2 Questions for Holden Astra Turbo 03 Owners

[AstraTurbo03]

I found this site yesterday,(seems to be a great site) and made a topic about this.I wrote a whole lot and pushed submit then it said page cannot be displayed. So clicked back but everything I wrote vanished, so thought I'd try again today.:o I'll make this shorter this time incase it doesn't work again..

Anyway, wondering to all those that own a Holden Astra Turbo 03.

I would love to know what is the best thing you can do to these cars to give them more power and responsiveness ?

I don't know much about cars at all and the only mod I have ever done to a car is added a sports exhaust (on my old commodore) and never owned a turbo before so wouldn't know what things to do to it.


Sometimes when I drive it , it seems to take a while for the turbo to kick in and even though I am happy with the this car (love it) for some reason when I exccelerate if I push the exccelerator 3/4 the way down or all the way it seems to be the same, it's wierd.

So to the experts on here, what do you think the best mod for this car you can do to it that won't hurt your engine or give you more problems in the long run ?

And one other question save making a new topic, Does anyone know if it's possible to get replacement glass for the factory foglights that come with this car ?

I went to clean my car the other day and the galss had broken on one of them. I went to holden to get a price, but you can't get the glass only, you need to buy the whole set, $350 :eek: .
And no way I'm going to do this, so can anyone help me here on what I can do, I would really appreciate it, would be great, thanks.

[EL BURITO]

And one other question save making a new topic, Does anyone know if it's possible to get replacement glass for the factory foglights that come with this car ?



the answer is no but $350 sounds like 2 lights. and u can get them seperate but that would still be $175 but the chance of finding a wrecked TS T are very limited

also have a look here http://www.turblue.com/modification.htm

[auzvectra]

where bouts do u live?
the tune turblue has is good, really good.
the 3/4-full throttle problem is cause of the elec throttle, when u put down about 30-40% acceleration, it opens the throttle to 80-100%, i beleive the tune also smooths this out.
opl20t's got wrecked, i would imagine :). i'm trying to find that car myself.

[Snotty]

opl20t's got wrecked, i would imagine :). i'm trying to find that car myself.

goran's car is/was at GMS Spares revesby, i doubt there'd be anything left, there wasnt much left when i got the seats out of it about 12 months ago

[auzvectra]

contact detail, please :).
i want ecu, n few other bits.

[auzvectra]

yellow page'd it. thanks.

[Turblue]

Cheapest performance mod is an ECU retune. This is by far the most effective dollar/kw mod you can do.

I have a few kits left to tune the SRiT. For $600 you get the flash tool and three different ECU files. From very mild to hot. You can do the flash yourself. Even return the car to stock before a service.

PM me for any details and references.

[Mr T]

Arh dude, don't worry about not having experience with Turbo's or ECU's, there are heaps of members here that were in your shoes not too long ago...myself included. My last "real" car was a VK SS 304, which done a 13.8 incidently.

Anyway, enough blowing smoke out my arse, ECU Tune is a good place to start. Do some reading in the Turbo Mods area and other relevant sections, there has been pleanty of discussion over the past couple of years.

View sig for my mods and results, most people have done similar.

[AstraTurbo03]

Thanks for the replies guys. And Turblue your mod sounds interesting, but can you explain a bit better what it does and what kind of performance increase you will get out of it.

And MR T how come your KW's are lower then the factory settings of the car cause factory it's 147KW's ? And not sure what this bit means 278 NM @ 4100 RPM, factory is 250Nm @ 1950rpm-5600rpm.

I was originally thinking just increase the Turbo more and maybe just get an a better exhaust, but yeah I don't know to much (and don't have to much to spend on it atm, cause still paying it off).

But it's nice to see what others do to theirs and what kind of performance increses they get.

And no one know at all about the foglight glass, what options I have ?

Btw, who has the fastest Astra Turbo on here ;)

[RudeOne]

mate i broke a fog light the week i got my turbo, i ended up getting one from holden (the whole light) for 200 bucks... its a bummer!

[Turblue]

Factory power specs are at the flywheel, Mr T is at the wheels. You can factor about a 25nm loss through the driveline. This means, that he has just over 300nm at the flywheel.

An ECU tune changes the parameters that govern how the engine runs. You can expect about around 60-70nm increase (25%). My car stock ran 225nm with my G-Tech (accelerometer). Now it runs 309nm. That's in second gear. It's done by plugging an electronic interface into your car's diag port and uploading a new file to the ecu. About 5 minutes work.


Thanks for the replies guys. And Turblue your mod sounds interesting, but can you explain a bit better what it does and what kind of performance increase you will get out of it.

And MR T how come your KW's are lower then the factory settings of the car cause factory it's 147KW's ? And not sure what this bit means 278 NM @ 4100 RPM, factory is 250Nm @ 1950rpm-5600rpm.

I was originally thinking just increase the Turbo more and maybe just get an a better exhaust, but yeah I don't know to much (and don't have to much to spend on it atm, cause still paying it off).

But it's nice to see what others do to theirs and what kind of performance increses they get.

And no one know at all about the foglight glass, what options I have ?

Btw, who has the fastest Astra Turbo on here ;)

[jvl]

Hi all,

I'm in a similar position with a stock SRi T however am looking down the track at getting a new exhaust put on (prob 2.5inch catback) and ECU.

Am I better off getting the exhaust then the ECU or vice-versa, or is it 6 of one half-dozen of the other ??

Would I need to get the ECU retuned again if I do that first and then add the exhaust later on ?

Thnx in advance...

cheers,

Andrew.

[sparks]

Look at the end of the day it really doesnt matter which way you go as the ecu remap is not custom to your car.The ecu is smart and will relise if your running stock ic as the intake temps will be higher.

With modding astra turbos or any car for that matter when you start being tight with money you will run into problems.Just remember myself and a few others have modded their cars to the point where there is not a great deal more left to do and the total figure is around the $5000.00 mark if you dont believe me just do the maths it all adds up...

Not having a go at you just stating the facts...i should know been there and done that.

[Turblue]

ECU tuning is a relatively new concept. Not many people understand it. It's all "black magic." And that understandable.

But it boils down to this simple equation. $/kw (or nm)

There is not a damm hope in hell that you will get anywhere near the same power increase with an exhaust as you will with a chiptune. Any other mod above this, is icing on the cake. The files we have access to will suit anything you do.

But they are not a custom tune. They are designed to suit a stock to modded car. And do a bloody good job. A true custom tune involves a dyno and a lot of work. I'm sure those that have done a tune will be happy to give you their impressions. Regardless of who did it.

I will be very blunt. If you want to be a "fully sik Hero", go get a nice shiny exhaust. If you want to be serious, think hard. It costs.

One.
A 2.5inch catback is a waste of time. Sure, you can sound "cool", but it does bugger all. You will need to get a dump pipe done as well.

Two.
You really need to fit a bigger intercooler and change the intake piping.

Three.
The ECU needs to be reprogrammed. (or an aftermarket system fitted)

Do these three things and you will have a very quick car.

[AstraTurbo03]

Turblue are you saying if I got this ECU tune kit from you I would see a 25% increase in the Power of my stock car ?

And does it just smooth things out electronically for the throttle control, so it makes it excellerate better, So when I push the excellerator 1/2, 3/4 or full, it should give me different results instead of basically the same power as I do now ?

Also, would it give me instant power when I want it ? Cause atm, there is like a delay when you push the excellerator down, before the turbo kicks in, it's kind of like lag on the internet what you get when you play games.

By the way, I was experimenting last night a bit :) and I notice when you push the excellerator full you don't feel the turbo , to give you that kickback feeling, it kind of just excellerates like a normal car. And when you do it more slower you feel the turbo kick in, and it just seems faster and better.

Btw, Sparks I checked out your site, your car looks very nice, looks like mine same colour at least :D, but I am sure yours would eat mine up in the performance .

[Turblue]

I would be an idiot to assure you absolutely a specific increase. There are too many variables. Anyone that does that is gambling with the truth.

I use a Gtech to measure results. It measures the power required to move the car in realtime. Go and have a look at their website for more info.

I can say this with confidence. These results are in second gear only. Any other gear is breaking speed limits severely, and I will not do that.

- A stock SRiT convertible did ~200nm before a reflash, and 270 after.
- An SRiT with catback did ~278nm after reflash.
- My car did 220nm average before remap, and now does over 300nm.

Like I said, speak to those that have done reflashes, No matter who did them. The car will feel a lot better to drive.Companies I know that do tunes are:
SAS in Sydney,
Powerchip,
QSZ.

You do the homework and sus out the costs. You are welcome to call me anytime. PM me and I will give you my number. I am happy to discuss and answer as many questions as I can. I have nothing to hide.

There are some things that we all need to understand 100%. The turbo in our cars is very small. It will not hold high boost at high rpm's. This is just the way it is. So do not believe anyone that says it will hold 16psi all the way to redline. It won't. Also, our cars are very hard to dyno. So getting clean accurate charts is not easy. This is why I do my testing with a Gtech. It may not be the same as a dyno, but it is easy to check results of mods.

[jvl]

Thanks Turblue has put things into perspective a bit, I wasn't expecting to get a whole lot of improvment from an exhaust more being part of the whole package....

Will now look at getting the ECU done first as it definately is the best in terms of kW/$

Cheers,

Andrew.

[auzvectra]

yay, more soon to be tuned astra turbs :), shame i still cant tune mine, i have the module, n map, just the wrong software on my ecu, damn u opel for changeing the ecu's internal pasword :(.

[Wattie]

MR T how come your KW's are lower then the factory settings of the car cause factory it's 147KW's ? And not sure what this bit means 278 NM @ 4100 RPM, factory is 250Nm @ 1950rpm-5600rpm.

Btw, who has the fastest Astra Turbo on here ;)

Mr T's figures you see in the figure at the wheels, so its about 30% more at the flywheel.

stock would be about 115kw or so at the wheels i think.

and the fastest on here?
that would be Jay (Mohawk) he did a 13.95 1/4mile.
no one has beat his time yet.

he doesnt spend much time on here anymore.

[Turblue]

Stock is typically 120-125kw at the wheels. With about 225nm.

[auzvectra]

yep, me and wayne both have dyno's to 121 kw at the wheels stock :).
also i beleive that the K03 powered astra's would be the 192hp 1's of the zlet compared to the 200hp.
so they might be the 118kw at the wheels that some get.
just my theory, nothing more.