If it sounds too good to be be true….

 

come on. If you don’t know how it works you can’t really comment on it. Engines with Turbos are the easiest and cheapest to yield great increase in power

whether that’s with a full ecu tune or a piggy back. no tuning comes without issues and risk.

i have been tuning my turbos for the last 10 years. had some issues on a couple cars but it wasn’t technically related to the tune. it was other parts that caused over boosting

turbos love cold air and hate hot air. but when it’s too cold outside it causes issues. so those living in very cold climates might experience issues in the winter.

if you are going to freak out with one check engine light this is not for you or any modification to your vehicle. key is that the check engine light goes away. If it doesn’t go away then something is broken.

i have been getting that steering assist error almost 2-3 times a week. it goes away and don’t think anything of it.

but if you are looking a little
more out of your p400 this is a great option

 

First - you are right: no one apparently knows how this things really works. Yeah, it has a booklet and some fancy web site, but that's about it... For me, that is non impressive at best, and when you get into technical issues (e.g. check engine light) their support is almost non existent other than a canned email.
Second: I had the check engine light too. Luckily gone away - after removing the box. For this type engine so complex, and relatively new, which you can't fix on the side of the road, yeah, I agree with you - is not for everybody.
I really like your enthusiasm with this box. You probably are a pioneer, but this device has a long way to be a shining star and a "go to device". For the time it worked on my vehicle, I did not see major improvements, neither in power, speed, or fuel economy.
And for a tech at the dealership, ignoring those cables, even with a dummy box, do you want to take that risk when you end up at the dealership ? is a 50-50% chance which for me at least, is not worth it.

 

you should feel a 15 percent increase in power and especially the increase in the torque.

there is a chance the cable were installed incorrectly.
i did this one of my older cars.

the box is pretty simple, intercepts a signal and tells the ecu to increase boost.

there are other ways to see if it really works if you cared enough. Devices that measure your 0-60 and quarter mile.

i get it, this is not a race/sports car.

i originally purchased the box with intentions of bridging the gap in power between the v8. with advertised torque gains in the 450 range that puts it on par with the v8 and knowing a little about the subject that’s realistic out of a turbo engine

but full disclosure, i have not installed mine. I ended up actually getting a call for a v8 and traded my p400

 

Cables were installed correctly... otherwise the box would not function. I did check that many times.
Trust me, I wanted to like it, but all I got was a check engine light, and lost 100 $ shipping it back.
I have tried the vehicle in may instances before sending it back. On road, off road, different terrains, different settings ...and over 2500 miles.
There is a faint difference between the settings, but honestly, it did not made a difference to me.
This engine is really great. Maybe the box improves on other models, don't know ...
And for the service, I was advised in relatively friendly terms that if they see that, will definitely void the warranty, with or without a dummy connector.
In this day and age when the dealerships want to make a quick buck, a device like that is a gold mine for them, to spin you out of warranty.
Am I crazy to believe that ? don't know, don't want to find out the hard way.
Look, I am not bashing this company or their box ... but it definitely wasn't working for my P400, or had a noticeable improvement.

 

dealer can’t void your warranty unless they prove that the aftermarket item caused the issue. there are laws around this

dealers make majority of their profit from service.

having a good relationship with your service advisor and dealership is key.

i wish i had my tuning box earlier. maybe it would if saved me 30k upgrading to the v8

 

Uhhh.... negatory ! you can't compare a "black box" with a real fine engine like that.
You are going to be sooooo much happier with the v8. A friend of mine has one, and I was a passenger in it for a demo. That machine, is a powerful beast ( doesn't need any TDI box )

 

All:

I learned something today, thank you.

I did not know about the challenge of sensor electronics to accurately read oxygen content at low temperatures -- an unexpected slope inversion of what the ideal gas law predicts is very interesting ! The perceived change in O2 % read by the sensor inverts below 15 degrees C, as is shown below.

So, turbos think at low temperatures there exists less oxygen to burn, so it backs off the boost in the logic of the ECU. Makes sense.

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https://www.ictinternational.com/casestudies/understanding-oxygen-in-air/#:~:text=As%20with%20barometric%20pressure%2C%20th e,not%20applied%20to%20relative%20measurements


The ideal gas law (Eq. (1)) shows that absolute gas concentration decreases by 0.341% for a 1°C increase in temperature from 20°C (1 K/293 K = 0.00341). For a sensor that measures absolute gas concentration but is calibrated to read out in relative units, a 1°C temperature increase from 20°C results in an apparent decrease of 0.0714% O2 (0.341% * 0.2095 = 0.0714%) and a relative O2 concentration of 20.8786%. As with barometric pressure, to obtain accurate O2 measurements a correction should be applied to compensate for temperature effects. The equation to correct O2 measurements in air for temperature effects is:



where O2M is as given above, TC is the air temperature [K] at calibration, and TM is the air temperature [K] at the time of the measurement. The effects of temperature on relative O2 measurements, based on calculations from Eq. (4) are plotted (Fig. 2) to show the significance of measuring and correcting for temperature. If not accounted for, temperature fluctuations show up in the measurement as an apparent change in relative O2 concentration because sensors respond to absolute O2 concentration but are calibrated to read relative O2 concentration.

Sensor Response to Temperature

In practice, Eq. (4) does not accurately correct for temperature effects because in addition to the ideal gas law temperature effect, sensor electronics are affected by temperature. The combination of these two effects on Apogee O2 sensors (soil and fast response sensors) was determined from measurements in dry air across a wide temperature range by plotting pressure-corrected apparent O2 concentration (i .e., measured O2 concentration before temperature correction was applied) versus sensor temperature (TS) (Fig. 2). Neither of the sensors follows the ideal gas law response (Fig. 2), and thus an empirical correction derived from the measured data must be applied to account for both the ideal gas law and sensor electronics responses:



where TS is the measured sensor temperature [°C] (Apogee O2 sensors come with a thermistor or type-K thermocouple temperature reference); the coefficients C3, C2, and C1 are listed in Fig. 2 for both the soil and fast-response sensors; and C0 is the offset coefficient calculated from the temperature at calibration, TC [°C]:



It is likely that the temperature effect on the sensor electronics varies from sensor to sensor, thus the coefficients derived herein (the average of the three sensors; error bars are shown in Fig. 2) may not yield the most accurate temperature correction for all sensors of the same model.



Figure 2: Empirically-measured temperature responses of the soil and fast-response O2 sensors, with third order polynomials fit to the data points, compared to the theoretical temperature response calculated from the ideal gas law (Eq. (1)). The difference between the theoretical and measured responses is due to a temperature effect on the sensor electronics. The polynomial coefficients used to correct for the temperature response with Eq. (5) are listed. An offset coefficient (C0) is not listed because it is dependent on the temperature at calibration. It is calculated with Eq. (6). The sensors were calibrated at 20oC. As with barometric pressure, the absolute O2 concentration, and thus the O2 sensor output, varies with temperature. As temperature changes the relative O2 concentration remains constant at 20.95%, but an apparent O2 change is measured if the temperature correct ion is not applied to relative measurements.

 

This paper primarily addresses a potential error in calculating relative O₂ concentration from absolute O₂ concentration in mol m⁻³, due to the variation of partial pressure with pressure, temperature and concentration. That shouldn't matter for a turbo, since all it cares about for combustion stoichiometry is absolute concentration.