Tuning B7 2.0 Tdi 170 with DPF?

[Tricky_Dicky]

Lots of questions as fairly new to this site.
Was wondering if anyone here has successfully chipped or re-mapped their B7 A4 2.0 Tdi 170 Quattro motor which has a diesel particulate filter?
I have read that it is maybe not advisable or possible to do this?
Is the 170 already 'tuned' by Audi from the 140, or is it chip-able? Will the DPF cause an issue with moer power or performance.
Any companies in teh North West area which you recommend for this?

Stupid question, but is the 2.0 Tdi 170 engine a Pump Duse or Common Rail diesel engine, and is the newer 2009 2.0 Tdi 170 engine different?

I have been getting bad mpg from my 56 plate car. Dealer has replaced the air filter recently, but haven't seen too much of an improvement. Anyone else suffer this and did the change of air filter improve mpg by much?
Cheers

[shark_90]

Yes it is possible and we do lots of them. The increase is around 30bhp.

The DPF can cause issues as standard, and a smoky remap may cause more issues and so when tuning the car it does need to be taken into consideration. We can cater for your car with the STS device - see http://www.sharkperformance.co.uk/sts.asp

Your car on a 56 plate will be a PD engine.

[sr-performance]

Hi mate,
We have mapped a good few of these and have had no issues with the dpf. just make sure you use a reputable remapper....

[randall977]

I have just installed a Steinbauer http://www.steinbauer.cc/?select_lang=uk diesel box which I bought from TMC Motorsport (the last one he had). They cost a lot but are compatible with Pre 2008 TDI 170 DPF with Piezo injectors (the same as yours - PD not common rail) - fully guarenteed German hardware. It took me about an hour to fit as you have to connect a wire to the accelerator but it's fairly easy. Because you don't know what the actual results are after installing a diesel box I took it to a reputable rolling road (which cost quite a bit). The suggested results are 20% extra power (34 bhp extra), the real result is 13% extra power (22 bhp extra). So not as good as I had hoped but the car does go like a rocket and the power delivery is much better. Remaps are great but a diesel box can be easily added and removed, turned off and on and sold on - it's yours. In retrospect I would probably opt for Sharks handheld remaping device. The only thing that put me off was the cost of transfer to the next car - £50 ok but more - no thanks!

[a8 tech]

I await your new post for dpf issue since box fitted as I have said we see far more dpf failures with theses crappy box add ons.I would remap a common rail but the pd unit has enough trouble without any induced problems.
Good luck but experience tells me you will soon see the dpf light flashing and failure to regen.

[randall977]

Is this the case with Steinbauers or other diesel boxes? The claim by the manufacturer is that if does not mess up the DPF - I kind of hoped the price reflected this? TMC???

[shark_90]

It is only possible for the box to add fuel. More fuel = more smoke = more work for the DPF to do.

With a remap the boost pressure can be altered to introduce more air and make the burn cleaner. Remaps differ widely and with a DPF it does need to be finely tuned, but a box is asking for trouble IMO, for the reason listed above.

[randall977]

Well we shall see... If the light comes on then it'll be coming straight out! Effectively a remap and a good quaility diesel box do simular things - mine doesn't effect the boost though which I can see could be a problem. I have assumed that Steinbauer didn't release a £600 box onto the market to ruin a £25K car though...

[a8 tech]

Dont bet on that as I have repeatedly mentioned these add ons cause dpf issues and in some cases complete blockage of the filter

[TMC Motorsport]

Well we shall see... If the light comes on then it'll be coming straight out! Effectively a remap and a good quaility diesel box do simular things - mine doesn't effect the boost though which I can see could be a problem. I have assumed that Steinbauer didn't release a £600 box onto the market to ruin a £25K car though...

Stenibauer units are among the best tuning boxes on the market and very expensive to boot, do not compare them to the garbage that can be found for £89 on Ebay, they are nothing like it.
Steinbauer used to be called PBox and are the original designer of tuning boxes long before all the cheap rubbish came out.
You will not have problems using it, I'm confident of that. The only reason I stopped selling them a few years back was because they got so expensive (some units are nearly £1000). They design tuning kits branded by car maunfacturers and sold as their own original eqiuipment. I've been at their premises in Austria, this is a multi million euro operation not some back street garage. Next to car manufacturers own tuning kits these are the most expensive available.

And to add to that I've seen cars messed up worse by bad re-maps than with tuning boxes.
There are crappy tuning boxes on auction sites but equally there are bad re-mappers running about in vans doing remaps for £150 and with no clue what they're doing.

More fuel does not equal more smoke, only when you reach a point of increased fuel where the engine can't burn it anymore do you get smoke. Diesel smoke is unburnt fuel. I'm pretty sure Steinbauer as with any quality tuning kit manufacturer will have developed this unit on a dyno using various sensors to check emission levels as the fuelling increases. It is possible to increase fuelling on most diesels within acceptable limits and have no smoke at all. We use boost pressure control on our own kits as well as fuelling to help balance the mixture but as long as fuelling is not over-increased then extra boost is not essential. I'm guessing Steinbauer will be well aware of this.

Moral of the story, you get what you pay for!

Randall was that power figure with the unit turned up to max?