Did you know that your common-rail diesel engine is supplied from the factory with less-than-perfect fuel injection settings, and that you could be missing out on both power and fuel economy?
The reason the manufacturers do this is because they’re making vehicles for a global market, and their settings have to adhere to any number of country-specific emissions regulations and levels of fuel quality. So rather than tune each vehicle specifically for Australia, they quite understandably adopt a ‘one size fits all’ policy.
Austrian-built Steinbauer Performance Modules are designed to fine-tune these pre-set parameters on your engine to give you up to 20% more power and torque while maintaining safe levels of emissions and exhaust gas temperatures.
Some performance modules work by manipulating signals from certain engine sensors which can place undue stress on your fuel system components, and ultimately lead to premature failure.
Steinbauer, on the other hand, only affects injector duration, that is the amount of time your fuel injectors stay open to introduce fuel into the combustion chamber, the way the system was originally designed to operate. This also allows precise fuel control through the entire rev range, so your engine is never placed in any unnecessary danger.
As an inbuilt safety system, Steinbauer Performance Modules are programmed to sense when your 4X4 is working hard for long periods (such as when towing up a long hill or driving over soft sand) and will automatically trim power back until it’s at 50% after one minute. This prevents exhaust gas temperatures from getting too hot and cooking your engine, and the unit will revert back to full power once the engine is not under any more stress. This is the only performance chip that offers this safety feature.
The question really is not “why do I want one of these?”, but more “why wouldn’t I want one of these?” Increased power and economy with no danger of damaging your engine that can be installed in an hour or so. What’s not to like?
To learn more, CLICK HERE.
24 comments
What exactly is meant by ” trim power back to 50% after one minute”? is that 50% less of the gain you receive from the chip back towards factory settings, or is it trimming back 50% of the total engines power/torque?
The injectors stay open longer but you get better economy. It must be April 1.
So does “maintaining safe levels of emissions” mean that all the VW people need to do for their diesel Amaroks is to install one of these chips in the Australian vehicles and they will be legal in regard to emission controls? And so we replace the word “safe” with legal?
After a lot of reading, talking to people with engine modifications (including Steinbauer modules), I finally fitted one to my MY11 LC200 and ‘wow’! Amazing transformation of the vehicle (along with a Taipan XP 3.5″ exhaust). If you drive hard – you will see increased fuel usage, but if you drive conservatively – I found fuel economies of up to 15-20% when towing my Ultimate Off Road Camper. Very happy camper…
I have been using the Steinbauer Module for almost a year now and am really impressed with not only power and Torque performances but having monitored my fuel consumption since fitment have discovered that my Fuel consumption has reduced dramatically! This reduction in fuel consumption for a 2013 GQ Nissan Patrol, especially around town is really a big surprise!
On long runs, both on road and into the bush towing a Camper trailer is where the main benefits are! Together with reduced fuel usage, the Torque is amazing and couples with around 24% more power as advertised!
This Unit should be a must for not only Nissan Owners, but seriously looked at by all other makes!
I estimate that I will have recouped the cost of this Steinbauer Unit within two years in fuel savings alone and recommend it to all 4 x 4 wheel drive owners.
I am always a little sceptical about this sort of thing. Every manufacturer are trying to be competitive with best power and fuel economy in their class. Surely it is in their best interest to place a vehicle in the market at its peak (within an acceptable price of course). If hundreds of thousands of vehicles are sold in each country signed off by the likes of ADR and with all the environmental requirements, surely they can tweak the computer for each market. I believe most aftermarket power modules do improve power but at the cost of putting more pressure on the motor long term. With an increase in power, you cannot expect better fuel efficiency without a mechanical change. Unconvinced sorry – like marketed bottled water, just drink from the tap people, its law Australia wide to have potable water from household taps!
How will effect my warranty on a Mazda BT59, and fuel economy as I am towing a 2.7 tonne van.
I have a chip worth $130 bought on ebay on my Amarok that does all of this rather than paying $2K
How does it go with the V200 Great Wall Lag??
With regard to Ian’s comment…I wonder if he would have got the same results with just the 3.5ins exhaust system upgrade. There are a number of online comments that suggest spending a heap of money on “chips”would be better spent on exhaust,filter cleaning, or inter- cooling.
I have used one on my manual PB Challenger for 40,000klm now. Best money I could have spent. Getting 11.2lt/100 average towing 1.8 tonne camper. I know from trying that an exhaust did not get a result without tuning and costs upward of 3k drive out, so $1100 for the module and 10 minutes to fit or remove does the job for me. Drove a stock Challenger the other day and could not believe how under powered it was, swapped the module onto it and the guy ordered one that same day.
Why are comments stating alternatives worth $100 removed from here, let others judge alternatives rather than pushing your sponsors
Had one of these fitted to our Prado by a local agent … then fitted 3.5″ Beaudesert exhaust … queried the ‘chip’ agent as to whether it would need to be retuned … could’nt tell … had to drive nearly 400k to Tamworth to one of the ‘Importers’ … worst service I’ve ever experienced … they ended up causing a major problem in our vehicle … my advice to anyone thinking about ‘chipping their vehicle would be ensure the retailer can carry out adjustments …
I bought a 09 Lux already kitted out with the above mentioned chip and exhaust upgrade, then i drove a 2013 work Hilux what a fizzer.
I paid extra for my car because of the upgrade, money well spent. There are a lot of negative comments on cost etc but if they had it fitted to there vehicle for a month for free it would change their opinion definitely.
Ron
‘@Rob
I can see your post re the $130 chip
StnBur make the comment that Time/Duration is ‘the way the system is designed to operate”, Not Quite True. Rail Pressure on My Stock Rok varies Rail Pressure from 2500ish Psi at Idle, to 27500 Psi at full boost, full load @3000 revs. StnBur turns it self off after to much load What the…, If it was tuned to a safe level, and Not to Max H/P, Exhaust Gas Temps wouldn’t get too high, and the state of tune can be Sustained.
Many next generation Modules now run Two channels, allowing boost to be manipulated at the same time, therefore air intake can be matched to fuel increase, and allow ‘3D’ mapping so further fuel savings can be made. ……
REF Norm’s question.
There is a noticeable difference in performance/lag when the Steinbauer is swithed ‘out’ of the system – ie with just the 3.5″ exhaust (which BTW I had installed before the Steinbauer. I have mine setup so it can be simply swithced out of the system with a manual switch (which I do when Mr Toyota services the vehicle).
Ref Warranty.
I fiited the Taipan XP exhaust and Steinbauer immediately after the 3 year warranty expired (it was under in K’s but up in time. The vehicle just clicked over 60k recently!
Lastly my Taipan XP is the ‘non-sportz’ model (ie the quieter of the two models for the LC200). It has a nice but subtle V8 note, without the drone when towing!!
Yes, my comments weren’t posted either. I’ll try again.
“I am always a little sceptical about this sort of thing. Every manufacturer are trying to be competitive with best power and fuel economy in their class. Surely it is in their best interest to place a vehicle in the market at its peak (within an acceptable price of course). If hundreds of thousands of vehicles are sold in each country signed off by the likes of ADR and with all the environmental requirements, surely they can tweak the computer for each market. I believe most aftermarket power modules do improve power but at the cost of putting more pressure on the motor long term. With an increase in power, you cannot expect better fuel efficiency without a mechanical change. Unconvinced sorry – like marketed bottled water, just drink from the tap people, its law Australia wide to have potable water from household taps!”
We placed a Steinbauer chip on our Mitsubishi Pajero. We had nothing but problems. The vehicle blew thick black smoke, got a really loud pinging noise in the motor going up hills to the point it would heat up and go into limp mode and used nearly twice the fuel in consumption. After a year of going to nearly every diesel shop we could find, we had one shop put an on/off switch on so we could turn it off. Eventually we contacted head office in Goondiwindi QLD and drove the vehicle for them to sort out. After a full day of dyno tuning, dialing the unit up/down they admitted they could only get about three percent extra power before all the bells and whistles started going off on the dash and sending the vehicle into limp mode. They agreed to take it off and refund our money which was very upstanding of steinbauer and there warranty, however was not for us and our vehicle.
Hello.
1 More power in the form of any chip or module means more fuel when you are using the extra power.
2 Do not fit a chip or module that increases fuel pump pressure / fit only a chip or module that adjusts the timing of the injectors.
3 Both use more fuel when you use the extra power, both put more stress on motor and driveline but, adding more pressure to the fuel pump is an extra stress that can destroy your engine if it blows the injector tip .and the extra work on the fuel pump too!
4 I’ll pay a little more $ and go with the
Steinbauer.
I’ve had a German made performance chip on my 2 lt diesel Ssangyong Actyon for >90,000 Km and had it dyno tuned to get best realistic on road performance. This chip does not increase the common rail pressure, but changes the fuel (injector) timing only. The fuel economy is not increased but is not reduced by that much either, over a 3 year period I averaged ~8 Lt per 100 Km.
The common rail fuel pressure is 270 bar @ idle, 500 bar @ 2,000 rpm and 650 bar @ 4,000 rpm.
On the dyno it produces 119 hp at the back wheels @ 2,400 rpm, up from 77 hp and has no turbo lag.
fitted one to my 2113 common rail diesel hilux. great improvement — ( has more grunt than a sumo wrestler) —up to 400nm. It has actually now made 4th gear a handy gear around town — roundabouts etc— ( by minimising gear changes) It has , however introduced some engine vibration under full load in 5th gear .
However— i tow a LIGHT and SMALL van and had to replace the clutch at 80.000 ( not long after the chip went in– was good before that ) Put in a heavy duty exeedy and its now good with the increased clamping pressure. The original toyota clutch , as i saw, was in as new condition apart from some burn marks on the pressure plate due to slipping.
All in all it was worth it. Was professionally done at Toowoomba and included a dyno tune.
i get 400nm from my 2113 diesel hi lux. more grunt than a sumo wrestler. The standard clutch couldnt handle it so had to fit a heavy duty exceedy with greater clamping pressure. Had the chip fitted and dyno d at Toowoomba