24wheeler

Thousands of people use Tunit power boxes over here and I have never heard of any real problem. The other big player is Steinbauer who are very big in trucks as well as tractors and cars. Their boxes are around twice the price and when used with common-rail engines tend to be of the type that increases the time that fuel is injected. I don't believe that either has a significant advantage over the other generally but one type might be more effective with some engines compared to others.

At the end of the day the only way these things get more power and torque is to inject more fuel. Frankly anything that injects up to 20% more fuel at any point compared to standard is likely to have the same risks.
Its not something that is without risk, that is for sure. The risk is certainly not proportionate to how much you pay for the product, that is just silly.

digitalwok

I am of the philosphy that nothing is free in this world aka you get what you pay for (at least to a certain extent). The tough part is getting through all the BS and marketing hype.

Thanks for all the posts and in the end what I am looking for is not the cheapest product but the best value. I agree with the why spend $60K on a car just to put a cheap part in it. I am leaning torwards vendors like B&B and MTM as they have a good reputation in the industry for performance. Whether their prices are inflated is anyones guess.

24wheeler

You are a marketing dream customer. We don't get many people like you down our way. My life would be so much more simple if there were.
Surely a product that gives 20% more power and some extra torque, the same as for a competing product, for half the cost with no drawbacks is the one that gives best value?
I should add that I have no relationship with any such product and I currently don't have any chipped engines although I have experience with Tunit, Steinbauer and Diesel Bob chips. No serious problems with any of them although some engines will throw fault codes with some brands of chip.
My friend has just fitted a Tunit to his GL320 and I helped fit it, a ten minute job. It made a big difference to performance and the engine is smooth and quiet throughout its rev range.
He also has one fitted to his Toyota 90/Prado 3.0 diesel and while that is very powerful the delivery is not as satisfactory. \Probably to protect the engine from excess torque at low revs, that one increases the power at 2000 revs as if a switch is thrown. Its dead below those revs and if one is caught at lower revs it just doesn't go [its a manual] until suddenly it shoots off. This has been on the Toyota for over 100,000 miles and there has been no operating problem yet. His brother has another brand of chip on his Land Rover Discovery [LR2] and that has the same sort of on/off performance. Personally I find both hatefull to drive and I would rip the chip out of both. I suspect though that an auto transmission would mask this characteristic completely.

digitalwok

Do you know if the Tunit works with the US version of the 3.0 TDI? The current listing states that the orginal torque is 368FT/LBS and the US one is 406FT/LBS.

chirf4

will MTM void the warranty?

24wheeler

Audi upped the tuning about a year or so ago. Yes it will work with the newer engine. It works on percentages.
Bought a magazine today called 'What Diesel' which, coincidentally carries a test drive of the 3.0D Q7 alongside a Discovery/LRIII. The point is, it is chock-full of ads for tuning chips and re-maps, from UKŁ180 upwards.

Railflyer

Those ads are for UK or Continental 3.0 TDI's. Until they say these chips or boxes are good for US DPF with ADblue, I'd stay away.

24wheeler

You think they build something 'special' for the USA? :-)

Of course it will work! Many vehicles and trucks have been running adblue here for ages. The chip isn't fussed whether it is an adblue version of the engine or not. The same performance module is used for all CR type diesel engines with only the loom being changed to suit the vehicle. Often the loom is identical as well due to the CR components being made by the same company. For instance, Bosch make the components for Audi, Mercedes and BMW. Exactly the same performance module was swapped by me from a BMW X5 built in Alabama to my British built Range Rover.

Railflyer

I am still not going to put anything on until it is a US supported item. My GMC has the same CR system as a cummins engine in Dodge trucks. Tuners are not interchangeable in those even though the CR system is the same. The CR system as far as the injectors and pump system is the same, but each use their own engine ecu to run it with their own proprietary software.

Your Alabama built X5 is still a Eurospec X5 and is not allowed to be registered in the US. There are differences and if those differences were small enough to cause a high EGT and burn an engine up I don't want that. I'll wait for a US approved tuner. I know here in the US if you buy a Canadian product that isn't authorized to be sold in the US and then have a problem, they will deny warranty support. Because they already said they were not for US consumption.

bluestraveller

Bluestraveller, I agree with your point in general. Two things however:

1) If point in the exhaust flow where the adblue fluid is being injected is downstream of the last feedback point to the ECU, there really should not be an interaction between any of these tuning chips and the Bluetec system.

2) Audi has started to sell the same Adblue-equipped Q7 TDI in Europe (Top Gear had a review). So if there is actually a problem with these tuner solutions these should surface and get fixed fairly quickly