I bought one of these and have had it for just over a month.

http://www.hhtuning.co.uk/DPD.htm

Don't be put off by the website (as Mr Hoot's isn't the best). This is a great unit, the difference was amazing. I've just been back the the guy who sold it to me after he said he could improve the performance.

Anyway, he hooked it up to his laptop and altered the program on it. Difference now is just incredible over the standard car. revs much better and pull is fantastic. I won't go on too much about performance as I expect it is very similar to Dragon's unit. (MPG has improved too!)

I went down to see him with my brother in law who's got a std vRS and he was amazed by the improvement and has encouraged him onto the slippery moddifying slope!

Just thought I'd give him a bit of a plug, he's name is Sam (have a look at his project Bora on the site). He does them for

Doesn't the car already have a box which you can change the mapping on, without doing anything else?

Yeah, its called an ECU, remaps for that are in the region of

good point, so does this box do the same thing as remapping the ECU?

A tuning box usually will only increase fueling, a full remap will increase boost pressure as well as fueling

Cheers

Lee

yes I know which is why I was asking the question... is it the same as a remap?

yes I know which is why I was asking the question... is it the same as a remap?

Yes and no The tuning box works by fudging the signal sent by a sensor to the ECU, which causes the ECU to increase the amount of fuel it puts into the engine. This is a pretty crude way of tuning as the ECU is none the wiser, but the digital boxes tend to have their own ECU map which allows them to vary the signal sent by the sensor for different rpms. An analog box will just change the signal output linearly and may cause fault codes to be logged in the ECU.

A remap works by changing the max values permitted in the ECU which allows the ECU to overfuel and up the boost directly rather than needing to be fooled. This is a better way of doing it, however by changing the operating parameters you do run the risk of running the car outside safe parameters which could lead to catastophic failure - with a tuning box, the ECU will simply put the car in limp mode. If you're looking at a remap, best to go with a tried and tested tuner

Vfm, I would always go tuning box as you can easily remove it and sell it and get back the bulk of what you paid for it. The gains won't be quite as good as they can't change boost, but they will be significant...

Chris

The one thing I don't like about tuning boxes alone is the damned smoke, if you have one on a high setting the smoke can be somewhat embarassing to say the least and could warrant a tug under the wrong circumstances.:scared:

Thats why I am pondering a remap so the boost pressure is increased thus eliminating (or reducing) the smoke output.

Best to go for a remap if poss. tuning boxes can be unpredictable

or get someone with vag-com to restrict the EGR valve and thus reduce smoke

It depends why you say it's the best - remaps make a car smoke too as they overfuel the engine as well!

From my point of view, a tuning box is best because the cost of ownership is significantly lower and will still give you a significant power increase. If I were to buy a

I see your point but surely the overall increase in smoke will be less with a remap and an increase in turbo boost pressure, if you use a tuning box you get the same overfuelling and no gain in boost pressure so theoretically more smoke.

Don't get me wrong, I have used a couple of boxes on different cars and the gains are excellent but the smoke output is ruddy awful at times.

As it goes, I have had to take my box off for the minute as it brings up the ASR+ECU lights. it's a fully adjustable digital dragon box but there is an issue with some '04 onward 130PD engines not liking the overfuel which reminds me, i must give them a call tomorrow :rubchin:

If you are getting lots of smoke with an adjustable tuning box then it's set too high. You are putting fuel into the engine that can't be burnt in the air available.

Dropping the tuning box back a bit should cut the smoke without effecting the power too much.

Modern diesels run with excess air to pass emission tests so a tuning box adds fuel to this excess air to increase power. The idea is to use this excess air not to overfuel the car.

Cheers

Lee