FIAT Qubo ( Saxo engine ) in need of more grunt...
Discussion
Hi all, just bought a 2009 Qubo 1.4 petrol, which I'm told has a Saxo engine.
It's a great little car/van for nipping about London with the tools of my trade, but it isn't the quickest vehicle on the roads!
The usual 'chip' companies won't touch it - I think because it can't be done through the OBD port ( though I'm already out of my depth technically here ) .
I found one very helpful company called Expert Tuning that can access the ECU directly, but admit the gain of 7 BHP for £350 isn't very good VFM - though I haven't ruled-out this route yet.
Just wondering what the other options are? Could a performance air filter increase the power a bit? It needs low-end power more than top. I would just like it to be a bit more driveable in everyday situations.
Thanks in advance for your thoughts.
Below is the figures given by Expert Tuning for power gain :
Original BHP 73
Tuned BHP 80
BHP (Increase) 7
BHP Increase (%) 10.00 %
Original Torque (Nm) 115
Tuned Torque (Nm) 126
Torque (Increase) 11
Torque Increase (%) 10.00 %
It's a great little car/van for nipping about London with the tools of my trade, but it isn't the quickest vehicle on the roads!
The usual 'chip' companies won't touch it - I think because it can't be done through the OBD port ( though I'm already out of my depth technically here ) .
I found one very helpful company called Expert Tuning that can access the ECU directly, but admit the gain of 7 BHP for £350 isn't very good VFM - though I haven't ruled-out this route yet.
Just wondering what the other options are? Could a performance air filter increase the power a bit? It needs low-end power more than top. I would just like it to be a bit more driveable in everyday situations.
Thanks in advance for your thoughts.
Below is the figures given by Expert Tuning for power gain :
Original BHP 73
Tuned BHP 80
BHP (Increase) 7
BHP Increase (%) 10.00 %
Original Torque (Nm) 115
Tuned Torque (Nm) 126
Torque (Increase) 11
Torque Increase (%) 10.00 %
It's a 1.4, nobody is going to work miracles on it.
If you wanted to spend a few thousand you could supercharge it and at least that would give some reasonable gains, whether you find the price reasonable or not is another matter.
If you want something with more power, buy something with more power.
You could get gains from conventional n/a tuning, headwork, maybe cams etc....but it would be a large outlay for very small return and would still need the ecu re-tuned to suit.
If you wanted to spend a few thousand you could supercharge it and at least that would give some reasonable gains, whether you find the price reasonable or not is another matter.
If you want something with more power, buy something with more power.
You could get gains from conventional n/a tuning, headwork, maybe cams etc....but it would be a large outlay for very small return and would still need the ecu re-tuned to suit.
''The 1.4-litre petrol engine pulls well through the lower gears, making the 0-62mph time of 16.2sec seem pessimistic.''
https://www.autocar.co.uk/car-review/fiat/qubo/fir...
I didn't know a car could be this slow, should have got the diesel version and remapped it.
https://www.autocar.co.uk/car-review/fiat/qubo/fir...
I didn't know a car could be this slow, should have got the diesel version and remapped it.
nogginthenog said:
Hi all, just bought a 2009 Qubo 1.4 petrol, which I'm told has a Saxo engine.
Yes, it's the old TU.nogginthenog said:
It's a great little car/van for nipping about London with the tools of my trade, but it isn't the quickest vehicle on the roads!
It's a 70bhp petrol in a van-with-seats. You were expecting...?nogginthenog said:
The usual 'chip' companies won't touch it - I think because it can't be done through the OBD port ( though I'm already out of my depth technically here ) .
I found one very helpful company called Expert Tuning that can access the ECU directly, but admit the gain of 7 BHP for £350 isn't very good VFM - though I haven't ruled-out this route yet.
Easy power gains through remapping happen on turbos, where the boost can be turned up. For a non-turbo, you're looking at old-school mechanical changes to do more than twiddle round the edges. Really, it's one of those "You don't want to be starting from here" things. Sell it and buy something that's more what you want. Especially given we're talking about a 9yo van. Oh, and don't forget to take insurance premium increases into account...I found one very helpful company called Expert Tuning that can access the ECU directly, but admit the gain of 7 BHP for £350 isn't very good VFM - though I haven't ruled-out this route yet.
nogginthenog said:
Just wondering what the other options are? Could a performance air filter increase the power a bit?
No, but it might sound like it.nogginthenog said:
It needs low-end power more than top.
Have you considered changing down...?I guess that's my question answered then!
I purposefully avoided the diesel because I spend most of my time in London traffic, and was feeling guilty about pollution ( not that petrol vehicles are squeaky clean ) .
So, that £350 to gain 7BHP seems like the best otption?
Replacing with a quicker car isn't an option at the moment ; I will just have to live with life in the slow lane
Cheers for the advice.
I purposefully avoided the diesel because I spend most of my time in London traffic, and was feeling guilty about pollution ( not that petrol vehicles are squeaky clean ) .
So, that £350 to gain 7BHP seems like the best otption?
Replacing with a quicker car isn't an option at the moment ; I will just have to live with life in the slow lane
Cheers for the advice.
nogginthenog said:
So, that £350 to gain 7BHP seems like the best otption?
Basically, they're claiming that peak torque and peak power would both increase by 10%, which seems like a suspiciously round number (and a coincidence that they magically happen to affect both factors by the same amount). I'm skeptical that they actually know what the gains will be or even that there will be any gains at all. Unless you believe some random aftermarket outfit has found a major mistake in the map provided by the original engine designer, where do you suppose the claimed 10% extra power is coming from? Since it would be almost impossible to prove whether there were any benefits unless you paid to have your car measured before and after, you really will never know whether you got anything back at all for your £350. Even if it does exactly as claimed, that's barely enough to detect from the seat and after a couple of days it would feel exactly as sluggish as before.GreenV8S said:
Basically, they're claiming that peak torque and peak power would both increase by 10%, which seems like a suspiciously round number (and a coincidence that they magically happen to affect both factors by the same amount). I'm skeptical that they actually know what the gains will be or even that there will be any gains at all. Unless you believe some random aftermarket outfit has found a major mistake in the map provided by the original engine designer, where do you suppose the claimed 10% extra power is coming from? Since it would be almost impossible to prove whether there were any benefits unless you paid to have your car measured before and after, you really will never know whether you got anything back at all for your £350. Even if it does exactly as claimed, that's barely enough to detect from the seat and after a couple of days it would feel exactly as sluggish as before.
Fair enough - looks like it's life in the slow lane for me until I can upgrade.Cheers, Noggin.
phil y said:
Fit a 106 GTI/Saxo VTS/C2 VTS engine?
The 8v TU5 engine (Saxo VTR, 106 Rallye, 206 1.6, 306 1.6 etc..) would probably offer an easier path (e.g. original manifolds should fit), whilst still giving useful increase in power and torque. However it would still be a non-trivial and expensive exercise since it's going to need a proper remap to use the original ECU.Gassing Station | Engines & Drivetrain | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff