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-   -   Tuning Box versus Remaps (Diesel tuning) (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/modifications-accessories/70162-tuning-box-versus-remaps-diesel-tuning-6.html)

Hey Sanju,
I have an XUV and have been looking at options to ramp up the power, and if possible mileage..Visited Four Seasons and was told that i can install a Spider box on my XUV. This would set me back by approximately 29000, but they claim it would improve power by 40% (that's a lot) and ALSO increase mileage by 20%. Now if i calculate this, my XUV will now be 192 horses and give me mileage of 13?? Sounds too good to be true.
Any thoughts people?

I have a RD box, which makes the same claims. My take on this is that these nos are something like kmpl figs reported under test conditions. Also diff engines respond differently to tuning boxes. Eg. apparently the swift goes berserk with the box. In the xuv, its more like a 20% gain, which is not too bad. Also the emphasis is more on driveability than outright acceleration. Its almost as if the power buildup is lower down the rev range, so if u need to accelerate from low speeds in a high gear, there is seldom need to downshift, whereas in stock mode u wud definitely have to move down a gear. Makes driving a bit more effortless. This is not to say that pickup doesn't improve, a bit of tyre squealing can be achvd in the second gear if u so desire. All in all a definite improvement in surge across all gears. As far as fuel consumption is concerned, havnt noticed any change.
A worthwhile investment I wud say. Although the rd box is cheaper at around 20k. Hope this helps.

Hey Guys,

I plan to remap my DZire ZDi in near future mainly to improve my in-city drive-ablity & highway cruise-ability.
So, I have been reading about remapping a lot on this forum & elsewhere.

1. Wolf switchable maps. The best thing which I like about these switchable maps is the Stock mode. For those rare occasions when my car is driven by friends/family I can switch over to stock mode and hand over my car without any worries. Also, while giving the car to service center, I can switch the map over to stock mode.
Also they claim to be having a mastery in MJD engine. But they are pretty uncommon & I have not read many reviews about them.


2.Pete's seems to be one of the most common remaps and their loading in Delhi is being done by Autopsyche. These are the fixed standard maps created by the global pete's team, which I guess will meet my requirements pretty well.


3.T-O-T: Having read a lot about them on t-bhp, I feel these guys seem to be quite an expert in remapping. Their tweaking/customization ability is immense. My personal preference is a bit towards Tune o tronics, only because of the in-detail first hand experiences of Kryptonite & others on this forum.

Apart from these there are Kiirus & Code6 tuners as well.

I cannot decided which one to go for? Any suggestions/help please:
My main concern is the car's reliability aspect. I do not want to be left stranded with my family in the middle of nowhere on the highways.

BHPian mistakenguy has Wolf'd as well Pete'd his Punto 90bhp.

He says that Wolf remaps are better in every single way over Petes.

Get in touch with him and am sure he will be able to answer all your queries.

My Swift is remapped by Code6 and i'm very happy with the performance of the car, in the city and on the highway.

None of them will give you a tune aggressive enough to sacrifice the reliability of your vehicle. But be sure to drive sensibly post remap.

I have a 2012 Polo TDi, which as everybody knows is lethargic at low speeds, but great at higher RPMs. I was looking at possibilities of improving the low end grunt and negate the turbo lag, mainly for city driving. I'm thinking of getting it Pete'd, however I do have questions on

1. Reliability - would it serve the purpose
2. Practicality - how much does the power figures shown actually translate to real world
3. Warranty - will it void the warranty, given I have an extended warranty.
4. Maintenance - any special attention to be given after the modification is done, so as to not to screw up the remap.

Apart from getting the box, are there any other options I can also look at?

Hi Ankit,
Like Sankar told above, I don't think any tuner would give you a map aggressive enough to leave you stranded when out on a drive.

Coming to the remaps mentioned above, I've used both Pete's and Wolf remaps on my car. Here are my observations on both.

Pete's: My Punto 90 hp was remapped by Pete's at Cochin in the last week of February and the map remained on the car till last month. My major requirement was to improve the drivability of the 90 hp, which has an annoying low end performance. The Pete's map bumped up the midrange by a great margin, while the lag still remained there. This meant that I still had to keep switching gears to remain in the turbo zone.

The car used to smoke heavily under acceleration and I thought of it as a characteristic of the MJD since I had seen many MJDs smoked heavily under acceleration. I remained happy with the map, till I drove a wolf remapped car last month.

Wolf Switchable Maps:As the name suggests, the biggest advantage of the Wolf maps is that you get 5 maps( Stock to a very powerful Map 4) to choose from, depending on the way you would want to drive the car.

My biggest grouse of the annoying turbo lag was addressed very well by Wolf. The wolf team listened patiently to my requirements and kept making changes to the maps till I was satisfied. The car is much more linear to drive and it feels more powerful. The number of gearshifts that I used to do with the Pete's map have come down by a great extent.

Another advantage has been that the car is smoking much lesser than even the stock map now.

PS: Latest news has it that Wolf has been tweaking my map and has promised an update soon.

Hi mistakenguy,

How much does it cost please? And are they present in Bangalore? If the vehicle is in warranty, can it be taken out before going to the service center? In your personal opinion, is it suggested to go for it while jn warranty period?

Best regards,
Whitesquall

Hi whitesquall,

The wolf team is based in Cochin and travels to all major cities once in a while to connect with customers and remap vehicles.

When going to the service center, you can switch to the stock map and give. Once you are out, you can again switch to your chosen map. Also, most times, the A.S.S can not detect the remap as Wolf resets the flash counter while flashing their map.

Will PM you the contact of the Wolf Team.

Thanks for your response buddy. So that rules out the Pete's for me, as I too am looking for better in-city drive-ability.

Regd Wolf's switchable maps, how useful do you find the multiple maps?
I feel that the map being used the most would be performance+efficiency combo. When do you use the other maps? The FE map, does it decrease the drive-ability as compared to stock?

I have never noticed any smoke in my 15,000 KM driving of DZire. Neither have I seen other Swift/Dzire/Punto smoking. Is it that the car smokes only above 4K RPMs, so its really a rare scenario?

I don't have an FE map as such. All the maps are progressively more powerful than the stock map.

Maps of my choice are Map 2,3 and 4. Map 2/3 in city/regular use and Map 4 always on highways. I switch to the stock map, if and when someone else has to drive the car :I Rule:

I've noticed smoking in all these above mentioned vehicles under heavy acceleration. Mostly at 3 K+ rpms. If you want to see it better, try chasing a car with tuning boxes.

Remaps are any day better from tuning boxes, hands down. Coming to reliability aspect, it depends on the tuner. They tweak ECU and that has to be precise. A good tuner like Kiirus, T-O-T and Petes know their work, so reliability isn't an issue.

I have a remapped Ford Fiesta 1.4 TDCi by Kiirus and its a blast to drive it. Goes like a pocket rocket. There is a single map and it delivers on every aspect of fuel efficiency getting increased by 0.5 Kmpl and does 70+ Kmph in second gear.

See if there is tuner in NCR region who has a tie up with any mentioned tuner. I belive Kiirus has one.

Its dependent on tuner. With a good tuner, the map given by him is well within tolerance limit and there wont be any issues. VW cars are remapped across globe.

You would see a 25% increase in power and torque figures. There would be day and night difference in a remapped and stock car. Once you get addicted to remapped car, you just wouldn't like driving stock. After remap it takes about 100 Kms for ECU to learn it and get adapted.

Technically remap voids warranty. But its undetectable by VAS scan at VW. Unless highly qualified VW technician at Chakan does a scan, no one can detect it. Just that, you would be required to ask VW guys to not update ECU at every service as it would erase remap. Even if they do it, tuners would re-write remap again free of cost.

Your brakes and tires should be in good condition all the time. With greater power comer more responsibility. Servicing would be at normal schedule.

Go in for remap and you won't regret it.

Thank you so much for the replies @el_lobo_6061.
Makes my belief in remaps stronger :). All that is left to do now is to find a good tuner, not sure how tough that is as I stay in Hyderabad, the mod scene here is not very big AFAIK.

Slightly OT, but that gives you a reason to drive down to Bangalore or to Cochin for the remap! :D It will give you the opportunity to test the remap and how it has improved the drive on your way back as well.

Back to topic, diesel tuning will benefit from a properly done remap as is evidenced by the T-o-T remapped Rapid on the forum which is going strong after many miles without a hitch! So take your pick of the tuner and get the remap done.

agree: Thats right Abhinav. However, I'd still prefer finding someone here in Hyd itself since it might require frequent visits so, I'd really not want reasons to drive down to Bangalore frequently :D

Btw, how much time does it usually take for a remap? I'm sure they'd have maps readily available lets say for a Polo, which would maybe increase the fuel efficiency by say an x% and improve the low end grunt by a y%, but what if it needs more customization as per my needs? will they entertain a fussy guy like me?