T180 Tuning Box Help

[Rick D4D]

Ok thanks for all your advice and comments :) we have gone ahead and bought a box and what finally swung it apart from an extra 5mpg I hope to get providing we drive as we do now id that the difference to our insurance was £0 yes nil (well done Aviva) :) :)

[local hero]

Good Luck Rick, please get back to us when you have evaluated it, as I am sure peeps on here + the Auris section would be interested in your input.. Just a little advice, You will imediately notice an improved fuel consumption on your OBC don't take that as gospil, do a brim to brim comparison also for the first couple of weeks your only human + your going to want to try the extra performance, after you have got that out of your system you will find you are hardly touching the throttle if you are on the motorway or just poodling about, thats when you will achieve the best economy, hope you are pleased with your purchase Stew

[Rick D4D]

only a few weeks? I never hardly drive as the wife as the car 90% of the time, I used to do brim to brim calculations and TBH the trip counter was always accurate to within 3MPG and usually was worse than it was and most of the time within 1MPG spot on.

[Rick D4D]

Well our T180 tuning box arrived today so here are my initial thoughts and comments

Positive

1. Box and wiring loom look well made and it is clear this is definitely a lot more than a resistor in a box.

2. Delivery was quick and exactly when John said it would arrive.

Negative

1. Instructions could be in colour with better / larger pictures to make things more clear, they might be big enough but don’t look very clear which could be because they are in black & white.

2. Simple step by step fitting guide would be better and more helpful, for example. 1. Remove engine cover, this simply unclips by applying a little pressure to lift this up. 2. Now mount your Chip using the bolt provided to the position A as shown in the picture. and so on.

3. Nowhere in the instructions does it tell you or show you where to mount the box, I called up (john was on Holiday) and asked about this and was promised a return call straight away. I NEVER GOT THIS.

4. Photos in the instructions where not of an Auris T180 engine and as the boost pressure area looks slightly different and the photos where in black & white I was not 100% sure I was connecting this to the correct area.

5. Could have been provided with everything need to fit and make a nice job for example some cable ties and 6mm bolt to bolt down the chip.

Verdict

Well the T180 is still not a Type R but in mine and my wife’s opinion we can definitely tell it is quicker / has more power etc, but the biggest improvement is how much smoother the car runs and when on the power the injectors seem to be a lot quieter. I am still not 100% sure we will keep this and will know more come Friday evening when we see were the MPG gauge is sitting as to be honest we did not buy this for a midlife race every car at the traffic lights modification. The biggest gripe I have is I am very very disappointed in the poor after sales customer service, if you don’t intend to return a call with the help / answer the question that was asked then don’t take peoples phone number and promise them a return call within 10minutes. I will also add that if John was there I am sure this would not have happened.

What I will add that is I am a fully qualified electrician so fitting this kit should and was a doddle for me but due to the poor photos it did leave a few doubts and some guess work on where to mount the ECU (does not tell you in the instructions).

Sorry John if this is not what you want to read but I am only being honest, I cant fault the quality of the product, delivery speed/service or the results to be fair just lacks in instructions and after sales support.

[Jamesbelfast]

Hi Rick,

Do you plan to do a few brim to brim fuel checks for calculating the mpg??:)

[Rick D4D]

Hi Rick,

Do you plan to do a few brim to brim fuel checks for calculating the mpg??:)

That is what I am doing but TBH I have found our trip computer to be accurate to within 1mpg in the past, Still not had the phone call I was promised within 10minutes around 24hrs ago :(

[Rick D4D]

I will be returning this kit in the morning for a full refund under John's 30 day to change your mind etc, it is a good kit and does make the T180 very smooth and drive able but after 135miles of my wife driving (she had to go to queens and back 3 times today) and she drives steady we are now at 27MPG from the usual 33-35MPG for the same run.

I have packed all the kit back up into a nice card board box to post special delivery in the morning with a letter and paypal receipt (so they know who to refund etc) and the only damage as shown in the pictures below is to the crimp spades that go on the Battery, this should to be expected as tightening them up causes this and these can easily be changed and would have done so myself but did not want to mess about with it etc.

From our point of view this has made our MPG worse even when driving normal, it maybe does not help that my wife mainly does short journeys and over time I would guess it would improve but I doubt it will improve to be better so I don't see any point in continuing with this. I would still like to add that dont be put off by my comments this really is a good piece of kit and does really alter how the car drives the problem we have is we was looking to get better MPG if drove the same and this as not worked out.

We got the return call around 4:50pm tonight but by then it was 24hrs to late.

[Jamesbelfast]

An 18% to 22% drop in mpg is one helluva a lot in anyones book.

Sounds very much like an over-fueling problem me thinks.:)

I hope any carriage costs incurred are fully refunded in accordance with the Distance Selling Regulations whereby if a product supplied does not meet the standards as advertised then the buyer should not pay for the cost of its return.

[anchorman]

Has the EGR been cleaned on this vehicle?

[Rick D4D]

Has the EGR been cleaned on this vehicle?

I wrote the EGR clean guide and was last checked / done around 4k ago, problem we have is my wife does mainly short journeys so the engine only just gets upto to temperature when she is turning it of again.

[anchorman]

Rick - are we talking about a RAV or an Auris. I know you produced the excellent cleaning guide, we (shcm and myself) did one too but it was a bit disjointed so I now refer people to yours.

I thought you had 2 vehicles? Either way I think you should whip the valve off and hold it up to the light. It only needs to be open enough to show light through to cause you problems.

[Rick D4D]

Rick - are we talking about a RAV or an Auris. I know you produced the excellent cleaning guide, we (shcm and myself) did one too but it was a bit disjointed so I now refer people to yours.

I thought you had 2 vehicles? Either way I think you should whip the valve off and hold it up to the light. It only needs to be open enough to show light through to cause you problems.

Where talking about the Auris but I do know its clean as we had the car back to MR T for poor MPG 4 months ago / around 3k ago, I cleaned it before hand and they checked it as well before some one from Toyota come and took the car on a demo run and wrote a B@*(@hit report were they claimed to get 47mpg over 160miles funny thing was that within 300yards of picking the car up with 47mpg average on the trip computer it had already dropped to 44mpg and around 40mpg when I got home which is around 3 miles away and mainly down hill. I am not stupid in the fact that you can reset the average MPG and drive mainly downhill and free wheel to get an excellent figure but until you have done around 50 miles + the average MPG figure does move quickly just like when I picked the car up. Our average MPG is around 31-33mpg at the moment with the colder weather but with the chip we was down at 27mpg and I have never seen it that low but do know this is mainly caused by the short runs we do in the car.

[local hero]

Rick - are we talking about a RAV or an Auris. I know you produced the excellent cleaning guide, we (shcm and myself) did one too but it was a bit disjointed so I now refer people to yours.

I thought you had 2 vehicles? Either way I think you should whip the valve off and hold it up to the light. It only needs to be open enough to show light through to cause you problems.

Where talking about the Auris but I do know its clean as we had the car back to MR T for poor MPG 4 months ago / around 3k ago, I cleaned it before hand and they checked it as well before some one from Toyota come and took the car on a demo run and wrote a B@*(@hit report were they claimed to get 47mpg over 160miles funny thing was that within 300yards of picking the car up with 47mpg average on the trip computer it had already dropped to 44mpg and around 40mpg when I got home which is around 3 miles away and mainly down hill. I am not stupid in the fact that you can reset the average MPG and drive mainly downhill and free wheel to get an excellent figure but until you have done around 50 miles + the average MPG figure does move quickly just like when I picked the car up. Our average MPG is around 31-33mpg at the moment with the colder weather but with the chip we was down at 27mpg and I have never seen it that low but do know this is mainly caused by the short runs we do in the car.

Rick I am really sorry you are dissapointed with your purchase, I cannot comment on the quality of the fitting instuctions as i had mine fitted at Lindop so never even saw them, I am sure Kingo will refund your money without problem IMO he really does try hard for his customers, Just one thing though, please bare in mind that mine is the 140bhp version, after my "chip" was fitted my OBC figures climbed dramatically showing 50 even 60 mpg, unlike your Auris we all agree that the Ravs Obc read high but not that high, As anyone on here will tell you I am not technical so cannot explain it, however having mentioned this on here at the time SHCM (who is very very clever) put foreward a theory that my "chip" was somehow corrupting the figures shown on the OBC, I have accepted this which is why i advised you not to take the OBC as gospil, I also think you could have given it a bit more time + maybe trying a longer run before forming an opinion, I did say as an economy measure then the "chip" is probably not viable, but i enjoy the extra power + certainly on mine it has Slightly imroved mpg when i drive moderately, On the very newest Ravs such as Anchs + Shcm the OBC actually shows a lower mpg than they are getting in reality, and just wondering if you had done a few brim to brim tests what the results might have been,I genuinely hope you get your poor mpg problem sorted it doesn't seem right that a smaller lighter car with the same engine is showing lower mpg, but isuppose cleverer people than me might be able to explain it, Stew

[Rick D4D]

Well I filled / brimmed the tank again last night and as usual the calculation was within 1MPG of the trip computer, Yes the extra power and driveabilty was nice but in the end it was clear we were buying this to find extra MPG and for whatever reason it did not work out for us. If the MPG was say only 2mpg better we would have kept the box even so we was hoping for 4 or 5 MPG more, what I will point out is my wife drives the car 90% of the time and she does drive steady so I am sure the problem was not her right foot and more down to our circumstances.

I will say we have had crap MPG since last NOV when within the space of 2 weeks we had 4 tyres fitted and a service at MR T, the car is in for the 40k service on the 1st DEC so hopefully that might improve something as you never know if the wrong grade oil was fitted last time or something and with the tyres I was told on the civic owners club that people who had them noticed a 2-3mpg drop but we dropped around 5-8mpg all around Nov 09 and have been the same for 12months. The tyres we had fitted were VREDESTEIN ULTRAC SESSANTA http://www.camskill.co.uk/products.php?plid=m54b0s16p12403 these are very very grippy in all weather but will not fit them again as the oem Dunlops did 32k with rotation and these will be lucky to do 13k with rotation and also have seen the MPG drop but we dont know if this is down to the tyres, we know the tracking is spot on because I paid Toyota to do 4 wheel laser alignment when the tyres were fitted.

Either way this has not achieved what we wanted and might have achieved same MPG if given more time but I doubt we would have got more so instead of waiting longer knowing this has to be returned in the same condition as John still has to sell it we thought sooner rather than later was a better option for everyone, I will state it is a we decision as my wife drives the car the most and when deciding to give this a go we both agreed that if we can not get an MPG improvement on the daily trip to work and back then we are not that bothered. What I will say and cannot say this enough is just because we did not see a gain does not mean you will not see an improvement just like some Auris T180 owners easily see 45-50mpg then other like us now struggle to see 40mpg on a run when we easily used to get 44mpg on a run.

This really is a fantastic piece of kit and I can see why the price is high as it a lot more than a matchbox with a couple or micro chips which really does transform how the car drives and how smooth the engine is and a big thanks for John who offered the 30 day money back guarantee so we could try this.

[Rick D4D]

The biggest gripe I have is I am very very disappointed in the poor after sales customer service, if you don’t intend to return a call with the help / answer the question that was asked then don’t take peoples phone number and promise them a return call within 10minutes. I will also add that if John was there I am sure this would not have happened.

Well its happened again, I spoke to the same women again around 12:30pm to see if they had got the chip back ok and she said they had and would refund me shortly, well at around 4pm I gave her another quick call to check everything is ok as I still don't have a refund and was assured this would 100% be done before she went home today.

Well guess what NO REFUND yet they have had the box back since 10:08am http://postcode.royalmail.com/portal/rm/trackresults;jsessionid=R41MV0S5TWRW2FB2IGJEQ3Q?catId=500185&pageId=trt_rmresultspage&keyname=3A_track&_requestid=135341

Now I do know people are busy and have a job to do but again why promise to do something then don't? and it is not like logging in to paypal takes long is it? Again I wonder if this would happen if John was around because the impression I get is John is very much on the ball and quick to deliver a service he or the customer would expect.

[anchorman]

Rick

Sometimes these things take time. She may have done it before she went home but if you have ever transferred money from one bank account to another you will see that it sometimes takes up to 72 working hours to show up on your statement.

I think you might be better to sit tight rather than post these emotive comments on the forum. Don't worry Rick they will make sure you are happy

[Rick D4D]

Rick

Sometimes these things take time. She may have done it before she went home but if you have ever transferred money from one bank account to another you will see that it sometimes takes up to 72 working hours to show up on your statement.

I think you might be better to sit tight rather than post these emotive comments on the forum. Don't worry Rick they will make sure you are happy

A Refund on paypal is instant no delays, Spoke to her again and now this has been done. John I was refunded the full amount so I still owe you £10 I have no idea why this is because I did state on the letter I sent back with the chip that I was expecting a refund -£10. I will send you £10 now to the same address as I paid for this ;)

I would still like to point out that this really is a fantastic piece of kit and I can see why the price is high as it a lot more than a matchbox with a couple or micro chips which really does transform how the car drives and how smooth the engine is and a big thanks for John who offered the 30 day money back guarantee so we could try this.

[Parts-King]

I'm back!

Thanks for the comments Rick, sorry you had some communication/refund problems

I try and deal with all our chip kit enquiries because I get a lot of enquiries through TOC and email. This communication can go on for quite a while with some customers before they decide to purchase and it's easier if one person handles everything, if I'm away, there can be delays. Not to get a call back to explain any delays is not acceptable and will be addressed ASAP

The fitting instructions were due for a review, as the later models have the connections in a different place, we normally print off the instructions in colour but the colour printer I use is not networked and only attached to my PC which went bang a day or two before Ricks parcel was sent out, so was only available in black and white

I am fully aware of the DSR regs and the 30 day money back guarantee we offer is far and above any legal obligations we have. These are a quality kit, and they don't suit everybodys type or style of driving, some people see better results than others, rarely are they ever worse, but in the case of the T180 models, you do need to get used to that extra torque that you get

Thanks for the comments Rick

Kingo

[bobbo7070]

Just thought I'd let everyone know I've had one of Kingo's chip boxes fitted for over 18 months.

In that time I've done 20,000+ miles in my T180 and I've never had a single problem with it.

I get around 40 to the gallon driving normally, about 35 when I cane it (bl**dy brilliant!) and I can still get 45+ to the gallon if I drive with a bit of care.

Performance improvement from 1900 rpm - 3000+ rpm is amazing.

VERY strongly recommended to any T180 owner

A happy customer

Bob.

[Big Kev]

Just thought I'd let everyone know I've had one of Kingo's chip boxes fitted for over 18 months.

In that time I've done 20,000+ miles in my T180 and I've never had a single problem with it.

I get around 40 to the gallon driving normally, about 35 when I cane it (bl**dy brilliant!) and I can still get 45+ to the gallon if I drive with a bit of care.

Performance improvement from 1900 rpm - 3000+ rpm is amazing.

VERY strongly recommended to any T180 owner

A happy customer

Bob.

October is the second anniversary of fitting a second hand very low mileage / usage Lindop kit in my SR180....UTTERLY FAULTLESS THUS FAR, but ah still won't get so much as WAN wee golf ball....

Big Kev

[Parts-King]

As always Kev..........You balls are in the post :D:

[CharlieFarlie]

Do We Forum Members get 20% TOC discount off the 275 quid these boxes cost ?????

Wee Tight and skint Charlie.

[Parts-King]

Wee Skinto

Good try............they are £375 and sadly, no you dont

Kingo Scroogio

[bobbo7070]

So impressed with Johns chipbox I've just ordered the updated adjustable version for my Auris T180.

Anyone wanna buy a slightly used old version before I chuck it on muppetbay?

[CharlieFarlie]

So impressed with Johns chipbox I've just ordered the updated adjustable version for my Auris T180.

Anyone wanna buy a slightly used old version before I chuck it on muppetbay?

Whats the point in changing ?? I have the later one and it will never be adjusted ..... The latest one does exactly the same as the slightly older one....