Which is the best tuning box to fit to my Octavia III VRS Tdi?

 

I'm not asking for the most bhp increase etc, just which is the most reliable, ease of fitting with a decent gain over standard.

DTUK - but to be honest the best thing to do is get it remapped

Yeah, I may well do, I have an authorised supachip garage near by & I know the owner well!

 

6 hours ago, Gissin said:

DTUK - but to be honest the best thing to do is get it remapped

DTUK + 1

16 hours ago, Wizball said:

Yeah, I may well do, I have an authorised supachip garage near by & I know the owner well!

 

Don't delay, get them to remap it, they did my car (Actually they've done 2 of my cars now) and the results are excellent 

Yeah, I think I'll go down the remap route!

On 9/1/2017 at 07:19, Wizball said:

Yeah, I think I'll go down the remap route!

Depends if you wanna keep/have left any OEM Warranty? 

 

Box keeps it, remap doesn't

What are the pro and cons of box v map? I've had three petrol remaps, one resulted in a broken turbo. Had that happened on a diesel engine there might have been nothing left of it. 

No difference really other than people usually know that a Remap is Non Factory Approved Engine Management / Software so the VW Group will usually Void the Manufacturers Warranty when they check a ECU, obviously you might argue and prove the remap had no bearing on the bearing going, turbo etc.

& people seem to believe that if an engine in the UK or some other countries go t!ts up with a Tuning box you can remove it and VW Group will be non the wiser, 

a Loss Adjuster might not check if the keeper / drivers insurers had a Declaration on a Tuning Box fitted etc.

 

There are reasons that some Tuning Boxes the same as those available without a Warranty cost lots less than in Countries where the Box Company do sell a Warranty to match a Manufacturers if it is going to be invalidated by the tuning box being fitted,

these being different from just a Warranty / Guarantee on Their Product.

Thanks George (oops sorry, been a while)  The leon was repaired under warranty, I managed to get to returned back to stock before it went in for repair. The dealer knew it was remapped as I'd told them previously, though they may have forgotten. Replacing the turbo is one thing, a complete  engine a totally different proposition. 

 

Tbh I'm more interested in the performance comparison. I'm guessing a box hammers fuel economy as it's a much blunter instrument?

Edited 10 September, 20178 yr by stever750

No they dont hammer economy because 60 mph is still 60 mph and 70 mph is still 70 mph etc, and like anything if you put the throttle nearer the floor more fuel gets used, just with the tuning box you get passed what ever until you come up behind the next vehicle.  Much as usual then to driving anything, 150ps or 250ps.

 

george

(Mutt & Jeff)

Edited 10 September, 20178 yr by Headinawayoffski

So how do they work? I've read comments like "fooling the ecu into thinking it needs more fuel" is at best vague. How do they increase boost pressure? 

Edited 10 September, 20178 yr by stever750

Depends if you get an analogue or a digital device.

 

Best are digital devices that connect to crankshaft , maf/ map and fuel injectors/ rail sensors.

They look at the rpms and then using an array adjust the fuel injected and boost pressure accordingly.

The more I read about the box, any box, the less appealing it becomes. Some really interesting stuff going back a few years on the Audi UK forums on it. Do your research.... 

To be fair, the newer boxes are miles ahead of the older ones.   I had an older box in my mk1 Fabia vRS back in 2003, it was awful and was just an overfuelling device.   I got the extra power, but the amount of diesel smoke that came out of the back caused people to stop me and say the car needed to go and be looked at as they could not see.   I ended up getting a proper remap and seeling it on at a massive loss.

even superchips are moving from the bluefins onto tuning boxes depending on the car.

Just had an interesting call with the chaps in Mansfield, it's worth googling gluon, but get in the queue. 

I have a 2012 Superb 4x4 170tdi manual. I fitted a DTUK at 12k miles. Only removed for servicing. Now 66k miles. I use program 4+2 and Shell Nitro fuel. Changing oil & filter every 6k.

I am very pleased with the upgraded power and torque. Fuel consumption is 42-3 cruising on long journeys, but using more welly on short journeys 36 or so. The only time it gave trouble WITH the DTUK was after the "emissions fix", when it misfired horribly, so I immediately disconnected it. Without the DTUK the car ran smoothly post e-fix, but loss of torque and performance,  and 10% worse consumption..

I got the ecu totally reflashed back to the 2012 software, overwriting the emissions fix,  by Avon tuning, and all is back to as it was. Very punchy performance. Approx 210-215 bhp, could well be more, and about 450nm torque. Latest DTUK boxes apparently give more?

To summarise, over 50k miles, no damage to engine and very very pleased with the performance and economy.

NB. Before the emission fix at 55k the ash load in the DPF was only 5%, measured by Skoda. So it must have been running cleanly.

That's great until the mot demands a verification of latest software, which it will. So long as you can keep rolling it back you'll be fine, but that's hardly a commercially viable business model. 

The more I read, the more it's obvious that the best technical approach is a remap, but it jeopardises warranty. Conversely, a poorly implemented (greedy?) tuning box is more than capable if buggering up your engine, more so than a properly researched and tested ecu flash. Both are risky, in my opinion neither really fool VAG from a warranty point if view if it really goes wrong, so best minimise the chances of that happening. Quality remap every time, and perhaps with gluon tech then you've got the same adjustability of a box, with the benefit of a safety hardstop, and on the fly custom tweaks based on real time data feedback. This is the digital revolution.