Thread: Wind boost

Originally Posted by Toxic_Avenger

My thought is that if a manufacturer had the ability to give a car a sportier feel, or wished you to mash that throttle to the floor under full load and dump an imperial ass-tonne of fuel into the motor, heck, they would have given us that ability.

Not so much all vehicle designs are always a compromise of all the variables.
The best you can generally hope to do as a consumer is to obtain a vehicle that is as close to what you want as you can afford to get and then modify it to suit what you want it to do.

Of course there are then smart and safe ways of doing it and then there are dangerous and stuipid ways of doing it

there are cheap and expensive ways as well as effective and inefective ways of making the modifications as well.

the real trick is swinging the balance over to have a smart safe cheap effective method of achieving your desired result.

Then theres the problem of peoples opinions on exactly how those 8 adjectives are defined..

This wind boost system falls into the catagory of
simple, cheap(ish) safe (ish) and for me, ineffective. and heres why.
its simple, plug it in and youre done
its cheapish, there are even cheaper ways of doing similar things and compared to the benefit it appears to give there are slightly more expensive ways that give you a safer upgrade with more benefit.
Its ineffective. A simple change of driver technique yields a similar response as does hitting the sports button.
and its safe(ish) on paper if it fails it should presbent either a 0 input or a set of inputs that the ECU wont accept as valid o you hould get no go. on paper thats sae enough to get safe. The (ish) is there because its a serial plug in device which means it could (depending on the exact method of failure) cause damage to the system and adds an additional set of connectors and other components which increases potential failure points.

WOW.... hasn't this topic gone in a interesting direction ....

The 1st post was asking about the Wind Boost Device.... I replied with my "Non-Landrover" experience and all hell has broken loose.....

My choice to use the Wind Booster on our Non-LR car is my decision and I'm not really bothered by others opinions as I've had 5yrs of use & experience with it & w/o a incident and it's made the car more enjoyable to drive...... Yes the car has a sports mode but when in this mode some other features are disabled, so using the WB as I've said b4 suits our needs and it wasn't that expensive either. So, each to their own....I guess

I have know idea about these devices in LR's or what can be done with re-mapping because I don't own a LR that would allow me to do that....

Maybe I've been lucky in our experience, but I was only giving my experience with using the device. I thought that was what Forums were all about.... sharing your experiences, not slagging people or be-littling people because of their comments.... Geez, starting to sound like a Landcruiser forum


And the comment:

ANY modification I do to a car is usually prefaced with me thinking to myself "why did the manufacturer choose to do it this way?"
Fact of the matter is there are teams of literally hundreds of people (engineers, designers, specialists in VERY niche fields) who design the systems which go into these cars- be it a late model defender or the top of the line range rover. And yes... even Toyotas have the same.

'Piggy back' systems have been around for years, and changing the output of an air flow meter, auto trans computer or in this case the throttle control, to make it look like a performance modification is just muddying the interface between these systems. My thought is that if a manufacturer had the ability to give a car a sportier feel, or wished you to mash that throttle to the floor under full load and dump an imperial ass-tonne of fuel into the motor, heck, they would have given us that ability. Saying that some bloke who designed an interface between the pedal and the brains of the system has more understanding of what's going on inside the vehicle's ECU than the team of hundreds that designed the thing to begin with, is just plain crap.
Are these devices even legal? Do they fail to safe? Remember you are talking about a fly by wire setup here...

I thought this was interesting as I was of the belief that just about everyone that owns a 4WD, no matter what make, and uses it for it's intended purpose modifies it in some way to meet their individual requirements..... Maybe I've been wrong all this time or maybe I just mis-understood your comment ??? Many people on here have made the comment about re-mapping their ECU's... If the manufacturer has it so right, then why do people feel the need to re-map the ECU ??


Anyhow.... enough of this for me, I'm happy to move on and keep on reading and learning as I go.....

Originally Posted by Robmacca

I thought this was interesting as I was of the belief that just about everyone that owns a 4WD, no matter what make, and uses it for it's intended purpose modifies it in some way to meet their individual requirements..... Maybe I've been wrong all this time or maybe I just mis-understood your comment ??? Many people on here have made the comment about re-mapping their ECU's... If the manufacturer has it so right, then why do people feel the need to re-map the ECU ??

I understand the concept, and I am not immune to buggerizing around with accessories for my 4x4... BUT there are some things I wont touch without the assistance of a professional (an auto engineer, or the relevant regulations from the motoring authorities).

Make no mistake, the tune that comes with a factory vehicle has been tested thoroughly - from sub zero temperatures, to hot weather driving, and under a range of engine loads, RPM, fuel types and octanes etc. Didn't the VE commodore claim to have 1 MILLION test kilometers on their platform before it was released to the public?
I understand that people feel the need to re map ECU's to be 'Better', but this is relative to their location and the use of their vehicle - what is better for Joe Blow at 100m above sea level in suburban NSW is vastly different to what will be better for Fritz who lives in the Swiss alps. I consider that the R&D of a manufacturer balances ALL variables of the tune as best they can, while keeping reliability in the tune to ensure a long vehicle life. Go outside these parameters at your peril I say... because I bet Tuner X Y and Z don't put anywhere near the time into building a tune that suits the length and breadth of what the OE tune has.

Originally Posted by Robmacca

All I can say is I borrowed one b4 buying it ......was) and u don't have to remember

You are allowed to spell out the words on this forum. In fact, it's preferred. It used to be mentioned as the Ron Clause : http://www.aulro.com/afvb/rules-guid...read-gone.html

Originally Posted by Robmacca

Well, that may or may not be true..... All I can say is I borrowed one b4 buying it and installed it as I was of the same opinion as you (as everyone thinks too).... The first test drive of it and I was hooked. You did not have to push your all the way down to get a "quick" response. It's much more easier to drive (driveability was) and u don't have to remember to always push your foot to the floor, unlike my old Tdi Disco.... There is no lag to speak of and the missus loves it too.... It was a added benefit for the missus as she's a bit short in height and would struggle to push the pedal to the floor every time.

For the little amount u pay compared to a chip and the possible risks that go along with that (ie: speaking of the Toyota D4D here) I was sold and I've never looked back & I don't ever think I will bother with a Chip either....

No issue with this Rob. Making the throttle more responsive would enhance the driving of a turbo diesel as it promotes the use of more open throttle - I.e. gives you a heavier right foot! So yes I can see how you would like the way it responds. LR already do the same trick between high and low range, this mod just takes the enhancement further and gives you the ability to customise how the throttle responds.

To some extent a remap gives the same effect under partial throttle conditions, it is only under near full throttle does a remap give you the extra power and torque.

The reason you feel less lag is because the mod is getting you to use more throttle and dump more fuel in. The simplest solution to the complaints some people have with lack of boost at low revs is to just give it more revs and to launch from a stand still with a more open throttle. This mod is doing this for you, others will just plant the throttle further to get the same effect, but both result in the same outcome - improved drive-ability. Which is good!

Seems I may have inadvertently made my own version of the wind boost.
Installing the D2 electrics and gizmos into the Defender saw me with a minor mod being performed on the D2 accelerator pedal.
Rather than buy a Defer unit when I had a perfectly good D2 pedal, I cut and shut the pedal nearly 2 inches.
So now I have short throw D2 pedal in the Defer giving the same affect as the wind boost

Originally Posted by DiscoDB

No issue with this Rob. Making the throttle more responsive would enhance the driving of a turbo diesel as it promotes the use of more open throttle - I.e. gives you a heavier right foot! So yes I can see how you would like the way it responds. LR already do the same trick between high and low range, this mod just takes the enhancement further and gives you the ability to customise how the throttle responds.

To some extent a remap gives the same effect under partial throttle conditions, it is only under near full throttle does a remap give you the extra power and torque.

The reason you feel less lag is because the mod is getting you to use more throttle and dump more fuel in. The simplest solution to the complaints some people have with lack of boost at low revs is to just give it more revs and to launch from a stand still with a more open throttle. This mod is doing this for you, others will just plant the throttle further to get the same effect, but both result in the same outcome - improved drive-ability. Which is good!

Agree.... I was thinking that this would also use more fuel too, but the economy has pretty much remained the same from the records that I keep....
I know that a few Petrol Prado owners have quizzed me in regards to using these devices on their V6 petrols, which surprised me as I didn't think they would experience the same lag or delay when you put your right foot down... It got me thinking whether this "delay" or lag (whatever you want to call it) is more related to the way Toyota sets up their fly-by-wire in their vehicles.... but, I'm only guessing here.... either way, this device has gotten rid of that 1>2 sec delay when u take off and that's what I was looking for..... The rest of the car I'm happy with.... just not the dreaded d4d knock - but hopefully I'll be one of the lucky ones while we own the vehicle.....

VNT Turbos significantly reduce lag in the manuals