Ultimately the 330D, after a remap, would be a far faster car than the 2.4....it starts with around 250 horses depending on year (at 159 will only get that after a good map) so 300 plus is easily within reach. What with that an it driving the "correct" wheels for a proper drivers cars (at least ALFA have seen the light with the Giulia!) than point to point on A and B roads with equal drivers the 159 would not get close to it. Against it is that you need the rather better looking 2 door model of you don't want to get lost in the sea of reps driving the same car.....and yes its looks are not exactly inspiring.

 

point to point on A and B roads with equal drivers the 159 would not get close to it

Just sold my Dad's E92 318d Touring last month. Only had 130bhp but it was a factory M-Sport and I can attest to the above being absolutely correct. Even with 210,000 miles on the clock. Had less electrical gremlins too!

 

I do like the look of the E92 (Coupe) but there are a couple of issues.

Firstly I don't like the idea of spending £6000+ on a car which is 10+ years old and has done 100,000+ miles.

Most are automatics

They are common.

159's are a LOT less expensive for the same age and mileage, as BMW's tend to be overpriced secondhand IMO.

You cannot really use the performance of either of them on the road without getting a ticket.

I know the 2.4 can be a bit thirsty but I can live with that. And both the BMW and Alfa have their own common faults so the reliability comparison comes out about the same for me.

 

Loads for 10 and 12 year old 330d out there for lots less than that...even in estate form.

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classi...ce-asc&fuel-type=Diesel&onesearchad=Used&onesearchad=Nearly New&make=BMW&page=4

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classi...location=at_cars&fuel-type=Diesel&maximum-badge-engine-size=3.0&make=BMW&page=4

Took two minutes to find these on Autotrader so did not read the descriptions....but you get the idea.….probably could pay even less if you hunt around.

 

I don't like the shape of the 4 door 3 series. It is seriously dull compared to the 159. I do like the Coupe version but they cost more and I really could do with 4 doors this time.

I suppose I could look at 5 series E60, but they are either old knackered and cheap or too expensive.

 

We have a 2.4 Ti - despite being a Ti, it’s probably worth buttons. It’s got an AHM map on it which is allegedly good for 260 HP. No idea on 0 - 60, but overtaking 3 cars at a time is fun.... It’s not as much fun to drive as a sorted 156. Unfortunatley it is the age of diesel with enough emissions gubbins to be an expensive PITA, but not enough to drive in London. Bizarrely you either want a simple Euro 3 (cheap, simple, fine if you are not in a city) or a Euro 6 (complex, expensive and not taxed in cities)

 

Turbo Pacs did my remapping along with an egr delete. It was kicking out 244bhp on the rolling road. Since then I've also fitted an "Italian tuning box" to up the fuel rail pressure and also a throttle pedal sensor box + a q-tronic gearbox update and remap... Pat reckoned that it's now around 280 - 285 bhp and 370-375 ft lbs without another rolling road test. But he is usually spot on with his estimates.
I'm more than happy with the results. No flare , no sloppy changes just a huge lump of torque and a kick in the pants then it's panic time when you realise your in treble mph figures already! I've never been one to worry about mpg but still seen no worse mpg than when it was standard if anything full tank to full tank I get maybe a couple of mpg better than before the mods.
I've never been a fan of anything German but I can see the appeal of rwd BMW's. But if was me.. a 2.4 JTDm is an excellent stop gap until the Giulia TD's start coming down in price... I hear good things about tuning possibilities with them too. Then you have a much more exclusive badge, rwd and the performance and economy too!

 

remap and tuning box? I have a TMC flash thingy for my Qtronic which is good, and remap good for probably 240hp I guess.

Which tuning box did you use? I take it no excess smoking from going this route?

 

Just wondering, whats wrong with the 2.4 Ti spec? I'm actually looking to buy one of those?

 

Nothing other than the extra cost.

A Lusso with a few cosmetic enhancements would look the same for less.

Side skirts, wheels and mirror caps look to be the main cosmetic differences.

 

Nothing...it's the best spec....but they generally cost more.Too much more imo. But they can be found at Lusso money or there abouts if you hunt around. Non car types don't know a TI from a Tourismo!...just got to hunt for them.

 

Didn't threy also drop the ride height a little and put in bucket seats?

 

They did...but my Lusso is lower than a TI and I actually prefer the Lusso seats. That said was actually looking for TI when I bought mine.....but a 59 plate Lusso 2.0 JTDm came along at a price I could not refuse!

 

I am likely to replace the shocks and springs so the ride height thing wouldn't bother me too much.

Alfa tend to underdamp their cars so a set of Bilsteins and Eibachs should improve things.

 

Turbo Pacs, that takes me back to my Renault 11 turbo days.
My 159 1.9 was remapped and pretty quick but my 2.4 remapped Brera decated and with no swirl valves is so much more torquey and flexible pulls almost from tick over with only light throttle and if driven sensibly not much thirstier than the 1.9. Avter a trip to cornwall and back including a few trips when we were there it did 40mpg.

 

https://m.ebay.co.uk/itm/Chip-Tunin...b38c9894&pid=100705&rk=1&rkt=1&&itm=153085211516&_trksid=p2045573.c100705.m4780
I bought this box. I have it set to one position off the maximum... No smoke at all. Setting it to maximum gave the slightest hint of smoke on max revs though and to be honest, there wasn't a discernable difference in performance between either of the two settings I used. Even in the lowest economy setting, it's still a dramatic difference in performance over a standard 2.4 with a remap!

 

Interesting, so this box ontop of your map gives even more power?

 

It is a shame, but I wouldn't rule out travelling for the right car.

I have friends in North Yorkshire which is sort of half way.

 

I like your thinking! The car is due it's MOT on the 8th October (well, it's Nov but that's the earliest day I can get it done) so I was going to do that first before I sold it that way it's hopefully as sorted as it could be for the new owner. If you were definitely interested I could send you more details and pictures via a PM? It's a 2007 car though so not sure if that's too old for you. Currently nearing 109k miles with FSH.

 

I don't think I'd be putting a tuning box on a car with a map already! Seems a bit of a risky move.

The maps are usually designed up to a reasonable limit without causing too much excess damage. Throwing a box on and fooling the car to inject even more diesel is just asking for trouble. Specially turbo wise, egt's, and exhaust manifold pressures!

 

You can't actually "fool" a car to inject more fuel, it doesn't actually inject any more diesel in than it needs, it just increases the pressure so atomisation occurs at a quicker rate... The bang is bigger thus more power produced... the common rail is constantly monitored via the sensor, ECU, maf and O2 sensors... What goes in with relation to fuel and air must equate to the volume of exhaust gasses that expel, so the job of the ECU map is to balance that via the demand at the exact time its required.... the increased pressure in the common rail to the injectors via a tuning box means the ECU map can utilize that extra pressure increase a lot quicker to achieve what it gets in response from all the relevant sensors and throttle position demands, thus better performance as a result.
Look at it from a very simplistic point of view... You have a hose pipe fitted to a tap... The tap is turned on and the water flows out the end of the hose albeit not very far. Now you put your finger over and the pressure increases so the water moves faster and goes a lot further... The same volume of water from the tap doesn't actually increase along with the pressure does it? Basic laminar flow physics 101...

I think you are confusing the principal of fitting bigger injectors which actually do increase fuel volume so more goes in but pressure doesn't necessarily increase along with the extra volume.

 

There arnt any O2 sensors, both the sensor in the downpipe cat and the dpf are both just temp sensors, If you fool the ecu into upping the rail pressure which is what a tuning box does then it will increase the amount of fuel injected for a given time the injector is open over standard injector rail pressure.

 

Personally I think tuning boxes are a bad idea, let alone combining one with a remap.

If a tuning box can safely make more power on top of a remap it was a bad remap.

 

Grahameo is wrong ...sort of....as the higher rail pressure that the cars ecu does not know about means more fuel is injected than the ecu knows about (that's why the MPG on my tuning box equipped 159 is now wildly optimistic!!!). The car is injecting for a period of time that is correct for the pressure is SHOULD have....not what it actually DOES have due to it being fooled by the tuning box. You get more power because you are injecting more fuel (which is really the only way to get more power in a TDI with a box or map ) and because the O2 sensor needs to receive the right reading it allows more boost to get the af ratio correct…..or there about.....diesel dont have to run a lambda mix like petrols…..it cant be too rich (well not until the point that there is not enough oxygen to burn the fuel......hello black smoke!!!

JON156VELOCE is also a bit wrong….diesels most certainly do have an 2 sensor....just fixed the wiring on mine. On my 2.0 JTDm its screwed on top of the DPF near the manifold....right in front of me when I open the bonnet. It also has (I think) two temperature sensors and two pressure sensors....not sure about the 1.9/2.4 versions though....although I would expect then to, to protect the under car DPFs from over rich, clogging mixtures.

 

Im pretty sure the 1.9/ 2.4 dont have an oxygen sensor, just egt and pressure.if they do have an oxygen sensor I dont know where it is

 

Anyway, back to the original question, a mate in work has an r32 golf and cant stay with my Brera up a 3rd and 4th gear hill on our way to work, Nantgarw hill Caerphilly if anyone knows it.

 

Mine goes into limp with the box because of a rail pressure fault..Code P0091.

 

Probably because after a certain point no matter how much you turn the box up the pump can't physically supply the volume and pressure requested.

The more you turn the box up the more the fuel pressure regulator has to activate to close off the bypass of the fuel pump. At a certain point that fuel pressure regulator can't close any more and the fuel pressure in the rail starts dropping. This then shows as a fault.

At that point you are basically restricted by the amount of fuel the pump can provide. This is one of the crap things about boxes. They don't take into account that at a lower RPM the fuel pump can only provide so much. A map can be produced to suit the fuel pumps output by looking at how much % the fuel pressure reg is running at over a wide range of rpm's and requested fuel quantity and then a map formed to suit what the pump can provide

 

Having owned a Mk5 golf R32 in the past I can attest to them being slow as sh...

Too heavy with the dsg/haldex/vr6 lump, was like driving in treacle. It does sounds epic however, miss that sound.

 

Really? I always thought they were meant to be rapid. The 2.4 is pretty epic for torque in those gears though - I have left a lot of cars standing accelerating from 3rd or 4th. Incidentally I recently drove a Porsche Cayenne 3.2 which has the R32 engine in it and that was like driving in treacle. It has 2.5 tonnes of excuses though, the Golf doesn't!

 

After a bit of research the 1.9 and 2.4's do not have an oxygen sensor in the exhaust, the 2.0 do.