With the current state of the world economy at the moment, everyone is looking to save the pennies where they can. One large cost of living that people are always looking to save on is fuel. The current cost of diesel is back up around the £1/litre mark and any savings that can be had would no doubt be very welcome.

Where does diesel tuning fit in?

Diesel tuning boxes can make a huge difference in fuel economy and should definately be considered when looking to save those extra few pounds. However, you need to first establish if you will be the type of driver who will be able to benefit from the increase in MPG.

It is a common misconception that those who drive economically will see the best MPG improvements with a diesel tuning box. And similarly those who have a heavy right foot will not see so much improvement in MPG. It is this common misconception that has led to many other sellers of tuning boxes to produce so called Eco units.

In reality this is actually the opposite to what actually happens. Diesel tuning boxes work by increasing the torque characteristics of the engine. This increase in torque obviously results in an increase in power. This in turn results in the driver being able to reach the same speeds in a shorter time, using less total revs to get to that speed and hence saving fuel. Also manouevers like overtaking can be achieved easier and often without the need for gear changes. All this results in a improvement in fuel economy.

However, as these benefits are seen due to the increase in torque, the people who will see the MPG improvements are those who USE the torque of the engine. So those pulling heavy loads, or with a heavier right foot or live in hilly surroundings etc. are the ones who benefit the most. Those drivers who are already very defensive will not be using the torque of the engine so will not see as much MPG improvement.

Diesel Tuning boxes are fantastic for MPG however it needs to be kept in context. There is little point in a defensive driver purchasing a diesel tuning box for the sole purpose of improving fuel economy. A diesel tuning box should be installed for the purpose of making the engine more efficient and therefore improving the enjoyability of the drive. Fuel improvements, while important, should always be considered as a very nice bonus rather than a requirement for performance of the box.

In our time of supplying these tuning boxes we have seen MPG improvements in excess of 20%, and also customers with almost 0% improvement in fuel economy. The level of improvement you get is dependent on so many different factors from engine condition to driving style to quality of fuel etc that it is impossible to predict.

Diesel Tuning companies often talk about the increased BHP, Torque and MPG figures. All 3 being extremely important factors in the the world of diesel tuning and all 3 are great indications of the level of improvements you should expect from your diesel tuning box.

However one often overlooked statistic is the 0-60 times. Due to the great increases in the torque characteristics, our diesel tuning box will dramatically improve your 0-60 times. This helps greatly in making your vehicle a much more enjoyable one to drive.

A couple of examples that we have to illustrate this point are as follows.

Jeep Grand Cherokee 3.0 V6 – 0-60 has gone from 10.5 secs to 6.78 secs
Mercedes Vito 112 cd1 (fully loaded) – 0-60 has gone from 16.8secs to 14.38secs

The Jeep Grand Cherokee obviously is already a fairly powerful engine and as a vehicle is designed to have fairly good speed anyway. As a result the improved torque and bhp have really made a difference on the 0-60 times with nearly a 4 second increase. An improvement of 35% cannot be ignored!

The Mercedes was fully loaded to give an example of a non-streamlined and fully loaded work vehicle. As you can see, significant improvements were seen with nearly 2.5secs shaved off the 0-60 time.

A diesel tuning box has fantastic benefits for your vehicle and these figures illustrate just how effective they are.