peterg Posted September 23, 2006 Posted September 23, 2006 I've been toying with the idea of chipping/remapping my car for a good while but been put off (well, SWMBO was) with the £300-£700 cost until now.... I noticed that Van Aaken have a bit of a sale on at the moment so called them up and asked if they had one for mine (BMW 330d 184bhp) as it wasn't on the stocklist of the sale items...... "Yes, we've got one left in Germany we can get for you, it'll be £150 incl vat and delivery" (usual retail is £470!) (and luckily it's me birthday tomorrow and my Mum and Dad just sent me some money) So if anyone's thinking of chipping their BMW/VW/AUDI etc it's worth giving them a ring Quote
JeffC Posted September 23, 2006 Posted September 23, 2006 Peter I had 7 cars remapped yesterday inc 3 bmw diesels by a guy Ive been recomending on here for a while now . Im going to be running an advert on my website for ecu remaps petrol and diesel and will be using this guy, hes done it for years and does know his stuff.. If you want your Bmw doing drop me a Pm, Cost will be £199 fitted at your door (depending where you are!) .. basically he will download from your ecu send the programme way it comes back modified, you can ask for a stronger setting giving more power (I did on 3 of the cars yesterday!! !) and he puts it back in the ecu, you get a disc with the programme on in case the ecu is reprogrammed by the dealers if they ever update your cars software , in this case he comes back out and re-loads it no cost! and I can 100% guarantee the ecu remapp will blow away any tuning box Quote
peterg Posted September 23, 2006 Author Posted September 23, 2006 Sorry mate, Smartbox already ordered and on its way if I get bored with it I can always Ebay it, they're going for >£200 on there at the moment so I get a profit as well Quote
Stuart Posted September 23, 2006 Posted September 23, 2006 I have a 9 month old 520D and it's leased. Read somewhere - Superchips I think - that I might get an extra 33BHP. Pitfalls of re-mapping re: warranty and the fact that the car ain't mine? Am I likely to get into bother if I do it? Quote
samcooke Posted September 23, 2006 Posted September 23, 2006 QUOTE Pitfalls of re-mapping re: warranty and the fact that the car ain't mine? Am I likely to get into bother if I do it? Yup. Even though a proper remap rather than a bodge-box won't show any physical signs or be picked up by dealer electronically, if they drive the thing they'll soon know... ISTR the [massively dear] Birds remap is OK with the BMW warranty but it may not be with your lease agreement. Quote
Bananaman Posted September 23, 2006 Posted September 23, 2006 Peter i have one of these boxes fitted to my BM and it's a noticable difference, you'lllove it more power and much smoother.... At least the gearbox should be up for it now... Quote
steve_m Posted September 23, 2006 Posted September 23, 2006 I've just bought a tuning box for my MG ZT which uses the 1951cc BMW diesel engine with Bosch common rail electronics. It's adjustable and can also compensate for a failing MAF sensor. On the top setting the torque is incredible for a 2 litre but the smoke is more like a a couple of tyres on fire in the boot ! Lower settings are a good compromise. They claim the power increases from 131 bhp to about 155bhp but it's the mid range torque that makes it so much quicker. Quote
peterg Posted September 23, 2006 Author Posted September 23, 2006 QUOTE At least the gearbox should be up for it now... Quote
JeffC Posted September 23, 2006 Posted September 23, 2006 Tuning Boxes are good and give good gains on some cars, 330ds work well as do vw diesels. but boxes only turn up the fuel side so there is only so much you can put in that the turbo can dilute before you look like you are firing on coal .. with the ecu remap it also increases boost so you can add more fuel hence you get a much better gain this way .. if you see what I mean .. I had my 530d wound right up giving me an extra proven 50bhp but down side was the car is a touch sooty under full steam , miles per gallon under normal driving conditions improve on most cars.. bmw /vag diesels definatley do remaps years ago were £500 plus but now at £200 and under its not worth not getting your car done Quote
davidgh Posted September 23, 2006 Posted September 23, 2006 ISTR the [massively dear] Birds remap is OK with the BMW warranty but it may not be with your lease agreement. Not to mention your insurance company Surprisingly, Direct Line are pretty ok with remaps, providing you tell them (and pay the extra ) Quote
bill shurvinton Posted September 23, 2006 Posted September 23, 2006 Tuning Boxes are good and give good gains on some cars, 330ds work well as do vw diesels. but boxes only turn up the fuel side so there is only so much you can put in that the turbo can dilute before you look like you are firing on coal .. with the ecu remap it also increases boost so you can add more fuel hence you get a much better gain this way .. if you see what I mean .. I had my 530d wound right up giving me an extra proven 50bhp but down side was the car is a touch sooty under full steam , miles per gallon under normal driving conditions improve on most cars.. bmw /vag diesels definatley do remaps years ago were £500 plus but now at £200 and under its not worth not getting your car done But it's not a proper remap, only a halfway house to getting it done properly. Quote
Asterix Posted September 23, 2006 Posted September 23, 2006 PeterG and JeffC, given they're comparative prices, what will the Aarken box and the "JeffCbox" respectively do for my 55plate Seat Leon FR 150bhp diesel? i.e. customer waiting Quote
peterg Posted September 23, 2006 Author Posted September 23, 2006 From van aaken website: Power raised from: 150 Bhp to 170 Bhp 110 KW to 125 KW Torque raised from: 236 Lbft to 262 Lbft 320 Nm to 355 Nm and you can always sell it on when you come to sell the car Quote
Asterix Posted September 23, 2006 Posted September 23, 2006 Cool, thx PeterG...just Jeff's info now and I'll be placing an order. Quote
JeffC Posted September 23, 2006 Posted September 23, 2006 you cant quote figures, its all pub talk, my 530d was only supposed to be 250bhp but was closer to 270 on a conservative local rolling road. Ive driven an ecu remapped 150 tdi seat cupra and fitted tuning boxes to over a dozen Golf gttdi 150s. as Bill says both are halfway house.. A map is created for a car using a car tweaking the map then copying it and using it for the same engines but all cars are different so will never be 100% Ive been fitting boxes for the last 6 years (ws the north east agent for speedbuster Germany) they are a well made unit with good back up , van aaken also are gwell made , some of the cheaper ones on ebay are not worth a rap, they cost 50p to make and are over priced at that I stopped selling tuning boxes 2 years ago because ecu remapping was becoming cheaper and that was where the boxes scored over remaps.. at £200 for the guy to come out to you and do the job , it really is for nothing!! Companys like Dms or Revvo charge £630 trade pice and £800 retail and it is exactly the same result! when I looked into doing this 2 years ago It cost £150 to buy each programme , some you can re-use others like the bmw can not on top of that you had to buy your equipment.. but as I said everything is cheaper now.. just a note.. the remaps are nothing whatso ever to do with me and I get no financial gain from them Its just a service Im going to promote through my website for customers I sell cars to, the guy im using has done this for years and seems to do a proper job and any problems I know he would sort out, not like some of the clowns going around doing it Quote
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