Plug and Play tuning?

[Daven]

Hi, this is my first post on this forum since joining and I'm wondering if anyone can help.

I have a '53 320d ES. I've been recomended to purchase one of the above bits of kit, but after seeing so many to choose from, I wonder if anyone can suggest a specific make?

cheers in advance!

Dave

 

[obi_waynne]

Hi Daven. Are we talking about the cheap little ebay tuning boxes here? If so AVOID at all costs! A full remap from a proper tuning company should give you around 50bhp more, something you will notice.

Where are you from and I might be able to recommend some local companies to you.

 

[Daven]

Hi waynne and thanks for the reply.

No not the ebay ones, although at first and without doing any research I DID consider one. I was thinking more along the lines of this

http://www.dieselbob.co.uk/easytune_common.asp

Although not that specific make, I just posted that as an example.

Most units I have seen are around £260 to £320.

Are these what you refer to as piggy back units?

I'm based over in Essex....

 

[obi_waynne]

Bear in mind I have only had a cursory glance at the site in question.

Reading on the site it claims to remap the "pump units". For that money though you can get a decent custom remap which will replace your standard mapping and this controls a lot more than just the fuelling with aspects of turbo control and timing coming in to play.

There are some remaps you can buy which you "flash into your ECU" yourself some allow selection of 3 mappings and others allow you to switch between them easily yourself from inside the car.

This device would appear to need to be connected all the time so it will work like a piggy back unit.

 

[Daven]

Ah - it's the flash into the ECU units I was recommended to look at. I'll take your advice however and see if theres someone fairly local that could do a custom mapping.

Thanks for all your help!

 

[obi_waynne]

No worries - stay in touch! Love to see how you get on. If you get to 10 posts it would be great to see some photos of your car.

 

[Daven]

will do. The car is nothing special - bog standard, 153 bhp but I love it. Best car I ever had. Had it since new, it's done nigh on 100,000 but still runs like a dream. I'm just looking for some extra 'oomph'.

Any other suggestions as to what I could do now I have the bug.

And any tuning specialists near me would be great too!!!

 

[obi_waynne]

A turbo rebuild will increase the boost and a panel air filter will aid the breathing of the engine. Other than a remap there is not a lot you can do to a Diesel engine (unless HDifun knows differently).

It might be worth thinking about the handling with some uprated shocks (always get fully adjustable ones though!)

 

[Daven]

Cheers.

The 320d ES comes with lowered and uprated suspension anyway, it's something like 15mm lower than standard if I remember correctly.

I'm probably going to go with Celtic Tuning for the remap, but I've still not totally ruled out one of the piggy back units.....

Forgive my ignorance, but what does a turbo rebuild entail?

 

[AutoCustomEng]

HI Lads,

don't mean to sound like an old fart but just watch the BMW diesel and for that matter any other manfacturer when tuning them

I have never really been a big fan of diesels except for towing!!!, however the developments are brilliant and for a while i was going to get one and tune it,

However, one of my good mate is one of the head developers at FORD UK on the diesel front, We were chatting about the latest hit of diesel tuning and he told be some intresting stuff,

Most, in fact nearly all Petrol engines nowadays are built with around about 30-40% tolerance in power, this means you can put up to 40% through the engine without having to chance anything!! (unless you are going to the FI route)

He then ws telling me about the diesel that they are and every other manufacturer was testing, and they found that to get the power out of them they were ending up with only a safety margin of around 5% now that is nothing, He then told me that of course they take all of the competatiors engines out and BMW are on average only 4% tolerance in the engine and Audi just 5%

Not trying to scare noone of or anything like that just a warning on the whole diesel side!! i think there will be alot of diesel engines in the scrapper before 2010 and alot of people regretting wanting that £50 chip!!!

cheers

 

[obi_waynne]

Thanks for the heads up ACE! A sobering thought indeed.