Audi A7 TDI - TDI Tuning boxes / DTUK boxes

[Corv99]

Hi All

got a 2015 A7 TDI Quattro 272hp version … on 3 year PCP .. love the car , and been checking out the above boxes. has anyone got any experience of them at all, or a preference ? or Race trip maybe? they all seem to do similar

obviously like the idea of a bit more power, as they are great machines.. but a big consideration is a journey I do every few weeks of around 620 miles round trip.. all motorway and on Eco mode get 44 mpg , one trip last year ( warm day, some 50 zones on motorways, air con etc) actually got 51 mpg... so 15 to 20% extra on this would be great to be fair..

I'm likely to replace my A7 with its BiTDI big brother next as it does the job.. so re using the box.. reprograming etc appeals too..

I presume you have to remove prior to servicing etc is this straight forward enough to do ? is it? ?

and I would be telling my insurance company if I fitted it to the motor for sure..

Cheers

Edited by Corv99 on Sunday 26th January 18:00

[DuraAce]

Bank on extra power for sure but not extra mpg.

I've had at least 10 remaps/tuning boxes on various VAG cars... None have made any measurable difference to mpg in the long term.

[Corv99]

DuraAce said:

Bank on extra power for sure but not extra mpg.

I've had at least 10 remaps/tuning boxes on various VAG cars... None have made any measurable difference to mpg in the long term.

OK Dura.. that's interesting ..
my long drive is an ideal measure for MPG.. as its in traffic , and in no rush , so take it steady... was hoping maybe something additional with it, even though the power is always welcome!

[Belle427]

I had a dtuk box on a car for a few weeks and found it a pita as you had to adjust it yourself to find the best map, to be honest I could not feel a huge amount of difference on any of the maps.
I quickly sold it on and wouldn’t buy another, I’d always look for a reputable map unless it were from a known good supplier.

[DuraAce]

I'd favour a map over the tuning box for sure. Dodgy ground though if you are under warranty - they are detectable if people are looking for it. (which they will if you're claiming 10k+ if you're engine fails!)

[Corv99]

Belle427 said:

I had a dtuk box on a car for a few weeks and found it a pita as you had to adjust it yourself to find the best map, to be honest I could not feel a huge amount of difference on any of the maps.
I quickly sold it on and wouldn’t buy another, I’d always look for a reputable map unless it were from a known good supplier.

thanks Belle... I was thinking of them actually as they aren't too far from me..

[Corv99]

DuraAce said:

I'd favour a map over the tuning box for sure. Dodgy ground though if you are under warranty - they are detectable if people are looking for it. (which they will if you're claiming 10k+ if you're engine fails!)

yes that's why I,m not doing a map buddy :-)

[Reffro]

Had both TDI Tuning and DTUK products in the past on a variety of cars. I would choose the former if I was given with a choice of company to supply a tuning box.

TDI tuning product was very easy to fit, did not need to be fiddled with to avoid throwing engine codes and limp modes and provided the performance gains as advertised. I have run all my cars at Santa Pod to verify their performance. Results from the TDI tuning boxes are proven to match their claimed performance. In addition, there has been zero fuel economy penalty using the performance and when driven carefully, gave surprisingly good results.

DTUK boxes also gave improvements, but were much less consistent in daily use I'm afraid to say Though I haven't used DTUK recent product, having never looked back having started using TDI Tuning. Someone esle will need to provide comment on their more recent product.

[Olas]

A tuning box is the modern day equivalent of sticking a resistor in your CTS circuit - it just modifies the signal (lies to the ECU to get the desired outcome)

My preference is for bespoke calibration of every individual load cell, because every car Ian different and while the generic Approach is ok, they still leave headroom for accurate fine calibration.

[Corv99]

thanks gents..

I was leaning towards DT with it being fairly local.. but TDI seem to have a big following.. could be good marketing of course :-)

were you get same fuel economy for increased power Reffro? was that on the car DIC or actual real world?
if real world that's great.. and should in theory mean taking it easy would give some gains !

I know proper tune would be better Olas I got one on my supercharged Vette and it made massive difference ..
but plug in and get gains improvements, easy removal when needed, with no trace is the appeal for me here :-)

[Icehanger]

I ran a TDi tuning box on my old A6 Bitidi (still got it in the garage), it was a nice addition to the thump it already had and recommend it

I found on the higher settings it just over fueled and was constantly wanting to re-gen, the medium setting was the happy medium (Excuse the pun)
as others have said no decrease in fuel consumption and I removed it for servicing etc at the main dealer. I was honest and declared it on the insurance just in case, extra £20/year so rude not too.

Not sure i'm going to go tuning box or map on my current s6 and got 5 years of warranty with Audi and don't want to screw that up!

[Corv99]

Icehanger said:

I ran a TDi tuning box on my old A6 Bitidi (still got it in the garage), it was a nice addition to the thump it already had and recommend it

I found on the higher settings it just over fueled and was constantly wanting to re-gen, the medium setting was the happy medium (Excuse the pun)
as others have said no decrease in fuel consumption and I removed it for servicing etc at the main dealer. I was honest and declared it on the insurance just in case, extra £20/year so rude not too.

Not sure i'm going to go tuning box or map on my current s6 and got 5 years of warranty with Audi and don't want to screw that up!

ah the BiTDI .. that's what I wanted ultimately... maybe next time.. Ok that sounds good, I was thinking of the medium setting anyway rather than risking or pushing it too much … so that would be the same engine basically to my 272hp version .. was it straight forward to fit and remove? easy to access etc?

thanks

[Raven Flyer]

Just get written confirmation from the seller that the box won’t leave a use history that Audi can discover.

If they do discover it, your card will be flagged with a TD1 marker and VWFS won’t take it back. Nor will you have any warranty on your drivetrain.

[Reffro]

Corv99 said:

thanks gents..

I was leaning towards DT with it being fairly local.. but TDI seem to have a big following.. could be good marketing of course :-)

were you get same fuel economy for increased power Reffro? was that on the car DIC or actual real world?
if real world that's great.. and should in theory mean taking it easy would give some gains !

I know proper tune would be better Olas I got one on my supercharged Vette and it made massive difference ..
but plug in and get gains improvements, easy removal when needed, with no trace is the appeal for me here :-)

24k miles on my 2018 Skoda Superb 2.0d 150 DSG, produced a 48mpg real average. (125 miles a week of Greater London commuting, plus weekend social use). I use Fuelio to keep track of all expenses. Worst on a tank was circa 42mpg when using supermarket diesel. Best was over the Christmas/New Year just gone as I was trying to get a 1000 mile tank, using the ACC set to 62mph on the GPS, I got 66.7 mpg. All this was with a car that was did 7.8secs 0-60.

As i said, all of the performance gains with no fuel penalty in normal use. 10 mins to fit the box, including working out where to mount it, set it at full beans after a 100 mile adaption period and never touched it after that.

[Corv99]

interesting results …