New Chipped replacement ECU TD5?

[Fozzie]

Hi Guys a question from the new guy!

I have been mulling over this decision for a while. I have a 2000 TD5 with 240k on the clock, I get it serviced every 5k through a good operator. My wife is always on at me about wanting a quicker fourby so I have finally succumbed to the idea of a New replacement ECU Chip modification.
I have been told $700 from Peninsular Rangie which will give me approximately a 40% power increase and approximately 6% better fuel economy.
Thus making a miserly 0 -100 from 14.5 secs to 9.5 secs.

A little bit of research indicates that a larger intercooler will help if you are driving the car really hard a lot of the time. That's not what I really want it for, more like running fully loaded and holding a 100kph on the hilly sections.
Will a modification like this put my drivetrain at risk when pushing through the fun narley stuff with 33" Simex jungle trekkers?

My understanding is that this chipping does no harm to the engine, as the engine is deliberately held back due to UK/Au Emmissions tests?
Well $700 seems pretty cheap for that extra 40% does anybody have any experience or feedback or just plain good advice on this topic?

Cheers

Dave

[LOVEMYRANGIE]

Try Total Rover Tech www.trt.net.au or go to AULRO.com and pm Tombie2 for info.

[Kered]

Peninsula Rangie is a good operator and he knows what he is doing, I also use his services for my D2. I recommend him to everyone with a landy.

There is plenty of guys out there with this program upgrade that they do at PR, Most good landy mechanic's and some bad ones also do this modification. I have never heard of anybody suffering engine failure after this is done.

I am sure however that Damo told you most D2's with this mod end up breaking the exhaust manifold studs and they end having to drill the studs out in the head and replace them with larger units. But this happens no matter who does the program changes as the exhaust gas temperature rises and causes the distortion. There is no proof that an intercooler upgrade will prevent this.

I would personally be more worried about the auto oil overheating with towing large loads or turning large tyres. I don't tow heavy loads or have the chip done yet and I have already had an auto rebuild.

I hope to be getting the chip net month and can't wait for the big grins it will put on my face. 

[discoveraus]

Hello Fozzie,

I have had a upgrade chip fitted to my D2 for about three years now and have mixed feelings about them.

My upgraded chip was a replqcement chip which was resoldered into the ECU and then programmed with updated fuel settings. The power improvement was terric, the D2 drove really well and I was very happy. After 11 months the D2 would not start one morning, after trying to solve the problem for 3 days I had it towed to the ECU supplier, Dead chip, lucky I was still under warranty.

The replacement ECU was fitted for another two years until about two weeks ago, I was towing my camper trailer into an outback cattle station (Tamala) near Denham at Shark Bay WA. We were 8 km off the road to Steep Point and about 100 metres from our camping spot at Three Bays when the fires went out. Dead stop in the middle of nowhere, we arranged a lift 13 km. back to the homestead, rang RAC and arranged to be rescued and had to tow the D2 and Camper back to the homestead before RAC would pick us us the next morning.


After a 450 km tow of both the D2 and the camper back to Geraldtom WA the fault was a dead ECU, We were able to obtain a standard prgram ECU that same day and with a few other fixes were back on the road the next day.. The landy mechanic said he has nevver seen a standard ECU fail but has seen several rechips die.

If you want reliability, dont change it in my opinion. Towing 450 km would have been expensive and messy to arrange without the RAC. I will be having words with supplier when I get home, mark my words.

regards.

Ross

[Winaje]

Will be very interested to know the outcome Ross, also to know the brand of the chip, even if only in a PM...

[discoveraus]

Hello Wil,

The label on the ECU is Triumph Rover Spares P/L. I could not guess where they get the unit programmed. The casing has been prised apart ( it looks like a screwdriver job ) and then resealed after the new chip has been soldered into the printed circuit board.

The latest d2 ecu is a fully reprogrammable unit and does not need to be fiddled with to upgrade the fuel settings, apparently  LR even have a factory upgrade program which can be reprogrammed by Testbook without pulling the casings apart. If you use a reprogammable ecu, or an external add on unit, it would not reduce the ecu reliability.

I installed my chip at 120000 km. I am now upto 190000 km. without any resulting mechanical failures that I could blame on the upgraded ECU. I tow a Kimberley Kamper about 15000 km per year on bitumen and off road, the auto transmission handles it easily without overheating or complaining.

My power was up considerably, towing was improved enormously but fuel consumption was also up by about 3 litres per 100km. Dont expect to win any drag meets though as it is all torque increase.

regards

Ross

[discoveraus]

Hello all,

I have sent an email to my rechip supplier / installer and he expressed total surprise at the failure. They were so surprised that they have offered to replace the ECU completely at no cost when I return to Melbourne in September.

I cant complain about the service in offering the replacement ECU at nearly 3 years after the inital sale but I am still unsure about putting my D2 reliability at risk again. It was an awful feeling when the D2 just stopped at the other side of nowhere (not even in the middle of nowhere) with no alarms or warnings.

Performance inprovement was great, reliability . I miss the power already.

regards

Ross

[discoveraus]

Hello all,

Well, I am back home again and have been to visit the supplier / installer of the ECU and managed to keep myself under control and not explode across the counter.

Guess what, he offered to fit a new rechipped ECU or give me my money back (after three years). I took the money and left.

Thank you very much Range Rove in Mitcham, Melbourne, your support to me after this length of time was truly appreciated and most unexpected.

I took the money because I had decided to sell the D2 and buy a new Prado 150 so a new rechip was no longer of any value to me. The decision to change was made because I was using mass coolant every time I drove the D2. It was probably a blown head gasket and would have cost $1700 to replace the gasket, maybe an extra $2500 if my head was damaged and I could find second hand unit or an extra $5000 if I needed a new head. The gearbox was also changing very roughly with the camper attached. Maybe another $4000 required. At 10 years and 190000km I wasn't prepared to spend that much on the D2 and traded it in on a new Prado poverty pack GX.

regards to you all.

Ross