Has anyone fitted a chip to a 320 CDi?

Any recommendations and results?

 

Do you have any logical reason for saying this?

I'm interested to know why a "Plug In" type of chip is no good. What are the problems with this?

 

Again, being naive, what is wrong with what the chip does?

It is supposed to increase torque and power without affecting the engine, in terms of longevity, etc.

What does remapping do that is different?

It seems to me that a chip can be easily removed, but, a remapping has to be done, yet again, to bring it back to the normal state.

I'm not trying to be awkward- just trying to see the difference.

Can you suggest any literature on this?

 

This is an interesting topic. The diesel engine knows how much fuel is going into the cylinder if it knows the injector diameter, the fuel injection pressure and the time the injector is firing for. If it knows this info it can calculate how much fuel is being consumed (per bang), the ECU knows the road speed and therefore it can compute mpg on the display. [it must be doing it thus as there is no other independent fuel flow sensor]. If you increase the fuel rail pressure by say 10% (which is what one of the "chip boxes" does) then when the injector squirts it puts a larger volume of fuel into the engine which makes more power. The other style of "plug in "chip box" extends the time the injector squirts for which puts a larger voulme of fuel into the engine and makes more power.
As for improved economy? Well energy has to come from somewhere and if you are making more Hp you have to be using more fuel (thats physics friend). This is what I believe is actually happening. When you fool the ECU with your chip box the ECU thinks the injection pressure and opening time are the same so it does its economy calculations using this data. Since your chip box is delivering more fuel into your engine it will develop more power and you will go faster........so you now need to take your foot off the throttle a little.......the ECU now uses this new data and recalculates you a lower mpg. So it is my belief that the ECU is calculating a better mpg than you are actually getting. I would be very interested if anyone has done a "tank full to tank full" mpg check against their trip computer before fitting one of these boxes and then done a comparison afterwards. I bet the trip computer is initially fairley accurate and afterwards its -15%.......about the same mpg increase claim by the manufacturer.
"Forced induction" seams to have alot of input into the forum, i wonder what his thoughts are. Regards Gary (UK and looking for better mpg on a 2006 C220 CDi)

 

That reply is certainly food for thought.

I purchased a chip from "Chip Express" in the UK. It certainly gave a noticeable difference in acceleration, but, I didn't measure the fuel usage. This was due to, mainly, it kept putting the engine management in to "limp home" mode.

I sent it back and have now refitted it. (They said they have recalibrated the unit).

After 2 weeks I have had no problem and the performance improvement is very noticeable. Again, I haven't measured the fuel usage.

Obviously, during town driving the power advantage is not noticeable, so, there may not be much change in the actual fuel used.

However, as the old Yorkshire saying goes "Tha can' get owt for nowt" and I would expect the fuel consumption to go way up.

I haven't noticed excessive black smoke from the exhaust as I pull away.

For the price paid, I am quite happy with what I have. However, reliability and possible engine problems are a real unknown.