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Well as most of you know yesterday I took another trip up to Hinckley to see Jamie @ SP Tuning. Bit of a mad day really, Started early - leaving my house at 6am to make it up there by 8.30. Then it hit me that I'll hit rush hour up by Birmingham 0.0 So given this fact and the empty roads between Merthyr and the M50 I pushed the car to its absolute limits - making full use of the previously installed SP Tuning map - which makes a world of difference. Managed to cut about 30 mins off the journey time ( Nobody moan please - roads were quiet as they could be ) - while still getting 50mpg ! All that was in vain however as I hit heavy traffic just past Birmingham and didn't get there until 9.15 >.<
If you remember I'd had a downpipe made up previously by a custom exhaust specialist with ports for all the sensors which looked like...
Jamie set about on it straight away, first he had to dismantle the engine bay components to get at the heat sheild covering the DPF, remove the heat sheild and then get the DPF out. Not an easy thing to do as you then have to get underneath the car, remove the undertray and remove the sensors and fixings from underneath, then back up top to remove the others - all in a very tight space !
Once the beast was out...
Jamie then fitted the new downpipe and connected up the existing sensors and pressure pipe in the same places as the original DPF units ports...
As you can see there's now ALOT more room !
Then the magic part, dismantling of the ECU and mapping the DPF program's out of the existing code. Once that was done it was a case of sealing it all back up and starting the engine...
She let out a small bit of smoke to start off with but we guessed that was because she was cold as it only lasted a few seconds and there wasn't much of it. Exhaust note is definitely deeper and louder but as soon as I was out of the workshop and on the road I realised it wasn't annoyingly loud and the tone on it is lovely throughout the whole rev range. The turbo whistle is definitely my favourite aspect in terms of the new sound
From the downpipe back I have a singular 2.5" straight pipe that goes to a dual exit tail pipe.
Jamie then started fitting my Bilstein Coilovers...
As we were pulling everything out of the box and lining the struts up Jamie spotted a disaster. Bilstein had sent the set with 2 Right hand (Driverside) struts ! The one had even been stamped and stickered up as left hand strut ! After many phone calls to Bilstein, by some amazing stroke of luck they'd had the exact same set delivered to the UK centre (About 10 miles from Jamie) that very morning ! So they said they'd send someone up. Meanwhile Jamie fitted the other 3 corners while we waited the 2 hours for the driver to arrive - I was just glad they were able to get it there the same day ! While we waited Jamie had time to catch up on his ton of phone calls with other people wanting to book DPF removals in with him - no joke he had between 10-15 new enquiries just when I was there. While fitting Jamie found out my drivers side ball joint was fucked ( Yay ! ) - so I've just bought a replacement (£20 from euro car parts if anyone's interested !).
Once everything was fitted and re-checked I said goodbye to Hinckley set off home. Driving on the new suspension was a dream. I'd previously had 45mm KW lowering springs all around and thought that they were comfy, but the Bilsteins were brilliant to drive on and Cornering has improved dramatically. Plus they obviously make the car look fantastic
150 miles later I got home and not a single fault code or warning light in regards to the DPF. I've done another 60 miles so far today and it's been fantastic to drive. Throttle response has definitley improved aswell as the pull right through the rev range from 1.5k up to 4.5k ! Smoke is non-existant unlike what you'd get with some VAG cars with a DPF delete and the sound is great.
All in all I'd definitely recommend the Bilstein coilovers to anyone with a DS3 and if you've got a HDi then you NEED a DPF delete. I just can't believe I didn't have it done sooner ! Any questions or queries me or Jamie would be more than happy to help so give us a shout
If you remember I'd had a downpipe made up previously by a custom exhaust specialist with ports for all the sensors which looked like...
Jamie set about on it straight away, first he had to dismantle the engine bay components to get at the heat sheild covering the DPF, remove the heat sheild and then get the DPF out. Not an easy thing to do as you then have to get underneath the car, remove the undertray and remove the sensors and fixings from underneath, then back up top to remove the others - all in a very tight space !
Once the beast was out...
Jamie then fitted the new downpipe and connected up the existing sensors and pressure pipe in the same places as the original DPF units ports...
As you can see there's now ALOT more room !
Then the magic part, dismantling of the ECU and mapping the DPF program's out of the existing code. Once that was done it was a case of sealing it all back up and starting the engine...
She let out a small bit of smoke to start off with but we guessed that was because she was cold as it only lasted a few seconds and there wasn't much of it. Exhaust note is definitely deeper and louder but as soon as I was out of the workshop and on the road I realised it wasn't annoyingly loud and the tone on it is lovely throughout the whole rev range. The turbo whistle is definitely my favourite aspect in terms of the new sound
From the downpipe back I have a singular 2.5" straight pipe that goes to a dual exit tail pipe.Jamie then started fitting my Bilstein Coilovers...
As we were pulling everything out of the box and lining the struts up Jamie spotted a disaster. Bilstein had sent the set with 2 Right hand (Driverside) struts ! The one had even been stamped and stickered up as left hand strut ! After many phone calls to Bilstein, by some amazing stroke of luck they'd had the exact same set delivered to the UK centre (About 10 miles from Jamie) that very morning ! So they said they'd send someone up. Meanwhile Jamie fitted the other 3 corners while we waited the 2 hours for the driver to arrive - I was just glad they were able to get it there the same day ! While we waited Jamie had time to catch up on his ton of phone calls with other people wanting to book DPF removals in with him - no joke he had between 10-15 new enquiries just when I was there. While fitting Jamie found out my drivers side ball joint was fucked ( Yay ! ) - so I've just bought a replacement (£20 from euro car parts if anyone's interested !).
Once everything was fitted and re-checked I said goodbye to Hinckley set off home. Driving on the new suspension was a dream. I'd previously had 45mm KW lowering springs all around and thought that they were comfy, but the Bilsteins were brilliant to drive on and Cornering has improved dramatically. Plus they obviously make the car look fantastic
150 miles later I got home and not a single fault code or warning light in regards to the DPF. I've done another 60 miles so far today and it's been fantastic to drive. Throttle response has definitley improved aswell as the pull right through the rev range from 1.5k up to 4.5k ! Smoke is non-existant unlike what you'd get with some VAG cars with a DPF delete and the sound is great.
All in all I'd definitely recommend the Bilstein coilovers to anyone with a DS3 and if you've got a HDi then you NEED a DPF delete. I just can't believe I didn't have it done sooner ! Any questions or queries me or Jamie would be more than happy to help so give us a shout
I am definitely considering this....
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