Cheapo Tuning Box - update

J

jungle

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Hello all

I have been using my £30 tuning box (from Ebay) on my 2.0TDi Sportsback for about 2 months now. Thats 15,000 miles. Obviously I am not suggesting it as an alternative to a proper remap, but for any company car drivers out there who want something cheap an undetectable...

Took the car for its 1st service at 19,000m, removed the box in around 30 seconds, and no comments were made by the dealer when I picked the car up. So thats dealt with myth no.1. They can't (or don't look for) spot the fact you have been using a tuning box.

In the last 15,000 miles the car has not used more oil than before. It needed 1 litre at 7,000m, and another litre at 14,000m. Presumably it was changed at 19,000m (service) and it has now done 25,000 without the oil light coming on. So thats myth no.2 dealt with. Your oil consumption does not increase noticably.

I have suffered no ECU or CAT lights. There is no noticable increase in smoke (I followed my own car to find out). Thats myth no.3 dealt with.

The difference in performance is very noticable, especially when I removed the box for the service. More torque, more urgent acceleration.

Fuel economy has not suffered. Most of my driving is on the motorway, and I always get at least 500 miles on a tank. Bang goes another myth.

In fact the only myth that I have proved to be true, is that my car is now faster than an S3, 911 or anything else people on this forum dare claim to own. etc etc
 
Jungle - what make is the tuning box.
 
What tuning box is it? For that money I'd be tempted to experiment with it. (Lease car owner here).
 
audi upgrades
Its a dragon analogue model, but to be honest they all seem very similar. After I bought mine, 2 colleagues at work waited until it passed the first service and then bought their own from ebay. All seem to make similar gains with a similar lack of side effects.

Analogue boxes apply a fixed formula to the fuelling data to increase fuelling by say, 15% across the rev range. Digital boxes can have different formulas for different revs, so may give up to 20% more fuel at certain parts of the rev range, but only 15% where the existing fuelling levels are closer to max.

In a nutshell, you will get better gains from a digital box, but they cost anything from £150 - £300.

There are normally lots on ebay - here is one of the more expensive ones.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=72205&item=7966112914&rd=1
 
Wouldnt this affect your insurance if you had a crash?
 
Ginner
Technically yes,your insurance would be invalidated IF they found out you had the box fitted.
Now,that's a pretty big if.
The assessor would have to have reason to suspect the car wasn't standard and would have to rake around under the bonnet to see the box.
Having had quite a few experiences with assessors,mostly with bike crashes but a couple with cars as well,they almost all give the car the most cursory of glances.
The likes of your 'dustbin exhausts' would ring alarm bells,as they're visible.
Of course,there's also the argument that you could quickly whip the box out if you had a crash.
About a year ago I had an old woman ram the back of my A4.I could have had a chevy big block V8 with twin compressors under the bonnet,for all the interest the assessor took.It looked standard and legal,so he was happy.

I'm definitely interested in one of these as I'm a company car driver as well.
I would probably go for a digital one.I'm sure I've seen digital ones on e-bay for £100,ex-demo.
 
I have to agree, it is worth being upfront with insurance companys, if the worst comes to the worst, you are going to need their backing and their payouts too.

An attitude of it will never happen to me is just plain stupid. Espicially if the assessor is a huge car fan and knows the inside of a duck's **** and who takes his job so seriously. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/beerchug.gif
 
Jungle,off the record of course...
Have you or your colleagues asked your employer about the mod ?
I haven't broached the subject with my MD yet.
 
[ QUOTE ]
Jungle,off the record of course...
Have you or your colleagues asked your employer about the mod ?
I haven't broached the subject with my MD yet.

[/ QUOTE ]

No. I think it would go down like a sh*t sandwich.
 
[ QUOTE ]
Quote:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Jungle,off the record of course...
Have you or your colleagues asked your employer about the mod ?
I haven't broached the subject with my MD yet.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------



No. I think it would go down like a sh*t sandwich.




[/ QUOTE ]


lmfao!!!

But wait, you said you flipped... a bike? That's nuts...!


Anyway, Mr Myth-Buster, those are some great results for a little electronic box! I'm sure it goes like stink...

A dyno plot would be most interesting!

Good luck working out your insurance pros / cons, but be happy: it's much, much worse in France!
 
[ QUOTE ]
More torque, more urgent acceleration.

[/ QUOTE ]

Translate that into spikey power delivery

[ QUOTE ]
S3 or anything else people on this forum dare claim to own. etc etc

[/ QUOTE ]


Sure how could you claim that with a 30 quid tuning box? At least if you are gonna get one of these things spend the proper money on one. Have a look at www.tuningbox.com
 
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
More torque, more urgent acceleration.

[/ QUOTE ]
At least if you are gonna get one of these things spend the proper money on one. Have a look at www.tuningbox.com

[/ QUOTE ]

I sent this crowd an email for a quote on a digital tuning box and it was going to cost the best part of 500 euro. Far too expensive for what it is. A remap from Oettinger costs 790 euro. I bought a cheapo box off ebay to see how it works out. If I get what jungle got from his one, I'll be happy. With a lease car, it's not worth spending so much cash on a box when I only keep the car for 3 years. What should I do with the tuning box when I'm finished with the car? Sell it on ebay and lose half of what I spent on it? No thanks. I have 14 days to send it back if I'm not happy.
 
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
More torque, more urgent acceleration.

[/ QUOTE ]

Translate that into spikey power delivery

[ QUOTE ]
S3 or anything else people on this forum dare claim to own. etc etc

[/ QUOTE ]


Sure how could you claim that with a 30 quid tuning box? At least if you are gonna get one of these things spend the proper money on one. Have a look at www.tuningbox.com

[/ QUOTE ]


I spent £30 on a box to see if it worked. If it didn't then no big deal. I think you will find there are plenty of others on this forum who aren't comfortable with more "permanent" remaps, or with spending £2-300 on tuning boxes that offer less than remaps. Hence the £30 box, however rubbish it is compared to your remap, suddenly has a market.

Mark you are a card. I'm not getting into one your arguments - I have already admitted my car is not as fast as a 911 or an S3, or should I add, a tuned 2.0T Q...

On the other hand, I am well aware from a very entertaining earlier thread how incredibly quick your motor is.

Please don't tell me how small or ignorant I am. Just accept that not everyone has the desire to go your way.

/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/beerchug.gif
 

Ouch!

Instead of spending £30/£50 for one of these cheapo boxes you can achieve the same thing for about 5p with a resistor and a pair of pliers.

J.
 
[ QUOTE ]

Ouch!

Instead of spending £30/£50 for one of these cheapo boxes you can achieve the same thing for about 5p with a resistor and a pair of pliers.

J.

[/ QUOTE ]

Sounds good! You should sell them for £50 and make a few bob. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif
 
How can someone put a sentence saying that some people wouldn't be happy putting a remap (with a full warranty and years of research) on a car and then say they spent 30 quid on something which alters the ECU ??

Anyone??

Perhaps you should in fact, go into that jungle of yours because I don't recall ever saying my car was as fast as a 911 you fool.

I would happily take on a standard S3 however and make no apologies for saying that. Any four wheel drive car loses power in transmission and a car with bucket loads of torque and probably more bhp per tonne when you add in Quattro transmission loss is not going to be left behind by anyone in a stock S3.

If you find a claim of 40 bhp not being enough to leave another car for dead "entertaining" then you really should hand in your username as you clearly have not got the foggiest of how cars work.
 
I'm with you Jungle.
Having a company car I find the thought of sending £500+ on a remap just a wee bit daft,especially when I'd get zero return when the car goes back.
Any tuning box is sellable if you tire of it,or the car goes back to the leasing company.
Some return is better than none,especially when you haven't spent that much in the first place.
 
[ QUOTE ]
I'm not disagreeing with tuning boxes, I can see the advantage that they create for some of you but what I am saying is at least spend a few quid on something a bit more credible.. obviously the more you spend the better your car will drive. Afterall, it's not your boss that will be driving your car, it's you!!

Jungle, I'm perfectly calm, you started misquoting me with 911 stuff etc.

[/ QUOTE ]

Cool mate. If it was my own car, trust me, it would have been remapped by now.

/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/1luvu.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/1luvu.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/1luvu.gif
 
I taped the box to the plastic at the front of the engine bay and secured it using cable ties wrapped around the big hoover in there.
Sorry about the low tech answer - let me know if you want a pic!
 
Do you have them hosted on a server? If so, use

[ img ]http://www.yourservername.com/image1.jpg [ /img ]

Remove the spaces in th eimg tags.

Otherwise, I can stick them on my server and post the pics here. Will send you a PM.
 
audi-pics-002.jpg


audi-pics-003.jpg


Pics from jungle. Cheers!
 
Remove the gaffa tape?

Just kidding /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif
 

OMG...how dirty is your engine!!! Please tell me I'm not the only one that washes thier engine every few weeks or so (ok maybe once a month!)

J.
 
Marriedblonde - I always new you were a little mad - I think you have just confirmed it !
 
Yep Married...I do mine too.

Blast of MC2, engine dressing to keep everything protected and it looks the dogs.
 
[ QUOTE ]
Marriedblonde - I always new you were a little mad - I think you have just confirmed it !

[/ QUOTE ]

/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/ooo.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/shocked.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/ooo.gif
 
[ QUOTE ]
Yep Married...I do mine too.

Blast of MC2, engine dressing to keep everything protected and it looks the dogs.

[/ QUOTE ]

Right, I'm on a mission. Whats MC2, and what do you use to clean the motor? Hosepipe + fairy liquid or something?
 

Mc2 is a general purpose cleaner. Very good at keeping alloys clean and nice and gentle made from natural products.

To clean under the bonnet I have a seperate set of sponges, different sizes to get into different areas. I just use a bit of car shampoo on the sponge and hose it down when I'm done. I've also got a seperate chamois that I use when the cars al done and every couple of months I apply wax to the various painted areas areas. I use wonder wheels tyre/bumper product for the black plastic bits occasionally.

J.
 
****** hell. Thats more effort than I put into the outside of my car. Looks like I will have to buck my ideas up.
 
[ QUOTE ]

To clean under the bonnet I have a seperate set of sponges, different sizes to get into different areas. I just use a bit of car shampoo on the sponge and hose it down when I'm done. I've also got a seperate chamois that I use when the cars al done and every couple of months I apply wax to the various painted areas areas. I use wonder wheels tyre/bumper product for the black plastic bits occasionally.


[/ QUOTE ]

Oh..my...god.......

/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cry.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/shutup.gif
 
jungle: Can you tell me what you did to remove the engine cover. I see one bolt on the back. Do I just need to loosen this and then lift the cover? I don't want to go breaking things /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif
 
just pull at each corner and the cover lifts off - the final "bolt" (at the rear of the engine) does not need to be removed - you slide the cover laterally away from it.
 
Cheers jungle. Installed the box in 2 minutes. The connectors themselves weren't sealed where the wires enters so I pit a drop of black silicon on each to seal them off. The car definitely has quite a bit more pull and you can feel yourself being pushed back into the seat when you put the foot down. Much moreso than without the box. It's early days yet, but no black smoke from the exhaust. It didn't do much for top speed. Took it on the motorway and just got to under 230km/h on the speedo. Without it, I managed just over 220km/h on the speedo. going up through the gears is much faster also. On a normal road I was in 5th gear before I knew it. For 50 euro, you can't go wrong with it.
 
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