Hi

I looked into having a remap today - just for interest you understand. Ouch £375! I think I want a Columbus more than I do a remap.

Incidentally, the company, who does a rolling road test prior to any work, told me that from experience, the 105 bhp 1.9 TDi PD engine quite often produces 10 bhp more than it admits to; certainly my Octavia feels as if its got more than 105 bhp, but then I have nothing to compare it to.

When I was a Rover 75 person, people used to swear by the Synergy 2 from "Rover Ron" www.tuning-diesels.com.

He also does a "Synergy PD" product for the VW PD engine which does clever things with the fuelling and MAF signals to give increased performance and fuel consumption. Plus its switch programmable for different characteristics.

I just wondered if anyone had any experience with this product - or indeed other so called removable tuning boxes.

I actually had one of those synergy boxes from rover ron on my Rover 75 back in the day. I had the earlier 113bhp CDT engined car and the addition of the box was claimed to add 25-30bhp.

Although I never had it tested on a rolling road, I had no reason to doubt these claims.....the car was much quicker with the box fitted. The setup worked very well for the 15,000 or so miles I covered with it before selling the car. At the time Rover Ron had a buy back scheme, so he bought it back for 75% of the purchase price! (Don't know if he still does this)

Incidentally that Rover 75 I had was by far the worst car I have ever owned for reliability..........It cost me a small fortune during my 18 month ownership. The early 75's have a long list of guaranteed faults (water leaks, suspension problems, Clutch slave/master cylinder failures etc etc).

To this day it is the only car I have had to 'emergency' trade in due to impending failures! (power steering pump and alternator)