Tuning box?

Out of interest has anyone tried any plug in boxes on the sd4 yet?
Just wondering how the mpg was and if it was ok with the exhaust dpf filter

Not seen a compatible one yet. My understanding is that this has new ecu which has yet to be cracked for tuning. Only option is to take it apart and remap on a bench. Hopefully this will be sorted soon as would love a bluefin type device.

Some of these have started appearing on the Market:

http://www.tdi-tuning.co.uk/product.html...0000003234

and as an alternative:

http://www.chipexpress.com/products/3340/

These are for the TD4, but they also have options for ED4 and SD4 as well if you search around.

Not sure what to make of these, i have used something similar on a fiat t-jet and was very happy with results, but big difference bewtween sticking it on a 10k fiat and a 40k range rover. These seemed to have moved on abit since then and have optional maps to choose from.

One thing was pointed out that these are not optimised to your specific car, but in my mind all the OEM units will have a standard map, which is consistent across the whole range, and not vehicle specific either, so not sure how that arguement stands up. I think main concern of these is how much undue stress to they ut on the cars components, and is it worth the risk?

Also for those of us not fortunate to have a reliable tuner nearby these may be only option.

Love to hear everyones thoughts on this, as it is something i will be seriously considering in next few weeks.[/align]

Pete at bell auto services has done alot of work on this engine and is well versed in what is needed for a power upgrade, many of these tuning boxes only multiply the signal from the ecu to the engine, hence they make a flat spot or another fault 2-3 times worse

In my expericience they are a short term option, they tend to kid some of the sensors on the engine and hence improve fuel flow. They do not take into account turbo boost or other parameters.

The correct way is to remap the ecu and engine on a rolling road or on road testing and cover engine and vehicle parameters, this makes the car nicer to drive and will improve engine efficiency, I have tried boxes in the past and have always gone down the remap route and experienced complete satisfaction

Unfortunately manufacturers are getting clever with their systems and are adding protection, they are doing this to protect the engines, they have to make allowances for all countries, all fuel types relative to sulphur and all skill levels and to protect the engines they find a map that suits all, that is why in regions like western Europe there is always a chance of stretching abit engine efficiency out of turbo diesels.

If it is was me I would wait and see what the LRO magazine holds up for next month, I believe there is a tuning article one the evoque in there.

(10-01-2012 03:14pm)Westy Wrote:  Pete at bell auto services has done alot of work on this engine and is well versed in what is needed for a power upgrade, many of these tuning boxes only multiply the signal from the ecu to the engine, hence they make a flat spot or another fault 2-3 times worse

In my expericience they are a short term option, they tend to kid some of the sensors on the engine and hence improve fuel flow. They do not take into account turbo boost or other parameters.

The correct way is to remap the ecu and engine on a rolling road or on road testing and cover engine and vehicle parameters, this makes the car nicer to drive and will improve engine efficiency, I have tried boxes in the past and have always gone down the remap route and experienced complete satisfaction

Unfortunately manufacturers are getting clever with their systems and are adding protection, they are doing this to protect the engines, they have to make allowances for all countries, all fuel types relative to sulphur and all skill levels and to protect the engines they find a map that suits all, that is why in regions like western Europe there is always a chance of stretching abit engine efficiency out of turbo diesels.

If it is was me I would wait and see what the LRO magazine holds up for next month, I believe there is a tuning article one the evoque in there.

Westy,

This was my thinking as well, but i do think that the boxes have moved on now, and reading into them a bit more they seem to be a bit more spohisticated than just dumping in more fuel. Many of them have variable mapping, and adapt to driving style.

I have had one on my fiat bravo t-jet, and found it eliminated an existing flat spot and delivered a good level of extra torque and power, however never had the opportunity to rolling road it, but did keep up with a mates standard golf gt, and i was happy with it and no probs after 5,000miles.

However as i said its bit more of a difficult decision as its a £40k car not a £10k car. The other real prob is that i do not know of any good tuners within a couple of hundred miles of gib. Those i am aware of only do the reflash stuff which is not much different to a box anyway. To get to Petes would mean a 3-4,000 mile round trip and would lose it if i ever had a dealer update.

I would have gone the bluefin route, but with the new ecus this is not an option, so it leaves me with the tuning box option, just want to get as many opinions as possible before i finalise my decision, or if i decide to leave well alone.

Unfortunately with the options we wanted i couldn't quite stretch to SD4 as diff here closer to £2k.

If i go tuning box route which one is recommended, I previously used TMC motorsport, but they don't have one for the Evoque. The two above seemed to be widely known, but are there others which would be worth investigating as well.

These sounds great in theory and price however i wonder whether they do actually test them on the veicles and if so what durability tests they do?

According to the chipexpress site they sell a box for the ed4 but how could they have tested it? There arent any on the road yet

They're about Pete @ bell has reported that

(10-01-2012 03:14pm)Westy Wrote:  Pete at bell auto services has done alot of work on this engine and is well versed in what is needed for a power upgrade, many of these tuning boxes only multiply the signal from the ecu to the engine, hence they make a flat spot or another fault 2-3 times worse

In my expericience they are a short term option, they tend to kid some of the sensors on the engine and hence improve fuel flow. They do not take into account turbo boost or other parameters.

The correct way is to remap the ecu and engine on a rolling road or on road testing and cover engine and vehicle parameters, this makes the car nicer to drive and will improve engine efficiency, I have tried boxes in the past and have always gone down the remap route and experienced complete satisfaction

Unfortunately manufacturers are getting clever with their systems and are adding protection, they are doing this to protect the engines, they have to make allowances for all countries, all fuel types relative to sulphur and all skill levels and to protect the engines they find a map that suits all, that is why in regions like western Europe there is always a chance of stretching abit engine efficiency out of turbo diesels.

If it is was me I would wait and see what the LRO magazine holds up for next month, I believe there is a tuning article one the evoque in there.

Thanks for that Westy - I was wondering about these boxes also and I think that you have explained it pretty well. Would it be right to assume that these ones they are advertising for the TD4 and ED4 are just the same ones that they sell for the FL2? These manufacturers may be assuming that they are the same engine? That would make them a pretty risky proposition!

Know someone who has had a tuning box on a Navara for 2 years and done 40k miles with it on with no probs. has made it very quick and actual 2mpg fuel improvement.

Did some further reading into this last night, now it seems to me as with remaps, not all tuning boxes are the same. There are the cheap ebay 'resistor' boxes that just fool ecu by altering a temp reading so more fuel is pumped in as a result more pressure is required, and ECU thus under reads pressure produced by the turbo and so boost is increased.

There are then analogue tuning boxes, which increase fueling in line with throttle position and engine speed, so you see a consistent increase however it amplifies any existing problems such as flat spots. There are also issues with over boost facilities and torque limits on the gearbox.

Then there is the latest incarnation which are the digital tuning boxes which work similar to the analogue, but take into account further factors and produce multiple adjustments to the signal, to reduce smoking, and temperature issues.

However the down fall with the tuning box solution is that it does not take into account all the other things which may be calibrated against fueling levels, injector temps, pressure, torque through the gearbox and so on. The advanatages are they can be fitted and removed in minutes, and the ECU programming is not altered, and the performance increases wanted are achieved.

Remaps are split into three categories as well.

there are some places which will develop a single map for an engine i.e. 2.2 TD Ford engine and then use this configuration to reflash every car fitted with that engine, not takiing into account various differences between specs and models.

The final solution is the custom remap as offered by people like Pete, who will not only tune the fueling etc, but incorporate this into all the other various safety limits such as torque limits on gearboxes and so on. However there are down sides, especially now, the ECU needs to be removed, reprogrammed refitted tested, removed customised refitted and tested and so on. Additional if Dealer reflashes with manufacturer updates the map is lost, this is quite inconvenient, and while original remap can be put back quickly, the manufactuer improvements may be lost. They do these for a reason. the final prob is dealer can see the map if they look hard enough, and the warranty will be lost. (while this applies to a tuning box its easier to remove and not as easily identifiable they still can)

The final category is like the above but done badly by someone who doesn't understand these saftey limits, and while probably getting best performance results, will often lead to speedy demise of your engine etc.

So its clear to me that the optimal solution is for a professional remap, however if a tuning box is the only available option to you for various reasons, go for the best you can, such as a digital version with various customisable options. I think for my situation it may be the only option to gain the performance gains i would like, until a reputable tuner is available closer to me. Unless anyone knows of one along costa del sol between Gib and Marbella.