ecu upgrades/strut brace?

[biggbn]

hi all, george here...as i posted earlier in the week im new to t5 scene...i pick up my car on friday, so i KNOW from past experience that by, say, monday afternoon, i will wanna know how to make it go faster!!..iv seen a lot of you mention ecu upgrades and have looked on various sites where i see upgrades to 280-300bhp advertised. my question is as my car is to be a daily driver would such an increase in power and torque make my car -a..harder to drive smoothly..-b..unreliable in any way..-c..less economical if driven "sensibly"..and finally -d...would upgrades affect engine/gearbox longevity?...how much roughly do these upgrades cost? who do you recomend to supply/fit tuning goodies..also thinking of fittting a strut brace..does this give 850 appreciably more stiffness/sharper turn in? want to keep my motor looking bog standard though, just love that stealth/speed thing!! cheers all

[Andrew]

Hi George. RICA will give you the desired power (www.volvotuninguk.com). It smooths out the power curve so it's actually a better ride, it is reliable, it is undetectable by the garages, will give increased power and tourque but if driven sensibly you will not notice any difference in fuel useage a highly recommended upgrade by many on here. Give the chaps at volvotuninguk.com a call for proces - or might even be on their site. Ensure the car has had a good stage 0 tune up first (search the threads for details of this).

Strut brace will cost you between 70-80quid from a main dealer - well worth it sharpened my 850 up considerably. If you want more you can go for the professional version which is fully adjustable etc but costs around 800 quid - not seen one here before but seen some fitted to cars in the USA.

I'm with you on the stealth speed thing btw and mine looks pretty much like every other green volvo 850 from the distance. Of course 2 seconds later when I'm up their asses they know different

[Al115]

Hi George,

There are a range of ECU upgrades on the market (I'd say that Rica, MTE, BSR were the most popular) - none of them would make your car harder to drive smoothly, less reliable, or less economical unless you've got your boot down!

You have to recognise that putting substantially more power through the drivetrain can affect longevity of the components, but I don't know of many people who've had cause for complaint. In my case, I managed to kill my clutch shortly after a power upgrade, but that is mitigated by the fact that a) it's done 162,000 miles, b) I'm running over 300bhp, and c) at the time I was giving the car some abuse.

Depending on where you are in the country there are a number of decent tuning garages around the place.


Alastair

[Andrew]

Oh I should of said the auto box seems a bit weaker than the manual so if you have an auto you may wish to get hold of an additional cooler for the ATF fluid. See Wobbly Dave - he put together a kit which has has on his and I've had put on mine. This will improve the length of the life of your auto box if indeed you have one.

[lance]

I too run the rica upgrade and I cant notice any detrimental effects at all, only more smiles per mile when I stamp on the fun pedel, My cars done 145k and still oil tight!

[Wobbly Dave]

I also suggest that you go through the Stage 0 tuning guide on the forum's KB section. Put your machine on a good footing before you start to tune in ernest. (or in Bromsgrove)

[Richard Brandt]

George,
I can recommend the Rica ecu upgrade. Volvotuning in Bromsgrove fitted this a year ago, it just gives my t5r that little bit extra. Coincidently, I'm having a strut brace fitted tomorrow and went for the Volvo one. There are steel ones available on Ebay, but I prefer aluminium.
The Rica chip/ecu upgrade is a Dutch development in my opinion and I know for a fact that this upgrade is widely used by volvo owners and the t5r community over there.
Their latest upgrade for the 2003- V70R turns the car into a 330 hp monster, but you probably need to spend enormous amounts on suspension and what have you to keep it tidy in the corners. I have heard rumours that owners in general are not too happy with the latest Rs.

Have a look at the rica site (don't worry it's in English)
http://www.rica.nl/index.php

The only thing you need to check is your car's health; I needed to exchange the turbo to benefit fully from the rica chip and the chaps from Volvotuning worked really hard on fixing all sorts of leakes in the plumbing.
But this was on a then 139K car!

Rich

[swordy21]

I fully endorse all the comments already made George. Mine has the 310 RICA upgrade and strut brace, and I do over 800 miles a week. The RICA has helped in fuel economy and I get over 28 mpg on the motorway, and upto 30+ if the cameras are out. It also gets you to the more efficient cruising speeds faster. Adam at Volvotuning mentioned that the RICA is generally more kind to autos, as with the increased torque the box doesn't need to change down as often under load, however as with anything, this is very much dependant on your driving style. The one point I will mention is, in combination with some induction mods engine braking on my auto seems to be reduced, so you need to be a bit more reliant on the actual brakes, and mine could really do with an upgrade, cash permitting.

The strut brace does stiffen up the front end and even though I am on standard springs and OEM Sachs shocks I get very little body roll. It will put a bit more stress on your steering geometry, and if you do lots of high speed cornering your front tyres will suffer, so I recommend getting your tracking and camber's checked/reset after fitting.

Otherwise well worth it.

BTW, A number of peeps are going to Avon Park for a run what you brung 1/4 mile day on the 16th July. There will be a mix of cars and mods, and I am sure everyone will be more than willing to provide advice etc.

Cheers

[biggbn]

thanks for all advice! will probably go ahead with strut brace first as my car has done 173k so im not sure how its clutch would take to such a boost in power and torque...i will check the history and see if it has had a clutch at any time before proceeding with power upgrades!!..brakes have already been uprated by police training college, im not sure to what degree but will let y'all know once iv read the (huge) college history, prob just thicker front discs i would imagine..i will get in touch with rica etc..as you have suggested with recards to stage 0 tuning and ecu upgrades, cheers all

[dicky b t5]

Strutt brace is a great mod for the money , fitted mine 2-3 weeks ago made the front end alot tighter..!