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VW PD Engine Performance - wonderwheels
I have a VW Passat 1.9TDi PD (130).Can anyone recommend a manufacturer for improving the engines performance.I have seen boxes ranging from £99 to £300 that make promises with 10 minutes fitting.Just wanted to hear anyones thoughts on this before I "jump" in.
VW PD Engine Performance - andymc {P}
Seems that a chip remap rather than a tuning box is the better option - remap usually done specifically for your engine. Upsolute and Superchips seem to be two of the most popular remap agents, but there are loads more. Have a browse through the forum at www.seatenthusiasts.co.uk to see what people are doing (bear in mind that some people will be talking about the upgrades to their petrol-engined cars, not diesels). Also www.dieselcar.com
Upsolute has standardised pricing and a customer forum at their website - haven't come across any complaints about their work yet. With their remap, according to their site the power for your car would increase from 130 bhp to 163 bhp. If you can find a few people in your area willing to do a "group buy", the price might come down a bit.
Might not be a bad idea to pay £40 or £50 for a rolling road test before the job is done, as you might find that the car officially rated at 130 bhp is actually higher than that - many people have commented that VAG engines are actually underrated when it comes to power output. You can then decide whether you want to pay £300-£400 for a power increase that's not as great as you thought it would be.
Of course, modifying your engine will invalidate your manufacturer's warranty for any affected parts, but the reputable remap companies should cover that with a warranty of their own for the same parts to equate with the original manufacturer's warranty, and for at least the same time period. Check with both your dealer and the companies offering remap services before having anything done.
Finally, don't forget to ask your insurer - they may not care, or more likely they'll hike your premium. Just as an example, to remap my Passat 110 TDi to 140 bhp would cost me £126 more for a twelve month premium - and I've heard of a lot worse. Apparently Liverpool Victoria are a bit more sensible about it and usually charge little or no extra premium.
andymc
VW PD Engine Performance - Cupramax
Having used Upsolute myself (albeit on a petrol turbo car) I was not particularly impressed with either the results or the professionalism of the supplier.

If I was you I\'d consider a VAG tuning specialist such as AmD, Revotechnik or Jabbasport. These companies specialise in tuning Volkswagen group engines therefore there isn\'t much they dont know about them and the results are fantastic. Outputs for the PD130 engine tend to be around 180hp & 300lb/ft torque when remapped...

contacts are:-

www.auto-amd.com
www.revotechnik.com/uk/ukrevo.html
www.jabbasport.com


{For refence, to make them clickable links you need to add http:// before the www. which I have edited in this time for you. DD}
VW PD Engine Performance - Cupramax
No probs, theres so many forums now they all seem to have different ways of linking URLs