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Performance tuning

All cars manufactured need to fulfill an emission law that the vehicle (& engine) keeps its tailpipe emission below a given threshold. The engine designer or manufacturer also wants to keep a safety factor to prevent engine damage. Karreman Engineering is able to rewrite the calibration of the engine control unit to give the best performance your engine can handle. When optimizing the calibration (called tuning or mapping) of your car’s engine several factors are placed in mind to protect the engine from early failure that might be caused by the new calibration. Karreman Engineering observes for maximum turbo temperatures, pressure ratios, gearbox torque and more components to safely rise your engines power output. When values are exceeding the limits the owner is informed of the danger it can cause when he/she agrees to exceed these limits.

DPF off service (Diesel Particle Filter)

A Diesel Particle Filter (DPF) is currently only used in diesel engines. If the manufacturer of the engine isn’t able to drop the amount of emissions/particles below a given threshold without particle filter. A DPF will be equipped to keep the tailpipe emission/particles below the threshold.

Red arrow indicated both Catalyst and DPF on BMW N57D30TOP engine Diesel particle filters (further named as DPF) are there to filter the exhaust gas from particles that can harm the environment and thus human health.

The downside of these filters are

• they are expensive to replace (~ €1500,- )
• regular replacement mileage could be near 200.000km/125.000miles.
• they can restrict power output and damage the turbocharger of the engine once fulfilled with soot or ash
• can cause higher fuel consumption by more than regular regenerations*
• due to regenerations oil can dilute and cause engine/turbocharger failure due to oil dilution.

Most diesel engines inject during the exhaust stroke of the 4 cylinder stroke of an diesel engine (intake,compres, power, exhaust). This extra injection causes extra heat during that event and with special after injection trategies the DPF can be “cleaned” with the higher temperature. Some other manufacturers also use an additive to clean the DPF. Injecting during the exhaust stroke doesn’t bring you more torque or power and therefore it is only used for DPF regeneration(s).

Karreman Engineering is able to remove the filter itself and those strategies and injections that clean the DPF. Also Karreman Engineering is able to remove error codes related to a removed DPF. With our DPF OFF service we can remove the DPF from your car and/or algorithms inside the ECU (Engine Control Unit) that cause regenerations for the DPF.

With the removal of your DPF you have the following benefits

• No more regenerations that cause high temperature to turbocharger and exhaust manifold
• There is less oil dilution caused by regenerations (lower risk of oil dilution)
• The choice of oil is wider, you are no longer restricted to oils with low ash rate for an engine fitted with a DPF. Often oils that are not meant for engines with DPF have a higher amount of sink that protects the engine better and can be used without a DPF
• Less backpressure (if the DPF was clogged or fulfilled) which can provide more power and better spool up of the turbo pressure

Once the DPF is removed from your vehicle it is possible that it doesn’t meet your country emission regulation. Therefore it is forbidden to use a vehicle with DPF OFF functionality on the public roads there were this is not approved.

Karreman Engineering is not responsible for those who use this were not applicable. The user agrees the terms and conditions once the service is payed and the work is executed by our staff.

If you do not wish to delete the DPF from your car but rather have a replacement we can offer you the service to replace the DPF, reprogram the engine control unit that a new DPF is fitted and supply you a new or cleaned DPF.
Besides this we are able to read out a large amount of parameters from the engine control unit to observe the DPF conditions. A list of available parameters (if supported by the cars ECU) can be seen below:

• Ash mass or particle filter load
• Difference pressure over the DPF
• Absolute pressure before the DPF
• Temperature before the catalytic converter
• Temperature before the particle filter or after the catalytic converter
• Mileage and time driven since last DPF regeneration
• Fuel and time used since last regeneration
• - Number of regenerations attempts
• - Number of successful regenerations

When DPFs are clogged before a regular mileage interval an observation must be made to the engine to inspect if other components caused the DPF to fail. For instance, injectors with wrong spray pattern can give a wrong combustion results with high soot level as a result. This might not be observed by the driver but can cause damage to the DPF. We inspect the DPF conditions during regular maintenance (oil service) of your vehicle there were applicable, desired by the customer and capability by our tools. This way we can detect if the soot levels in the ECU are expected to be with the mileage the car has covered.

EGR off service (Exhaust Gas Renegeration)

The Exhaust Gas Regeneration (EGR) is currently used in both diesel and petrol engines. If the manufacturer of the engine isn’t able to drop the amount of emissions below a given threshold without EGR. EGR will be equipped to keep the tailpipe emission/particles below the threshold.

The Exhaust Gas Regeneration (further named as EGR) is there to lower the amount of NOx in vehicle emissions. Instead of filling the engines cylinder with fresh air (oxygen o2), exhaust gas (NO) is entered to lower the amount of oxygen. Oxygen helps to burn the mixture but with a high temperature as end result. The high temperature causes high NOx.

The downside of EGR is the following:

• The intake manifold, EGR valve itself, EGR cooler, intake manifold and other pipes connected can be clogged by time and mileage. The parts or cleaning of them that are necessary to get rid of the clogging or clear the error codes as a result of clogging can be expensive to repair or replace.
• Once the intake manifold is clogged it can restrict airflow to the engine cylinder(s) and thus restrict power output or cause smoke as a result of less air.
• It can cause a higher fuel consumption due to higher intake temperatures. Due to the higher temperature it is not possible to inject/start the burning process earlier (ignition efficiency).
• Due to the exhaust gas that enters the cylinder the oil can dilute and cause engine/turbocharger failure once oil refreshing limits are exceeded and driving conditions are mainly operated in an area were high EGR flow rates are used.
• Components in the manifold can be affected by high amount of sulfur and cause pre-mature failure which can lead to engine damage. These failures can be swirl flaps or other components that were tested in pre development with a lower rate of EGR than used in real life.

The upside of EGR is that it helps to reach the operating temperature sooner by entering hot exhaust gas into the cylinder. It can also help bringing up the total net efficiency of the engine. When an engine is filled with exhaust gas in part load conditions, it can cause a lower intake manifold vacuum which helps bringing the complete efficiency/work necessary for the engine*.

This is currently only applicable for petrol engines with a throttle valve.

Intake manifold pipes which are clogged due to exhaust gas regeneration.

Karreman Engineering is able to completely or particial* remove those strategies that involve EGR. Also Karreman Engineering is able to remove error codes related to removed EGR components. With our EGR OFF service we can remove the EGR valve/cooler and piping from your car and/or algorithms inside the ECU (Engine Control Unit) that are used for EGR.

*It is also possible to enable EGR until a specific coolant temperature has exceed the threshold set in the ECU. Giving the fastest engine warmup (less fuel consumption and engine wear) and no EGR during an engine at operating temperature.

With the removal of your EGR valve/cooler/piping or functionality the following benefits can be fulfilled:

• Much less or no risk of clogged EGR related parts that could cause error codes.
• With less clogging risk there is less risk of parts that can failure due to clogging (example: swirl flaps)
• Sustained airflow from new with less clogging risk giving optimal engine performance over time and mileage.
• No more or less oil dilution caused by EGR
• Less fuel consumption due to cooler intake temperatures (only applicable for particial removal or long road trips).

Once the EGR is removed from your vehicle it is possible that it doesn’t meet your country emission regulation. Therefore it is forbidden to use a vehicle with EGR OFF functionality on the public roads there were this is not approved.
Karreman Engineering is not responsible for those who use this were not applicable. The user agrees the terms and conditions once the service is payed and the work is executed by our staff.

CAT OFF(Catalyst / Catalytic converter diagnostic off)

A catalyst (CAT) or catalytic converter is currently used in both diesel and petrol engines. If the manufacturer of the engine isn’t able to drop the amount of emissions below a given threshold without a catalyst. The catalyst will be placed in the exhaust circuit to keep the tailpipe emissions below the threshold. The functionality of our CAT OFF service is mainly aimed for petrol engines with a catalyst or catalytic converter.
The catalyst is there to reduce the amount of harmful emissions. The catalytic converter on petrol engines works best when the mixture of air and fuel is near lambda 1. Diesel engines work with an oxygen ratio of much more than petrol engines. Therefore the catalytic converter for diesel engines is different. It is still able to drop emission on a diesel engine once equipped.
To make sure the catalytic converter is working with mixtures near lambda 1 on petrol engines, lambdasondes need to be installed before the catalyst to tell the engine control unit to inject more (if mixture is lean λ>1) or less (if the mixture is rich λ<1). This method is currently only used on gasoline engines. With the start of OBD regulation (on board diagnostics) on petrol engines the manufacturers were forced to build in a monitoring device that could tell the engine control unit if the catalytic converter still functioned properly. The only sensor or device we are aware of is an additional lambdasonde placed behind the catalytic converter. So once your catalyst working range is dropped near ~50% (depended on manufacturer) the engine control unit will diagnose it with the help of the rear O2 sensor (behind the catalytic) and store a fault code related to the functioning of the catalytic converter. Besides the fault code the “check engine” light will be on since the fault codes is emission related. Karreman Engineering is able to turn off or modify diagnostic monitoring algorithms that monitor the working of the catalytic converter to prevent error codes from malfunction catalytic converters. Once the catalytic converter is not functioning or if it is removed from your vehicle it is possible that it doesn’t meet your country emission regulation. Therefore it is forbidden to use a vehicle with CAT OFF functionality on the public roads there were this is not approved. Karreman Engineering is not responsible for those who use this were not applicable. The user agrees the terms and conditions once the service is payed and the work is executed by our staff.

Error code disabling

Immo off service (Immobilizer, anti theft protection)

From the 80-90’s vehicles are equipped with anti-theft technologies. These technologies protect the car from being started without the proper key. Most of the time separate modules or ECUs are connected to the Engine control unit to be able to run the engine. These modules or ECUs can be unpleasant when building the engine into a boat, other car or race/track car.

Karreman Engineering offers a service to disable the functionality of the immobilizer. With the removal of its functionality it is no longer necessary to use the modules or ECUs attached to the Engine Control Unit to operate or start the engine.

Besides the deletation or disabling of your immobilizer Karreman Engineering offers new keys, replacement electronics inside the key and new push buttons to make your key like new. These items can be seen in the webshop.
An example is a new key for your BMW E46 3 series (1998-2005). A genuine key will cost €160,- (NL) ex. VAT.

Karreman Engineering can offer the same key for €100,- . How this is possible? Like other parts on a car can be made by different manufacturers keys can be made by other manufacturers. The chips inside are used among many other manufacturers and widely available. The same applies for the remote control for central door locking electronics. Eventually the shell and key blade have to be made which is possible with today’s techniques.

A list of available keys that can be purchased and programmed by us can be viewed here
We can code the new key to the immobilizer ECU and there were needed disable the broken key. Also keys that you lost or were stolen can be disabled. This ensures that only the keys obtained by you work to open/close and start your vehicle.

Vehicle speed limiter removal service

Most (German) automobiles are limited to 250km/h (155mph) if they are able to reach over that speed. Car manufacturers have made a “gentleman agreement” with the government to limit there cars instead of a maximum speed given by the government on public roads. Karreman Engineering is able to remove the vehicle speed limiter from you Engine Control Unit of your car giving you the absolute speed your car can drive.

Were speed limiters are mainly associated with sports cars it is also possible that your van or truck is limited to a specific speed. Also these speed limiters in vans and trucks can be removed or set higher or lower to your demands.

Hot start fix (hot engine start fix)

The more mileage a car covers the more risk you have the engine loses compression due to the wear of internal components. It is possible that due to the wear and compression loss or aged starter engine the car is hard to start when the engine is hot or cold. During cold circumstances there is enough fuel to start the engine but this isn’t the case when the engine is or is almost at operating temperature. The amount of fuel can be to less to start the engine quickly once hot.

The manufacturer of the engine calibrates the amount of fuel during starting based on if the engine is coupled to a manual or automatic gearbox. It is common for engines with manual gearbox and dual mass flywheels to not inject under a specified engine speed to prevent damage to the dual mass flywheel. Adjusting the amount of injected fuel can fix your starting issues.

Karreman Engineering is able to adjust these calibrations for you whenever you are expiring (hot/cold) starting issues.

Gearbox software modification (SMG, DSG, & convential automatic gearbox)

When an engine is coupled to an automatic gearbox or semi-automatic manual gearbox (BMW SMG / VAG DSG) Karreman Engineering is able to re-calibrate the transmission ECU. For example shift points and gear changing speeds can be optimized giving the best drivability and performance.

Common ignorance point of DSG transmissions are there fast changing gears to maximum gear. These settings can be changed by Karreman Engineering. Also BMW E36 M3 3.2, E46 M3 & E46 330i SMG gearbox software can be upgraded to give faster gear changes.
Send a request for your car to see what we can offer you.

Stand alone ECU calibrating

Stand alone or self programmable ECUs are populair in racing cars. The ECU can be fully programmed by the user with delivered software from the manufacturer of the ECU. In most cases this is the most expensive way to tune a car. The ECU needs to be programmed to the engine and a wiring harness needs to be made. The price for these systems can be as low as paying for a tuning for your car to the cost of a second hand car.

ECU blank coding, repair & clone service

When an ECU is defective you are directed in most cases to buy a brand new one. Before you buy a new one it is a recommendation to contact us! Karreman Engineering is able to retrieve the content of your old/damaged ECU and copy it to a 2nd hand one. You can save a large amount of money compared to buying a new one.

Also if your ECU is damaged it is a recommendation to contact us. Karreman Engineering is able to repair most ECUs with a glance of the costs from a brand new one. If we aren’t able to do the job our partners can.

Common errors are broken or damaged end-stages for both injectors and ignition coils (were applicable) which can be easily replaced.

Besides ECU repair we can also repair pixel damage on your instrument cluster. Please have a look at this link below for an overview of currently supported instrument cluster repairs Pixel repair.

ECO tuning

All cars manufactured need to fulfill an emission law that the vehicle (/engine) keeps its tailpipe emission below a given threshold. Most functions and strategies that are used to lower emissions are not always the functions that cause the lowest gas mileage. For instance a DPF (Diesel Particle Filter). To clean the Diesel Particle Filter the engine computer needs to clean this filter with (in most cases) fuel (See DPF OFF for more information).

Besides exhaust after treatment functions, the engine calibration it self (ignition timing or start of diesel injection, fuel mixture and variable valve timing) must be set in a way the vehicle will pass with lowest number of emissions. The engine calibration can be the most environment friendly but doesn’t have to be the calibration that gives the best fuel economy. Several parameters can be changed to improve gas mileage to an engine calibration. Karreman Engineering is able to re-calibrate the calibration inside the engine ECU to give you the best gas mileage. Please contact us to see what we can do for your car.

Ways of tuning

There are several ways to tune or re-calibrate an engine control unit (ECU). The first ECUs developed were fitted with so called (E)PROMs (Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory). A chip that has data with all the maps, flags and code to read the sensors and activate the actuators of the engine control unit. To rewrite the code and maps in such ECUs the EPROM has to be removed and read with a chip or device programmer. Nowadays we don’t have to do such work.

In most cases the laptop can be connected to the car to read and write the calibration. An overview of available "tuning ways" which we support can be seen below:

• (EE)PROM removing, reading, writing (Electronical Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory) (~1980 – current)
  The content of a chip is read by removing it and placed in a device/chip programmer. After re-writing of the data the chip is erased by UV light or by the device programmer and written to the (EE)PROM. Some chips are PROM, which simply means they can be written once (OTP One Time Programmable). To write the new calibration a new chip has to be used.

  
• Flashing(1996 – current)
  Flashing is one of the easiest ways to retrieve and write the content of an ECU. The data is retrieved in most cases by the diagnostic socket or so called OBD port of the vehicle. The interface that is connected to the diagnostic socket is communicating with the ECU to read or write the calibration. Flashing comes from Flash chips that are a bit similar than EEPROMs. Were an EEPROM has to be completely erased before writing, Flash chips can be erased and be written in sectors.

  

• Flashing ECUs with tuning protection [TriCore](~2007 – current)
  Infineon TriCore processor Technician busy retrieving the content of an ECU

  Manufacturers have developed protection ways to avoid re-calibration of the ECU. So called tuning protection. This kind of protection disables writing of the ECU by the diagnostic socket/OBD port. Karreman Engineering is able to remove the protection from the ECU and make the ECU “tunable” by the diagnostic socket. The only downside is that we have to remove the ECU from the car and access the microprocessor by some kind of BDM (see below) method to disable the protection. This involves some extra time depended on how the ECU casing is secured. This extra time has been taken into account in the selling price. We have advanced tools to open the ECU case and put it back to original.

  
• BDM (Background Debugging Mode) (~2000 – current)
  A connection to the ECU circuit board is made.

  If flashing is not possible, if the complete content of an ECU needs to be retrieved for back-up reasons or after a flash failure BDM method can be used there were applicable. With BDM you “open” the ECU case and read/write the data by directly communicating with the microprocessor instead by the communicating with the (CAN)-BUS systems like flashing.

  
• Stand alone or self programmable ECU
  Stand alone or self programmable ECUs are populair in racing cars. The ECU can be fully programmed by the user with delivered software from the manufacturer of the ECU. In most cases this is the most expensive way to tune a car. The ECU needs to be programmed to the engine and a wiring harness needs to be made. The price for these systems can be as low as paying for a tuning for your car to the cost of a second hand car. Click here for more information on stand alone ECUs

  
• Tuning Box
  A tuning box is placed between sensor(s) and/or actuator(s) of the ECU. The tuning box activates the actuators (example: fuel injectors, turbocharger PWM valves) by the programmed values set in the device. Sensors are read and the supposed value is returned back to the ECU so it won’t go in to limp mode. With a tuning box you are actually fooling the ECU. Tuning boxes can be used in nowadays vehicles were regular (flashing) solutions are not developed or available.

  

  Why not use a stand alone? Nowadays ECUs control more than just only the engine. The (automatic) gearbox needs signal and messages from the engine control unit to operate. Even the instrument cluster in the car needs to communicate with the engine control unit to tell the driver the engine speed the engine is running. Besides the communication between modules new engines have sophisticated control systems that stand alone ECUs can not control. If they can, the cost for these ECUs are extensive that customers would avoid.

  We have delivered and equipped a few cars with so called tuning boxes. Vehicles that are not able to be re-calibrated by its own ECU due to high security settings in the ECU. Customers can still enjoy a power increase that would be equal than with re-calibrating the stock ECU. An example is a BMW 528i F10 from 2011. Stock power is 245bhp (180kW) and 350Nm of torque. With a tuning box the power and torque can be optimized near 275-285 bhp (202-210kW) and 400Nm of torque. Even more is possible with hardware (exhaust, engine) modifications.

Miscellaneous ECU modifications

Below a few examples are listed of extra services for different cars

• Sharper and improved throttle ferocity (all engines fitted with electronic throttle valve)
• Shift lights or engine temperature stripes (example BMW E46 M3, E6X, E9X with stripped ring over the engine speed meter )
• Rear 02 sensor for non-catalyst delete(& error codes associated with it)
• SAP (Secondary Air Pump) delete (& error codes associated with it)
• Cold start catalyst heating delete (& error codes associated with it)
• Sport button memory activation (remains off after ignition is turned off)
• Launch control activation
• Left foot braking (when accelerator pedal is pressed). Normally engine power is drastic reduced once the brake pedal is pressed together with accelerator pedal.