Tuning Boxes

Aint got it yet; I don't have a ebay account so I got my brother in law to order it for me. Wont see him until next weekend so will report back then :)
 
A mate of mine bought one off the bay for £25 and put it on a Skoda Fabia VRS claiming to have got 190bhp out of it.... errrrr yeah. I noticed absolutely no difference at all when I sat in as passenger, same old slow diesel as before.

What I dont understand is, if you read the crap that comes with it, it claims it tricks the ECU into thinking the engine is cold and requires more fuel. If this is the case, how can it also claim to increase your MPG as well as bhp?
 
I had one in my pd130 golf, all it did was create a load of extra smoke, sold it to some unfortunate person on the bay, then stupidly i bought another for £5 :) for my wifes PD150 golf, in hers it didnt cause any extra smoke or power but mpg did go up quite a bit according to the MFD, personally i wouldnt bother again, id just get a proper one or a remap
 
I'm not sure about these cheap diesel tuning boxes but I know the petrol ebay "chips" are just a crappy resistor that goes across the temp sensor and constantly tells the ECU that the air is cold, which gives a slight advance on the ignition timing and tells the injectors to spray more fuel. This is cancelled out when the oxygen sensor feeds back to the ECU that the mixture is too rich, so the ECU reacts accordingly. This often results in the ECU thinking there is a fault within the engine management system and putting on the warning light... bargain
 
oh yea this just reminded me of when my mate bought an ebay "chip", in the advert it says +25bhp then when he got it home it said on the box in small print "this product does not add 25bhp, +25bhp is a brand name" haha!
 
THe most crude diesel tuning boxes just have a voltage divider to reduce the sensor output from the rail pressure sensor, effectively telling the pump the pressure is less then it actually is, so effectively raising the rail pressure, so for the same injector opening time, you get more fuel in.. simple as that.. and can work quite well, but obviously under certain conditions will cause incorrect fuelling.

The more advanced boxes whether analogue or digital tend to have a non-linear curve of input to output voltage to give a more controlled increase in pump pressure, and the chance of incorrect fuelling reduces so are a bit more sympathetic. The digital boxes tend to give the smoothest power delivery, and tend to be a bit more efficient fuel consumption wise as they can vary the input/output voltage ratio more effectively.

All can be considered a bit crude, changing the pressure sensor reading can have an effect on trip computers etc.. but they are probably 'safe' as the turbo will stay within the manufacturers boost range etc..

For £25 sounds like a punt though, but having been down the digital tuning box route myself, I'd never recommend one over a remap, but we are talking much more money..
 
Im getting one of these to so would be interested to know!, I just mentioned to the boss that you Can get them and jokily suggested sticking one on the van expecting him to say no, but to my suprise he told me to go ahead as the other two company cars have been chipped! :p
 
It has made a differnce - Traction kicks in a lot more in 2nd and even 3rd at times.

Differnce isnt loads but still enough to have some fun :)
 
hopefully it will mean I can climb hills without tha van slowing down quite so much its quite embarassing holding up traffic behind you because its so asthmatic up hill (sp)
 
They do work, although it is basically £25 for a resistor worth around 20p. I had a resistor on my last VAG diesel and it made a very noticable increase.
 
Ordered one, feeling quite flush so I'm not too bothered w/e the outcome :p

I'm a little optimistic by Dangerous' reply though :D
 
if there cheap, as in sub £100 there is no chance they will be much good, all they do like everyone says is trick the engine into false temp readings etc and the car itself will adjust fueling accordingly hence the power boost, they will not increase boost pressure (then again neither do many diesel remaps i believe)

I put one on the wifes car, its probably not related but, just so happends i ended up with a £1500 bill for a new camshaft on a 40k pd 150 golf
 
Well I got the tuning box today listed in the OP. The box itself is fairly simple, but still looks like it could be a genuine VAG part, afterall it needs the necessary VAG connections. Ohh and I'm well aware it is just a resistor in a box and was very skeptical like most people, but afterall it was just £25.

Connecting it was very simple, take off engine cover and just insert the box between the fuel temp sensor connectors, 2 minute job. I then took it for a 20 minute drive and to my surprise there was an immediate notable improvement. There are 2 main differences I have found that it has made; the power delivery is a lot smoother across the whole rev range (especially at higher speeds, when the steering wheel used to shake :p), the other main difference is in gear acceleration which is notably better but I wouldn't say it was very significant. Overall the derv feels more eager than it did before too which is nice.

I by my own account am genuinely surprised, I thought it would do bugger all or provide negligible results. Even if there are no power gains, I'm very happy by how much more the engine feels refined and smoother in it's power delivery. Imo it was well worth it and would actually recommend it, even if you were to toss/sell it on. Yes I'm aware there proper tuning boxes, but they cost hundreds in which case remaps should be looked into. *gives positive feedback :D*
 
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