Hi i have just purchased a TMC motorsports tuning box for my panda multijet
Has anyone had any experiences with one of these I would be grateful for your comments especially if you have one on your 1.3 multijet...

There are a few threads floating about, this one for example:

https://www.fiatforum.com/panda/257823-tuning-box.html

I would be interested to hear if they are detrimental to the clutch as it is a bit of a weak spot even on a standard Mjet Panda.

Not sure that it is a weak spot mines on 100k original clutch but mostly used sympathetically on long journeys.

I've just been checking out the forum on clutch issues as my 50k Mjet has started slipping in 4th or 5th gear between 2 and 2.5k revs when pushed. Seems a fairly common issue on the forum. I've had it 3 months so not sure what sort of life it had before I got it. The clutch and gearbox is the same as the petrol cars (not 100hp),I think. They have torque figures around 65lb ft. The mjet engine was derated for the Panda. In normal g punto mode it puts out over 140lb ft if torques. They downrated it to 107lbft so to be easier on the clutch/weedy driveshafts. There are complaints on the forum of them going at 18k miles!. One person has got 120k out of it though. Gentle driving on long journeys with few gear changes is good for long clutch life. City driving less so!. I just wonder if upping the torque when Fiat deliberately down rated ot is a good idea and if anyone had kept their car long enough in an uprated state to assess how it affected the tranmission. I have thought about tuning mine too but not had the guts, then the slipping occurred!!

I tried a tuning box on mine and removed it. Not specifically the one you refer to but they all work on the same principle of extra fuel over and above the ECUs demands. The extra power was nice and my new clutch took it (they are marginal at best) but the extra fuel usage destroyed the whole reason for owning this car. Note that your trrip computer will claim you have better mpg because your ecu is believing you are using X amount of fuel when in reality you are using X x 1.25 or something similar so are therefore using a lighter throttle setting for the same speed. Only empirical methods will tell you your usage. I lost 5mpg.

yes, most performance modifications shorten the clutch or engine life.
chipping the engine in particular can cause rapid piston ring / main bearing wear because the loads it places on these parts are outside the manufacturers tolerations.

one thing worth doing though is regularly cleaning/replacing the air filter to enable the engine to breathe properly.

its worth remembering that if there really were huge improvements possible other than at the expense of poor fuel economy the manufacturers would do it

john

johnswlondon said:

its worth remembering that if there really were huge improvements possible other than at the expense of poor fuel economy the manufacturers would do it

Click to expand...

Not nessecarily, manufatures often limit performace for emissions etc to reduce the vehicles tax band.