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In the olden days, car tuning mostly consisted of adjusting carburetors and ignition to keep the engine running optimally. You also had to keep an eye on the spark plugs and various engine fluids, and make sure to keep things lubricated. More serious tuning included performance car parts such as headers, exhausts or perhaps a bigger carburetor or engine. These still play a role today, but almost everything else has changed. Computers control our cars now, and they have become the primary key to performance. Automotive computers, often called Electronic Control Units or ECUs, manage every aspect of a vehicles running and performance, from determining when exactly spark plugs should fire, to providing the data for the boost display of a turbo motor, all the way to luxury car tuning amenities such as turning lights on or off and adjusting rear view mirrors.
How do Electronic Control Units work? To begin with, they are both the same and very different from the desktop and notebook computers we use in our lives. They are the same insofar as they are computers with CPUs and memory and the programming needed to do a variety of tasks. They are different in that they have no displays or hard drives or keyboards. Most ECUs consist of a system board housed in a small metal box that's usually mounted either in the engine compartment or under the dash. ECUs are designed to do just one thing - running your car - and they do have to do that reliably and without fail for many years. ECUs must boot up instantly when you turn on the ignition of your car; they must manage fueling, ignition, cams of an engine whose camshaft may rotate up to 9,000 times a minute; they must handle emission control and various other systems that require instant changes several times a second; they must monitor dozens of sensors located throughout the vehicle; and they must do all that in temperatures ranging from blazing hot to ice cold and while rattled around on bumpy road day after day, month after month.
Given all that, you'd imagine that ECUs are totally closed systems, black boxes that you can neither adjust nor fix should they break down. Wrong. ECUs have become the focal point of engine tuning, both for domestics and imports. If you look at any catalog for luxury performance car parts you'll find various products that affect the running of the ECU either via reprogrammed chips or circuitry that intercepts and modifies signals to and from the ECU. Be it Volkswagen parts, Audi parts, BMW parts, Mercedes parts or other luxury car parts, chances are that the performance tuning section includes ECU tuning products.
What can ECU tuning do for your vehicle? Just about everything. If you add performance hardware such as headers, exhaust, a turbo, or a supercharger, ECU tuning makes sure that spark and cam timing and the air-fuel ratio are adjusted properly so you get optimal performance and reliability from your modified engine. Depending on your modifications, ECU tuning may also include injection and boost display and control, changing rev limiters, launch control, automatic transmission shift points and torque converter settings, as well as monitoring various functions. Amazingly, unlike traditional modifications, ECU tuning can be undone within minutes. It is truly 21st century style tuning.
Skoda Octavia - Loss Of Power Common Causes
The cause for this can be one of a number of issues; however there is a few that are the most common causes.
1. Engine Control Unit (ECU) - Basically the VAG group acknowledges that there is a fault with the ECU on this engine and would normally advise you upgrade to the latest version. Be aware that this is a very expensive upgrade at somewhere around £600.
2. Turbo control valve - The 110 engine has a control valve on the turbo. This is a known fault and can be rectified by stripping it down and lubricating. This is normally a job for your main dealer and is a fault that should show up on sophisticated dealer diagnostics software. Be aware that if the problem recurs after this rectification, then you will probably need a new turbo.
3. MAF sensor - This is the airflow meter, it is located in the plastic air box pipe that leads from the air box to the engine and is secured by two screws. Sometimes these devices become clogged and or electrically malfunction. It is best to buy a new one rather than source a second hand item.
4. Turbo pipe - There is a small vacuum pipe that leads from the turbo to the ECU (it is about a foot long and looks similar to that of a bicycle pump valve). This pipe is known for splitting or leaking at the ends. Check that the pipe has no splits and that the ends are air tight by using small jubilee clips.
5. Vacuum pipes - Located on the bulkhead in front of the passenger seat is a connector block that has numerous pipes going to it. Check that all these pipes are in good order and connected properly. Replace them accordingly where necessary.
6. Fuel filter - These can become easily clogged by contaminants in the diesel. Replace the fuel filter with a new one that has been soaked in diesel treatment such as Redex etc. The engine may take quite a bit of starting after this process, but once started it will help to clear the fuel system. It is also a good idea to add some of the treatment to your fuel tank at the same time.
Although the loss of power can be caused by many things and finding a solution is often a process of elimination, the above are considered the most common causes and solutions.
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These days, you will find new cars with the latest incorporated engine technology. The engine of a car has undergone a massive change, right from the age old carburetor to the Engine Control Unit (ECU). In the 19th century, when the first single-cylinder petrol engine driver car came into force, it was the "Carburetor" that came into existence. Later on, multi cylinder engines were considered as a new thing. Finally, in the early 80's we got a new car system, consisting of controlled - feeding of fuel, air and ignition spark to the ICE cylinders. It was the fuel-injection system that was born, which replaced the century old carburetors. In a multi point fuel injection system, it injects fuel into individual cylinders. The injection of the fuel takes place on the basis of the commands from the "on board engine management system" computer. This computer is known as the engine control unit or the ECU.
The main process based job of an engine control unit (ECU) is to control the various features of an internal combustion engine's operation. Earlier, the ECU that was fitted in most of the cars and had their engine parameters fixed. Also, the carburetor would determine the required quantity of fuel per cylinder/per engine cycle. In other words, the simple version of the ECU'S would control only the quantity of fuel injected into each cylinder, at each engine cycle. The advanced types of engine control unit (ECU), which are fitted on most modern cars, are capable of controlling the ignition timing, variable value timing (VVT) and other peripherals.
The ECU'S (Engine control unit) monitors the engine by using sensors so that it can gather information about the cars quantity of fuel, ignition timing and other such parameters. The ECU works according to the input data that it gets from the various sensors that are located within the engine. The various types of sensors that are fitted all over the engine are MAP sensor, throttle position sensor, air temperature sensor, oxygen sensor and many more. The sensors incorporated within the engine, are basically used to determine the various "operating states of the engine and its performance. These sensors monitor's various aspects such as the ambient air temperature, engine/coolant temperature, exhaust /main fold temp, exhaust O2 content, throttle position, the rpm of the engine, the vehicle road speed and crankshaft position. The ECU (Engine Control Unit) uses the closed -loop control method, where it monitors the output of a system in order to control the inputs to a system. Since, the ECU (Engine Control Unit) gathers data from various different sensors, it knows all about the coolant temperature to the amount of oxygen in the exhaust. On the basis of this available data, the ECU (Engine Control Unit) starts performing huge calculations every second. On the bases of the programmed interpretation of all the available input data, the ECU ( Engine Control Unit) will deliver the required commands to the engine's fuel intake and spark ignition timings system and thus help in bringing out a satisfactory performance of the car's engine.
Understanding Subaru Air Mass Sensors
Improving engine power through mechanical upgrades
such as free-flowing exhausts, intakes, turbochargers and intercoolers
will boost the amount of airflow into the engine over stock. Any
increase in airflow is immediately picked up by the air mass sensor.
This causes the following things to occur:
Increased load forces the ECU to operate in areas of the fuel and ignition maps that it was not calibrated for, resulting in fuel mixtures that are too rich, eating up some of the power gains made by fitting the parts in the first place.
Reductions in exhaust back pressure enables more ignition advance to be safely run in the mid range than the active ignition control system is programmed to allow, thus compromising peak potential power.
Outside of the range of active timing control the ECU is effectively deaf and is programmed with a safe set of ignition timing values. These safe ignition values are for an unmodified engine. At high RPM and loads ignition timing needs to be retarded, especially after 6,000 RPM, or the engine can start to detonate.
Normally as engine load and RPM increases, both fuel and ignition mapping changes progressively in reaction to this. After modifications, very quickly the ECU can reach the end of its scaling so that in essence fuel and timing becomes fixed at the last set values. This leads to driveability and reliability issues.
The OE boost control is calibrated to suit a known set of exhaust and intake dynamics. More efficient parts can throw the boost control system to far out of sync for its closed loop boost control system to compensate for. Wild boost fluctuations, over boosting or even under boosting are all possible consequences.
Products that modify the way in which the engine management system works, in order to address the above issues are broken up into four broad groupings. They include re-flashing the OE ECU; fitting an interceptor type add-on controller; complete replacement ECU replacements; and finally plug-in chip upgrades. All of these upgrades have their place in the grand scheme of tuning things, each with their own pros and cons.
Sport computer tuning ECU remaps
Back in the good old days - the task of timing the ignition spark was performed by the distributor. The greater the RPM, the more the timing would advance.This did a reasonable job but for the most effective power you would need to vary the timing to a greater degree that a fixed ratio advance curve. The electronic ignition was borne.
A complete map of variables was entered into the ignition program and preset timing would be read from a table.
Now air temperature, engine speed, engine load and even control over
turbo waste gate control means that precise management of the engine
ignition timing is possible and you can achieve the maximum
power output throughout the rev range.
Electronic ignition allows the manufacturer to fine tune economy at
popular road speeds such as 30mph, 56mph and 70mph where most cars
spend a large proportion of their time. It is now possible to advance
the timing if the throttle is wide open to give greater power or back
off the timing when cruising at constant speed.
When a manufacturer creates a timing MAP they build into it a big margin of error to cope with: Adverse temperature ranges, minor faults & bad conditions. Manufacturers do not want people breaking down, suffering premature parts failure or a reputation for uneconomical cars.
Each car that leaves the production line is also unique some achieve 10bhp less and others can be 10bhp up on standard specs, depending on how well the components are machined and put together. So rather than put each car through a unique assessment and a bespoke timing map, they adopt a standard one map fits all philosophy.
It is also a fact that manufacturers use the remap to produce different power versions of the same engine and get lower insurance cover ratings and better fuel consumption. You start to see the fantastic scope for improvement, then, when you add into the mix the fact that the average Toruqecars reader will be adding better performing components to the car, you have a really strong case for a remap.
Other things that the manufacturer builds in to their map equation is the possibility of user neglect ie: infrequent servicing with items struggling like dirty plugs, bad leads, clogged air filter, partially blocked injectors etc... The list goes on.
Who should remap? Anyone who has added performance parts to the engine should consider a remap. If your car is a turbo model, there are massive power gains on offer and TorqueCars would strongly recommend a remap.
What are the hidden costs or drawbacks? You will need to be prepared to keep the car serviced more frequently, and, sometimes decreasing the service interval by half. When you fill up you are also restricting yourself to high quality fuel and you must be prepared to replace components that fail due to the extra work they are doing.
When an engine is tuned to produce more power, you are also creating more stress and strain, so things will start to fail such as air flow sensors. Also turbos can wear out, other major components like pistons and bearings will need care and attention and you will find that the clutch lasts a shorter time.
If you do not have a turbo there is very little to be gained by a remap alone - perhaps only a few BHP so TorqueCars recommendation for non turbo cars is to modify everything else first (cams,pistons, increase compression, engine balance, air intake, exhaust, head work, bigger valves etc...) after these things have been done you can then consider a remap which will help you get the full benefit from them.
On the subject of turbos, a remap will often introduce boost from lower down the rev range and because of this the turbo is running faster and hotter. In this situation you must let the turbo cool down a little before shutting off the engine, otherwise the oil will degrade and you will have an expensive turbo repair on your hands. Fitting a turbo timer will also help with this problem and keeps the engine ticking over.
Of course the amount of power you choose has a bearing on the reliability and cost of running the car. Many people go for an off the shelf remap which are on offer all over the country and typically cost around £200-£500.
This is better than the manufacturers map in that it uses tighter parameters but it is still a one size fits all job. If you are after big power gains and have changed major components like the turbo, waste gate and have done extensive engine work then a custom remap is the best option.
Switchable remaps. Things have moved on and it is now possible to have a few maps stored which you can select from. It is typical to have a valet mode to stop the boy racers at the garage thrashing your pride and joy on the "test run" to bed in the new wiper blades they have fitted. Then there is often an economy option to give very frugal fuel consumption, particularly useful when cruising on long journeys.
Then you have the 'sport' or 'power' modes which give lots of power and often require high octane fuel. Torque.Cars strongly recommend that you get a switchable remap - it may cost a little more at the outset but you will avoid many of the pitfalls of running a high power remap all of the time by doing this and get the best of both worlds.
Please do not confuse a remap with the little boxes you can buy for £50 which generally contain little more than a £3 resistor and often do little more than fool the car into thinking the air is cooler than it is. If it was really this easy to get more power from a car then the manufacturers would have already done that themselves.
