FAQ's - NZ Performance Tuning
The team at NZPT are dedicated to providing you with comprehensive and transparent advice to suit all your tuning requirements. These are our most frequently asked questions, but if you have any others, don’t hesitate to get in touch with our friendly team.
NZ Performance Tuning is not just “another tuning outfit”. Our tuning solutions have been developed over the last 20 years and are some of the very best available in the world today.
NZ Performance Tuning gives you the choice of the level of tune you want. Be it performance or economy tuning, we have the ability to reach your exact requirements. If you can’t decide between a multitude of options, then fear not, as we also have an option that allows you to have multiple maps available for your car at the press of a button!
Most manufacturers calibrate their ECU’s to optimum emissions, fuel economy, component longevity and safety which can limit performance. It is also logistically simpler and more cost-effective for car manufacturers to produce as few region-specific model variants as possible. Pre-production prototypes are tested in a variety of extreme ambient conditions ranging from Arctic sub-zero to desert heat temperatures in Death Valley, at high altitude and with the low-octane gasoline and low-cetane diesel fuel grades available in developing countries. Therefore, one engine management map is developed with the necessary flexibility to cope with all these limiting constraints. Thus, the ‘one-size-fits-all’ map that is conservative enough to cope with running low octane fuel at an altitude of over 3,500m will have some scope to be optimised to run at sea level on premium unleaded 98 RON octane fuel in New Zealand’s average ambient temperatures.
The improvements are often impressive with a better power spread across the rev range, higher peak torque resulting from increased power at lower engine speeds, better throttle response, quieter and smoother idle and cruising and increased rev and/or speed limit, etc. Perhaps paradoxically, a performance tune can return increased KM per liter on the extra urban cycle and at steady speeds. This is because OEM calibrations might retard timing and run richer mixtures to safeguard against deviations in the vehicle’s maintenance regime or pre-ignition and knock caused by low octane fuel.
There are many companies that are offering plug-in tuning boxes for diesel engines. However when trying to gain better performance from your engine, a full remap is irrefutably the better option. A tuning box sends false sensor values throughout the complete rev-range. This tells the ECU that there is not enough fuel entering the engine, the ECU then over-fuels in order to gain performance. This leads to faster fuel consumption. Although performance gains are made with a plug-in tuning box, they are at the cost of high emissions, higher engine temperatures, and general abuse of the engine. This may result in poor running, black smoke emitting from the exhaust, clogged injectors, rough idle, and engine cut-out. Also over fueling can result in bore washing which will dramatically reduce the life of any engine.
When looking at the cost of a full remap compared to a plug-in tuning box, don’t think purely on the cost of the upgrade itself. The future costs that may be incurred through installing a plug-in box are considerably higher than that of a full remap. In fact a full remap creates better performance throughout with increased fuel economy. In the long run a full remap will actually save you money, not cost you more. A full remap will take into account all factors and will deliver much smoother performance with much better gains and again the key thing is this is all dealt with in a completely safe way.
Yes. But we’ll be very surprised if that’s what you want after taking control of your vehicle’s performance.
Should you lose your tuning files due to dealer actions or parts failure your dealer will be happy to re-install the map onto your car free of charge for as long as you own the vehicle..
No, in fact quite the opposite. Even on a performance tune, if you continue to drive the car in the same way as you did before the upgrade, your fuel consumption will probably improve. Of course if you have a track map installed on the car and you are driving the car under the conditions with which a track map is intended you’re likely to find a slightly reduced mpg figure.
Economy tuning can have a dramatic effect on fuel consumption, with considerable improvements being achieved along with huge money savings on fuel.
No, not at all if you use NZ Performance Tuning. Sadly some engines can be over tuned, “stressing” the engine, transmission, cooling systems, etc, and reducing the life span and reliability of the car. This is why it’s so important to choose the best – choose NZ Performance Tuning.
We take great care to ensure that all of our modifications have no detrimental effect on your car. In a lot of cases the economy tune actually helps to extend the life of components such as the clutch and gearbox by making the delivery of the power far less aggressive and smoothing the overall drive of the vehicle.
There are a number of basic power upgrades available in a plug and play format or are downloadable from the web. Whilst some of these items can offer slight increases in power, they operate by merely adjusting a specified signal within the ECU by a set tolerance. It’s impossible to compare these inferior upgrades with a full rolling road re-map which measures and adjusts hundreds of signals and data files within the ECU.
We advise that these generic files and unsupported devices for sale on the web should be avoided at all cost. We’ve seen too many customers come to us after a bad experience – and there was no one else to turn to either. We’re always happy to advise on your tuning needs.