Hi all

 

I know this topic of tuning boxes has been discussed a little bit on some other threads but I wanted to bring it up as for the most part people in those threads seemed to think its a scam. I have done a look of reading, watching reviews and looked at industry experts who have used Racechip and it does appear to be the real deal.

 

I have considered getting either a Revo Stage 1, or a custom map, roughly €600 not including install for the Revo or €480 for the custom tune which is by a very well respected tuner here in Ireland. However I am always thinking that this is directly changing the ECU and I know its safe but still.

 

However with Racechip, I like the idea that I can turn it on and off and completely disconnect it if needed, its just two wires and its undetectable by VAG software. Only way the dealer would know would be to really trawl through the data logs and even then would be very tricky to spot.

 

See the attached images, for my RS 230 petrol, manual, the bump in power is very realistic at 276 BPH up 46 BPH and 99 Nm. I know with a traditional ECU remap I could basically go skies the limit almost but with Stage 1 around 300 BPH, however I am not too concerned about hitting 300 BPH. After 300 BPH it seems the stock parts such as clutches get a bit iffy.

 

Has anyone tried Racechip on their RS ? Has anyone any thoughts ?

 

Cheers

 

Colm

I bet your next question is whether a tuning box can run 95 octane

 

22 minutes ago, colmsmyth said:

Hi all

 

I know this topic of tuning boxes has been discussed a little bit on some other threads but I wanted to bring it up as for the most part people in those threads seemed to think its a scam. I have done a look of reading, watching reviews and looked at industry experts who have used Racechip and it does appear to be the real deal.

 

I have considered getting either a Revo Stage 1, or a custom map, roughly €600 not including install for the Revo or €480 for the custom tune which is by a very well respected tuner here in Ireland. However I am always thinking that this is directly changing the ECU and I know its safe but still.

 

However with Racechip, I like the idea that I can turn it on and off and completely disconnect it if needed, its just two wires and its undetectable by VAG software. Only way the dealer would know would be to really trawl through the data logs and even then would be very tricky to spot.

 

See the attached images, for my RS 230 petrol, manual, the bump in power is very realistic at 276 BPH up 46 BPH and 99 Nm. I know with a traditional ECU remap I could basically go skies the limit almost but with Stage 1 around 300 BPH, however I am not too concerned about hitting 300 BPH. After 300 BPH it seems the stock parts such as clutches get a bit iffy.

 

Has anyone tried Racechip on their RS ? Has anyone any thoughts ?

 

Cheers

 

Colm

Looks pricey, more people have used the DTUK boxes for less money, more power & great customer service 

42 minutes ago, Gerrycan said:

I bet your next question is whether a tuning box can run 95 octane

 

haha you know it....being serious though it can handle 95 up I believe

24 minutes ago, themanwithnoaim said:

Looks pricey, more people have used the DTUK boxes for less money, more power & great customer service 

Yeah I had a look at those too but was concerned by the power outputs plus the amount of people saying their cars were going into limp mode....still considering them though

45 minutes ago, themanwithnoaim said:

Looks pricey, more people have used the DTUK boxes for less money, more power & great customer service 

Actually just found a very recent review of the DTUK box and the short story is limp home mode again for this person, must be some sort of defect in the software or cables perhaps....Hard to know though

 

 

I'll be fitting one to my 1.0 when it arrives.

 

As @themanwithnoaim says, DTUK have a good reputation and whilst they are literally on my door step, the money vs result came out better for the Racechip.

 

You can get 13% cashback via Quidco on Racechip too.

Presumably, like other boxes, all this is actually doing is intercepting signals, changing them and relying on the standard ecu map to respond to the false readings and inadvertently make more power? This is presumably why the DTUK boxes are triggering limp, the cars are reaching the absolute extremes of what the map can respond to and giving up? 

1 minute ago, Kenai said:

Presumably, like other boxes, all this is actually doing is intercepting signals, changing them and relying on the standard ecu map to respond to the false readings and inadvertently make more power? This is presumably why the DTUK boxes are triggering limp, the cars are reaching the absolute extremes of what the map can respond to and giving up? 

 

Pretty much, although clearly for them to market them as being compatible with a car, they must have worked through each setting. That said they say that if it causes problems, to reset to 0 and increase until you get the problem again and knock back one.

 

The ECU will have tolerances that it can cope with and if the box exceeds these, the engine will think there is a fault somewhere and throw the errors.

24 minutes ago, Kenai said:

Presumably, like other boxes, all this is actually doing is intercepting signals, changing them and relying on the standard ecu map to respond to the false readings and inadvertently make more power? This is presumably why the DTUK boxes are triggering limp, the cars are reaching the absolute extremes of what the map can respond to and giving up? 

Yes with Racechip all the box does is intercept the signals and readjust them but only reports I have seen so far on Racechip have been pretty flawless. However DTUK seems to go way more in terms of power than Racechip and I think this is why people are having issues.

 

I would rather pay roughly 100 more than be left with a car to cars to limp mode often

23 minutes ago, gRoberts said:

 

Pretty much, although clearly for them to market them as being compatible with a car, they must have worked through each setting. That said they say that if it causes problems, to reset to 0 and increase until you get the problem again and knock back one.

 

The ECU will have tolerances that it can cope with and if the box exceeds these, the engine will think there is a fault somewhere and throw the errors.

 

Yes I think this is the case, DTUK and Racechip ask you to select your car so the box you get is for your car. With RC though it seems its pretty locked down to just 5 modes, however with DTUK you can get all custom with it and even mess with fuel mixtures I believe.....that could be half the issue is that people are going too far

2 minutes ago, colmsmyth said:

However DTUK seems to go way more in terms of power than Racechip and I think this is why people are having issues.

 

I actually found Racechip offered more power/torque than DTUK for my engine, and for less pennies. 

 

£350 (less cashback) for 35bhp and 60ft/lb with Racechip.

£399 for 25hp and 50ft/lb with DTUK.

 

1 minute ago, colmsmyth said:

 

Yes I think this is the case, DTUK and Racechip ask you to select your car so the box you get is for your car. With RC though it seems its pretty locked down to just 5 modes, however with DTUK you can get all custom with it and even mess with fuel mixtures I believe.....that could be half the issue is that people are going too far

 

The DTUK FSR+ is pretty much the same as the GTS Black if I remember correctly.

8 minutes ago, gRoberts said:

 

I actually found Racechip offered more power/torque than DTUK for my engine, and for less pennies. 

 

£350 (less cashback) for 35bhp and 60ft/lb with Racechip.

£399 for 25hp and 50ft/lb with DTUK.

 

 

The DTUK FSR+ is pretty much the same as the GTS Black if I remember correctly.

 

Thats good....every little helps as they say

1 minute ago, colmsmyth said:

 

Thats good....every little helps as they say

 

I'm not after making a huge difference but I'm driving a 150hp and 250ft/lb car at the moment and will be going down to a 115hp and 200 ft/lb car when the 1.0 arrives. 

 

Just wanted to maintain what I am used to now. 

1 minute ago, gRoberts said:

 

I'm not after making a huge difference but I'm driving a 150hp and 250ft/lb car at the moment and will be going down to a 115hp and 200 ft/lb car when the 1.0 arrives. 

 

Just wanted to maintain what I am used to now. 

 

Totally understand, it can be jarring to go down like that

Yeah the DTUK boxes have a lot of adjustment & weather changes will upset them, you gotta play with them & talk with DTUK's customer service till you get it right for your car.

 

Of the haters I've questioned on FB ( & there have been a few) 95% of them had a 2nd hand box some of which weren't even for the same engine, all of these guys said they didn't get great customer service but, in truth they didn't go further than DTUK asking them their Reg No.

 

But, they can all tell you what errors they had, gotta be careful of the fake news, get whichever you are happier with, cars always go wrong hence, if I find customer service I'm happy with, I tend to stick with it.

 

 

What I'd be interested in is whether I should be putting on a new car. Manual says not to exceed certain rpm levels within the first x miles etc

Having personal experience of a DTUK system, I found the results to be very good. As themanwithnoaim states, you need to play around to find the best result for your engine and not just crank the box up to the max, as it can cause limp mode.

 

JB4 systems are pretty much the best money can buy, as you get far more adjustability, but you will pay for it and have to know what you’re doing. 

 

 

+1 for DTUK. They do have a good customer service.

 

Which ever system you buy, if you haven't already, get a pedal position adjuster thingymajig. It just make a vast improvement, even with normal day to day driving.

i have a race chip on my Kia. not impressed with it at all. The DTUK is much smoother

I am a Racechip fan - but why go for anything but the basic model (139euro)?

I have only used boxes on diesel models - Skoda and Honda

On the Yeti Greenline 1.6 the improvement was tremendous - it really was a fast car!

On the Octavia 2.0 Tdi good improvement

Really was a economy gain too - engines much smoother at lower revs? I'd rather it was called Econochip though - dealing with insurers much simpler!

 

Mine worked fine from dtuk for a few months then limp mode on start up and random times . It just became too much of a pain to run with so it sits in its box. I still have the pedalbox which is great but if i keep the car its going to have a remap. 

3 hours ago, arnold said:

Mine worked fine from dtuk for a few months then limp mode on start up and random times . It just became too much of a pain to run with so it sits in its box. I still have the pedalbox which is great but if i keep the car its going to have a remap. 

If it is something like one of the many sensors misbehaving under load then the issue is not going to be better with a map though is it. 

I am not saying that it is easy to find out which sensor.

Did you take it up with DTUK?

Yes I did as I'm not a complete novice. It was scanned with vcds and a copy sent to them and they said to lower the settings I tried every setting and still had issues mainly in the cold. It was just so unreliable. It had been on since the car had done about 6k miles and raised the error after a week then was fine for a while. It then became more frequent and more and more unreliable. I've had no issues for the last year at all without the box on. It was so bad I had to carry the laptop with me as the only way to clear the fault was with vcds nothing else would clear the fault like the elm 327 which I also have used for scanning. 

Edited 17 November, 20187 yr by arnold

From what I have read in this forum dtuk usually provide a replacement if only for the problem elimination process?