C5 Diesel tuning box

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SaabC5
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C5 Diesel tuning box

Post by SaabC5 »

I bit the bullet last week and bought a tuning box for my 2.2HDi from eBay. I was initially sceptical about it but after a week of having it fitted i'm pleasantly surprised by the result. The tuning box was set on the default tune and is adjustably both up & down for power. I find the car delivers power a lot more smoothly than previous and definately shows a power increase, uphill performance especially seems better. MPG is slightly improved as well......major bonus. If you wanted to purchase one for yourself the vendors name on eBay was djdafish and they do tuning boxes for both Siemens & Bosch engine management systems. Look on top of the injectors and if theres a pipe between them you have a Bosch system, no pipes = Siemens.
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Re: C5 Diesel tuning box

Post by waynedance »

Do these do any damage to the engine or cause more wear?
What did you pay for it?
What do people on here think to these boxes?
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Re: C5 Diesel tuning box

Post by corsehf »

Purchased one (different box) a year or so ago for the same car, have fitted it 3 times and on each occasion after about 3 days, it put the car into 'limp home' mode. At least 14 differing settings could be had. The Manufacturer claimed it was my engine at fault and that i should check my EGR.......... as a coincidence, i'm doing that this weekend!!
Not convinced!!
Last edited by corsehf on 11 Feb 2012, 00:36, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: C5 Diesel tuning box

Post by citroenxm »

i have one fitted to my xantia hdi.. and wouldnt be without it now.. ive done 40k in it.. no more signs of any wear besides wear is lack of maintenance not extraction of more efficient ppwer..

my xantia still doesnt use any oil or water.. however the box NEEDS to be correct for the car.. i tried my box in a c5 2.0 hdi 8v - identical engine - and the car threw its dummy out and didnt like it with an anti pollution fault.. back on my xantia its been puuuurrrrrrfect... smoother lower power delivery.. quicker much stronger in gear pull.. same economy at around 43mpg... with a boot full constantly of tools and 70 - 80 mph dual carrage driving...

GET ONE! Well worth it.. i dont look back.
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Re: C5 Diesel tuning box

Post by Northern_Mike »

Yeah. I've got a cheapy one on my 2.0HDi Berlingo. It makes a decent enough difference in default tune, I haven't tried twisting the screw yet. Definitely more low-down grunt - it'll pull from 30mph in 4th easily now, where it would not before, and it is doing 48mpg at the moment.
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Re: C5 Diesel tuning box

Post by charentejohn »

I did, and still might, consider one as I wouldn't mind boosting my HDI 90 to about 110. From what I can see they basically adjust the info going to the computer to add more fuel, so more power. Makes sense as just altering the data passed to the computer ?

Can't see a problem with increased power as the engine can handle 110bhp power so just a case of how it obtains that. I wouldn't want to take a 110 up to 130+ for instance as it is going above production output for a model, but 90 to 110 sounds ok.

I would guess quality and track record are important so would buy a known manufacturer's box. I would also want to know exactly what it is adjusting to do this, not good enought to someone to say it works it's magic. Not a trade secret, or shouldn't be, to say what they adjust and why. This still leaves a manufacturer to add their own programming to make theirs better than others.

The ones I looked at were, for no other reason than I found them on the internet.
http://www.chipexpress.com/products/358/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; (so far if I had to I think I would go for this)
http://www.tdi-tuning.co.uk/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://www.tuningbox.com/en/home.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Video of fitting here http://www.tdi-tuning.co.uk/installation_examples.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Still pondering if it is worth it as HDI90 goes ok as it is, may consider it later, maybe as Xmas present ? But not unless I can find out exactly what they alter and see if it makes sense to me.
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Re: C5 Diesel tuning box

Post by SaabC5 »

corsehf wrote:Purchased one (different box) a year or so ago for the same car, have fitted it 3 times and on each occasion after about 3 days, it put the car into 'limp home' mode. At least 14 differing settings could be had. The Manufacturer claimed it was my engine at fault and that i should check my EGR.......... as a coincidence, i'm doing that this weekend!!
Not convinced!!
They were very specific about what sort of HDi i had, whether it was Bosch or Siemens, FAP or not, 1.6,2.0 or 2.2 and engine code with specific power output. They also had 2 people that had money returned no questions asked because they couldn't get the box working (both had left positive feedback about their customer service). Instructions provided were very concise including how to solve "limp home" mode faults (wiring issues most common cause apparently). As with all eBay major purchases i do extensive research on the vendor's feedback before making a purchase and i would advise anybody to do the same.
waynedance wrote:Do these do any damage to the engine or cause more wear?
What did you pay for it?
What do people on here think to these boxes?
All engines have an inbuilt tolerance to accomodate extra power, its just a case of knowing what extra power they can handle. I figured if the latest incarnation of the 2.2HDi can produce 170+ bhp then tuning it to approx 165 wouldn't be a problem. Link to the tuning box here... http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/170747047957
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Re: C5 Diesel tuning box

Post by Chris570 »

the way mine works is basically to fool the ecu into thinking the rail pressure is lower than it is, a modern take on turning the funscrew on the TD's. Mine alters it dynamically though so at tick over it leaves well alone. I'm pretty sure i bought mine from djdafish as well. 20k on mine now and i've noticed nothing bad. I do have more grunt at lower revs and it seems to have made the 3250rpm pre-injection cut off more defined.
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Re: C5 Diesel tuning box

Post by speederuption »

Hi
These tuning boxes only give a slight improvement and they work on altering fuel pressure which confuse the ecu.
Please be careful as i remap vehicles for a living and i have had people phone me up after fitting these devices with
catastrophic outcome.

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Re: C5 Diesel tuning box

Post by CitroJim »

speederuption wrote: These tuning boxes only give a slight improvement and they work on altering fuel pressure which confuse the ecu.
Indeed, on an HDi that's all they can do and I personally worry about them greatly. Mr. PSA spent millions in developing the ECU software to be a good compromise between power, emissions, economy and above all, reliability. In the main he did a good job and certainly PSA themselves refined the HDi software between the earliest and latest versions of the HDi quite substantially as DickieG will testify.

There is a world of difference between these tuning boxes and a proper professional remap.

I drive a late Xantia HDi and it's pretty good all-round. I feel no need of any tuning box on it.

Generally I've never been one to 'play around' with any vehicle and that included fiddling around with the 'funscrews' on Bosch pumped 1.9TDs. I value reliability and fuel economy above sheer grunt every time.

I have driven Activas with manual boost controllers and I must admit they go like scalded cats and are incredible fun. Today though I took my absolutely standard Activa for quite an spirited (by my standards) drive and wondered what all the fuss was about and if the fitting of a manual boost controller really was worth the trouble. It had plenty enough zip for me. Today I've driven all three of my cars and all of them have to my mind quite adequate power and go for the purposes they serve.

None of us know the long-term effects on reliability of putting tuning boxes on an HDi nor of putting a boost controller on an Activa. On a C5 particularly how does it affect the life of the DMF? On the Activa there's already a case I know of where the clutch has complained over much more grunt going through it following a chipped ECU and a boost hike. The clutch may have been near the end of it's life and the hike hastened it but was it on its way out or is the clutch just a bit marginal when given more power to deliver? When is an HDI or heavily boosted Activa going to pop a head gasket following a tuning box fitment. It's a seriously non-funny job in each to replace the head gaskets...

Only time will tell. For now I'm going to keep my engines tuned as intended.
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Re: C5 Diesel tuning box

Post by citroenxm »

Well As I said above, 41k LATER, and NOTHING to worry about.. my clutch is no worse, my fuel consumption stays around the 42 average, she uses no oil or water, and there no more or less smoke behind me either..

I think manufactures UNDER power their engines on purpose, more so for emmission laws rather then engine atrain etc...
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Re: C5 Diesel tuning box

Post by Citroening »

We've one of these tuning boxes on our Xantia HDi 90 and it works well... :-D

Very easy to fit too - just a couple of plugs and that's it! :-D
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Re: C5 Diesel tuning box

Post by DickieG »

Like Jim I'm very wary of tuning boxes, firstly you must inform your insurance company as they are visible and in the event of a serious prang your car will be impounded and if a tuning box is found then you've given your insurance company the perfect get out clause for paying out.

As for remaps how do you know that the remap is a proper professional job and not just a disguised adjustment of fuel pressure?

Paul you say you are happy with 43 mpg, I'd be horrified and be getting out my Lexia if my HDi had such poor consumption figures.
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Re: C5 Diesel tuning box

Post by citroenxm »

Richard...

43mpg.. WITH a boot FULL of my tools ALL the time!! So thats a bit of extra weight... plus 200k on original injecotrs, Im heavy right footed, where Im often sitting at 75 - 80mph.. or stop start driving...I dont accellerate lightly either.

Considering my old SX TD Xantia struggled 40mpg, I find 43mpg good. Thats an average though, so she could be dooing 45 plus but not all the time..
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Re: C5 Diesel tuning box

Post by charentejohn »

Like I said I did and still would consider it but do consider that a boost would probably not benefit me much, only to say that my car is now a 110. Not much call to accelerate quickly or general power worries for me personally.

That is just my driving at the moment (not always the case in my youth though) so no rush to change unless I see a reason to. If I did more towing maybe ?
Have to admit I find the HDI90 quick and smooth enough, especially for a large car. I drove a few 110s before I bought this one and they were more powerful but this is fine at the moment, still getting used to using the revs rather than changing too soon as it seems happy to rev like a petrol engine.

Not a great problem but gearbox ratios must also play a part. My 90 seems (to me anyway) to have very close ratio 1st and 2nd, presumably to make the most of the available power, and wider other gears. I took time to adjust to changing from 3rd to 2nd and kept doing it too soon, getting better at it now.
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