Remap or Tuning Box.

[AudiLeon]

I can never decide. On the old car it was easy. Just got my self a Unichip and had that mapped.
Not sure what to do with this one though.
Got a 2.5 TDI Quattro, so what have you got?

 

[quattrojames]

I have a tuning box from Diesel Power Tuning They retail at £400 but I was lucky enough to pick mine up second hand for a quarter of that, I'm not sure I would pay full price for it over a remap. That said it's quite impressive, I've never had it on a rolling road, but 210bhp is claimed, and it certainly pulls a lot harder than before, and also helps reduce the terrible lag the 2.5's suffer under 1800rpm. As an additional benefit I get an extra 2-3 mpg from it.

I'm sure there will be other's who swear by a vehicle specific remap, but for the price I paid, my tuning box is brilliant :icon_thumright:

 

[adamss24]

Pound for pound between a "generic" remap and a decent tuning box, i choose the tuning box. I have a passat b5 v6 tdi and a 2.5 tdi quattro. The passat is remapped and the quattro has a PSI Motorsport fitted. The quattro pulls harder and feels better but the passat returns better Mpg- could be because its FWD as well !

 

[AudiLeon]

Any links for where they were bought?

 

[quattrojames]

Any links for where they were bought?

Diesel Power Tuning in my first post is a link

 

[Nutkin]

the only pro to a tuning box is the fact you can remove it easily.

Remap is by far a safer option, IME tuning boxes alter signals from the ecu and being sent to the ecu and for a VAG that is a lot of trust to place into another box, I know they are reliable as they can be but they have the potential to totaly balls things up imo.

I would always go for a remap but i can see why some choose the tuning boxes as they can be sold on when the car is done and removed for servicing and warranty reasons.

 

[head]

i ave the car remapped as nutkin said its a safer option.

 

[adamss24]

If you go for a Steinbauer, Van Aaken, Psi Motorsport tuning box, they ALL have TUV and are safe to work with the engine. I also seen a lot of bad maps, especialy from some "reputable" tuners wich offer "custom" remaps wich had all fuel and boost values pushed up to the MAX and their customers expensive hybrid turbos started to go bad because of high EGT. Guess what, everyone blamed the turbos ! There are very few really good tuners out there who understand how an engine behaves and who's handy with a laptop as well. I would also take all "generic" remaps with a pinch of salt no matter what the dyno say- they are "corected" flywheel Bhp wich can be made to inflate the results by over 30% ! No wonder why every PD engine i hear tuned in uk has more bhp than the ones in Usa or Europe ! I am not slating the tuners its just that some "custom" maps are not what they claim to be and from a warranty point of view a tuning box is easyier to remove if something does not feel right than a bad map wich can screw up the engine while it settles-in ! Also most quality tuning boxes will be safer than ANY remap as they warrant the engine while a remap does NOT warrant anything because all they do is re-program the ECU ! Allways read the disclaimer...

 

[AudiLeon]

No nearer to choosing.
I've had a few bad experiences with a certain tuner. One that seems to be well used on here. They tuned my old v6 vectra to 230bhp lol. Yet it never made over 208 anywhere else. When i had the unichip fitted, they run it up and it was running dangerously lean. So wary of 'tuners' now.

 

[Quattro180]

I also have a 2.5 quattro sport with tiptronic (2004). Can i use a tuning box with the tiptronic ? it would be nice to get the MPG a bit better!!

 

[CMD]

Remap, Badger5 done mine (forum member) this guy is pie hot.

 

[Quattro180]

Remap, Badger5 done mine (forum member) this guy is pie hot.

Do you have tiptronic?