Tuning Boxes - What have you got and what are your findings

[marcus]

Decided to rehash my earlier review for the Racechip One tuning box as it wasn’t much of a read…. J

I bought my Astra 2.0 cdti SRI vx-line back in April 2015. I was initially impressed with the overall performance and fuel consumption but I did feel that the car could be quite laggy sometimes or even get bogged down particularly if the revs were below 1500 rpm. In early Jun I started exploring the remap/tuning box routes to get some increased urgency for the car.

I wasn’t looking for a huge jump in power at the risk of extra strain on the gearbox so was just looking for a solution to give the car better drivability and some extra performance. (i.e. 20-25% etc.)

The remap route didn’t really pan out for me as only a few companies in Ireland offer ECU remaps and at that time the local guy (i.e. 60 miles away) didn’t have a dyno so I wasn’t keen on that route. (generic map, no dyno etc.)

So I looked at some tuning boxes and narrowed it down to the Bluespark, Racechip and DTUK options. All of them had decent enough reviews on the net and whilst the DTUK probably had a few more reviews it was very pricey at £350 IIRC. Value wise, I would expect a remap and dyno run for that type of money so I ruled it out on that basis. (i.e. I’d also read that 2nd hand DTUKs could be hit and miss?)

Anyway I wasn’t looking to splash out a lot of money for a tuning box as I held the opinion that if it didn’t work out, I would just cut my losses and bin it. The Racechip One at 100 quid appeared to be a bargain and couldn’t really find any bad reviews with it. (i.e. Mostly German reviews though) The more expensive Racechip’s are 200 and 350 quid but for very little extra gain over the Racechip One. (I.e. In my opinion)

From Racechip Website

Racechip Performance - May 2015
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One - 209hp/418nm
Pro2 – 216hp/439nm
Ultimate – 218hp/443nm

Update Aug 2015

The unit arrived in a few days and it was really easy to fit. To fit it the engine cover needs to be removed to expose the common rail and inlet manifold. The Racechip wiring harness connects to the end of the common rail and to the boost sensor which sits behind the common rail on the inlet manifold.

Once I had it installed, I took it for a test drive and it really impresses and sharpens up the responsiveness and power band. Pedal effort is reduced and the car pulls better thru all the gears. (Not sure about 1st gear?) It was also noticeable that there was less turbo lag.

I left the settings the same as they left the factory. (B1) It was a great investment for 100 quid.

Update Oct 2015

I was having a look at Racechip website and noticed that the Racechip performance gains had been revised in Sep 2015. To me it looked like a marketing ploy for them to sell more of the expensive units as the performance gains on the base model had been reduced. So being the curious type, I sent them an email to ask them about this but they didn’t really answer my question either because they didn’t understand me or wanted to skirt around the truth.

Racechip Performance - Sep 2015
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One - 199hp/415nm (Down 10hp and 3nm)
Pro2 – 204hp/430nm (Down 9hp and 9nm)
Ultimate – 212hp/445nm (Down 6hp and up 2nm)

Update March 2016

So back in March I was chatting to @Andy on the forum who had just bought a Racechip One and it struck me that I had never altered the standard settings (B1) on the Racechip One. The main reason for this is that I’d been a little reluctant to crank it up due to an ongoing coolant leak that I have had on my inlet manifold. (Gasket failure)

The settings in my user manual are as follows:-

Standard Setting – B1
Performance Level 1 – D1
Performance Level 2 – E2

Interesting to note that Andy has/had the newer Racechip One version (199hp) which has reduced power settings according to the website claims.

Andy and I compared the documentation and it appears that Racechip had quite possibly changed the mapping as the documentation showed an additional Performance Level. (F3)

Anyway, I change from settings from B1 to E2 and this really transforms the car even further. It is super responsive now and really pulls like a train. Also, no exhaust smoke so I am happy about that too as I suspected it would smoke if I messed with the settings.

Update April 2016

So I’d had the car for 15k miles and decided to see what the difference in consumption was before and after the Racechip was fitted. I log all of my car expenses and fill-up’s using an Android app called aCar.

Overall the MPG figures are much the same but on closer inspection they are a little different.

Without Racechip One (Standard)

Distance travelled = 7000 miles
Ave MPG = 46
Best MPG = 49
Worse MPG = 44

With Racechip One – Setting B1 (Standard)

Distance travelled = 8000 miles
Ave MPG = 44
Best MPG = 45
Worst MPG = 43

So average mpg dropped by 2 MPG with the Racechip fitted but probably more because I might drive a wee bit more enthusiastic these days.


Update April 2016 – Part 2

My car needed a service so booked it into my local Opel dealer. Before I took it through to them I thought I would remove the Racechip. As part of the service they did a few software updates to the car which made the car feel a lot more eager to drive. It was that good that I decided not to put the Racechip back on for the meantime until the novelty of the new standard mapping wore off.

Fuel consumption improved and I started seeing over 50 mpg on a couple of tanks.

Update May 2016

Eventually I decided that I needed the Racechip back in my life so I fitted it again but this time on D1 setting as thought that the E2 setting was a little rough at idle. It’s quite possible that I imagined there was a rough idle on E2 but there was certainly quite a difference between the On Board fuel consumption readout and actual MPG figures. (i.e. 10 MPG diff ETC) Originally the Racechip caused the OBC to under read by 2-3 MPG but this gap grew on E2 setting.

So the car responds as well on the reduced D1 setting and is very smooth now. I’ll be leaving it on this setting for a while and monitor the MPG. Also I have ordered one of those OBD readers which will give me access to some performance data via an app. Once it arrives I will see if I can put together a without/with Racechip comparison.

Emailed Racechip again about the power outputs and this time they confirmed the 2nd set of performance claims. (1st set were optimistic?)

Correct figures - Racechip Performance - Sep 2015
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One - 199hp/415nm
Pro2 – 204hp/430nm
Ultimate – 212hp/445nm
















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