Diesel Vehicle Power Upgrades

[WatsonJohnG]

There was an article on this in a recent motor caravan mag that I was loaned this week.They claimed that manufacturers down tuned the engines to ensure performance in areas where fuel was inferior etc and that in our climate and assuming prudent use there was no problem with longevity and several tuning specialists back this with their own engine warranty.I have had a Scenic and a Picasso chipped and found a great improvement in torque and flexibility.Oddly enough I considered the first X Trail didn't need the chipping so Nissan increased the torque and bhp for the current one !!!Watson (nee JohnG)

 

[rob_jax]

This is a response to Ians' post about adding 10% petrol to a diesel fuelled car - please don't.

One of my jobs is to represent the UK interests at CEN (European Standards body) regarding measurement and standards issues for all motor vehicle fuels.

Adding a small (about 5%) amount of petrol to diesel was a good idea 10 or more years ago, when in very cold winter weather (colder than minus 10 deg C) diesel could "wax" (freeze) in the fuel tank or fuel lines and cause the engine to stop.

Now that the refineries make fuel tailored for the various seasons, you don't need to do this.

Petrol performance is ranked by "Octane Number", Diesel is ranked by "Cetane Number", and effectively these ranking numbers are the

inverse of each other. Adding petrol to diesel reduces the cetane number of the fuel and consequently reduces the performance.

If you want to improve diesel engine performance, and have an engine that "self tunes" according to the grade of fuel used, you can try one of the new fully synthetic diesel fuels (Synthetic in the sense of manufactured from carefully controlled ingredients).

These synthetic diesel fuels have a higher Cetane number, and in Germany I stopped at an ARAL station and filled my C270 with their synthetic diesel fuel, and on the journey home, fuel consumption improved by about 5%.

Robert

 

[CliveV]

Another word of warning on Chip upgrades - DO confirm what you have done to your insurer in writting and then phone to check the letter updating your details has been put on your "file".

My own rule of thumb is that if you have not been sent a "modified vehicle form" to complete setting out exactly what has been changed on the vehicle then you run the risk of your insurer renaging on a claim.

Do not trust the call centres to update your details - they are paid by the number of calls they take and most call centre employees are not that botherred about what you are saying - they just want to move onto the next call.

If you do modify your car - consider a specialist insurance broker such as Adrian Flux - I saved over

 

[jeff_5076314]

Anyone got a web address to look at these devices???

Hi

I bought mine off ebay in an ebay shop. It was called autotechniks or something like that. I searched all the sites in the uk and found that it was quite expensive. Mine came from Germany and cost about