Alright lads,

At £83 pounds it sounds like a piece of crap but they've sold 1400 of these with 100% possitive feedback...hmm..

Any one ever try one? I'm interested for my 90bhp octy

VW AUDI SEAT SKODA TDI 90/110 BHP TUNING BOX CHIP 10PIN on eBay (end time 18-Oct-09 07:57:53 BST)

Please dont buy this if you value your engine, they are simply a cheap 10p resistor mounted in a small case connected by wire. They cause major engine damage with prolonged use and will give you a check engine light over a short distance. After fitting your car will initially be quicker due to the overfuelling being carried out, you get more black smoke as unburnt fuel enters the exhaust, your mpg gets a lot worse, and your engine clogs up with carbon.

The 100% feedback thing is easy, it works like this. You buy one, seller dispatches and you give +ve feedback as you have the part, now you fit it and several miles down the line things start to go wrong, seller does not care as they have their 100% feedback and there is nothing you can do about it.

hmm, sounds like I struck a nerve

Whats the safe alternative? Is it possible to do it without breaking the bank as the Tunit boxes are £450...thats alot to an apprentice

You do tend to get what you pay for. Fact.

£83 is a **** load considering what it is.

The item is an analogue tuning box, which is basically a variable resistor or that combined with a voltage increase circuit.

The things are fine on diesels as long as you don't turn it up too far and as long as it acts on the fuel injector signal and not the the temperature sensor.

FWIW the digital tuning boxes are pretty much the same deal, but use an IC to do the same trick.

Whatever it actually is, it's not worth £83, because if it acts on the temperature sensor then it is just a resistor with a value of a few pence.

If it's not powered and doesn't connect to the injector loom, then it's an analogue box spoofing input readings to the ECU (usually fuel temperature, as Mark says), regardless of the cosmetic appearance. The same effect can be achieved by following any one of numerous guides on the 'Evry mod'.

A digital box on the other hand requires power to take the ECU's OUTPUT signals and muck about with them to get the injectors to sling in more fuel. This is no different to the 'desired' effect of an analogue box, other than it can be tailored to vary the overfuelling dependent on revs, but of course, since the processing takes place on an OUTPUT signal, there's less risk of producing unwanted consequences.

The difference in price between a digital box and a remap is smaller than it used to be, and having had both, I'd say it's worth the extra unless you have a particular reason for going a digital box.

In all circumstances, of course, your insurer will need to be informed.

If you want to know more, please make friends with the Search button!

:iagree: - A digital tuning box is also known as an "interceptor" because it reads the the stock ECU commands to the fuel system, and replaces them with its own values, or a "trimmer" because it reads the stock values and adds a trim value.

Advantages - If you buy another car with the same engine, you can fit the box to the new car.

You can sell it second-hand.

Disadvantages - It's effectively a generic map, but it costs nearly as much as a custom map these days.

I can't agree that a tuning box is effectively any kind of map, generic, custom or banana!

I can't agree that a tuning box is effectively any kind of map, generic, custom or banana!

Why not? The only real difference is that a remap may also increase boost, assuming this is possible...

For example, not so very long ago, someone was on here asking about tuning an SDI. There's no way you can tell me that a remap is going to give more power than a tuning box, simply because the fuelling and injection timing are the only parameters you can change, and these can be altered by a digital tuning box just the same as a remap.

Why not? The only real difference is that a remap may also increase boost, assuming this is possible...

Torque limits, boost limits, diagnostic limits, specific air mass flow characteristics, maps that alter how the processor read's the map (smoke limit), VNT control, part throttle, full throttle.

More than just turning injection and boost up unfortunately..

Torque limits, boost limits, diagnostic limits, specific air mass flow characteristics, maps that alter how the processor read's the map (smoke limit), VNT control, part throttle, full throttle.

...all of which can be ignored by a cowboy mapper!

That's not to even suggest you guys are, but on a totally objective level, there is plenty here on Brisky about the perils of analogue tuning boxes, a few threads bemoaning the consequences of dodgy remaps, but none that I can find saying anything like that for a digital tuning box.

I don't think there's any reason to believe that a digital tuning box will be designed with any less care for the tolerances and capabilities of any given car than a reputable remap would be. And the relatively high production costs relative to a resistor-in-a-box jobbie - or even a remap thrown together by some wannabe with a laptop and some hooky software - means you can be reasonably comfortable with the purchase.

As I said earlier, the fact that a remap from a decent supplier can be had for not much more than a digital tuning box makes it difficult to recommend anything other than a remap if that kind of money's available. But speaking from experience, they can't be dismissed out-of-hand if the price is right, or if there's some other reason not to want a remap...

Torque limits, boost limits, diagnostic limits, specific air mass flow characteristics, maps that alter how the processor read's the map (smoke limit), VNT control, part throttle, full throttle.

All of which can be spoofed or changed by a sufficiently developed microprocessor with the right software on it. I didn't say that a good custom map wasn't the best way to go; just that a digital interceptor tuning box can do everything that a generic map for the same car does.

All of which can be spoofed or changed by a sufficiently developed microprocessor with the right software on it. I didn't say that a good custom map wasn't the best way to go; just that a digital interceptor tuning box can do everything that a generic map for the same car does.

Was about to say, if you put a clever enough chip in the tuning box, then you effectively have a processor monitoring the value on the various ECU to injector or boost lines and doing the same thing,

Either way, it is only every going to be generic unless you effectively got somebody to map a custom map into the box. I'm sure we would all agree this would be a pointless exercise.

A custom remap is certainly a lot more tweak able to your engine and I for one wouldn't spend the amounts asked these days on a tuning box.

All of which can be spoofed or changed by a sufficiently developed microprocessor with the right software on it. I didn't say that a good custom map wasn't the best way to go; just that a digital interceptor tuning box can do everything that a generic map for the same car does.

No it can't. At best they can alter the injection signals by plugging into the injector loom, unless you have found some super-duper tuning box that will plug into the ECU's loom and intercept every single signal, reverse engineer how the ECU came to that conclusion, change the signal, and then output it quickly enough for it to still be useful.. the development cost of such a unit would make it pointless and instead I suspect they'd learn how to remap the ECU instead.