Cheaper TDi tuning modules, anyone used one?

Nessy

Nessy

VW + Audi mad
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Having recently bought an A4 Avant TDi SE 110 bhp (1999) I quite like the idea of getting a tuning box for it!
After running a 90 bhp 80 TDi for years before the A4 am well aware of the big (read expensive) module makers like Hopa et al.
Having seen the cheapie tuning boxes on Ebay ( sub £100) am now wondering if they are any good? or is the adage that you get what you pay for really true in this case to make getting a tuning box from one of the 'big' players essential?
If anyone has experience of these cheap boxes I'd appreciate youur comments.

Thanks

Paul
 
i have one, my bro also had one on his polo (think he paid about £50 for it on ebay)

both made a huge difference. fuel economy hasnt suffered either.

mine has 6 different maps on it, none of which are perfect but for the price it cost i cant complain considering a proper remap would cost 5-6 times as much as what my tuning box cost.
 
I don't know about the 90 or 110bhp engines, but with the PD you can use a 150 ohm resister and push it into the fuel temp sensor, it gives 10-15 bhp and is the same as the cheap tunging boxes on ebay. My brother made a box for a friends 110bhp ibiza for about £3 from maplin, he now spanks my 130bhp tdi with a PSi tuningbox...
 
Have one on the 110 TDI. Analogue £40 unit. Cheap and cheerful and fun to drive, does exactly what it says on the tin.

Although i am looking at a digital unit for a smoother powerband. Used to have a Hopa on a MK3 Golf tdi and it was excellent.

JD
 
I've taken the plunge and bought a cheapie off Ebay! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif
Watch this space /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif
 
cheapy one i got was an electronic one, bros one was manual. his was actually better.
 
Am i right in thinking these boxes only adjust fuel and not boost?
 
audi upgrades
[ QUOTE ]
Am i right in thinking these boxes only adjust fuel and not boost?

[/ QUOTE ]

Yep, just fuel.
Claims to give better consumption though?
Will have to wait and see if it lives up to its claims, for just under £40 though I'm not going to lose any sleep over it /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/lol.gif.

/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif
 
im sure mine gives better consumption.
i took it off yesterday as i had the mot, car felt much slower, going up the hill near me i had to rev it a lot more before changing gear due to the lack of low down torque.

if its only fuel i may get myself a manual boost controller then.
 
I got one of the "little Black Boxes" from a guy on here for £20, it's just like the ones sold here : www.pdtuning.co.uk

if you look in the web gallery, it show one being installed.

I think it does give the car a little extra boost but only about 10-15bhp IMO

But for £20 I think it's a bit of a bargain really, and i can put it all back to normal in 2 minutes
 
[ QUOTE ]
im sure mine gives better consumption.
i took it off yesterday as i had the mot, car felt much slower, going up the hill near me i had to rev it a lot more before changing gear due to the lack of low down torque.

if its only fuel i may get myself a manual boost controller then.

[/ QUOTE ]

actually forget that, cant use a boost controller on mine anyway, no wastegate!!!
 
Kris, do you get any vibrations from the rear when you floor it at low revs? I put a tuning box on mine and I must say I was impressed but every now and then I get a rumble from the rear usually when hard accellerating at about 1500rpm

Cheers
 
hmm, no i dont get that, but then im only fwd not quattro.
 
I've been running a plug in module for the last 2 years on my Passat TDI PD 115, it's currently got 110k miles on the ODO, and not had any problems. Better performance and fuel economy, can't beat it! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif
 
Well,last sunday bought a module on Ebay.de and paid instantly by PayPal.
Contacted the seller yesterday as to whether it had been dispatched yet and all I get is a "can I have your payment details" reply /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/mad.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/mad.gif.
Looks like I'm going to be having fun with a tardy German seller, and will have to be patient until I get my mitts on a module of my own.... /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/lol.gif
 
Tuning module has been on the car just over a week now, yet more delay was caused by the seller sending me the wrong item initially /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/swear.gif.
Despite all the aggro getting it delivered am more than happy as mpg has gone from 48-49 up to 52 .
Guess its down to the increased torque, which seems much more abundant; find myself not hanging on to the lower gears half as much....
The only drawback is a tendency for it to wheel spin rather too readily in 1st and 2nd now /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif.

/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif
 
i agree exactly with you.
i took it off mine for the MOT and i found i was reving a lot higher than normal.
yes i have a big problem with wheel spin, its embarrasing. esspecially in the wet
 
I take it you have the small tuning boxes that plug into the fuel temp sensor at the back of the engine? I have one of these and also have a PSi tuning box in aswell. with both boxes on it is really hard to get traction in 1st, 2nd & 3rd in the wet. but still lots of fun and plenty of grunt. My mate had the same setup in a 130bhp golf and was making 168bhp and 325lb/ft of torque at 1800rpm....
its good when you can get a couple of car lengths on 528 BMW's and sit with ST220 mondeos to 120mph.

remember no smoke no poke.
 
[ QUOTE ]
Do these things impact on yer insurance?

Would they make it invalid if the worst happened?

[/ QUOTE ]

I wouldn't advise on fitting one without telling your insurance company first,could find your cover was invalid in the event of a claim....
Some companies react with hysteria to tuning boxes, with others it hardly makes a difference...
Have just taken out a policy with Adrian Flux (with tuning box fitted/declared) that was £30 cheaper than my original (non-box fitted) policy with Tesco /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif.
 
just something to think about:

1. are they going to power test your car?

2. if you knew the insurance company were coming to look at your car would you remove it first which takes 2 minutes and is undetectable if you put it somewhere not in view anyway?

i would recommend telling your insurance company about any mod but do think about the above 2 points aswell /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif
 
just another point, i had somebody drive into me, the insurance company rang and said they were going to send an engineer to look at my car, i arranged a place & time, needless to say noone ever turned up!
 
Once, having made a claim on my insurance after someone rear-ended me, the insurers tried to wriggle out of paying me claiming I hadn't informed them that I'd fitted different wheels to my Audi 80.....
I had informed them (by phone) and they eventually paid out......although that experience left a nasty taste in the mouth with regard to that particular insurer.
For that reason I would always recommend getting any mods to your car in writing to your insurers.
Suppose your car was trailered off to a recovery centre following an accident; just how easy would that undeclared tuning box be to remove then.......?
IMHO not worth the risk, or worry....

/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif
 
at the end of the day someone uninsured cud smash in to your pride and joy and completly write it off due to drugs or drink or no insurance and you'd be ****** unless u got fully comp (not me! to much £££) so i say don't drive like a ***** and don't crash it!!

Car insurance ain't worth the papar it's written on!

of course i'm all legal and am fully insured but that's my opinion.
 

You guys that seeing better MPG is this on your DIS or have you actually worked out the total miles to a tank and worked it out?

I had a dragon box fitted to my car for a while and the DIS was showing much better MPG it was actually considerabley worse. Yes I was driving with a lighter throttle so the DIS thought I was using less fuel but the tuning box was chucking more fuel into the engine.

Hence the DIS looked good but the real figures where worse...

J.
 
[ QUOTE ]

You guys that seeing better MPG is this on your DIS or have you actually worked out the total miles to a tank and worked it out?

I had a dragon box fitted to my car for a while and the DIS was showing much better MPG it was actually considerabley worse. Yes I was driving with a lighter throttle so the DIS thought I was using less fuel but the tuning box was chucking more fuel into the engine.

Hence the DIS looked good but the real figures where worse...

J.

[/ QUOTE ]

Very good point you make there!
I totally ignore the mpg figs from the DIS as they seem to be rubbish anyway!
Having had my module fitted a few weeks now it has affected economy very slightly for the worse; I always fill the tank brim to brim when working out the figures.
MPG has stabilized at 48-49, probably down about 1mpg from before fitting it.
Am not going to complain as there's a hell of a lot more torque available now and the car is so much better to drive...... /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif
 
dont trust dis, i go by how many miles i get to a tank.
 

Hmmm I must have a really have right foot /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif as mine dropped from mid 40's to just under 40mpg... But she did fly

J.
 
Hi,

Sorry to be a pain, but due to the vast majority of these 'boxes' on ebay can someone provide a username of a person they bought theirs from and have had no or little problems with them please?

I don't wanna just pay someone for a box when in reality it doesnt work etc.

Thanks in advance for any info provided.

cheers,

dan
 
Mine came from a seller 'good moses' on German Ebay, cost was £37 buy-it-now with £12 delivery.....
The same person/company had an Ebay UK user-ID of 'carpower ltd' and was selling the same item for £60-odd plus delivery .
Wouldn't really recommend them though, product is great and does what they said it would, but they were a crap seller, slow to dispatch item and initially sent me the wrong one....
Should count myself lucky though that they did eventually send me the right one, although it was a bit much of them expecting me to pay to send the wrong one back to them......
Reckon that the best place to look is Ebay Germany; lots of the modules for sale there seem to be the same as ones being sold by enterprising Brits on Ebay UK (at much higher prices I hasten to add!)......

/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif
 
Had a look at his site/s. All his boxes are for PD engines but i'm pretty sure mine is NOT a PD engine...sure it has a mechanical injection pump for all cylinders.

Do they do the boxes for non PD engines? tried looking on ebay but not much mentioned about it.
 
[ QUOTE ]
Had a look at his site/s. All his boxes are for PD engines but i'm pretty sure mine is NOT a PD engine...sure it has a mechanical injection pump for all cylinders.

Do they do the boxes for non PD engines? tried looking on ebay but not much mentioned about it.

[/ QUOTE ]

Had a look at the boxes currently for sale by him under his good moses ID and there were several modules for the non-PD TDi engines; trouble is they are all for the 1.9 engine and the 2.5 5 cylinder engine, none for the V6 /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif.
Am fairly certain your V6 is non-PD; they were certainly non-PD up to 2001, don't know when/if they were made PD after that, am guessing the latest V6's must be???


/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif
 


[/ QUOTE ]

Had a look at the boxes currently for sale by him under his good moses ID and there were several modules for the non-PD TDi engines; trouble is they are all for the 1.9 engine and the 2.5 5 cylinder engine, none for the V6 /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif.
Am fairly certain your V6 is non-PD; they were certainly non-PD up to 2001, don't know when/if they were made PD after that, am guessing the latest V6's must be???


/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif

[/ QUOTE ]

Cheers for looking. I have only managed to find a DRAGON (on ebay) tunit box used in finland i think. But his engine code is not the same as mine!..

Will it work still? Checked the dragon website but not much joy.

His is a 2002 model mine is 2001??
 
none of the 2.5 v6's were PD's.

just a few small differences between the various models (mainly injectors and pump)
 
Just ordered a unit for my 1.9TDi non PD so will see what its like /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

He's only got 2 left now of the 8 pin.
 
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