To tune or not to tune ? (2.0 tdi 140 cr)

[RST]

Had my 2009 A3 sline 2.0 tdi 140 cr stronic now for 2 1/2 months and love it.

I nearly got it remapped before Christmas (bluefin or revo) but was put off by quite a few posts saying that the turbo on the common rail 140 is guaranteed to self distruct if any kind of tune is applied ?

Now my car has only done 20000 miles and do not want to create a time bomb but the reason behind a remap or even possibly a dtuk box is to improve the driveability of the tdi as there is a bit of a lack of pick up up to about 1800 - 2000 revs then it pulls really well. I have put a tuning box on a freelander tdi before and found that it completely changed this and filled in the lack of power or torque in the lower rev range and made it more drivable.

I am not looking to eek out every last horse power, a bit more punch and maybe even better mpg if driven sensibly.

Can anyone give me there opinions on what they did in my position and what differences it made to their 2.0 tdi 140 common rail ?

Cheers

 

[minimadmotorman]

I'm watching this with intent too. I'll be lumbared with EDC17 however to tuning box may be my only option.

 

[ABYSS]

Weve tuned over 100 VAG Common Rail 140ps with our CRD2 or CRD-T and uptil now weve had no issues.

Our own 170ps Seat Leon had its head kicked in for 18000 miles in 14 months and never skipped a beat.

Andrew

 

[RedDejavu]

If you need more power get a different car I dont see the point investing too much money towards a remap in low power diesel engines. Its pointless to my taste. Its designed to be slow:]

 

[ABYSS]

If you need more power get a different car I dont see the point investing too much money towards a remap in low power diesel engines. Its pointless to my taste. Its designed to be slow:]

But not everyone can afford to run around in an S3

 

[RedDejavu]

true, however you buy diesel for a reason its economical and not designed to be driven like a sports car therefore mapping will make it far less reliable not to mention going anything more than Stage 1 is a coslty investment. Although you dont need to buy S3 there is many other cars that go faster, hadle better and are far less expensive. I had 170 PD mapped to Stage 2 and it was ok but nowhere near as fun as S3 to drive. My 2p. It must be something to do with the 7k rev mark:]

 

[h5djr]

I current have a 2009 2.0 TDI 140 cr which I've had from new. When it was 6 months old and had done 8000 I had it remapped to around 170 by Performance Torque of Wolverhampton for £295. It was the best £295 I've spent on a car. It has now done 37,500 miles and has not given any trouble at all. This has included several trips to Germany where I have driven at 130mph for quite long stretches on the autobahn. The overall fuel consumption has worked out around 46-47mpg. It has a DPF fitted and again that has not given any problems and the dashboard light has never even come on. Basically I've got good performance and good fuel consumption and the car is great to drive, especially as it also has an s-tronic gearbox.

I now have a new Sportback on order which is a 2.0TDI-170. I went for the 170 because I understand that on the latest cars the ECU has to be removed from the car to be remapped and there is the possibility that this could lead to problems with the 2012 MOT rules in the future.

 

[RedDejavu]

Either with my one have had no issues apart from changing an exhaust sensor. However what I'm trying to say is mapping a low power diesel will never make it quick enough to make you happy for long. Lets be honest 200bhp is atm standard power output nowdays and everything below feels so slow....

 

[RST]

I understand your Point reddejavue in the past I have had cars which are full blooded sports cars and my last car cost around 42 K so I am not looking for miracles or to be a boy racer in a diesel.
Please take this in the manner it is intended - You said in your post that if you need more power buy a different car ? But at the bottom I see that you are planning stage 1 ...2....2 + why ? You could have bought a different car.

But seriously I bought the A3 tdi because of several reasons, I like the sline style, good fuel economy, I really like the shape and the colour, the reputation of Audi, I did not buy it because of its theoretical top speed or acceleration (if I want an adrenaline boost that's what's my Fireblade is for).

All I am looking at doing is smoothing out the pick up and adding a little more punch and I believe that a tuning box or remap will give me that, I think that £ 250 ish for a 25 % boost is great value but not if the standard turbo in the 140 cr is made of chocolate.

I am sure that this forum has plenty of members like me that are not trying to tune their diesel cars to extinction but just to add a little extra, I also appreciate that their are people here that want to make serious horsepower in their petrol rocketships and I applaude that too and that is what is so good about the A3 platform you choose what you want.

 

[RedDejavu]

I understand your Point reddejavue in the past I have had cars which are full blooded sports cars and my last car cost around 42 K so I am not looking for miracles or to be a boy racer in a diesel.
Please take this in the manner it is intended - You said in your post that if you need more power buy a different car ? But at the bottom I see that you are planning stage 1 ...2....2 + why ? You could have bought a different car.

But seriously I bought the A3 tdi because of several reasons, I like the sline style, good fuel economy, I really like the shape and the colour, the reputation of Audi, I did not buy it because of its theoretical top speed or acceleration (if I want an adrenaline boost that's what's my Fireblade is for).

All I am looking at doing is smoothing out the pick up and adding a little more punch and I believe that a tuning box or remap will give me that, I think that £ 250 ish for a 25 % boost is great value but not if the standard turbo in the 140 cr is made of chocolate.

I am sure that this forum has plenty of members like me that are not trying to tune their diesel cars to extinction but just to add a little extra, I also appreciate that their are people here that want to make serious horsepower in their petrol rocketships and I applaude that too and that is what is so good about the A3 platform you choose what you want.

If thats what you after then far play to you. Make yourself a favour and get a decent remap I'm not sure if the box will be good enough so speak to Revo Bluefin etc and see what they can do for you.

By the way I tried to be same sensible as you once by buying a diesel few years back but after a while I got bored with it and left with no other options than go for a Stage 2 so I did but still didnt get that thrill, excitement, refiment, flexibility etc that I was after. After that decided to sell the car and get something more tunable and desireable to drive. Wanted to stay with Audi because of quattro and brilliant S tronic gearbox therefore it left me only two options S3 or S5. I knew S3 in a standard form is not that exciting but its perfect tuning potencial far more agile than S5, has a turbo and for the same money I could of have had brand new car against 20k 2008/9 S5. Stage 1 for S3 is a monumental difference have had a chance to test it out and god could not believe its same car.

Anyway hope you will get everything sorted soon with no mechanical issues

 

[Graham89]

I have the 2.0 PD BKD engine. DTUK box on for approx 10k miles now. No issues and much more punch than before. Flat spot is no longer there and if pushing it then it will pull all through the rev range with no flat spots. I'm not a fast nut on the road so I benefit from the extra few mpg that it gives. It's no miracle and certainly isn't a super fast car but for a diesel it packs out a punch and gives many a run for their money.

If your after a cheap to run but something that has a bit of poke to it then I think the remap or DTUK is a good choice to go for. Just because you want to remap it or tune it a bit won't make you wish you had an S3. Well it didn't in my case. I'm happy with 175 bhp 295lb ft and 50-60mpg with £120 a year tax. My 2P worth.

 

[flying oyster]

the dtuk box gets great reviews and if i was going to start again i think I
start there
red you have gotta embrace us derv divas we all in the audi brotherhood
lol

 

[bomasspot]

Just to join the conversation and have my two pennyworth. I've fitted a tuning box from Tuningkit.de just over a week ago after some research and it has made a considerable difference (A3 2009, 140 BHP). It's set on the factory setting (177 BHP)and has made it much more drivable and better torque. I don't think it will stay on the factory setting for much longer though. Has made no difference to the running of the car either, itching to tweak it. Have to agree with RedDejavu had the car for a while now and got bored with it - wish I'd done it earlier. Whatever tuning route you go for DO IT.

 

[ABYSS]

I have the 2.0 PD BKD engine. DTUK box on for approx 10k miles now. No issues and much more punch than before. Flat spot is no longer there and if pushing it then it will pull all through the rev range with no flat spots. I'm not a fast nut on the road so I benefit from the extra few mpg that it gives. It's no miracle and certainly isn't a super fast car but for a diesel it packs out a punch and gives many a run for their money.

If your after a cheap to run but something that has a bit of poke to it then I think the remap or DTUK is a good choice to go for. Just because you want to remap it or tune it a bit won't make you wish you had an S3. Well it didn't in my case. I'm happy with 175 bhp 295lb ft and 50-60mpg with £120 a year tax. My 2P worth.

Great feedback Graham, glad to read you're happy

Andrew

 

[minimadmotorman]

bomas is yours a CR engine?

 

[bomasspot]

Hi Minimadmotorman,

Yes it is.

 

[JNP]

I had my 2.0 BKD 04 plate mapped by AMD in woking 10k miles ago and haven't looked back. Obviously the BKD is a different engine and has a slightly different turbo (i believe?) but I am getting 50 mpg on my commute to work and have about 170-180 bhp to play with when i need it. You couldn't spend a better £300 on your car imo

 

[RST]

Thanks for all your responses.

No horror stories then ?

All the guys that have done something with the 140 cr 2.0 tdi whether a remap or tuning box have only got positive thing to say which is all good. I think now I maybe leaning towards a tuning box, which one is best ? And which one is the best value ?

Cheers

 

[ABYSS]

Thanks for all your responses.

No horror stories then ?

All the guys that have done something with the 140 cr 2.0 tdi whether a remap or tuning box have only got positive thing to say which is all good. I think now I maybe leaning towards a tuning box, which one is best ? And which one is the best value ?

Cheers

What is it hat your looking for?

We have 2 systems available, crd2 which connects to the common rail,

DTUK® CRD2® Multimap Power System | chip tuning boxes from Diesel Tuning UK



or crdt which connects to the common rail us boost sensor.

DTUK® CRD-T MultiChannel Common Rail+Boost | chip tuning boxes from Diesel Tuning UK

Both systems can be reprogrammed and transferred to 1000s of other cars and one with 24 hour support, 3 year warranty, comprehensive fitting instructions and a healthy discount for ASN members.

http://www.diesel-performance.co.uk/pdfs/vag_2.0_tdi_cr_ldk_quer_e.pdf




Checknout the feedback from vag customers by clicking the links below, hen scrolling down to the page to read the feedback


Audi Diesel Tuning

VW Diesel Tuning | VW Chip Tuning | Volkswagen Diesel Tuning



And a rolling road graph from our crdt on a 2.0 tdi 170ps.

http://www.audi-sport.net/vb/diesel-tuning-uk/144962-few-rolling-road-graphs.html

 

[16vt]

Do you have to keep the box plugged in all the time? Can it ne used to load other maps to other tdi vag cars?

 

[ABYSS]

Do you have to keep the box plugged in all the time? Can it ne used to load other maps to other tdi vag cars?

You can move it between 2.0 CR's, but as soon as the box is unplugged the car reverts back to standard

 

[Adamantium]

I also have a BKD, I went to Simon at AMD in Woking. Very impressed with the service and the resultant way the car drives.

I needed a new turbo as after 90k miles the standard one wasn't too happy so I bought a replacement from turbo dynamics through Litchfield imports and have to say the performance is phenominal whilst maintaining the economy.

It really is the best of a lot of worlds.

It isn't the be all and end all. I bought my A3 as a quattro winter tyres work horse, I just happen to enjoy tinkering. You have your fireblade for kicks, so you won't need too much from your A3 to keep you happy.

 

[Rick @ Unicorn Motor Dev.]

I have had a couple of people concerned with turbo life on these. So what I do is offer the option not to touch the boost. You can still have the increase in power and economy, but sometimes with a little more smoke as there is no longer as much air available for a lean burn. You can of course reduce the power slightly and not have any smoke.

Rick