DTE Tuning Box?

RainyDay

Active Member
May 9, 2022
92
6
Hi guys. I was wondering if anybody has installed one if these and how you found the car to drive after? In particular on newer year 1.5 FR's? Did it behave well in hot weather? Did your the car go into limp mode a lot? Any warning lights or issues?

From what I understand they have the same hardware as DTUK does and DTUK posted some very impressive Dyno results for the 1.5 TSI, albeit on a 2020 VW Golf 8. I'm wondering if the ECU / engine on the 2022 Ibiza FR is different enough that it would be pointless getting the box?

Remap is out of the question as the ECU hasn't been cracked yet. Revo said it will take at least a few more months so for now a tuning box is the only option, and it's also less likely it will void my warranty.

Thanks in advance :)
 

RainyDay

Active Member
May 9, 2022
92
6
Hi guys. I was wondering if anybody has installed one if these and how you found the car to drive after? In particular on newer year 1.5 FR's? Did it behave well in hot weather? Did your the car go into limp mode a lot? Any warning lights or issues?

From what I understand they have the same hardware as DTUK does and DTUK posted some very impressive Dyno results for the 1.5 TSI, albeit on a 2020 VW Golf 8. I'm wondering if the ECU / engine on the 2022 Ibiza FR is different enough that it would be pointless getting the box?

Remap is out of the question as the ECU hasn't been cracked yet. Revo said it will take at least a few more months so for now a tuning box is the only option, and it's also less likely it will void my warranty.

Thanks in advance :)
Okay. So I've installed it via a local reseller. Gonna do a mini review for anyone looking to install one of these.

To start with. Installation was a bit of a pita in terms of reaching the boost pressure sensor, it's unreachable by hand alone and you'll need something like a very long set of needle nose pliers and a good source of light to see it properly.

I thought I should point out that the DTE box I got installed was for the 1.5tsi cupra formentor but I was told this is the same engine config so should work the same.

The driving: So at first, it felt like the car was alternating between less power than stock and ripping through 3 gears surprisingly quickly (for the record I have a dsg7). The temperature outside was 34C when testing so it's possible the most aggressive settings can't cope with very hot weather. We connected an OBD reader and the car was detonating quite a bit on 95 octane (I should mention there was also a bit of knocking when stock). After setting the box to -3 on sport mode there was still detonation happening. DTE sent an updates tuning file within 2 hours of being contacted. I did an update to the box but it didn't fix the issue.

Then we tried filling the rest of the tank up (75% of it) with 98 RON. The knocking/detonation entirely went away. At first the car felt slower than stock then after a while it really picked up. Going uphill in 4th gear above 2700 rpm felt surprisingly peppy. 3rd gear wheelspin during corners + power understeers was now happening. So the car definitely wasn't sluggish feeling with the box on like I find it sometimes is stock. Occasionally when flooring it hard it felt like the the engine decided to suddenly cut 10% power for a bit but then again I don't know if I'm imagining this.

Highway driving (after adding octane booster to the tank): 4th gear feels quite noticably faster almost as if I'm in 3rd gear! But 5th through 7th feel sluggish and unresponsive af. Probably because (it seems) all the torque comes on past 2700rpm-3000rpm. I don't know if this apparent boost in power is due to running way higher octane than normal or if it's the chip (or perhaps a bit of both). Hopefully someone can enlighten me if increasing octane can cause such a noticable performance boost.

I should mention I have a Forge ram intake on the car so this may be the cause of the poor low end torque, and not the chip. Before the intake 7th and 6th gear had decent pull above 120kmh from what I remember, and now (dissapointingly) this is not so much the case

So the overall impressions. My feeling are mixed, it's possible the ECU is still adjusting and taht the 34C weather really f'd with the performance so I'll give it a bit more time. I certainly don't think it added 64NM and 49hp as advertised but I think maybe there's an extra 20-30NM torques and 10-15 hp via butt dyno. It's also possible this is all placebo effect.

As far as wierd engine behavior goes, apart from when initially installing it and ripping it very hard once, everything has been running smoothly. No holes in the torque across the rev range or anything.

I'm taking the car to a Dyno (hopefully in two days). I will test the box with the bypass dummy plug and then on various settings and let you guys know if there is any real improvement.
 
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RainyDay

Active Member
May 9, 2022
92
6
Question for anyone that's installed one of these. Did it behave weirdly at first / did you find it takes a few miles for the ECU to readjust as seems to be the case with mine? Or did it work right away? What kind of gas did you use? I'm worried the fact that the box I bought says it's for the 1.5 TSI formentor and that maybe this might be causing issues. Though the engine is supposedly the exact same as on the 2022 Ibiza FR?
 

RainyDay

Active Member
May 9, 2022
92
6
Hi. For anyone that's curious I've dynod the car. The gains are modest, about 13% torque gain and 8-9%hp gain, so not near advertised. I ignored sharp torque peaks when calculating these gains. However I didn't test the +2/+3 settings as I was afraid the engine might start knocking so it's possible these give even better gains. However if it knocks the ECU limits power anyways so it's best to find the sweet spot.

The tests were done with the hood open + I have an aftermarket intake which might explain the fairly high stock torque and hp (that combined with Dyno error might be to blame). Tested once with the hood closed and power dropped off noticabley with each run showing how much of an effect heat soak is having. Ideally it would have been better to do these tests with the hood closed as the power gains might be negligible if the induction system is the bottleneck.

I've attached two dynos. The smooth looking one is set to dynamic 0. The rough one is sport +1. Dynamic +1 lost power so I didn't bother testing higher settings.

Might try to test higher settings after I get a hold of some octane booster. I can say with fair certainty that the car felt much faster with booster in the tank and the chip attached


Hope you guys find this helpful if you're considering purchasing one of these. I can say it's quite inconsistent and the ECU adjusts a lot between setting changes. And as you can see the torque curve is a mess. So this is no replacement for a good remap.
 

Attachments

  • 2022 SEAT Ibiza 1.5 TSI Evo FR.pdf
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