Tuning boxes ,??

[saxonblue]

So, just out of interest , has anyone gone down this road with a tuning box instead of a remap,
I was looking on eBay and a few poped up, so I asked a mate of mine that had one on a few motors of his, last one being a Skoda superb , he said it made a huge difference, and the before and after sales from the company he got it from was spot-on, he never had any issues with it, and known people who had also had the same sort of boxes but of different makes and never had issues with theirs either ,
So as you can guess. It's got me thinking

 

[saxonblue]

Well I thought I'd have gotten at least 1 reply lol

 

[ScottHannah]

I had a dtuk box on my old Astra 1.9cdti. There was a huge power increase but I wish I had got it mapped instead. There power wasn't smooth through the revs as it would be with a map. Was just lag then burst of power. It works by tricking your ecu into thinking your cars getting more air than it actually is so it blasts in more fuel to compensate. Better off with a map imo. If you're set on a tuning box get it from dtuk (diesel-tuning.co.uk I think) don't get the ones on eBay. I've been told the ones on eBay is just a resistor in a box lol.

 

[A5craig]

I got a box off tduk makes a massive difference on mine power up to around 210 hp from 170 and it save a few mpg in fuel too plus don't show up if your in a smash like a map would and then ooops void insurance if you did nt declare you had it mapped if you get me 2 plugs in seconds and nobody would ever know it been on the car

 

[Dippy]

Scott & Craig have summed it up. Compared to a proper remap a tuning box is a 'crude' method which will have drawbacks, possibly including long-term reliability. However for those who want to avoid declaring a modification they are a solution. Possibly the fact that the OP didn't get many responses is that most enthusiasts prefer a remap over a tuning box.

 

[saxonblue]

Thanks guys, I have looked at a few now, I'm only looking at the mo though coz I am still liking the power it's got anyway, I was thinking about one coz I came from a 3.2 petrol with 256 bhp and it was nice and smooth with the power, I love my 3.0 tdi and the rush you get when it spools up. But thought a box may get rid of some of the lag, a remap is a bit more expenceive so I was looking into something cheaper and similar results,
Hummmm !!! Got me thinking now

 

[Paul @ Unit 9 Remaps]

i could do a deal on remap and dpf removal. probs cheaper than a dtuk box

 

[saxonblue]

so whats involved with a dpf removel?
I know the obvious.. but would I need a new set of pipes?
also where are you based? I'm in littleborough (Rochdale)

 

[desertstorm]

I had a tuning box on my 3.0 TDI that came with the car. It did make a noticeable difference to the performance but the issues with tuning boxes mainly come down to the fact that they just introduce extra fuel and rely on there being a surplus of air.
Too much extra fuel will result in smoke but if you have a DPF you won't see that smoke, your DPF will regenerate more often and could potentially get clogged depending on the driving style.
I tried doing some comparisons using virtual dyno on my car with the standard car, the tuning box and the car after the DPF was removed and it was mapped by Rick at Unicorn Motor Developments.

http://www.audi-sport.net/xf/threads/karls-3-0-tdi-build-thread.204785/page-2#post-2120530

You can see the tuning box gives a good improvement but nothing like the remap.
You can have the car mapped and still retain the DPF, This would give you around 300bhp.
@Rick @ Unicorn Motor Dev. is in Stockport so not a million miles from you, top man who is a forum sponsor and has mapped many 3.0 TDI's.
If you intend to keep the car for a few years, or just want to do it right then a remap is the way to go.

Karl.

 

[saxonblue]

Hummmm, sounds good ,I might just look into that, although not just yet, too many bills at the mo, but it might be a good Christmas present to myself me thinks,
Thanks for the info