Review of DTUK tuning box fitted to VRS tsi (manual)

[parsey83]

First of all Andrew from DTUK has been great to deal with from start to finish. Andrew was prompt to answer emails, private messages, texts and phonecalls.

Postage/Delivery: Box paid for and received the following day so no problems here

Fitting: The supplied fitting instructions appeared spot on but were a little unclear when it came to one of the connections as the picture was hard to make out. I have always serviced and modified my own cars and bikes and take a careful approach to same. As such the kit took me about 50 minutes to fit. There are 3 sensors which need connecting to the supplied loom as well as power from the cars battery. The connection to turbo feed could not be done without lifting the car IMO. I jacked car up front drivers side and removed the service tray and gained access to the last sensor. Car started with no fault lights/warnings and power visibly going to the DTUK box.

Test drive: I will be honest I didn't feel any difference for the first 20 odd miles but I do always let the car get up to temp (both water and oil temps) before pushing her on. After these 20 miles I could feel there was more torque and a sharper throttle response but I wasn't blown away having expected to feel the claimed 30bhp and 50nm torque increase.

Fettling : a number of calls and emails to Andrew it was clear he wanted to make sure everything was fitted correctly which I can understand. The majority of problems with these boxes are misfitment. I was confident I had fitted everything correctly as per the supplied instructions. After clarifying a few possible wiring issues Andrew advised me to change the settings of the box.

Adjusting the box : My first experience of adjusting a tuning box was a chip express unit for my previous motor a 240 bhp 3.0v6 diesel. This was a dial type wheel and took seconds. Upon opening up the DTUK box it was clear a little more care was needed as you remove the board from its housing to make the adjustment. So I was back on the blower to Andrew who was quick to send me a short video of the recommended method to remove board from housing. This was easy and adjustments made within seconds. You pull a jumper off pins in the board and move it as per instructions which alters the map.

Final results and thoughts : Well I won't go into numbers folks as no dyno to compare. As before I'm not interested in numbers for pub talk but wanted a noticeable improvement for my hard earned cash. I am far from dissapointed. I am actually very very impressed. Again I ran the car slowly up to temp. I will say here I have driven some fast cars in the past and a friend lets me use his 135i on occasion. This will come as a rather bold statement to some but the Vrs feels as quick as the 135i now with 300 + bhp. Throttle response is immediate and there is a little less lag than before. The car pulls a lot stronger to the red line. I didn't buy the box with any expectation of improved fuel economy. I have now covered circa 500 miles on the new settings and my mpg average is the same when driven normally and about 2-3 mpg less when driven hard which his understandable given the extra power. This car will surprise a lot of people in this output helped with its tall gearing. No issues as far as tootling about, the refinement is retained Etc. Boost is a little more noticeable noise wise when accelerating hard but I like that. I also have a k and n hi flow panel filter fitted which could be partly responsible

Conclusion : Well worth the money in my opinion. Fitting instructions could be a little clearer in parts and the box physically a little easier to adjust but Andrew was very quick to help. Andrew has mentioned some claimed figures for this setting but I will let him make those claims on this thread if he wishes. I will say the car feels every bit as strong as claimed. There is also mention of a price increase so check with Andrew if your interested.

Hope this is of help to some. Very little tuning options out there for this model. This would appear to be the cheapest and closest to home!

Edited 2 January, 2014 by parsey83

[Nickh]

Blimey I'm still getting over how impressive a standard tsi is so chipping is far from my mind. Nice review though

[tuonopepper]

Interesting, what's the cost and where is the supplier located?

[Andrew@DTUK]

Interesting, what's the cost and where is the supplier located?

Were based in Durham and the kit is posted to the end user with full colour fitting instructions.

The cost is currently £469 .00 inc an £80 discount

http://www.diesel-performance.co.uk/vehicle-skoda_octavia_iii-2.0-tsi-green-tec-220ps

Edited 20 January, 2014 by Andrew@DTUK

[tuonopepper]

All I need then is the car!

Do you do fitting at your location?

[Andrew@DTUK]

Yes we can install in durham

[Orville]

How are you finding the box after ~3 months use parsey83?