Diesel tuning can be a fantastic way to optimise the performance of your vehicle. By altering ECU signals, tuning can increase or decrease the amount of fuel entering the cylinders to ensure that more torque and horsepower is produced. Fuel economy may dip a little, but that's more than worth it for the driver purist.
What isn't worth it is performing the work yourself. Unfortunately, many owners try to cut down on costs by tuning their own diesel engines, either working from their own knowledge of using instructions they found online.
Here are just a few reasons why you should never follow their example.
Results Will Probably Be Poor
Altering ECU signals isn't like adding new wiper blades or changing your oil. This is a complex operation that requires professional expertise. It may be possible to do the job yourself, but remember that top manufacturers put a huge amount of resources into retuning their own engines, and they aren't exactly publishing their methods online for all to read and follow. Even if you manage to retune the engine yourself, the results aren't likely to be all you hoped for.
Doesn't Take the Whole Vehicle into Account
One of the potential problems with diesel retuning is not taking the whole power system into account. If you upgrade the engine, you really need to make sure the rest of the vehicle can handle the added power. For example, you might achieve more potent performance but end up generating too much sooty gas from the exhaust, which could be illegal as well as annoying.
Even worse, you risk damaging other parts of the vehicle. Imagine having your calf muscles strengthened by 200%; they might be able to help you jump higher and run faster, but the other muscles in your legs will be put under more stress trying to catch up. If the engine is producing too much power, complex and expensive components, such as the gearbox or catalytic converter, may fail.
Invalidates Your Warranty
Many manufacturers don't like it when you conduct even minor modifications by yourself. This will often void the warranty; after all, why should they pay to fix damage when it was caused by your own handiwork? Retuning an engine by yourself will almost certainly invalidate even the most generous of warranty plans. Instead, take your vehicle to an authorised mechanic or service centre to ensure that you're still protected in the future.
Share8 May 2017
My name is Donna, and I love my toys! I have an ATV, a caravan, a boat and a range of other "toys". I find that there is a lot of information online about auto service but not that much about servicing fun types of vehicles. Inspired by the phrase "be the change you want to see in the world", I decided to start a blog full of information that is usually hard to find online. I will write about servicing toys, vintage cars, sports cars and a range of other topics. I hope that you like these posts and that you learn from them. Thanks for reading and enjoy your toys.