hey all, well had the 'resistor' mod on my car for a couple of days , and about 300 miles so far, and I'm gonna give a little review, as there have been reviews of re-maps, but not many of the cheapo way as I've gone

1) yup, more power, getting traction now in first and second is difficult, but in the higher gears it really is a noticable difference. I don't think its 20-25% as the manufacturers suggest, more like about 15-20 bhp in my opinion...

2)I seem to be getting more mpg, used to get about 47mpg on a general days work, it now reads about 53mpg for a general days work... dunno if this is true, as it has been noted on here that the resistor mod messes with the computers ability to work out mpg acuratley, but it seems to go far enough on a tank full! (most of the time my car is driven VERY gently.... [80% gentle, 20% brisk])

3) no fault codes yet, but I bought a reader/resetter for if this occurs.

4) no problems with a lumpy idle, as had been mentioned as a problem with these devices.... seems fine to me, just the same as without the mod.

5) more smoke under the following circumstances. when putting your foot down from low revs, as the turbo spins up between 1500 and 2000 revs, there is deffinatley more smoke.... under all other circumstances, no more smoke at all...

to counteract number 5, the only point I don't like, I'm gonna put shell extra in from now, as the above test was done with sainsburys deisel, and I found before that the car would smoke much less with shell in it than with supermarket fuel in it. also gonna clean the pipercross, as it hasn't been touched for 20,000 miles, so must be a bit clogged up

all in all a good result for something SO cheap......

I am brassic at the mo so can't afford the nice expensive re-map, but I'm happy with the results of a

Glad you like it AFAIK, it doesn't mess with the onboard computer as the ECU is still in control of the amount of fuel being injected. I found my mpg went up (calculated at the pump) with my tuning box on by a few mpg as well so it may well have paid for itself over the year mine was on

Chris

And I know I keep saying this, but it will get faster over the next few weeks

The reading is out as the amount of fuel is keeping in mind the temperature etc.

Either way, it's a good mod for the price and as long as you are aware of the potential for ECU errors & can reset them (which you can do with those cheaper boxes as well ) it's an absolute bargain.

Will be interesting to see what your experience is like during the warmer days, and I'd definitely get that airfilter in top condition, should help the smoke

The reading is out as the amount of fuel is keeping in mind the temperature etc.

As I understand it, the fuel temp sensor records an erroneous temperature for the fuel. The ECU then takes this value and injects x amount of fuel. The mod just modifies the sensor, not the amount of fuel the ECU thinks it's injecting

Chris

Glad your happy with it.

As I mentioned to you in PM the only irritating problem I found was a slightly higher idle speed which tended to make the car creep at junctions etc. but you soon get used to it. If you try to accelerate between 1500 - 2000 revs you will get smoke even without the box as the turbo doesn't kick in till around 2000 so you are putting the engine under a lot of load. I try to keep the revs at least at 1900 whatever gear I'm in, it just gives better throttle resonse.

Glad your happy with it.

As I mentioned to you in PM the only irritating problem I found was a slightly higher idle speed which tended to make the car creep at junctions etc. but you soon get used to it. If you try to accelerate between 1500 - 2000 revs you will get smoke even without the box as the turbo doesn't kick in till around 2000 so you are putting the engine under a lot of load. I try to keep the revs at least at 1900 whatever gear I'm in' date=' it just gives better throttle resonse.[/quote']

cheers spottydog, when you get a re-map, maybe you can sell me your dragon box!

cheers spottydog, when you get a re-map, maybe you can sell me your dragon box!

If you want one see the thread below

http://www.briskoda.net/forums/showthread.php?t=45648

had my first engine light come on the dashboard, after a long motorway journey, no big hassle, plugged the fault reader in and reset it, all is fine now the fault code that came up though is not in my little book of explanations though! hmmmm...

had my first engine light come on the dashboard, after a long motorway journey, no big hassle, plugged the fault reader in and reset it, all is fine now the fault code that came up though is not in my little book of explanations though! hmmmm...

IIRC, the most common error is erroneous signal or signal value out of bounds from the fuel temp sender. Maybe Ross can cross-reference the fault code thrown up for you

Chris

I fitted a Dragon box to my 2001 PD100 tdi 18 months ago just after i bought my car, it had done 22000, its now on 57000 and ive had no trouble.

When I fitted it i did notice the added power, and have had very little smoke and average about 600 miles to a full tank.

I´M VERY HAPPY

A digital tuning box shouldn't cause errors assuming you are sensible with the setting (ie. max power will probably cell at some stage).

It will smoke a little more but only when you plant it hard.

Analog will be a little more smoke etc but it's a bargain and with the reset gadget it's very good value

im starting to think that if your just after a generic remap with no other mods you might aswell just get a £50 tuning box for value for money. 5-10 bhp less but so much cheaper and you can sell it on.

Depends on the amount of power you're after. Most generic maps are capable of hitting at least 155 bhp when standard is 130 bhp (I put it like that to avoid the 'mine's better than yours' type thing )

The dragon ones are good too, 300 quid new IIRC

a lot less on EBay for the dragon unit. worth every penny imo as far as digital tuning boxes go though. my mondeo achieved 170 bhp on the rollers with it on (130 standard).

Absolutely - I had a faulty cable with mine & it is getting returned (esp. now I've got a remap) but their tech support & customer support is top notch. No arguments, just helpful advise & when it didnt behave it was a no-quibble (sp?) RMA number issued etc.

Highly recommended as an alternative to a remap

How is CC1 going with the other mods btw?

It's good, but it's not taking into account the other mods so there is a lot more potential. It + hybrid did help a LOT with the lag on the FMIC, it is now even less noticed than before. Fuel economy depends on how you drive it, generally a few mpg better on trip to work, a fair few less on backroads due to sitting a gear lower to hit higher revs - I have the uprated clutch etc but it's still gonna be better for the rest of the car

My mate had one of these cheap analogue plug in chips, he got it off of E-Bay and it only cost him

Well it depends how hard setting you run the box, generally cheap boxes tend to smoke more because the fuelling is not as controlled as that of a digital one. Also for this reason you usually have run them in lower setting. Too much smoke means too much unburnt fuel and that can't be good for anything so if everything behind you disappears in a black smoke don't do it.. however little bit of smoke under heavy load is normal even for chip tuned cars because diesels are not that accurate with their air/fuel ratio..

Oh, and forget airbox mods with box tuned cars, EGR will try to adapt for the extra air and performance might actually get worse (ECU will still think fuel map is stock).

Btw, another downside with tuning boxes is that they rely on stock boost map. Generally the stock boost control is set to overboost at low revs so you get high torque figures and the power rating lies at lower RPM than that of a properly chip tuned car. This also depends how the stock system works on each cars so the action might be more or less pronounced. Small injectors & small turbo don't work wonders with a remap either - however with a custom remap you can usually control the boost parameters to make for better boost curve for high power and cut too much low end torque for better driveability/longevity..

Currently I run my car with digital tuning box and manual boost control get a steady boost (I have a 1.4TDI which doesn't have VNT-charger so manual control is possible).. it's not perfect but works ok for me at the moment..

Well, I tryed it for a week and yes there was a performance improvement. But...

I was gassing everyone behind me. had to wash the car, sorry soot from the back of the car every other day. it just wasn't worth the extra hassle. I kept expecting Mr Plod to pull me over. Looks like I'll be saving for a remap now.

P.S. anyone got a generically remapped ECU they would like to part with lying in their garage? Bargains , bargains much cheapness?

I've still got the box I bought from JohnYardley of these pages ... the car gets driven gently around town in high gears and it pulls like a train, but I've never managed 600 miles from a tank!

On the strip it is very quick, we did Newquay from Brum in 3hrs the other day and I was as fresh as a daisy afterwards ... no stress at all.

No smoke, none ... am I doin' something different to you lot??