Tuning Box - Opinions?

[rsbspt]

I've seen a secondhand Tuning Box bolt-on power booster advertised locally for less than half price. It's the IP type for the PDi engine. Anyone tried one of these on a Furby vRS and got any views? Ease of fitting? Affect on performance? Affect on fuel consumption? Ease of removal (for servicing)? Any comments appreciated...

[roo]

I have one for my fabia, and although it is a bit more smokey, I cannot really fault it. Just be sure that it is for the 130bhp engine

[SkodiRS]

I've seen a secondhand Tuning Box bolt-on power booster advertised locally for less than half price. ...

Wouldn't happen to be in the Rabbiter by any chance?

[ScoobyChris]

As far as I can tell from my reading up on this, the tuning box pros are:

- Quick and easy to fit (or remove for servicing )

- Good increase in torque and power (within safe parameters)

- Can be transferred between cars easily

- User adjustable

- Cheaper?

Cons:

- Not as good a solution as a remap which changes the ECU (ie the brain of the car) rather than fooling it

- More smoke

I'm seriously tempted with a tuning box such as a Tunit as an alternative to a remap, but I'm holding out to see what Jabba's tuning box for plugging in after a remap produces

Chris

[rsbspt]

Yep, that's the one! Not that I will pay

[SkodiRS]

Yep, that's the one! Not that I will pay

[rsbspt]

Yea that's what I thought. What I really fancy though, is a set of Eibach springs to lower the ride height and improve handling. I'm a bit twitchy about changes becasue it's a company car and I suspect the leasing company may not like mods! We ought to get together sometime and compare motors...

Did you get to the Brunters day?

[SkodiRS]

Yea that's what I thought. What I really fancy though' date=' is a set of Eibach springs to lower the ride height and improve handling. I'm a bit twitchy about changes becasue it's a company car and I suspect the leasing company may not like mods! We ought to get together sometime and compare motors...

Did you get to the Brunters day?[/quote']

Didn't get to Brunters....waiting for babay to arrive...still waiting.

Meet up is good....I normally arrive a Southern Meet at The Leather Bottle pub off A33.

Will do anther one once the baby has made it's appearance.

You may see me driving around....silver Octy RS...big Briskoda sticker in the rear screen and fat oval exhaust.

[rsbspt]

I was hoping to get to the next Southern meet - that would be great. See you there. Hope your new delivery arrives smoothly - and soon!!

[spinndrift]

Cons:

- Not as good a solution as a remap which changes the ECU (ie the brain of the car) rather than fooling it

- More smoke

Chris

TaviaRS has a remap and look at the smoke the taxi kicks out.

[robmawer]

The smoke being kicked out will be due to overfuelling...the difference between a remap overfuelling the engine and tuning box overfuelling the engine will, I suspect, only be a matter of portability and price...

Rob.

[SkodiRS]

TaviaRS has a remap and look at the smoke the taxi kicks out.

Would have been more.

[Xavier]

TaviaRS has a remap and look at the smoke the taxi kicks out.

True, but I think the taxi reaches the fare's destination a incy bitsy bit quicker too

[ScoobyChris]

Hmmmmm - so technically what is the difference between a remap and a tuning box? Do they both just up the boost and fuelling, or is there more to it than that ..... thinking about on a diesel rather than petrol....? :confused:

Chris

[FabiaTDi]

Remap can directly adjust/increase boost, but (most) tuning boxes increase boost passively due to increased fueling.

Advantage of remap is that boost and fueling can be matched better to give better results as they can usually be more finely adjusted.

Increasing fueling is the main reason for more power with either.

[galv]

The way a tuning module works is different from make to make, most of the very cheap ones change the values from either the MAF sensor or Fuel temp sensor to trick the ECU into adding more diesel.

The more complex ones intercept the signals from the ECU to the fuel pump and increase fueling that way,

were a re-map can alter the boost and fuelling and timing, and you also have more control on the torque limit the engine can supply, so you can protect the clutch and drive line if its done right.

[robmawer]

were a re-map can alter the boost and fuelling and timing, and you also have more control on the torque limit the engine can supply, so you can protect the clutch and drive line if its done right.

This may be a dumb question but...which timings can be controlled by ECU on a diesel engine?

Also, how do you increase the boost on a turbo via the ECU...surely the only way to do this is to keep the wastegate closed longer? Either way, surely the increase in the pressure is down to an increase in fuelling and nothing else? In which case, all an ECU remap does is essentially increase fuelling, which is what a tuning box will also do?

Only difference being, a tuning box costs about

[KLB]

This may be a dumb question but...which timings can be controlled by ECU on a diesel engine?

Also, how do you increase the boost on a turbo via the ECU...surely the only way to do this is to keep the wastegate closed longer? Either way, surely the increase in the pressure is down to an increase in fuelling and nothing else? In which case, all an ECU remap does is essentially increase fuelling, which is what a tuning box will also do?

Only difference being, a tuning box costs about

[robmawer]

Though, with over-fuelling (or at least, increasing the fuelling as much as possible without overfuelling), wouldn't the exhaust pressure be higher, hence the intake pressure will be increased also? So the turbo will spool up quicker anyway?

I can see why changing the vane pitch *and* doing the above would yield best results, but I'd struggle to see how it would be

[tavia4x4]

The diesel maf can be changed for a resistor that basically fools it into running as rich as possible, thinking the air is dense, this is a cheap and popular mod but won't yield quite the same results.

(note - don't do the above mod on a petrol engine!)

[robmawer]

The diesel maf can be changed for a resistor that basically fools it into running as rich as possible' date=' thinking the air is dense, this is a cheap and popular mod but won't yield quite the same results.

[/quote']

Aye, these are the

[faboka vrs]

Aye, these are the

[robmawer]

I have one of these. I think it makes a difference. The trip computer also shows an improvement in mpg (but dont know if this is correct). When Colin G had a go of my car at brunter he commented that the turbo seem to kick in later. I've taken mine off at the moment due to the ignition light showing on the dash and so cars booked into the dealers tomorrow. Could it have something to do with the tuning box? I'll put money on it.

So it's one of the resistor jobbies rather than a

[faboka vrs]

From what I've read from seatcupra.net. If the resistor is too low, then it could cause a fault.

But personaly for

[FabiaTDi]

The tuning box just increases fuelling; there's no corresponding increase in air charge to the cylinder. It takes advantage of the fact that diesels are normally set to run 'lean' for better emission control.

AIUI' date=' TDI turbos are variable-vane. There's no wastegate; the ECU increases boost pressure is by setting the vanes to a coarser pitch. More boost = a bigger air charge, which can burn more fuel (so more power, even without over-fuelling)[/quote']

I always thought that with a turbo diesel engine, that if you inject more fuel you will get a slight increase in boost pressure (over standard) at lower rpm due to the turbo being exhaust driven and the knock on effect that the increased combustion would have on it.

Of course the maximum allowed boost should not be exceeded as it is electronically controlled by the ECU. Perhaps the effect woudl be very small