Thread: Bluefin remap for TD6 - review

Hi

Thought I would share my experience with the Bluefin remap product supplied by UK tuning company Superchips.

Firstly, I have no interest in anyway with Superchips, or any of the suppliers – this is my opinion.

The unit is essentially a dongle that plugs into the OBD port and allows the owner to switch between the standard and modified fuel maps. Delivery was via Aus post in 3 days from the Aus / NZ distributer (peter@superchips.co.nz)

Reading the instructions supplied it couldn’t be easier.
1. Plug the unit into the car and retrieve the original Map.
2. Load the software onto the PC
3. Run software, Plug unit into PC, fill in the screen and hit Connect. At this point your original amp is sent to Superchips
4. When ready, plug unit into PC again and it will load the modified map.
5. Plug unit into car. Easy!

Step 1 didn’t go smoothly for me at all, the unit didn’t want to connect and read the ECU, and at this stage I found that in the case of everything not going perfectly, the supplied documentation and FAQs on the website are far from adequate, boarding on disgraceful. I work in software development and if I ever supplied clients with this level of doco I’d be hung! There is also no details about how to contact them for support, but the local dealer did pass on my messages of help which received an overnight reply – all in all my impressions of the support are quite poor, without the local agent it would be non-existent.

During Step 1 the unit just hung displaying “Bluefin Communicating” on the screen, and there is nothing at all to indicate what it should be doing or displaying, and after 2 hrs of letting it go, I pulled the plug and started again, until on the 4th try (yes 4th!) it quickly changed to “Saving Data” and took about 5 minutes to complete. From this point on all went well and quite quickly, but just a word of warning: be prepared for messages on the instrument panel about failures of every system known to exist and more! Once again no mention of this anywhere. These however do go away when finished.

What’s it like? The engine runs smoother across the entire range, including idle, let’s be honest the TD6 is not a rough engine by any means but it just seems a little more refined now. Torque (claimed 505nm @ 1885rpm) has noticeably increased especially down low, resulting in significantly less gear changes when driving sedately, the lock up once engaged (3rd, 4th or 5th) stays in much longer as well. All up a significant driver experience improvment in slow to medium traffic. They claim an increase of 136mn @ 1450rpm and I’d believe it.

When pushed, it pulls much harder and goes actually better than I expected, especially from 2600-3100rpm, I have not had the chance to go for a good highway run but it pulls to 110kmh on the freeway entrance much quicker than standard. Smoke / haze is non-existent in the following headlights, actually less than original.

They claim better fuel consumption and knowing how the trip computer works I have no doubt that it will say it's improved, time will tell and I'll try and report back with actual fuel usage figures.

Summary; I’m extremely happy with the final result. This is regarded as a mild upgrade but has completely transformed the car.

http://www.mybluefin.co.uk/curves/td6.pdf

Hi Gary

All is going great, Peak Boost is up only a tad over standard but comes on much earlier and is significantly higher over the range. There's no EGT sensor on the L322.

Big difference noticed is towing, is just soooo much nicer.

Fuel consumption is unchanged if calculated (you know the old way - km travelled v L pumped in), but according to the trip computer consumption has dropped heaps which is understandable given the way it works, be nice to have that recalibrated… It showed 8.1 the other day haha