Tuning Plug-in tuning boxes... in particular for the 1.9 Mjet 150bhp

[JonnyBoy]

Noticed some ads for these things in car mags lately, quite a few claiming to give "between 180 and 200bhp" along with better MPG, for somewhere between £250 and £400 (lots of companies seem to sell identical-looking boxes bearing different company logos!).

Does anyone here have any experience of them? Are the performance and economy gains worthwhile, and have the boxes caused any problems? And if the box is removed come service time, is it still detectable by Fiat dealers?

Spare me the "get it remapped" advice please - this is a non-starter for various reasons: it's a company car, it's still under warranty, and the dealer software updates reputedly overwrite the remap anyway!

Cheers,
Jonny

 

[GibBravo]

Was speaking to a tuning company about these, as far as they are aware they are normally undetectable.

The other option is to have your chip 'flashed' this is a downloadable remap, again generic, can be reinstalled after dealer services, also apparently these are also 'undetectable' as it resets the flash counter, but i did ask, what if the dealer had done an update moving this to one, i then got the remap, which put it back to zero, surely they would notice??

If you go this route i would go for one of the more reputable companies i.e. novitec, who specialise in fiat group cars, all the way upto ferraris. There box comes in at 4-500 euros, and for the t-jet takes it to 170bhp and a 40nm increase in torque.

 

[leebassman]

iv bein told theis plug in tunning boxes can do bad things to your car due to not bein tuned for your specific car. As its made for 1 car, and every car is different even when brand new

 

[Juliet Bravo]

I had one on my 307HDI and it worked OK - they basically fool the MAF sensor and it dumps a load more fuel in.

I doubt wether the MPG will increase probabley the opposite but it did improve the acceleration in all gears and increased the power band as well

Simple plug and play unit can be removed any time in seconds, supposedly cant be picked up but I always removed it