I have been to look at a Ford Focus TDCi 115 today, all was well until the private seller informed me that he has had a Powerbox tuning thingy fitted for the last 9000 miles.
The BHP is now 130 he says.
The car has 26000 miles on the clock so has done 17000 without this fitted.
My question is will it have done the engine any damage, and does this affect the Ford warranty?
Also, would the engine management need any sort of reprogramming if the Powerbox is taken off? (10 min job allegedly)
Can Ford tell if a car has had a Powerbox fitted then removed?
I could do with a quick answer on this guys.
Cheers,
GC
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Can't give you a specific answer but when I was looking to get my Diesel Scenic tuned, all the various companies assured me that they were undetectable. However, on other posts, people were advising that insurance companies were checking for chips in write offs!
There's been quite a few discussions on this subject - might be worth doing a search?
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I don\'t think there is any question of engine damage...15 BHP is a very modest increase and well within the capabilities of this engine.
As far as I know, the Powerbox unit \'piggy backs\' onto the existing management unit , so should just be a simple job to have it disconnected and return the car to standard.
I think you would be very unlucky if Ford either looked for or detected a previous modification such as this if you had a warranty issue.
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Obviously the insurance company would have to be informed (if involved in an accident and you hadn't told them then they may try to wriggle out of paying.
I think if there was a fault under warranty and the dealer spotted the modification then you may struggle to get the repair done. I would think it is a condition of warranty that no modification are made to the engine or engine management system.
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The car has been potentially been put under considerable additional stress. This will reduce the working life of some of the components, perhaps not by much and certainly nothing to worry you about at this mileage.
I wouldn\'t have thought you would put a tuning device on and then not test the performance once in a while.
A 15% hike in performance sounds quite major to me though. Wonder what tolerance is in the engine design - say 25% (anyone know for sure what modern manufacturers build in?), then to what degree does this particular engine match the design spec, say tolerance 10% (again just a guess, anyone know?)
Warranty might be in question but as you can remove the box very easily this should not be an issue (take it off prior to going to dealer).
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Unless I'm mistaken I think Ford make a 130PS version of the TDCi anyway, the only difference is in the tuning, the engine itself is the same, so I don't think it should be a major problem.
If Ford can play with the ECU to make it 130 in the factory then the engine must have a fair amount of tolerence built in.
*Disclaimer*
I'm not technical really, so I'll allow someone more knowledgeable to either confirm or correct what I've written! :-)
Blue
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\"private seller informed me that he has had a Powerbox tuning thingy fitted for the last 9000 miles\"
Can\'t believe he told you, how refreshingly honest! I wonder how many 2nd hand turbo diesels are bought these days without the new owner knowing being told about previous tuning devices having been used.
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Of course every engine is different, and some manufacturers perhaps have better design and production standards than others, but I believe most engines to be over engineered to cope with owner abuse and market variance (extremes of temperature, etc). Many engines also come in a basic state of tune when first introduced to market, so the manufacturer has some leeway to improve spec at little cost later on.
For example, you can bet your life that when the VAG 1.8T lump was first released with 150 BHP, they had a fairly good idea that easy access to 165 (or whatever the exact figure is) and 180 BHP was in the offing (I exclude the 225BHP variant as I understand this has reasonably major mechanical changes).
Volvo produce a 140BHP version of their 2.4 five pot engine for some markets. The only difference to the 170BHP version sold in the UK is software, with identical power and torque between both engines in the low and mid range.
Doesn't the MINI (sorry, Maxi!) Cooper also simply have a chip job over the One to obtain extra ponies?
Finally, a friend of mine in Sweden runs a six year old previous generation Volvo V70 R that has been chip, enhaust, and intercooler tuned to 280BHP (240 standard on his model) for all bar the first few weeks of life. It has now covered over 100,000 miles, is stupendously quick (and he uses it as such), and has been totally reliable apart from an appetite for brake disks.
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I wouldn't be too worried about it, as long as it is a simple plug-in type connection, and no loom wires have had to be cut/rejoined.
Ford should have no indication that it has ever been fitted.
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