performance chips?

collisster

collisster

collisster

Soldato
Joined
23 May 2006
Posts
2,590
Location
Blythe
Hi I'm looking to get a fiesta zetec s (mk5 I think) for my first car. the insurance doesn't seem too bad considering other cars.
I was looking on a zetecs owners website and there is a link to performance chips and these cheap plug in things that offer +25 bhp increased torque and fuel economy. Now this sounds great even too good to be true, so, is it?

collisster
 
Its rather hard to extract 5-10 bhp from an NA engine through remapping let alone +25bhp from a 'cheap plug in'. Sounds too good to be true in my view.
 
To quantify this

the vectra VXR has a 2.8 V6 with twinscroll turbo. It has 280bhp as standard

with a remap, this goes up to about 305bhp

so +25bhp

i seriously, seriously doubt they can get 25bhp from a zetec S 1.6 froma remap alone.
 
the cheap plug in things like the ones you get on websites and ebay for a tenner or whatever are just a resistor mod.

They connect to the MAF and trick the ECU in to thinking the air is colder, so more fuel is pumped in to compensate for the extra oxygen.

In reality this means extra fuel but no extra oxygen to combust with it so your motor just runs rich, i.e. wastes fuel.

A ~£800 custom re-map wouldn't even return anywhere near 25bhp on that engine I'm afraid.
 
+25bhp on that engine is going to involve a lot of money. A lot. A £10 chip (which will cost the mker c. 20p) will make the engine run rich. That's it. Increasing the fuel in the engine has no effect unless you can get more oxygen in there.
 
I wouldn't worry, they are quoted as 103bhp but apparently Ford kept the quotes low to keep the insurance low, a vast majority of standard zetec s' put on rollers see roughly 115bhp, which combined with it being just short of a tonne would make a nice first car.

Well I say the insurance low...I mean the insurance group low, might be worth checking quotes as insurance companies are often wise to this and bump up premiums regardless of group
 
Toker said:
I wouldn't worry, they are quoted as 103bhp but apparently Ford kept the quotes low to keep the insurance low, a vast majority of standard zetec s' put on rollers see roughly 115bhp, which combined with it being just short of a tonne would make a nice first car.

Well I say the insurance low...I mean the insurance group low, might be worth checking quotes as insurance companies are often wise to this and bump up premiums regardless of group
Click to expand...

ive heard this apart so many cars

personally i put it down to rolling roads that tuning companies choose to deliberately over exagerate power figures and make them look better. Hence giving much higher than standard outputs.
 
MrLOL said:
ive heard this apart so many cars

personally i put it down to rolling roads that tuning companies choose to deliberately over exagerate power figures and make them look better. Hence giving much higher than standard outputs.
Click to expand...



I'm inclined to agree - a couple of RRs are notorious for optimistic figures. Why on earth would a car company down-grade power figures when power sells? It's not an insurance thing because the insurers would find out pretty quickly.


M
 
Meridian said:
I'm inclined to agree - a couple of RRs are notorious for optimistic figures. Why on earth would a car company down-grade power figures when power sells? It's not an insurance thing because the insurers would find out pretty quickly.


M
Click to expand...

low insurance/tax, fuel consumption/emissions are what sell these days, child killer :p
 
Agreed you may get a couple of bhp from an NA engine but nothing extreme. My car comes as 226 out of the factory but a few have been tested as standard at being about 232. Then mine has a full catback exhaust, air filter and dreamscience remap. This pushed it to 248 on the powerstation rollers. So somewhere around 20hp extra. In other words on a fiesta zetec you have absolutely no chance :D
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom