Peugeot 2008 Tuning

"Thanks for reading this Peugeot 2008 tuning guide."

Based on the PF1 platform it shares much with the 208 and we first saw the 2008 in 2012.

It was designed to be a subcompact crossover SUV and it ticks the boxes quite well, and has become quite popular selling over one million units.

The 2008 is a good tuning project to try. If you do your research then you can create an awesome 2008 but don't be fooled there are lots of performance mods out there that will simply not suit it read our unbiased guides first.

Handling/Suspension upgrades

Handling modifications are top of many to do lists for the 2008.

We found that most 2008 factory suspension setups need tweaking, a few degrees of toe out for cornering or toe in for stability, -0.8 to 1.3, and a tiny bit of negative camber will substantially enhance your cornering and handling.

Drop the car optimally somewhere in the region of 26mm - 37 mm and fit modified stiffer dampers, bigger drops will need other modifications in most instances.

Top end power should be your overall aim on the 2008 with a nice fat peak torque band.

Smaller engines do not provide much of a return in terms of power so start with a bigger engine. Engine swaps are a good option if you have a small engine size.

Engine Tuning.

First generation 2013-2019

• 1.2 e-VTi/VTi 82 ch
• 1.2 e-THP 110/130 ch
• 1.6 VTi 120 ch
• 1.6 THP Flex 165/173 ch

Diesel

• 1.4 HDi 68 ch
• 1.6 e-HDi 92/115 ch
• 1.6 BlueHDi 75/100/120

2nd Generation from 2019

• 1.2 L I3 75 kW (petrol)
• 1.2 L I3 97 kW (petrol)
• 1.2 L I3 115 kW (petrol)
• 1.5 L I4 75 kW (diesel)
• 100 kW electric (in the e-2008 version)

These are the kits are usually installed by our members, decide how far you wish to go in your tuning project before you get started.

Getting the right uprated upgrade kits for your planned usage of the car is essential. Stage 3 competition upgrades just don't work well on the road and will make the car undrivable.

The all electric version cannot be conventionally tuned, so please pass over these tuning tips. We will add an electric car tuning article very shortly for reference.

Please watch our video which covers the 5 principles of tuning your car. Be sure to keep up with our latest YouTube content and subscribe.

Best Engine Mods for your car

1. Engine Tunes - engine tuning/remapping provides the most advantage in terms of cost savings,  aftermarket ECUs, and piggyback ECUs are all alternatives.
2. Fast road cams are one of the most significant mechanical changes, but they must be installed by someone who knows what they're doing and they are not always easy to source but you might find a local firm to regrind a stock camshaft.
3. Intake and Exhaust - Note that on their own these mods will NOT ADD POWER in most cases, but they can help enhance power after other mods by removing the restriction.
4. Upgrades to turbochargers and superchargers - forced induction is the most efficient approach to increase air supply, allowing you to burn more fuel and make more power. It is one of the most costly upgrades but provides the best gains.
5. Head work - The goals of porting and flowing the head are to get air flowing into the engine while removing flow restrictions and turbulence.

Typical stage 1 mods often include: Remap, Alloy wheels, Sports exhaust, Panel air filter, Suspension upgrade (drop 30-40mm), Lighter flywheel.

Typical stage 2 mods often include: Ported and polished head, Power/Sport clutch, fuel pump upgrades, high flow fuel injector, Fast road cam.

Typical stage 3 mods often include: Engine balancing, Adding or upgrading forced induction (turbo/supercharger), Internal engine upgrades (pistons/head/valves), Competition cam, Sports gearbox.

Peak power is nice in motorsport but for a drivable and fun car you need a wide torque band and perhaps extending the rev range.

In this article we shall give a limited introduction to the best performance parts for your car, but we'd encourage you to spend some time on the site looking into the details of each type of performance part.Fast road cams offer one of the biggest power gains for your money as far as a solitary motorsport parts goes on a NA (naturally aspirated) engine.

The exhaust and intake flow play a large part in your cars power band, but be careful here, getting this wrong can upset the idle and make the car hard to drive in traffic. You'd need to follow a cam upgrade with other mods and finish with a performance chip for the best performance gains.

You will need to ensure that the engine is not starved of fuel so will need to pay attention to the fuelling.

Frequently power losses, and erratic idling after sports upgrades are done can usually be traced to fuel delivery or timing issues.To get sufficient fuel you may need to uprate the injectors on your engine.

Uprate the fuel pump to cope with the extra fuel requirements of your tuned 2008s uprated injectors.

Intake and Exhaust Tuning.

The next area for modification is the intake and exhaust. Please note that WE DO NOT FEEL YOU GET POWER GAINS FROM INDUCTION KITS, unless you have tuned your car extensively and are finding that the standard air intake has become a limitation.

Induction kits can work well on turbo engines and larger engines (if supplied with a suitable cold air feed or air box), generally though we'd just recommend for 2008 engines you should just fit a high performance panel air filter preferably made from cotton.

Sports exhausts can help increase the flow of air through the engine. But if your exhaust is too big, ie: it's over 2.0 inches bore, you will lose a great deal of your flow rate and end up losing power and torque.

Head work including a gas flow and 3 or 5 angle valve job will really help to release the potential of the engine. A good heavy duty fast road sports clutch will help to keep that power going where it should. Never skimp or ask the standard clutch to cope. The best mods we would do for your 2008 are a tune/remap especially on a turbo, a fast road camshaft and sports exhaust, with a good air intake.

Remaps offer big power gains on all turbo charged cars. On NA (naturally aspirated) engines the benefits are doubtful. However a flashed ecu on a NA (naturally aspirated) engine will help unleash the potential if you have done a lot of mods.

We've also seen some tuners experimenting with twincharged conversions and making some very high power figures.

Adding forced induction will see phenomenal power gains but this is usually too expensive to be cost effective. It is usually simpler to add a supercharger than it is to fit a working turbo. It is harder to map a turbo as the boost comes on exponentially with rpm.

The nice proportional boost and rpm characteristics of the supercharger make them easier to map. Adding forced induction will often require a lower compression ratio or water injection.

Alloy wheel upgrades.

The benefits of alloy wheels include lowering your unsprung weight and more efficient brake cooling. Further improvements can be made to your cars handling with the addition of directional tread pattern tire.

It is worth noting that although they can look cool on the 2008 large alloy wheels will actually decrease your performance. The larger you go the lower your acceleration will be - this to the change in your effective final drive ratio.

Due to this fact we would advise sticking to a maximum wheel size of 17 inches, although we know some of our members have fitted larger wheels with no problems.

If you would like to know more, or just get some friendly advice on Tuning your car please join us in our friendly forum where you can discuss 2008 options in more detail with our 2008 owners. It would also be worth reading our unbiased Peugeot tuning articles to get a full grasp of the benefits and drawbacks of each modification.

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