Chip a Diesel Engine for better MPH

PeoplesChampion

I am thinking of “chipping” my 1.9 diesel. I have read that they can improve MPH as well as increasing power. Has anyone had one done? Does it work? Why did not the engine designers do it in the first place? Is it safe?
Many Thanks,

ahillsy

What car do you have? All cars are different, some are more tuneable than others.

For example, for VAG cars (VW, Audi, Skoda, Seat) one of the preferred options is a remap (see revotechnik.com for an example) - no messing about with chips. This is basically just an update to the engine software. e.g. a Seat Ibiza FR TDi which has 128bhp as standard can be remapped to ~160bhp I believe. Quite often, with different versions of the same model of car, the engine is the same but the engine has been tuned differently to increase the performance.

Best thing to do is go on to a forum for your specific car and get some input from people who have the same car, and have done it - find out the best way to go.

hewhoisnotintheknow

you ideally want a remap rather than a chip

chips just trick the fuelling, over time doing damage

hewhoisnotintheknow

ahillsy wrote: »

What car do you have? All cars are different, some are more tuneable than others.

For example, for VAG cars (VW, Audi, Skoda, Seat) one of the preferred options is a remap (see revo.com for an example) - no messing about with chips. This is basically just an update to the engine software. e.g. a Seat Ibiza FR TDi which has 128bhp as standard can be remapped to ~160bhp I believe. Quite often, with different versions of the same model of car, the engine is the same but the engine has been tuned differently to increase the performance.

Best thing to do is go on to a forum for your specific car and get some input from people who have the same car, and have done it - find out the best way to go.

listen to him

Red_Cat

Ooh, nearly one of my favourite subjects.

Firstly, yes chipping your engine control unit (ECU) may well improve fuel economy. It may also improve power at certain engine speeds (RPM), it is unlikely to do both at all engine speed (RPM).

But why don't manufacturers provide that from the start? Well for them they have many different targets to meet, such as fuel economy, power, engine emissions, longevity/reliability, cold starting, turbo performance etc.

So from all these requirements, they calibrate many engines over many hours to get the best compromise they can and that is what goes into production.

An increase in fuel economy may compromise something else such as performance at certain speeds and vice versa. Common sense says that you cannot have best power and fuel econmoy at all engine operating conditions so the chipped ECU may improve each in diffeernt operating regions.

Is your engine a TDi? Beware that if turbo maps (calibrations) are modified, you may shorten the life of the turbo and will invalidate any warranty you have.

hewhoisnotintheknow

Red_Cat wrote: »

Is your engine a TDi? Beware that if turbo maps (calibrations) are modified, you may shorten the life of the turbo and will invalidate any warranty you have.

he makes a good point

turbos on vags are too weak for standard use so tread a fine line if its a newish car, look on any vag forum and there will be lots of turbo blow posts

can you remember the name of the gadget where you can select from different maps depending on what type driving you are doing

ahillsy

hewhoisnotintheknow wrote: »

he makes a good point

turbos on vags are too weak for standard use so tread a fine line if its a newish car, look on any vag forum and there will be lots of turbo blow posts

can you remember the name of the gadget where you can select from different maps depending on what type driving you are doing

Serial Port Switch? That's what revo offer.

I've never had a remap done myself, but from what I've seen on VAG forums (seatcupra.net and briskoda.net), I haven't really noticed any problems - a lot of the time it is TDIs being remapped. Maybe I just haven't paid much attention, but a lot of people are very positive about remaps - may be down to how you drive with the remap. If you redline it all the time, you're going to have an unhappy car at some point.

Important point to make too, is if you do do it, make sure you declare it on your insurance!!

AdrianHi

Remap is usually a superior solution but some remaps don't do anything different from tuning boxes anyway. Depends on who is doing it.
A remap can be overwritten by the dealer at service time if they have cause to do it - update becomes availabel or whatever. This presents a problem for me so I went with a plug in tuning box. It works by modifying the common rail fuel pressure reading to cause an increase or decrease in pressure according to what it's trying to do. It is smart enough to take engine tempertaure into account, it doesn't do much until normal temperture is reached and it will intelligently reduce fuel pressure when cruising. End result is about 20% more peak power most coming 2000+ rpm, some extra from 1500rpm. When driving around town in a driving pattern that involves more accerating it uses perhaps as much as 5% extra fuel. Sit on the motorway all day and it genuinly does save fuel, nearly 10%.

Cars don't come out the factory like this because they are designed for a particular insurance group target, to get good results on the EU fuel consumption and CO2 emmissions test (which bears little resemblance to real world use), to be use everywhere from the arctic to the sahara and can be run on the lower quality fuels available in some parts of the world.
If you are always using European higher quality (EN590) diesel in a more temperate European climate you can optimise the cars tuning and get better mpg and power.

rev_henry

ahillsy wrote: »

Serial Port Switch? That's what revo offer.

I've never had a remap done myself, but from what I've seen on VAG forums (seatcupra.net and briskoda.net), I haven't really noticed any problems - a lot of the time it is TDIs being remapped. Maybe I just haven't paid much attention, but a lot of people are very positive about remaps - may be down to how you drive with the remap. If you redline it all the time, you're going to have an unhappy car at some point.

Important point to make too, is if you do do it, make sure you declare it on your insurance!!

Surely just a remap leaves no evidence of having been done, so an insurance company would never be able to tell? Only if you added a physical chip would there be a visible modification.

ses6jwg

rev_henry wrote: »

Surely just a remap leaves no evidence of having been done, so an insurance company would never be able to tell? Only if you added a physical chip would there be a visible modification.

no there is a counter on the ecu that shows they have been remapped.

I have a remapped Skoda Fabia 1.9 TDI using the VAG PD130 engine.

It is 130bhp as standard and is now around 175bhp.

Go for a proper ECU remap rather than a plug in chip affair.

And ask for advice on owners forums on the best remaps as the poor ones will result in blown turbos and clutches.

Mine is Performance Torque.

Eric_Pisch

Red_Cat wrote: »

But why don't manufacturers provide that from the start? Well for them they have many different targets to meet, such as fuel economy, power, engine emissions, longevity/reliability, cold starting, turbo performance etc.

So from all these requirements, they calibrate many engines over many hours to get the best compromise they can and that is what goes into production.

Not that straight forward, they also reduce power for marketing / model considerations and occasionally knock a few bhp of so they have can increase the life of the unit in newer models.

Many manufacturers have sold identical engines just remapped to lower power so they can charge for a "model jump". My mate was a peugeot mechanic and remapped a couple of our engines to "more exspensive" models with Pug maps with no issues.

as everyone else says, remap only