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I'm considering getting a tuning box from DTS chiptuning. Basically a small box that plugs directly into the common rail and enhances BHP by about 35, improves fuel consumption (as the engine does not have to work so hard beating the awful lag the 220d gets when you accelerate in low speed) and apparantly due to the higher than really needed tolerances built into the engine does no harm whatsoever...!

They cost about £350 and sent in the post to fit yourself. You unplug the plug from your common rail, plug it into the little box and then just plug the little box into the common rail and connect the box to the Battery also.

Has anyone had any expereinces of these, good or bad?

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I'm considering getting a tuning box from DTS chiptuning. Basically a small box that plugs directly into the common rail and enhances BHP by about 35, improves fuel consumption (as the engine does not have to work so hard beating the awful lag the 220d gets when you accelerate in low speed) and apparantly due to the higher than really needed tolerances built into the engine does no harm whatsoever...!

They cost about £350 and sent in the post to fit yourself. You unplug the plug from your common rail, plug it into the little box and then just plug the little box into the common rail and connect the box to the battery also.

Has anyone had any expereinces of these, good or bad?

I've have not done this but two things come to mind which others might also comment on.

Does this modification affect your Insurance upwardly??

Does this modification affect your emmissions??

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i have a spider tuning box and it does make a good improvement to overall performance with the midrange benefiting most.fuel economy hasn't changed either way.if you are expecting dramatic reduction of turbo lag,you may be disappointed.

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Does this modification affect your Insurance upwardly??

Yes it does, you could take the risk and not tell then although if you did have a serious accident you would have to remove before an assessor got anywhere near your car... Most premiums with these add an additional £50 or so to yearly premium... Although if tried to palm it off as a fuel saving device they might not charge

Does this modification affect your emmissions??

If anything it will improve the emissions as the fuel burns more efficiently as it is injected at a higher pressure.. I know a few guys have them on their Astra's and have toyed with idea, thinking about getting a BMW and was looking at getting it chipped and came across this site Chip Site

Big claims for £50 less, also they confirm what I was told by another company that the Lexus was hard to Chip due to the ECU set up but looks like some clever folk have worked it out :)

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No experience on lexus but I had a bmw 120d and put on a Dragon tuning box - easy to fit and exactly as you have described.

Manufacturers claimed to be about 30-35bhp added. Dont think it felt as much as that and found it made little or no difference in low gear.It did not improve turbo lag but it certainly smoothed out acceleration and car was a bit more punchy higher up the gear box.

Not sure on emissions but it improved economy - there was 8 different settings on it - towards economy or performance - I had it set bang in middle and got 49mpg regularly in mixed driving compared to 43mpg before fitting so easily paid for itself.- Think new cost was about the same £350 but mine was second hand.

Insurance - I would definitely declare it - they will do anything to avoid paying out .- Wont make much of an increase if any. Maybe budget for about £30 extra .

hope that helps

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No experience on lexus but I had a bmw 120d and put on a Dragon tuning box - easy to fit and exactly as you have described.

Manufacturers claimed to be about 30-35bhp added. Dont think it felt as much as that and found it made little or no difference in low gear.It did not improve turbo lag but it certainly smoothed out acceleration and car was a bit more punchy higher up the gear box.

Not sure on emissions but it improved economy - there was 8 different settings on it - towards economy or performance - I had it set bang in middle and got 49mpg regularly in mixed driving compared to 43mpg before fitting so easily paid for itself.- Think new cost was about the same £350 but mine was second hand.

Insurance - I would definitely declare it - they will do anything to avoid paying out .- Wont make much of an increase if any. Maybe budget for about £30 extra .

hope that helps

Thanks for the replies - Insurance quoted just £25 extra but Lexus said it will invalidate the warranty so i might just cancel the warranty! I'll let you know how I get on with it.

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Fuel economy remained the same as before on a whole over the 4mths, I took the box off to sell the car, and have driven it for the last week without the box on and the fuel economy has pretty much stayed the same, so I wouldn't consider it a fuel saving device.

The torque does'nt really shift any lower, however the torque is raised between 2,000 - 2,500 rpm to 480N/m so you do hit 400N/m a little earlier, but the main advantage is that the acceleration is smoother, I find that the car without the tuning box attached lags below 2,000rpm, and tails off after 3,000rpm, the box seems to let the car pick up earlier, its become smoother and gets into the torque band a bit quicker like the new BMW common rail engines do. It won't improve torque at lower revs in the respect that sixth gear wont become any more useable, however if you accelerate in fifth from 1600rpm it will pick up quite quickly, and will keep accelerating till the redline,

In terms of engine or car problems, I haven't experienced any, and given that the tunning box doesn't offer huge swells of power I could quite easily beleive that it wouldn't cause any problems long term as long as the car isn't hammered daily, I have one issue however which isn't actually related to the tunning box, but the short ratio of first gear does mean that you can quite easily shock load the gearbox in first by trying to accelerate away quickly, but this is just an inherent flaw with the Lexus 'crazy' gearbox ratios, and the reason why I've opted to get an automatic instead.

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ECU remapping makes a considerable difference and will affect both economy and performance, especially with engines fitted with a Turbo.

I have had two cars 'chipped' in the past, a VW Golf 1.8T and also an Audi A6 2.5TDi. My experinces from both are as follows:-

1. The MPG will stay similar IF you drive sensibly but as you are more than likely to drive that bit quicker as the engine becomes less constrained, expect to see a reduction in fuel consumption directly proportional to how heavy your right foot is!

2. You WILL get a much smoother drive as the standard maps used in ECU's have to cover a variety of driving styles so is really a compromise set up for everyone. The car is very controllable, safe and tolerant, the engine revs and fuelling is restricted and all-in-all, it is designed to give 'joe average' a pleasing experince with reasonable performance, fuel emissions and economy. Remapping WILL take away these standard settings and introduce new parameters to make the engine perform more effectively which will affect the MPG with different driving styles. The whole experience is as though 200kgs have been taken out of the car. It should feel more nimble and free-revving and more exciting to drive.

3. The downsides? It could affect your warranty as the ECU will add additional strain to the components by virtue of the reprogramming that encourages this and if any problem occurs as a result, don't be surprised if the dealers want nothing to do with it. That said, I declared to the dealers that my cars had been chipped and they were not that bothered at all and just carried on with the servicing (if fact the mechanics were all too keen to test out the cars!) Also, with insurance, you should declare the car has been chipped otherwise it will invalidate your cover. I have always used Adrian Flux specaillist car insurance in the past for my mofdified cars and they were excellent regarding this.

My Golf was lifted from 150bhp at flywheel as standard to over 250bhp with ECU remap, upgraded turbo and injectors etc etc.

Expect 20-25% increase in power with an ECU remap on Petrol Turbo cars and 15-20% on Oil burners. Non turbo cars it varies between 5-15% depending on fuelling and carburation systems. Chaning the exhaust to a performance smooth bore stainless steel system also helps as they allow the engine to breath more efficiently.

There are many chip tuners out there but in my experience, go to someone who has experince at tuning the car that you drive and can talk to owners who have had the work done. I don't know if I can say this here but Superchips are excellent. Both my Golf and A6 were tuned using their software and the results were well worthwhile, putting a smile on my face everytime I got behind the wheel! Some offer a download capability via the OBD port, others offer a control unit that plugs in allowing you to switch between performance, economy, standard and valet modes.

Chip tuning boxes and ECU reprograms do make a difference but if you are looking for ultimate performance, a lot more than this needs to be done to make the car truly great.

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