you must be getting a new ecu then? what make you going for?

 

do they throw in a variable power "mod" too?

 

I think 17 BHP from a remap is very unlikely. I would expect 5-6 BHP top end with a little more mid range torque.

Who is doing this for you?

 

115 - 132 will take some other mods not just a simple remap. Which company is doing this?

 

5-6bhp is more like it. depends who and what.

a lot of cash for not much gain. I think you will notice that the car will be easier to drive in the lower rev zone.

My brother has had his cinq sporting chipped, the engine performs very differently now as it has more torque. The car is not much faster with the chip, it allows it to be driven without having to change gear as often.

 

@ empsburna, thanks for the constructive input.

I have emailed the company to find out whether it is a replacement chip or simply a remap of my ECU, so just waiting to hear about that. But I've found two companies within 20 miles of where I live, that will chip it in some form or other.

http://www.angeltuning.co.uk/ - Will add 10 bhp for £240

http://www.chiptuninguk.com/chiptuning/frames.asp - Will take it to 132 bhp, and I am awaiting the price, but assume it will be £200-£300.

 

Well I know someone who has had their ZS120 done by chip tuning and it made a massive 4bhp difference.

Which given everyone elses experience with the K series is about right.

Their claims are somewhat over exaggerated.

No one has been able to prove such claims unfortunately.

 

Well I know someone who has had their ZS120 done by chip tuning and it made a massive 4bhp difference.

Which given everyone elses experience with the K series is about right.

Their claims are somewhat over exaggerated.

No one has been able to prove such claims unfortunately.

youd be far better spending your money elswhere in most peoples opinion.

 

I did think 17 bhp was quite a lot, but 4 seems incredibly low.
Chips usually add approx 10% bhp on n/a cars, so expecting 15 isn't asking a lot.

I guess I'll just have to see how much it adds when I have it done, I'll post the rollin road results (if they're good lol)

 

Actually chips add approximately 10% to turbo'd cars and 5% to NASP cars s a whole.

Expect no more than 5%.

Any more and I'd be inspecting how the rolling road operator frigged the figures.

 

From the look in your signature, you have the Steptronic CVT.

You should be very aware that gains on the CVT are quite risky, because the CVT itself is very small (take a look next time your under the hood). It is not designed to take much more than 115bhp. Look into an exhaust and an induction kit, but not much more.

Adam

 

It is torque, more than bhp the CVT can't take.

But yes, be careful.

 

I did wonder if there would be issues with having the auto box, but I also enquired about fitting the engine kit from PowerTrain Projects that takes it up to 140ps, and they said it would be fine with my box.

If I paid to have my car taken to 132 bhp at Chip Tuning and then the dyno read under, could I demand a refund or something similar, as its false advertising?

Thanks for all the info guys, much appreciated.

 

Correct Just when i saw figures of 17bhp, i was duly expecting a "My engine made a bang and stopped" thread next week.

 

If I paid to have my car taken to 132 bhp at Chip Tuning and then the dyno read under, could I demand a refund or something similar, as its false advertising?

Thanks for all the info guys, much appreciated.

You could, but it is easy to make a rolling road "lie" if you want. So using an independant RR for before and after runs is the safest bet.

Have you done the basic mods like induction system and exhaust already?

 

I did wonder if there would be issues with having the auto box, but I also enquired about fitting the engine kit from PowerTrain Projects that takes it up to 140ps, and they said it would be fine with my box.

If I paid to have my car taken to 132 bhp at Chip Tuning and then the dyno read under, could I demand a refund or something similar, as its false advertising?

Thanks for all the info guys, much appreciated.

Did you specify that it was the Steptronic? They may have thought that it was a normal run-of the mill automatic gearbox, whereas the CVT is very different. It is traditionally used on large sit-on mowers and the like - although i believe it is found in a new Evo/Impreza, albeit a much larger one!

 

I used the word 'Stepspeed', not to sure where I got that from, but I guess they knew what I meant.

I don't really want to mod my car much, trying to keep it as standard as possible, and just wanted a bit more power really. So didn't want to go down the loud exhaust and induction kit route. So i thought aftermarket panel air filter, 52mm throttle body and remap would be quite good.

But as everyone has suggested I may be paying around £250 for 4bhp with the remap, so may have to re-consider.

 

Did you specify that it was the Steptronic? They may have thought that it was a normal run-of the mill automatic gearbox, whereas the CVT is very different. It is traditionally used on large sit-on mowers and the like - although i believe it is found in a new Evo/Impreza, albeit a much larger one!

actually ride-on mowers use an oil driven gearbox called hydrostatic transmission, rather than CVT (which is more commonly associated with high quality variable speed pedestrian mowers such as Hayter/John Deere)

i sell mowers for a living

 

actually ride-on mowers use an oil driven gearbox called hydrostatic transmission, rather than CVT (which is more commonly associated with high quality variable speed pedestrian mowers such as Hayter/John Deere)

i sell mowers for a living

I stand corrected!

 

@ empsburna, thanks for the constructive input.

I have emailed the company to find out whether it is a replacement chip or simply a remap of my ECU, so just waiting to hear about that. But I've found two companies within 20 miles of where I live, that will chip it in some form or other.

http://www.angeltuning.co.uk/ - Will add 10 bhp for £240

http://www.chiptuninguk.com/chiptuning/frames.asp - Will take it to 132 bhp, and I am awaiting the price, but assume it will be £200-£300.

When companies make power claims like that they usually have ebay and +25bhp written all over them.

Save your loot and spend it on other bits, you will see plenty more bang for your buck that way!

 

I know both companies and they are well respected. In fact Angel tuning remapped my car two weeks ago but it's much easier to get gains when a turbo is involved. Be aware that Angel will come to your house, they don't have a Rolling road. They do offer a 14 day money back gaurantee so if your not happy you can have the car put back to standard.

ChipTuning UK did a 1.8 ZS as a magazine feature some years back . As i said before top end power raised by about 6 BHP buit this was in the range 6-7,000 rpm. There were gains in the mid range that made the car easier to drive. Overall the magazine said it was worth while. This company uses RICA maps that are one of the best. I THINK that you may have to run the car on Super Unleaded to get the best results from this remap.

With a lot of these claims the peak power increase may not be top end. So while you may gain 6 BHP at peak rpm (7,000) you may get a bigger gain , say 8 BHP at 3000 rpm.

Chiptuning UK have a very good rolling road and I beleive they too offer a money back offer if not happy.

So there you go. While the claims are too high to be true you will get a more drivable car. SO don't have too high an expectation and if not happy make sure you can have a refund.

 

Thanks Ti Rich, yeh I guess the power curve might be improved a lot of the way, but not much higher at the end. I did notice that Chip Tuning recommended Super Unleaded petrol after the remap, which I think is a bit stupid.

Do I have any other options, considering I don't want to spend more than £300 really. I was going to do panel filter and 52mm throttle body, but I'm sure on their own the gains will be no more than a couple of bhp. As I stated I didn't want a really loud exhaust, however I did consider this pipe to replace the centre sliencer from PTP,
http://www.ptp-ltd.co.uk/shop/ProductDetails.aspx?productID=600

I was thinking that normally a loud backbox makes a deep exhaust note, and rumbles on tickover, but a middle pipe is more likely to create a higher pitched sound when the car is being driven fast, which I wouldn't mind. Anybody fitted these, any thoughts?

 

I think i would go for some headwork first along with a nice enclosed air intake. Obviously this would get the head gasket renewed at the same time.

Then, once the mechanical modifications have been done, have the car remapped. This will make sure that the map is optimised for the mechanical mods.

 

Agree with that one. Maybe cams whilst the head is off.

 

Sounds like that will go over the £300-£400 budget a bit.

I think I will e-mail Chip Tuning or go there (as they are only about 7 miles away from me), and ask if they've got before and after power and torque graphs of a relatively standard 1.8.

I understand that remapping an almost standard car is pointless if more mods will be added at a later date, as the ECU won't make the most of them, unless mapped again, but I doubt I will do any other performance mods, as I wanted to keep it relatively standard, or standard looking and sounding