I had my Unichip done at East coast customs in Brisbane. Mine was the first copen to be done and there was a lot of experimenting to make it work. The cost was about $2200 fitted and dyno tuned. Would be cheaper for the next guy as there was quite a bit of extra labour to get it working. If you do a search on this site you'll find my dyno chart posted up.
I had my Unichip done at East coast customs in Brisbane. Mine was the first copen to be done and there was a lot of experimenting to make it work. The cost was about $2200 fitted and dyno tuned. Would be cheaper for the next guy as there was quite a bit of extra labour to get it working. If you do a search on this site you'll find my dyno chart posted up.
Ok, cool. Thanks for the info. You must luv your Copen as that is a lot of money to spend. Mind you to chip my Audi S3 wouldn't have been much less. It was done by a previous owner. Its a shame there isn't something easier and more economical for other Copen owners to do this. How much HP did it show on the dyno out of interest when finished?
I looked it up myself, Unichip on Aussie Copen is his thread, over 20% gain so around 80bhp. I'm about to get an exhaust made since mine is blowing, at Top Gear in Stockport. They do remapping as well, have a 1200hp dyno which I think should just about contain my Copen's power lol, and their website actually reckons they can do Copens...AND...they have a deal on, £200 for a remap if you're buying a full catback SS exhaust. I'm going to have to pop in and check they really can.
I had a look as well..nice gains there. For my exhaust I took it to three different places who gave me three different prices and ideas!? I am not a novice, been mucking around with cars for years. The last guy made total sense and it cost $280 to sort it out. I ended up just renewing 2" cat back down pipe to just past the first Muffler, removing it completely. Made a huge difference. Not necessary to blow a lot of money with full systems etc. Be interesting to see if they can tune your Copen? Seems for the Aust ones, its expensive and difficult. At least it seems the UK ones are OBDII?
Yeah, the Copen exhaust is in sections so I could just have part of it replaced, in fact you can buy the separate sections on ebay and it's an easy job if you can borrow some axle stands. Problem over here though, especially in Manchester, is rain, rain, then more bloody rain. Then it rains a bit more. I figure I can buy another standard exhaust and have it rust through somewhere again in a couple years, or I can get a SS system and then all I have to worry about is the underbody Really not sure on the tuning, most people on here from the UK are talking about sending their chip to germany, I haven't actually asked a human and it's possible their website just lists every car regardless of whether they've done it or not. UK ones are ODBII yup.
We are probably getting off the discussion regarding OBDII so maybe private message my if you like to talk more? In the meantime I see what you mean and you need Stainless Steel for sure if you intend to keep your car? 2" is plenty for the Copen. I did a lot of research regarding diameter of exhaust pipes for Turbo cars. The last section is not worth the money to change. The diameter is ok and does not restrict the flow to be a problem. The front section is where you need to make the changes. Basically it is straight through 2" down pipe till it meets the end section. It is easily welded onto the original flange that connects to the turbo. Any bigger and you will have trouble with the size of the flange as the manifold outlet is very small. Also the extra cost will not benefit any noticeable power increase. Better spent elsewhere. But if they have a good deal and can do it right then two birds with one stone! Perfect. Back to OBII. As your car will be OBDII that gives you quite a few options for tuning. So much easier for you guys over there and less cost as well.
When the VN Commodores were new, I took the ROM chip out of my car's ECU and burned copies of it for the other guys because they thought my car was "hotter" than the others. Remapping, though, would require knowing exactly what you are looking at, because it was just a mass of hex numbers. Anyway, my chip made the other cars run like crap. The things must tune themselves as they go. Back to the door locks. Does anyone know what is the frequency of the lock fob? Usually they are either 315 or 433 MHz.
It appears they do tune themselves. You can buy a chip that connects to the OBDII port and after about 100kms or so it will tune itself to your driving style and also do what the remapping does. The good thing about that is when you sell your car you can take that with you and update it to for a cost to suit the next car. I just about bought that but now we have the problem of OBD here so I am glad I didn't. You might be able to find that out from a locksmith. The guy I tried said it was transmitting but I didn't think about the frequency?
I'm glad you didn't buy one of those chips too Marnob, they're a scam, more likely to kill you car then improve it. There's no 'chip', nothing that 'learns', they're a cheap resistor to trick your ecu into reading the wrong values, your ECU adjusts after a while and ignores it but in the meantimes you've had perhaps 1-2 bhp if you're lucky, perhaps a reduction, perhaps your engine is now completely blown and you have 0bhp
Its actually a Swiss/Netherlands company. Have a look if you like? Its the real thing. I found it I was doing all my research for software etc to get the ECU file. I will put the link in so you can check it out? Affordable Chiptuning | Obd tuning | Ecotuning |
I went with the DSport ECU and what I noticed was the increase in rev limit. I did not have ready access to a dyno or the $$$ to spend measuring the benefit of each mod. I was lucky in that there were a couple very active Copen owners (~2008/9) in Sydney. We were able to drive our Copens back to back with other stock & modified Copens for comparison. JPY55,000 is a bargain for a DSport ECU. I paid almost double that from memory. A lot of bits pop up ex Singapore as owners dekit their cars prior to their CoE (Certificate of Entitlement) expiring at 10 years. BTW - I would have gone with Martian Crate for a complete package if I was tracking my car. They did a great kit, as do Proville nowadays.
Thanks for the info. I really wanted to know how much in regards to the cost of a D-Sport ECU, if it was worth it? Oh by the way it was around $55,000 not 550,000yen..hehe typo A new one is getting up to 80,000+ So how about the low, mid & high range torgue? Did it pull much better to near red line in all ranges or some better than others? The interesting thing I found was the speedo difference. Not sure about the UK ones? The Japanese ones are stuck at 140km/hr. Annoying when you go to fit white dials. But I did wonder as the D-Sport gets rid of the speed limiter? My point then is, well was there any limiter in Aust Copens anyway as ours go to 240km/hr, not that it would do that of course? Never tried to see how fast mine will go? A bit hard with cops around these days? You can do an exchange ECU in Japan for $35,000Yen, less 10,000 if you send yours. They will tune it similar to the D-Sport. Mine pulls well in low revs but starts to miss out on mid and definitely low in high range. That is with a standard ECU, 2" downpipe without mid muffler, self modified air cleaner intake with D-Sport filter and Stainless Induction set up. Have yet to fit an larger after market Intercooler which is sitting in the shed. Maybe I should look at Singapore for some cheap performance parts?
I don't think there is much to be gained at the top end of the copen as the biggest restriction is the turbo itself. Mine tends to run out of air about 6500rpm. When I had the Unichip installed there was a modest gain at the top end but the biggest change was low and mid range drivability. I think with a bigger turbo the Dsport ECU and raised rev limit would be good. I believe the Dsport also allows a boost increase but again the turbo will run out of air and boost will drop off at high revs anyway. I don't believe the Aussie Copens have a speed limiter, don't ask how I know.
I might be wrong, that does seem more realistic than the generic 'learning' chips I was thinking of. However, being the cynic I am, their money-back guarantee conditions ring warning bells! " The Obd multi tuning chip is a 7 day money back guarantee tevrededen. If you are not tevereden, you can send the OBD multtuningchip registered return within 7 business days (quoting a tracking number). OBD Multi tuning chip will be the eighth day on our return appearance. Excluding Sundays holidays. Buyer shall tuning multi-chip first notify by email of returning the multi-chip tuning We calculate standard € 85, - reset and processing costs. These costs will be deducted from the purchase price. Send return is only possible if the OBD multi-chip tuning has no visible wear or damage." So it costs £255, if you return it using the 'money-back guarantee' you get £183 back. I'll wait and let someone else try it I think! One thing I found though, you can buy actual ECU flashing kits and adjust your map yourself, now without knowing what you're doing that's probably not great...however if anyone who's got a stock or near-stock Copen chipped could copy and upload their map, seems it would be fairly simple to just swap the replacement map in?
The gains promised are a bit high, they even say it works for naturally aspirated engines. A real tune up has to be done on a dyno and not with some mystical box. Even if there are gains, I'd say they are at the disadvantage of reliability. I live close (~100km) to a shop that sells these, but I would not go, the probability of something blowing up is too high
One thing I found though, you can buy actual ECU flashing kits and adjust your map yourself, now without knowing what you're doing that's probably not great...however if anyone who's got a stock or near-stock Copen chipped could copy and upload their map, seems it would be fairly simple to just swap the replacement map in?[/QUOTE] Ok, these kits must allow you to make a copy of your original ECU file? That is what I have been looking for, a long time. If I can get the file I can send it to get remapped. Do you have a link for this software/hardware kit?
