[gIzzE]

have been running a Spider tuning box on our 120d M-Sport for the last 6 months.
I have always had remaps on my cars, and would be happy to use any of the usual suspects that everyone else on here uses.
However, I sold my 335i just before a 3000 mile trip in the Summer down through Germany, Switzerland, Italy and back home through France, this was with a week at the bottom of the Alps at the Italian Lakes, obviously not being able to take the 335i was a real bummer. So as the 120d had to step in I thought it better to get the thing singing before setting off.
I spoke to a couple of the guys to see if fitting me in that week was possible but they were all booked up, so I started looking at tuning boxes that were available, I have used Tunit before on a 320d and a 1.9tdi A4, both seemed OK, added a little bit of pep but no where near as good as a remap, not as smooth and used a lot more fuel overall unless really taking it easy. Also had to have two units replaced because they were faulty, but think that was just bad luck as I have not heard of any other problems. I looked at the boxes from the big companies like Hartge etc. but they are £1000+ and don't seem to offer anything different to the others really.
I had heard good things about Spider from my father in law, he said the lads on his forum had seen good results and were very impressed, so I called them and had a long chat with them about what it does and doesn't do, their box has a nice little feature that when the car is not under load and cruising it cuts fuel back a little, but as soon as you press the throttle all the extra gains kick in, so when you are just pootling about the consumption climbs quite rapidly, I will believe it when I see was my initial thought!!

I ordered the box on the Tuesday night at 4pm and it was here by 9am the next morning, I went outside and fitted it, took no more than 2 minutes, it snaps in top the factory harness, nice and easy.
There are Jumpers on the unit, which allow you to adjust the settings, or you can leave it where it is which is in what they call their "Adaptivscan" mode. This monitors RPM and load and puts it into economy mode, as soon as you plant your foot it switches to performance mode (0.01 second delay).
Driving the car this is completely seamless, the only way you can tell it is in economy mode is by looking at your MPG computer.

I have always been a little disappointed with the 120d Auto for consumption, around 34mpg round town, and no more than 40 mpg on a run. I set off on my trip for Italy the next morning and had a steady run down to the Tunnel, sat pretty much at 80 mph all the way down there, with 3 of us and a fortnights worth of luggage the car returned 47 mpg.
But most impressive was the performance from 30mph onwards, overtaking was a complete breeze, once you had your foot down the whole car just felt so much more alive, it had gone from a nice little sporty hatch into something a bit special, even with the family in the car laden down with the essentials needed for a holiday sat by a lake, like first aid kits, cans of food in case of emergencies, hair straighteners, shoe trees, step ladder and all the other crap women insist on taking with them, the car still felt a lot lighter on it's feet than it had for the previous 9 months of ownership!

Once in Italy I went out on my own, empty car and sat nav was all I needed for a fun day out, up into the mountains and you realise just what a great car the 1 series is, it is so well balanced, the seat position is just perfect and the weight of the steering and the big chunky wheel suddenly make complete sense when you a darting round the mountain passes. All this greatly enhanced by this small black box plugged into the car, the car is so nimble with the extra bit of poke, it really did feel seriously impressive, I had a nice little 10 minutes with a Swiss guy in a new S3, we stopped at the bottom of a pass and had a bit of a chat, he was amazed I was in the little diesel and thought I must have been in a 130i as he was having trouble making any distance on me, although his S3 was going to be remapped when he got back from his trip so he wasn't loosing too much sleep!!

The impressive thing for me was when just driving normally it is as smooth, if not smoother, than with the car in stock form, it feels like there is more torque but you never feel the car is a little twitchy like I have done with other tuning boxes, it feels more like a proper re map.

I have now had this thing on for over 6 months, seriously impressed, I see 38/40 mpg round town, so up around 5/7 mpg, and easily see 47/50 mpg on a run, up around 10 mpg.

I know some people will always go with a remap and I totally understand that, but some people want the option of not playing with the ECU, being able to put a lease car back to stock etc. etc. and for those people I can't recommend this unit enough.
I bought a 320d (177bhp) Sport Touring this week and spoke with Mike at Spider asking about a box of tricks for this car, he said they have just sorted it out and it was using the same PCB and connector as I am using now, so for £30 I can send it in and he will update the software for the new car, which is superb!
There is also a 5 year, transferable, warranty on these units which is also excellent for when you want to sell it on.

All in all the company is a pleasure to deal with. I spoke to Mike again asking if he would be interested in a group buy or forum offer?

These units are £375 each and available for most cars, Mike said he would be more than happy to do the unit for £300 and include postage too. So if anyone is interested drop them an email or give them a call and say you have seen the forum offer at £300 and they will get one out to you.

I never usually recommend something in case others are not as impressed, but a couple of people have driven my 120d now including a BMW tech and they have all given a big thumbs up, so I thought I would.
After taking the car in for a service and not having the unit on for a few days made me realise just how got this thing is, the car felt heavy and lathargic in comparison. I love it!


http://www.dieseltuning.co.uk/diesel_tuning/car.html


If you are interested please put you name on this thread so Mike can see who people are when they call.

The offer will run till March and then be reviewed.

[330cdsport]

That sounds like a great piece of kit gizze.

I just moved the tuningbox from my wifes old 120d into her new 320d touring (163) and it also does a great job. I think these tuning boxes are better suited to the 4 cylinder diesels as the smoothness does not seem to be sacrificed like it is in the 6 cylinder cars.

I had the box in my old 330cd and it was very on/off and when i tried it in the 335d it also was not so smooth.

[scotw]

Count me as one interested party

Scott.

[gIzzE]

I tried a Dragon box on my A3 tdi and found I couldn't live with it as it just wasn't smooth, same with the Tunit box on the 320d and the 330d.
It was the overall smoothness that stood out wit a proper remap, I would say that punch with the boxes actually seemed better though, but if you wanted a car that felt stock, or even better than stock, but with the performance gains a remap was the way to go, but this thing is as smooth as any remap I have had and some serious gains. I'm happy!

[scotw]

Originally Posted by gIzzE

I tried a Dragon box on my A3 tdi and found I couldn't live with it as it just wasn't smooth, same with the Tunit box on the 320d and the 330d.
It was the overall smoothness that stood out wit a proper remap, I would say that punch with the boxes actually seemed better though, but if you wanted a car that felt stock, or even better than stock, but with the performance gains a remap was the way to go, but this thing is as smooth as any remap I have had and some serious gains. I'm happy!

Gizze, Hope this isn't a daft question, but have you fitted to your 320D yet? Was the 120D that you are talking about the new 177bhp engine? Just interested if it makes such a big difference to the newer engine as it did to the 163, thanks.

[Terza]

Wow, some impressive gains for the Audi 4.2 TDI:
Q7 4.2 tdi 326ps 400ps 650Nm 850Nm Bosch-2


Gizze, will they add a tunning box for the 335d, and would I be able to order it to be delivered in Croatia?

[gIzzE]

I'm not sure, it would be worth dropping them a mail and asking them, I'm sure shipping to Croatia is no problem, or one of us could buy it and ship it to you if for some reason they don't ship overseas.

[gIzzE]

Originally Posted by scotw

Gizze, Hope this isn't a daft question, but have you fitted to your 320D yet? Was the 120D that you are talking about the new 177bhp engine? Just interested if it makes such a big difference to the newer engine as it did to the 163, thanks.

No, not fitted it yet, I am sending my box back for the software to be updated for the 177 version. I will report back next week with the results, I know someone has it on his 177 120d and it is working great. He had a couple of different software versions put on before it was spot on from memory, but now working a treat.

[- Paul -]

I'm interested.

320d E90 163ps 195ps 340Nm 400Nm Bosch-2

[squeezebm]

gizze,nice write up

[RichardM]

Originally Posted by Terza

Gizze, will they add a tunning box for the 335d, and would I be able to order it to be delivered in Croatia?

As all these cars use the same box I'm sure it would be the same for the 335d

330d E90 218ps 245ps 500Nm 580Nm Bosch-2
330d E90 231ps 285ps 500Nm 610Nm Bosch-2
525d E60 177ps 219ps 400Nm 505Nm Bosch-2
530d E60 218ps 245ps 500Nm 580Nm Bosch-2
535d E60 272ps 330ps 560Nm 685Nm Bosch-2

[gIzzE]

Yeah if they do one for the 535d they will offer the same for the 335d.

[Oli]

I gather you re pleased with your new car then Guy, get some proper pics of it with the new wheels on it, at first I didnt think they'd suit it but they work rally well with the silver.

The 50 + mpg is good though. Does sound like a stonking unit though, be interesting to hear what its like with your magical box on it. I agree with what you said about Dragon tuning boxes, very agressive and unrefined - we used to be an agent for them, but had loads of problems putting them on older vehicles - damaging injectors etc with over fuelling, so we cancelled our agreement.

Also good to hear that it still powerful enough, especially coming from your 335I with Excede, thats the good thing about diesels, some much power low down

[scotw]

Originally Posted by gIzzE

No, not fitted it yet, I am sending my box back for the software to be updated for the 177 version. I will report back next week with the results, I know someone has it on his 177 120d and it is working great. He had a couple of different software versions put on before it was spot on from memory, but now working a treat.

I'm very interested to see how you get on, if its as good as your previous experience I think I'll just order one !

[dxb335d]

I thought a tuning box tricks the car into thinking its undefueling and bumps up the fuel pressure resulting in more performance and morte black smoke (if you dont have a DPF) and in the end a fooked fuel pump?

A proper re-map flashed thru the OBD or mapped straight onto the ecu is a most finer way of doing things and less likely to cause damage.

[Oli]

A tuning box will never be as good as a re-map as it is only tricking the ECU, we found this out with the Dragon boxes!!

[scotw]

Originally Posted by OliH

A tuning box will never be as good as a re-map as it is only tricking the ECU, we found this out with the Dragon boxes!!

Hmm I am quite interested, not because I'm unhappy with the 320D (if I was I would have bought a 325D), but a little extra and better mpg is always nice. I like the idea of being able to remove it at any time. I also like the sound of a smoother power delivery with no flat spots. That said, I won't do it if it's bad for the engine.

I also thought that with the new encrypted ECU's this is probably the only option for those with newer cars?

[deejaygee]

I would be very interested as it is easily removable / installed for services etc. I am concerned though that for say £350 you can get proper remap from somebody like e-maps? Is this thing safe for the engine and as good or at least nearly as good??

If I could get it for £300 I would be prepared to buy on a refund Gaurantee if not entirely satisfied?

Comments welcomed.

[scotw]

Originally Posted by gIzzE

No, not fitted it yet, I am sending my box back for the software to be updated for the 177 version. I will report back next week with the results, I know someone has it on his 177 120d and it is working great. He had a couple of different software versions put on before it was spot on from memory, but now working a treat.

Gizze,

did you manage to get it fitted? Any feedback? Thanks

[jaspy412]

i would be interested, 06 320d not sure of the bhp though

[Budgie]

06 will be 163bhp and not the efficent dynamics version.Im sure they can offer you a good deal when we all buy in....but there are a multitude of 163BHP boxes avaliable and many remaps offering more power than a tuning box are also common by a lot of different companies.

Im still waiting for feedback too then ....ill commit,i heard that DPF was the problem with VW models so im on the fence with BMW DPF until someone says otherwise.

Tunit when i asked them as they do a 177 ps Box told me they had trialled it and didnt cause any hassle, even telling me they used it on D3 alpinas with amazing results, question is do D3 have DPF?.:conf used2:conf used2

[jaspy412]

what about this one

http://www.chiptuningdirect.com/bmw/...0kw_cr_en.html