?

I thought PS was about 0.95 of BHP?

 

Tunable Diesels= many holes in the ozone!

Let alone zero/zero visibility and serious illness for anyone behind the car when the driver steps on the gas!

Thanks!