[Raosaheb Desai]

Originally Posted by goandude

could you elaborate on this "not so satisfactory" as quite a few forum members have had good, measurable and significant increase in performance with Pete.

Yes, I also had a good performance gain in octy and swift. But in swift, after some time there was no marginal difference in stock and with pete's.
Fuel pressure pump leaked at 90k. Box removed, and no difference in performance.
Also my experience with Laura DSG is not so great, turbo lag was quite evident and also not impressed with overall power gain.

I don't blame Pete's box, this might be my individual experience.
Infact I initially inquired about Pete's box for X Trail, but I thought price quoted was too much.

[kdadi]

Originally Posted by Raosaheb Desai

Thanks
FE dropped considerably, from 11 to 8.5 kmpl. Maybe I am driving like a drag racer in last two days!!!
Also battery was disconnected while chip box installation and now onboard computer is making new calculations after reboot.
May get proper figures after a while.

BTW, I didnt disconnect the battery when installing the chip, was it required?

[aks_karthik]

Originally Posted by kdadi

BTW, I didnt disconnect the battery when installing the chip, was it required?

Nope, it's not required for Race Chip Tunning Box.
I called them up and enquired as i too did'nt disconnect battery while installing the chip.

But Pete's box needs Battery Disconnection. I think, This information is there in the Installation Guide itself.

[Raosaheb Desai]

Originally Posted by kdadi

BTW, I didnt disconnect the battery when installing the chip, was it required?

Though they don't recommend to do so, its always advisable to disconnect the battery before any electronic or electrical modifications.
Also, on board computer diagnostics is recommended after any electronic modification.

[kdadi]

Update:
I was getting a "cluck" "cluck" sound whenever I would have 1.5 turns on my steering in either direction. Got this checked and found out that the ball bearing piece coupling the strut to the body had to be replaced. This costed me 3500 INR (overall), since I didnt have the extended warranty. Now the sound has gone & it's a breeze :-)

[amit_mechengg]

so how has the experience been so far with the Race Chip? did you notice increase in fuel consumption? how is the engine temp etc after a long drive?

[kdadi]

Originally Posted by amit_mechengg

so how has the experience been so far with the Race Chip? did you notice increase in fuel consumption? how is the engine temp etc after a long drive?

No problem so far
I dont know about increase in engine temperature...Usually I have not seen the temperature needle go beyond midway.

[amit_mechengg]

i am in Germany currently and i am getting too much tempted to buy the Race chip. but somehow i am not too convinced with how these tuning boxes work.
Firstly they just increase the fuel pressure & quantity and do not increase any boost.
In later stages of life may be the fuel pressure pump wont be able to cope up and die.
i am yet to find a tuning box that works on both- the common rail as well as turbo boost.

yet spending 129 euros is not much to give it a try

[aks_karthik]

Originally Posted by amit_mechengg

i am in Germany currently and i am getting too much tempted to buy the Race chip. but somehow i am not too convinced with how these tuning boxes work.
Firstly they just increase the fuel pressure & quantity and do not increase any boost.
In later stages of life may be the fuel pressure pump wont be able to cope up and die.
i am yet to find a tuning box that works on both- the common rail as well as turbo boost.

yet spending 129 euros is not much to give it a try

Check my thread. I have updated about Race Chip tuning box.
Is there any difference in tripmeter before and after installing Tuning box. Seems, there is a huge increase say some 2-3 kms in average consumption.
Earlier trip meter and tank fill method FE calculation has some .5-1 kms difference.
Though Tripmeter showed 21.2 kms as average consumption but I got 18 kms in tank fill method calculation. Difference is almost 3kms.
Any idea guys.

[Ash_bn]

@kdadi,

What is the race chip settings that your running on your linea. I got mine delivered 2 days.

regards
Ashok

[aks_karthik]

I am in default only. Plan to setup to 2nd level and check the power.

[figo_mba]

Originally Posted by aks_karthik

I am in default only. Plan to setup to 2nd level and check the power.

Are there 2 modes for race chip as well ? Is it only for the second version or it is there for basic version of race chip also ?

I have ordered for one through a friend in Germany and expecting that to come by in October (and pay from Oct salary)

I have decided to take the plunge so no point asking how it is doing I guess. Still how would you sum up your experience ?

[aks_karthik]

Originally Posted by figo_mba

Are there 2 modes for race chip as well ? Is it only for the second version or it is there for basic version of race chip also ?

I have ordered for one through a friend in Germany and expecting that to come by in October (and pay from Oct salary)

I have decided to take the plunge so no point asking how it is doing I guess. Still how would you sum up your experience ?

It has 9 settings. Please check Race-chip site for more details.
From factory, it comes with Nominal power & FE.
We can increase as our wish.

[opendro]

My Linea must be the first one to be chipped with RD (Feb 2010, as birthday gift from my wife)

BTW, you cannot test accelerations in GPS. I have sports Garmin Forerunner 305, which is supposed to work better than a cellphone GPS or a navigation device. Yet, it is not good enough to measure acceleration as it will still have inaccuracies (in coordinate/distance and thus time/speed).

By Feb 2010, I had driven just about 20,000 Km within warranty (I bought in Jan 2009). I requested an aggressive mapping. Karthik and his team gave me a strong mid-range P1 setting and a P2 with strong top end setting. In a typical urgency, a typical gear up-shift in Linea MJD never lets the rpm fall below 2700 and P2 works well for this. I bought the HKS free flow air filter too from them.

Ever since purchase, I had thoroughly enjoyed it. I did face a problem though. One of the fuel rail injector gave me a scare. In one of my acceleration above 165 in P2 on highway gave a sudden death for a fraction of a second and MID showed - check engine though it was running fine after that.

I got out of the car. I could smell diesel. When I opened the bonnet, I could see a lot of diesel being spilled on the engine casing, right behind the fuel rail. I could figure out the cause of the leak. I removed the box (easy as I didn't have the air filter box). Went on the stock. Everything seemed to be fine though I could still feel slight diesel smell whenever I got out, but no diesel to be seen stagnant.

Later I came back to RD. People there gave me some confidence that nothing that could be caused by the tuning box and they would help me (through their contacts in Tata Service and/or using their knowledge about such issues) to get any damaged part under warranty. I went to the service center in Hosur road. There they don't service Linea/Punto. But, they took the car for a wash so that they could find out the leak. The service engineer came back after the wash and told me that one of the fuel injector rail was slightly loose. They had tightened it. Ever since then, no problem.

I also had another instance of clutch failure and it turned out to be some small pin that needed to be replaced. I'm not sure if it was caused by the extra torque from the tuning box. So far good.

People at RD told me from the beginning itself that they would replace my box with a light weight box with remote instead of the wired switch. They kept their promise. I was one of the earliest to be given that the new box. But they told me that they would want to put a mild setting to start with and asked me to observe. I wanted to run a dyno test too.

But this time I, not the car, got problem. I joined a racing team called Cleated Warriors (biking). Almost all my weekends were filled with trainings for racing on bikes. I had completed a 200Km, 300Km, 400Km, 600Km Brevet rides in this season. So, I hardly touched the car.

RD had called me up only yesterday and asked my feedback. I told them that it lacks the punch that was with the older box. They asked me to come in whenever I had time. I went in today. They had given me an equally aggressive P2 setting now. It looks good, but I had hardly driven 3 Km. So, I will have to hold on for more tests. But I have more races to win. I missed my KTM half marathon podium by a minute. I have Nandi Hills race on bike in October (as part of Bangalore Bicycle Championships) and Bangalore Ultra in November. So, I doubt if I would ever have time to touch the car.

Anyways, I love the team in RD. Very enthusiastic team, very nice and pleasant to talk to. Down to earth. The thought of a local support was what made me go to RD instead of petes. I'm thoroughly satisfied.

[figo_mba]

Originally Posted by aks_karthik

It has 9 settings. Please check Race-chip site for more details.
From factory, it comes with Nominal power & FE.
We can increase as our wish.

Woah!! 9 settings ? That is awesome. I sincerely this is no dream.

I am a week away from the race chip from Germany.

aks i would need your support to know more about how your settings went;