Thread: Which upgrade to do first? And why? Td5 '04

Armani,

It really depends on how you plan to use the vehicle as to which you do first.

Upgrading the ECU will not help in off road situations where ground clearance is required. If you're hung up in the rough with wheels spinning, no amount of extra power will be any good.

If you are just cruising Fraser beaches, a standard D2 is fine. If you want to cross South & North Ngkala rocks and get to the north, you'd want a lift, better and bigger tyres.

I ran my D2 on 32" tyres for many years and managed without an ECU upgrade.

The weaknesses of a standard D2 are relatively low ground clearance (small tyres and no lift) and the tyres themselves. The standard tyres are fine but biased towards on road performance and comfort.

Also, if you are running standard suspension with a winch and bar you are even lower than standard spec and a lift is even more crucial!

Even with a 2" lift and standard tyres I would scrape the belly of my vehicle in off road situations. For mine, lift and tyres are the most important mod to improve a D2's off road credentials.

But, as I said, it depends on how you plan to use the vehicle.

Cheers,

Franz

I'd probably go for the lift as a first step. It won't do anything to improve your clearance under the axles but it will improve approach, departure and ramp over.

The remaps are night and day from a stock tune. I'm sure you can manage without, but once you've driven a chipped TD5 it's a bit hard to go back.

cheers
Paul

My two bobs worth go for the 2" spring lift first, I put King springs and Bilstein shocks on and have had no issues carried a lot of weight and been over some rugged terrain. If you have or are putting on a long range tank though you may have to change the rear springs and shocks if your doing a lot of off road. I put 3" and long travel shocks to cater for the extra weight and this levelled the car out nicely. Your probably going to upsize your tyres at some stage so it makes sense. I run MTZ 265/70/17.......I know its not standard but they work well!

Thanx everyone. I think the jury is out on this one.

Cheers

Or if you don't go offroad much, go for the ECU upgrade (particularly if you live in a hilly area) as it totally transforms your vehicle.

Raising it and bigger tyres are a pain 95% of the time IMHO. Raises the COG and makes handling worse which should be a consideration if it spends 95% of its time on road (which most do). Also the TD5 struggles with bigger tyres even when chipped, again in my opinion. I went back to a more std tyre size recently and have a 30mm OME lift and I think that's perfect for what I need.

First and foremost, I'd upgrade it to a V8

Based on your use, (my $0.02) upgrade the ECU, and stick some airbags in the rear for towing.

raise you a cent and go for three cents worth.

If wanting extra load carrying consider airbags. If go HD shocks and springs dont think your missus will appreciate the change in ride.

well IMO, the very first upgrade should be a 2nd battery setup to keep the wine & cheese cold, Bob