Long-term experience- diesel tuning

[ozwoldA4]

Hi all,

Bit of a newby on here- had my Audi a little while and got round to thinking about tuning.

Does anyone have any long-term experience of a tuned 1.9tdi (130bhp)? Or any diesel engine I guess.

You hear sensationalised horror stories about screwing the engine long-term and plenty of really positive comments that most/all are (understandably) made very soon after retuning is carried out. More power, more torque and improved fuel economy always sounds too good to be true! I know I achieved all three when tuning my motorbikes in the past, but they weren't expensive to replace if the engine had blown... and anyway... I needed them to go fast for track days!!. Sorry... I digress...

Thanks in advance all,

Oz

[phil miller]

hi mate i had my 105 golf remapped in oct last year, not that long ago but i havent found any new problems, mpg is better, but as there is more power there is always the temptasion to drive it harder, all in all i was well worth the money, ive since had my OH's golf remapped and would have any diesel of mine done again in the future

[f33nix]

Had a Passat B5 1.9TDI, 130BHP Sport before... done 130,000 chipped.
Forgot to add car has been sold and last time I see it in for a water pump (1st time) it was sitting on over 220,000 miles! I have seen it again tonight still running around, well bullet proof the old 1.9 engines!

Nothing went wrong with it apart from weak CV Joints.


Keep the car serviced and it should keep ticking along nicely.


My new Passat that has just been tuned is 2.0ltr 170BHP Common rail engine.
Will post up some brim-to-brim figures tomorrow night I hope.
(so far 1/2 tank of juice for 390miles @51mpg indicated) not too shabby for a Taxi that spends 80% of it's journeys in and around town.

[PeteK]

I had my 2004 Passat 130 TDi remapped by ChippedUK to approx 165 / 170bhp at 120k miles - it has now done 171k miles and had no issues whatsoever. Fuel consumption seems to be slightly less providing you don't use the extra power all the time, the remap really does transform the way the car drives though. I don't tend to drive my car any harder than I did before but it is nice to have the extra power in reserve for when you need it. My car still has the original clutch / suspension etc which have coped with the remap fine.

[ozwoldA4]

Thanks for the replies. Great stuff. Even more tempted now! Just need to decide who to go with...

[f33nix]

.

[ExpertTuning]

Hi

Just a bit of input to answer the obvious concerns a lot of people have about getting a remap. Also to answer the common question as to how more power leads to better economy.

First, a remap by a decent tuner will only map the engine within safe limits for any specific engine. If you look on the web, most remapping companies quote the same power increases for any given vehicle, and they do it for good reason; they're not pushing to extreme limits because they want to make sure you keep a reliable car after the job is done. One or two companies will quote higher BHP and torque than the average and they are probably the remaps to be concerned about. It isn't difficult to wind a turbo up higher and pump in more fuel to get that extra over and above other remappers. It isn't sensible either though if you care about your customers cars and the longevity of your business!

To answer the better fuel economy question, this result is largely achieved by bringing the power band lower down the rev range, letting drivers get into higher gears sooner and hold higher gears longer on hills, around bends, roundabouts etc. The elimination of flat spots also removes the need to 'power through' them to higher revs, again encouraging more economic driving.

As to the wear and tear issue, if you make sure you stick to service recommendations, particulary with regard to oil changes, and you don't use the car for racing, you'll have no problems due to the (good) remap. It could be argued that removing the need to work the engine as hard (depending on how you use that extra power!) actually strains the engine less. On the other hand, if you wanted the remap purely for more power so you can go traffic light racing then you'd probably expect a mittle more wear wouldn't you? That's just being realistic.

Hopefully this sheds a little light on some of the common questions.

Cheers

Paul

[ozwoldA4]

Thanks Paul,

I guess my hesitation stems from my 1.9pd 130bhp engine being the last development/enhancement before Audi introduced the 2.0tdi engines...and whether remapping it for more power and torque is therefore a good idea...

I'm not so much a boy racer any more, but you need a bit of fun in your life from time to time (and more power and torque helps when carting family, top box and bikes round Europe!)!

The theory of smoothing power curves to remove flat spots introduced for emissions testing purposes has always been the obvious benefit when I've 'tuned' my bikes in the past, but I tended to change air filter and exhaust for more free-flowing ones at the same time. That and they were always carb'd engines rather that EFI and were relatively inexpensive.

I realise the driver's behaviour and style heavily influences engine component wear and failure and fully understand that- jet engines are my Monday to Friday distraction. Some air forces have more uprated/powerful versions of the same engines than others and their failure & service frequencies reflect this difference.

Pretty sure I'll give it a crack...curiosity will get the better of me... always has on 2 wheels!

Time to think about a dyno run before booking a remap...

Cheers,

Oz

[JimC64]

Hey there.... I've had several vehicles remapped over the past few years.

2 that spring to mind?

Saab 93 1.9 Tid 150 bhp stock upgrded slightly to 175bhp with more torques and improved everything. I drove 80k miles on original everything and had no issues at all whatsoever.

Ford Mondeo ST Tdci 2.2 155bhp upgraded to 195bhp. This car was just soooo much fun to drive and was a very very quick diesel. I once drove it normally ( most of the way...you have to have the odd 130 mph blast dont you? ) from Glasgow - Derby - Glasgow......around 560 miles if I remember and still had a quarter tank...No issues on this car!

Remaps on diesels rock if you get the right one to do the job for you

[ExpertTuning]

Thanks Oz, for your feedback, and Jim for your endorsement that good, sensible remaps are not an issue. It's a shame that most feedback on forums is from people that have problems (understandably) so it is nice to get a more balanced view from the silent majority.

Just had a Mini Cooper 1600D driver come in for his third remap with me (different cars I hasten to add! Previously they were a VW Golf 1.9 TDi and Audi A4 2.0 TDi respectively). Incredible difference, particularly pickup which was very sluggish before. Such a shame that stock engines are crippled from the outset. Still - it helps keep people like me off the streets!

Cheers

Paul