Hi all,

Took my Fabia vRS up to Star Performance yesterday and the car was dyno'd at 167bhp which is better than I was expecting but Jim at Star advised me the car is overfueling and could kill my Turbo.

I'm just wondering as Jim has advised that it might not pass a mot due to the amount of smoke it is sticking out.

Is it possible to turn the tuning box down?

Or do I take it off completly and return to the standard 130 setting??

Or can I leave it on as I find my fuel economy is much better and take it off for the MOT purposes? and then stick it back on.

I'm planning on taking the car back to Star for the Service as I have found that the price they quoted for a 5ok service and mot is very respectable.

Hope you can help?

Many thanks

Davy

You can generally turn the tuning box down, the Dragon one I had briefly did have adjustability.

I would be amazed if it failed the MOT though

How do you go about turning it down, as far as I can see there is no like switch to turn it down do I have to remove the box?

It is a tunit tuning box (think spelt right)

Davy

un screw the side of the box and you will see 4 connections with spades on them. depending on what conection the spades are on determins the settings. i was gettin these settins for someone the other day, was that you? cany for the life of me find um though at mo. ill have another look in my garage i defo have them written down somewhere.

p.s thats if its a dragon digial box.

Had another look at the box, it is a original tuning box (thats the company) had a quick look on the site and by the looks of it it is more of a plug and play but they claim it will not change the fueling status of the car, so by the looks of it come MOT time all I do is change it over to the standard 130 set up and give it a quick blast to clean the exhaust out.

Still happy with my 167bhp through!

Davy

For a tuning box that is not bad at all

The only way a tuning box can work is by overfuelling. They don't alter boost pressures or anything like that, they just intercept information going from the ECU to the injectors telling them to inject more fuel per stroke.

The results are more power but more smoke from the unburnt fuel.

This is why most people see an improvement in fuel consumption via the trip computer because the ECU thinks its injecting 'X' amount while its really injecting more. A brim to brim is the only way to accurately calculate true consumption.

The potential risk to the turbo would be due to the increased exhaust gas temperatures (EGT) associated with overfuelling.

167bhp is good though, I was getting just over 150 on my old PD130 Octavia which, I hasten to add had a dragon box strapped to it for about 50,000 miles with the original turbo intact. I had to mess with the power settings a few times to strike a balance between decent power output and smoke levels.

Forgot to add it also has a pd160 and green cotten filter as the other engine mods

If you're tuning box isn't adjustable that would tell me that its an analogue version and could be just a "resistor in a box", do you have any pics of the unit?

Here is a pic of the box.

Cheers

The digital tuning boxes require a 12v supply from the battery.

Looks like you have the IP model box:, Tuning, Puissance, Turbo diesel, eprom

It should have some form of adjustment in it somewhere, usually a potentiometer or jumper plugs.

TBH I have never come across this make of box so it may well be 'locked' to a specific setting with no adjustment.

If I get a chance at the weekend, I'm going to have a proper look at the box, it was a friend from another forum which fitted this for me.

OK, That cover with 4 screws looks like it will come off easily, you might be able to get a picture of the insides posted up.

Based on the comments from Jim it might be prudent to turn it down a setting or 2, this should get the overfuelling down to a reasonable level.

Judging by the mild rust on some of those screws it looks like its been near moisture at some point, make sure it doesn't get wet where it lives in the engine bay, I killed a Dragon tuning box because I stashed it where it could occasionally get wet

Cool thats a idea, for the weekend once I remove the screws, will try and post some pics up of the inside, screws were like that as it was on a Fabia from the start, then a VW Transporter and finally onto mine, even through I keep mine down the side of the washer bottle I'm quite careful when I top this up be removing it from the side.