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Cr-Box Tuning Plug In Box...anyone Got One?i


bladeage
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Hi,

I decided to get myself a tuning box off eBay, CR-box 130bhp - 163 bhp.

Has anyone already tried these? if so what do you think?

I am not really looking for better mpg as stated in the advert etc although that would be good! but I am more interested in a bit of a power gain in the higher gears, the standard Mondi 130bhp seems to stop spinning as wildly when it gets into fourth gear and the torque also seems to drop off a bit, soooo, for £59 english pounds I thought I would give this a go?

I had a 2004 Mondeo Black estate(150 bhp) (full leather etc) a couple of years ago and it did seem to gather much more momentum through the latter gears so I am thinking this tuning box may give me a similar experience?

I will wait for the box and fit it and put my response back on this thread for those that may be interested!

Cheers.

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i have never liked tuning box's,always gone for a remap its better all round... tuning box's just con the ecu...But has i havent had one either for my mondeo (first one ever) as i have just swapped it for my beloved mgzr diesel so love to know how it goes

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I've literally just put one on my focus this evening. Could not recommend it enough! It's a bluespark one. I had a mondeo tddi and fitted a dtuk box which was also very good too. Remaps are great but need to be done properly by a good mapper

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Ive had lotsa remaps. Its the same thing. Dont let anyone tell you different. Both remap and box just increase fuel/air. One does it by fooling the sensor and other does it by changing ecu parameters etc. same thing really. A lot of remap guys wont touch boost etc. Even got my golf done by a guy that said he WOULD increase boost/err impossible on that model (tdi 101bhp pd)

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....still waiting in anticipation for my delivery of the said box from Germany!

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let us know how you get on with it.was that box the economy one or performance one? I'm keen to know how much smoke you'll be putting out after ,say 3 months. I put one on my 406hdi,& it spewed out smoke something terrible. I see theres companies that are guaranteeing folk "No Smoke",but dont see how its even possible unless its a bluefin type chip or more expensive box

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The dtuk box I used on the mondeo made it smoke a fair bit under load. At the time I put it down to it having 170k miles on the clock ;)

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I dont think its to do so much with the mileage,as it just overfuels the engine. As it doesnt make changes to the turbo boost,there's probabaly just too much fuel,& not enough air. I found that the turbo seems to take a bit of a hammering with them also,whether its with increased temps etc,i dont know.(mind you that was on an HDi engine so....)

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I dont think its to do so much with the mileage,as it just overfuels the engine. As it doesnt make changes to the turbo boost,there's probabaly just too much fuel,& not enough air. I found that the turbo seems to take a bit of a hammering with them also,whether its with increased temps etc,i dont know.(mind you that was on an HDi engine so....)

Your post seems to contradict itself - How can "the turbo seems to take a bit of a hammering with them" when you recon "it doesent make changes to the turbo boost" please explain?

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It will be interesting to see what it does on the focus, as its a PSA engine which is more or less the same as a HDi I'm led to believe? It'll be back on eBay if it starts to make it smoke like the mondeo. Its supposed to be a blend of performance and economy, and produce 165hp and 387 nm of torque. We shall see......

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was down to egr gases/temps going thru turbo. Mind you the hdi engine i had was only a 90bhp,so not enough intercooler/cooling etc. But I AM 100% positive there was not a thing wrong with the turbo before I upped the hp as we put new seals in it etc. Put it this way,the amount of oil in the in the pipe coming from the turbo was unbelieveable,and there wasnt any(when i say any,I mean there was no oily liquid,just a typical sheen,so to speak),just approx 2.5/3 months before.

I see what you mean,after re-reading my post back,& have to say,I'd have asked the same question.

Also,at the time,I thought my hdi ran too hot when booting it,therefore temp increased. Its only recently I learned there was a failure of the cooling fans on some models,but will never know now.

actually now i think back,that 406hdi was thee best car Ive ever owned. Managed to get 138bhp from a 90 lol(maybe a tad on the steep side) :huh:

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....Hmm as I understand???

my engine was designed to give an output of approximately 150 bhp as fitted/tuned to the titanium X in its finite tune, I thought this tuning box will follow the map for that configuration, it is a digital unit and only alters the fueling and timing etc?

It is apparent to me that some people have fitted these with existing engine problems i.e. blocked egr's, restricted manifolds, bad injectors.....anymore....?

My car is running great right now, no problems what so ever so will give it the go and see what happens,

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Hi all,

Picked my CR tuning box up from the post office earlier and decided to plug it in while I was there, hahaha....big smile all the way home!

There wasnt really that much noticeable difference in first and second gear, maybe that is down to me not really giving it any in those two gears anyway but third fourth and fifth gears are now storming, the pick up is so quick and clean now, it wasnt really a slouch before I fitted the box but when you put your foot down now the power seems to come in instantly and the torque is much stronger,so much it is torque steering in third to fourth!

As above I would say that the 33 bhp gain that they claim is pretty much on the ball, I will not be taking it on a dyno etc to prove anything as it does now feel like a 160 bhp car, it certainly feels much faster than my missis's signum 150bhp elite so thats enough proof for me.

The claimed 20% better economy will take a little longer to suss out and I guess until I stop flooring it with a big grin and calm it down a bit then I will not be able to report on that.....it may take a while ! :D

First impressions are that it is a bargain at the £59 delivered I paid, and the power gain is correct,there does not seem to be any jerkyness or smoke or rough idle,holding revs etc.

I will continue using it for a few weeks and report back here on any changes etc.

cheers.

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Sounds like a bargain at £59

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no dmf on my car it is an old shape 2007 duratorque.....what is smf????

I am kind of being a bit suspicious at the moment so I welcome any reteric or skepticism etc regarding tuning boxes and what problems they may cause, it is good to discuss experiences when using different products that are available.

At the moment I can only report back what I find with this modification over time; I am not expecting the 20% better efficiency claim and to be honest after the power hike I have now I will be happy with 10% less fuel economy, my own usage of this car is commuting down dual carriageway for 12 miles each way and stop and squirt at weekends (I do m/bikes for fun!), and was only really looking for a bit more bite in 3rd,4th,5th gears which I now deffo have !

I owned a mondi estate titanium x Black a while ago which was 150 bhp and now this car seems to be acting in the same manner as that did.......torque steer and very clean and quick to pull through the box...but a bit quicker! I can only say after the 20 miles this has been fitted that I am 100% happy that the claims so far are bang on the mark and I could not find any niggles whatsoever.....lets see what a couple of weeks commuting does?........big grin....much power! B)

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Sounds like a bargain at £59

Like you said m8, it was always worth the punt, took your word for it and I am very impressed up to now with what I have driven today.

....see how it goes eh! ;) (much better! :D )

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have you got a DMF or SMF on your car?

Hi m8,

Sorry I misunderstood your post completely, very sorry! (skipping between sites!), I have got a DMF on my Mondi as far as I know!

The car has 106k up now and is running great apart from the rattle I have from the bottom pulley...must do that soon!

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Hi m8,

Sorry I misunderstood your post completely, very sorry! (skipping between sites!), I have got a DMF on my Mondi as far as I know!

The car has 106k up now and is running great apart from the rattle I have from the bottom pulley...must do that soon!

I changed my crankshaft pulley yesterday(10 min job with the laser tensioner tool plus my impact gun. But it hasnt cured rattle. Im away to buy an INA alternator clutch pulley & upgrade it.

Done my egr as well,and it was in sorry state.was too cold to attempt inlet manifold so might do that today

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Ok chaps,

Before I set off from work today I reset the economy counter (real time mpg readout).

My economy display which I have reset a few times on my commute to work usually read 45 mpg, if I give it a bit of right foot this drops to 44 mpg.

The display is now showing 49 - 51 mpg, that is an approximate 10% gain in economy on my commute, I am betting that it will show a 20% increase on the motorway.

Excellent I think!

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Well sounds good but our mk3's dont have real' time read-out,only overall average. If you reset it just as you are on mway etc,it wont really be a true reading,because of no traffic-lights,stopping,queueing etc. i know what youre saying though,& sounds good i admit.

I did same thing today-after cleaning egr,renewing oil cooler stat& water stat,i took it for drive up motorway & reset mpg readout. Normally it'll sit at 47/48 overall but as i reset it on motorway,by time i got home it was reading 56.something. So without any tuning box,i had a 16%(?) increase.

See what i mean?

Its back down to 48.1 after driving about city centre for an hour tonight.

Another thing,some tuning boxes ive heard (but cant see how its possible),fool the mpg readout andmake a false reading. But i cant see how thatd occur as its only having an affect on fuel delivery and not the guts of the ecu etc. mmmmm

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Well sounds good but .......

Another thing,some tuning boxes ive heard (but cant see how its possible),fool the mpg readout andmake a false reading. But i cant see how thatd occur as its only having an affect on fuel delivery and not the guts of the ecu etc. mmmmm

Well scince you asked-

Some tuning boxes increase the fuel pressure of the common rail - this means there can be (is) more fuel squirted into the engine than the ECU "thinks" there is so the calculations the ECU makes can often be more optomistic (instant and/or avarage) than without the tuning box (depends on the type/ design of tuning box)

So the ECU is only as accurate as the information supplied to it

The MPG readout may be inaccurate anyway and you need to do traditional "brim to brim vs miles" checking of the MPG

Nevertheless the tuning box often improves the >>actual<< MPG (on a turbo-diesel) because the extra torque means less throttle is required and the car pulls better up hills or in a higher gear etc

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Well scince you asked-

Some tuning boxes increase the fuel pressure of the common rail - this means there can be (is) more fuel squirted into the engine than the ECU "thinks" there is so the calculations the ECU makes can often be more optomistic (instant and/or avarage) than without the tuning box (depends on the type/ design of tuning box)

So the ECU is only as accurate as the information supplied to it

The MPG readout may be inaccurate anyway and you need to do traditional "brim to brim vs miles" checking of the MPG

Nevertheless the tuning box often improves the >>actual<< MPG (on a turbo-diesel) because the extra torque means less throttle is required and the car pulls better up hills or in a higher gear etc

....lol.....it really was only ever going to be a bonus if the car was better on fuel, I have got what I originally set out for and that was a simple power hike in the higher gears, never the less I will monitor the fuel consumption closely and report back.......still very impressed with the extra power/torque !

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Interesting......

But the ECU knows how much fuel is being used as the tuning box is telling it how much fuel to inject.(well,in a sense). Tuning boxes are only really kidding the engine through fooling the ECU (by saying its cold outside,increase fuel).

So therefore,the ECU knows how much fuel's being injected(but doesnt know its actually a lot warmer than the tuning-box is telling it).

Thats why tuning-boxes arent good in long-run for fuel-pumps,injectors,cylinders,turbo's etc,as the engines running too rich.

Getting more torque thru lying to the ecu,i get,but is the extra mpg/torque worth it at the expense of the engine going through quite a fair bit of 'over-everything'.

Thats why a remap on a some cars(where the turbo boost isnt physically able to be increased) isn't the brightest idea for engines. The cylinders run hotter,so does virtually everything else(and richer);as they still have the same amount of boost from turbo(as its non-adjustable), but increased fuel input.

Im terrible at remembering things & have forgotton where i was goin with this lol

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Interesting......

But the ECU knows how much fuel is being used as the tuning box is telling it how much fuel to inject.(well,in a sense). Tuning boxes are only really kidding the engine through fooling the ECU (by saying its cold outside,increase fuel).

So therefore,the ECU knows how much fuel's being injected(but doesnt know its actually a lot warmer than the tuning-box is telling it).

Thats why tuning-boxes arent good in long-run for fuel-pumps,injectors,cylinders,turbo's etc,as the engines running too rich.

Getting more torque thru lying to the ecu,i get,but is the extra mpg/torque worth it at the expense of the engine going through quite a fair bit of 'over-everything'.

Thats why a remap on a some cars(where the turbo boost isnt physically able to be increased) isn't the brightest idea for engines. The cylinders run hotter,so does virtually everything else(and richer);as they still have the same amount of boost from turbo(as its non-adjustable), but increased fuel input.

Im terrible at remembering things & have forgotton where i was goin with this lol

Mostly, this is nonsense - or little bits of information about completely different types of tuning boxes and forum "rumours" mixed together

Tuning box type # 1 - IAT tuning box The signal from the Intake Air Temprature sensor is modified so that the ECU "thinks" it is cold, (or colder than it is) and makes the engine run richer, simple/ works well (to an extent) with early petrol NA or turbocharged non cat cars, can contaminate cats on modern petrol cars with cats, works on diesels/ turbodiesels but there are better techniques - this is the only type of box where temprature is part of the control (ie - "its cold outside - increase fuel") - this may be a resistor of the correct value

Tuning box type # 2 Diesel common rail pressure boost type tuning box - Connects between the common rail pressure sensor and ECU, increases fuel pressure by modifiing the sensor signal so it reads LOWER than it actually is, ECU automatically compensates, so a larger amount of fuel is injected per cycle, exept the ECU "thinks" the same amount of fuel was injected as before the tuning box was added

Tuning box type #3 MAF sensor type- In a nutshell the MAF sensor measures the amount of air going into the engine, although it may be pressure and temprature compensated its function is to measure the amount of air (Mass Air Flow) -

(turbo-diesel)The tuning box connects between the MAF sensor and the ECU, the signal is modified so that the MAF is measuring more air than it actually is, the ECU squirts more diesel in to compensate, this can produce a with a significant power and torque gain as the extra fuel boosts the energy in the turbine, which has a knock-on effect on the compressor, although peak boost pressure is controlled by the actuator (so the absolute peak boost pressure is theoretically the same as before) the boost comes in sooner, and the turbo spools quicker, with more boost across the entire powerband >>so the boost is changed INDIRECTLY with this type of tuning box.

Tuning box type #4 - Digital microprossesor multi channel programmable tuning box with multiple maps and direct control of the electronic actuator. the title says it all really, this is a realatively sophisticated box, effectively a second ECU, takes over several sensor signals, etc this type has direct control of the turbo boost pressure, (engines with electronic actuators, obviously)

There are many different variations of these, including, "passive" resistor boxes, active analog boxes, digital, digital programmable with multiple maps, multi- channel digital etc etc

My (turbodiesel) car runs very cool (about 75degrees) if it ran hotter i would be happier (and i would get a better MPG too, apparently)

There is a school of thought that says increasing the power+ torque of an engine (ie- fitting a tuning box) REDUCES the stress on the engine, as it does not have to be worked so hard, to achieve the same result

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