15 replies to this topic

[uncletone]

I've had my Mk4 1.6 Econetic Titanium for approx 5 weeks now. I bought it primarily for the low emissions and car tax. I've now covered 6200 miles and I concur with all those that have bought this model. Its a great car but an absolute lousy engine.
Fuel Economy is terrible, the first 4k miles I averaged 46-48 mpg. This included approx 1k motorway miles and 350 miles of town driving on a weekly basis. I have a left leg like a speed skater due to the fact that around town I'm constantly changing gear, not one gear but in most cases 2 gears at a time. If on a dual carrageway or motorway and it sees a hill approaching, the thing coughs and drops speed like a falling stone.

The solution.
As with all my previous company cars I turned to Tuning Diesels and Ron. Ron supplies a serious of boxes to suit your particular car. The service is amazing, but the boxes are absolutely first class and don't be put off by the cheap price. These are quality built, and engineered to a very high standard. These are as good as a remap without the worries of losing it thro the dealers reflash. Its like having your own personal remap ina box.
With this engine we had a couple of issues to get round, the way Ford had wired the connections also it was mapped to suit low emissions.
We had to send the box back  after it was delivered to make a couple of tweaks to its delivery. This is done without any quibbles and at no cost. Ron is not happy until his customers are happy.
The car has now been transformed and after 2k miles there have been no issues with EML's the delivery of power is smooth the turbo spools up right from 1000rpm to 4000 rpm, and very little turbo lag. Fuel consumption is in the region of 50 -52 mpg, an increase fo approx 4 mpg.
It won't shred tyres, the increase is only about 15-20 bhp, but don't be mistaken it drives like a car should. Its made range delivery is exceptional it responds to the lightest of throttle in any gaer. Hills, it eats them, and will actually accelerate up where before  I had to drop a gear or two to keep momentum up.I now enjoy my driving, its brought a smile back to my face.

http://tuning-diesels.com

Knowing the design of the engine I thought this time Ron would struggle. I should have known better Ron, you've exceeded all expectations again. I cannot recommend this product and customer service highly enough.

[malford]

Back in 2010 stdrivers held a dyno day at Superchips HQ and the best result of the day was the Roveron tuning box.
Very good value for money in comparison to a generic remap and after dealing with Ron he is a top bloke and knows his stuff.

This could be a route for cars that require the ecu to be removed prior to remapping, just plug in tuning box and go.
It's also transferable so if you sell the car you can sell the tuning box without having to have it reset.

Ok it's not a live remap but results shown at the above dyno day proved to all who attended that the tuning box was great value for money.

[Myfanwy Hertz]

I think the 1.6 tdci is best avoided anyway

[Myfanwy Hertz]

I had an email reply back from Ron. He says you can use one of his tuning boxes even if you have had a remap as long as the remap is OK.

Synergie (2b) is what he recommends. Could make the car "really superb" in his view.

[GingerTom]

Personally I would be very wary of putting too much stress on the injectors.

[MondeoAdam]

I always thought that tuning boxes were a big 'no no' when it came to tuning the engine as they just overfuelled the injectors. Are these quite reliable?

[uncletone]

Hi Adam,

I've probably covered approx 208k miles with a Tuning Box.All from Ron I hasten to add.

It all started with a 55 Plate Mk3 2.0ltr which covered 91k miles without any issues. I then had it changed/upgraded by Ron for £25 to suit one of my vans a 09 Plate Transit Connect which did approx 33k miles, then it was sent back to Ron and we had it tweaked to suit a 1.4ltr 10 Plate Fiesta which did 69k miles, and now its been reprogrammed for my Mk4 Mondeo. This has been the most involved, where Ron had to work overtime to get it right due to the way Ford have mapped the engine for emissions. But to his credit he has worked at it until we've got the right result.

I've never had any issues in all that time, which is a testiment to the quality of the work. He's always on the end of his phone at anytime to answer questions.

[MondeoAdam]

Sounds like a good bloke, I've been looking at remaps recently and have always viewed tuning boxes as cheap surefire way to knacker an engine. However my knowledge is very limited and is only formed by the opinions of users of forums like these!

I've had a good root through the website, from what I've read he sounds like he knows exactly what he is doing, my car is only on 16K and in its final year of warranty, I think I may invest in one of these in the future.

How easy was yours to fit? And did you opt for the dashboard switch?

[uncletone]

Hi Adam

It was a lot easier to fit than on the Fiesta. Lets be certain on this, Ford/Citroen/Peugeot have installed the fuel rail at the back of the engine making it a little difficult to get to, they don't want to encourage you or make it easy to install these things. The angle of the plug on the end of the rail doesn't help either.

At first it can seem a little daunting but once you get your head round it and with patience you can do it. I've done it that often now it takes me 20-30 mins to install/remove and that includes removing the battery.
I have the dash switch but haven't installed it as I leave the setting on No 10.

You mentioned yours should be out of warranty soon, just to say all my cars havehad this box attached from brand new and been serviced at the dealers with the box attached, certainly with the Fiesta and Connect.

I'm told that with the later cars, they are making remapping very difficult, you can't flash the remap thro the EOBD Port now. To stop people tampering it means you have to dismantle the ECU and do it that way, meaning that the ECU casing is virtually wrecked getting it open. You certainly wouldn't want to do that in warranty.

[Myfanwy Hertz]

There is no way I would want the ECU tampered with under warranty, so Ron's tuning boxes are the way forward plus with the bonus they can be used over and over again

[MC Bodge]

Myfanwy Hertz, on 19 March 2012 - 05:23 PM, said:

I had an email reply back from Ron. He says you can use one of his tuning boxes even if you have had a remap as long as the remap is OK.

This bit puzzles me. Surely that's like "turning it up to 11" (cf. Spinal Tap)? ie. the remap could/should be made "better" rather than having to bolt on an extra modification.

As I understand it the only feedback parameter from the fuel rail is fuel pressure. Other tuning boxes adjust the fuel pressure sensor output to result in an increase of the fuel pressure at the injectors to increase fuel delivery. Does the Roverron box do the same thing?
Unless there is another feedback parameter, I can't imagine that it changes the duration of the pulses (there are multiple, different duration pulses per injection cycle on a modern common-rail)

[uncletone]

I've checked with Ron (Tuning Diesels) on this as I am looking at getting the DPF removed after its first service and getting them to obviously remove the signalling aspect from the ECU but also "remap" it whilst I'm there.

I thought I'd ask Ron what benefits can be gained in having both and there is plenty.

He did say

"A remap increases the injector opening time and the Synergy increases the pressure, so there is a synergistic effect where the overall result is more fuel and for a longer time and hence even more torque.
Its a well proven method (proven by us) and has the advantage that you do not need to increase the pressure very much to magnify the effect of the remap. Experienced remappers have been surprised by the results and commented that they would find it difficult to get the same results with just a remap, no matter how long they spent tweaking it"

[j4jon1]

Hi, I'm new to this forum, my son has a   Mk4 Focus 1.6 Econetic we have bought a tuning box from Ron but are having more than a few issues getting the plug off the fuel rail. I tried from the top, took the front wheel off and removed the under tray but cant acces the f...ing plug. Any ideas, photo's or even jokes to lighten the atmosphere before I take to the Brandy bottle.

[j4jon1]

Well gents after scrapped knuckles removing the under tray & frt offside wheel I still cant access the fuel rail plug/socket to get enough purchase to unclip & remove it to enable fitting of tunning box. I have heard mentioned on here about removing the battery, even this seems a very long winded job as I dont think it will come out without removing the strut cross brace. As before any assistance from those having carried this out on a mk4 2012 focus 1.6 eco realy would be appreciated.
Any takers????

[Mondeo-hopeful]

Quote

Well gents after scrapped knuckles removing the under tray & frt offside wheel I still cant access the fuel rail plug/socket to get enough purchase to unclip & remove it to enable fitting of tunning box. I have heard mentioned on here about removing the battery, even this seems a very long winded job as I dont think it will come out without removing the strut cross brace. As before any assistance from those having carried this out on a mk4 2012 focus 1.6 eco realy would be appreciated.
Any takers????

This is the mk4/mk4.5 Mondeo forum, the procedure for Mondeos is likely different.

You focus is a mk3 btw.

[j4jon1]

Thanks Meggar I was begining to feel a bit lonely on here, please excuse my typo (mk4 Focus) anyhoo I've now done it but I will post my method on the Focus Forum