[Lazarus]

Having had our new <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Antara
SE Nav 184PS Manual S/S [/i]for over a
month and having returned not much more than 28 MPG on an urban cycle I decided
to take the plunge and buy a Bluefin unit from Scottish Superchips in
Glenrothes.

The unit is a DIY hand-held (re)mapping device and is an
alternative to having a dedicated race-chip hard wired into your engine. Each unit is particular to a certain make/model
of vehicle with its EPROM pre-programmed with an optimised ECU map, for better
BHP, Torque and a marginal increase in MPG.<?: prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comfficeffice" />

The unit connects via the Antara's diagnostic port and by
following the instructions on its screen (along with having read the
instruction manual) the car's original data is downloaded, analysed and stored. Then, if the Bluefin detects that it is the
correct vehicle, a new map is uploaded to the car's ECU.

If like with my 2013 Antara, the Bluefin finds the OEM data
is not what it is expecting, it informs you that you need to install the CDROM
software onto your PC and connect the Bluefin via the supplied USB cable. Once installed onto the PC, the software
connects your Bluefin to a dedicated server and the OEM ECU data is uploaded to
the support team. The team the produce a
custom map for your vehicle. Once a map
has been produced you are notified by email to reconnect your Bluefin to the PC. The new map is then downloaded onto the
handset.

Having got your custom map you have to run through the
process again at the Antara's diagnostic port and if all goes well you will receive
a message informing you: ‘Bluefin Installed'.

The difference can be felt immediately. The car feels almost silky smooth, like going
from a V-Twin to a V-Four and is a lot more responsive off the mark. As for improved fuel economy, the company
estimates that you will save about a tank of fuel over a year; not a huge
improvement but, better than nothing given the increase in BHP, Torque and
driving experience in my opinion. After
a while you forget about it and wonder if anything is still ‘going on'. Dropping back to the VX OEM data for a few
days is easy enough to do and, it serves as a reminder at how ‘rough' it was
before the Bluefin.

I am unsure yet as to whether it has done anything to the
DPF regeneration cycle as, to be honest, I think I have only ever noticed 2
taking place in the 2.7K miles that we have covered!? There must have been more I'm sure but,
perhaps the combination of the Bluefin upgrade and a bottle of Wynn's DPF
cleaner/regenerator to every third tank of fuel is keeping my system nice and
clean? Who knows? It's all working
nicely for us so far.

Anyway, back to the main subject: Why did I choose a Bluefin
over a dedicated race-chip? Because it
is so easy to uninstall the modified ECU mapping and then revert the car back
to the original data. The car can then
be sent off for its annual service and have any software updates installed by
the VX dealership as required. Similarly, it could be put back to default if
the Antara needs to have something done under warranty, just to be on the safe
side!

If when trying to re-install the Bluefin it detects any post-service
ECU changes, it is just a matter of going through the PC connection and upload
routine to get the map re-modified by the Bluefin support team to take into
account any changes made by VX. Simples!

I hope my ‘article' proves of interest to some of you fellow
Antarians out there …
-LaZ-

 

[♠ChumBucket♠]

Thanks Laz, much appreciated.

How long has it been installed?


Keep us updated regarding any regen activity.

 

[Lazarus]

We took receipt of the car on 21 June and I bought the Bluefin one month later on 25 July. I received my modified map from customer support that same day and had it uploaded into the car within the hour.

Prior to the Bluefin installation the car had done 1730 miles and achieved a maximum of 30 MPG using Fuelly to track fill-ups.

Since Bluefin installation we have been away on holiday and have only covered a further 510 miles, which were primarily a result of our journey from Dunfermline to Manchester Airport and back. Time-wise it's only about 2 weeks and we were at 2240 miles at the last 'fuelly' fill-up. We achieved 33 and 35 MPG on the holiday journey, which was not bad considering I was making very good progress on both legs.

It hasn't been used for daily commutes yet as the wife is using our little car whilst I am still on leave but, we should have some more figures at the end of next week when we are both back at work.

I'll keep you updated as we move forward and use the car more.

-LaZ-

 

[♠ChumBucket♠]

Excellent.

Thanks for taking the time & effort on this Laz.


Yes, please keep the thread updated as you go & clock up the miles.

 

[Grumps]

Thanks for posting. Very interesting, I have thought about getting one but I already have a racechip which works well and like you say the difference once i adjusted it is was night and day.

Im not saying I wont get one just not at the moment.

 

[Lazarus]

@ Grumps: You are absolutely right, there would be no point in a Bluefin when you already have a racechip. The Bluefin actually flashes the car's ECU ( which makes for a load of flashing lights and beeps during the process ), whereas the racechip acts like a 'Power Commander', intercepting and adjusting the OEM ECU signals in almost real-time. Having both would, I imagine be counter-productive?

There are also no user settings on a Bluefin, the map is supplied 'as is' from the company, that said, 'superchips' have a good deal of experience in their field, so it should be more than okay as it is! Like I said, I chose this route because of the complete lack of physical evidence or the need to 'tamper' under the bonnet, because I'm crap with cars; I can just about inflate the tyres without hurting myself!

-LaZ-Edited by: Lazarus

 

[Grumps]

@ Grumps: You are absolutely right, there would be no point in a Bluefin when you already have a racechip. The Bluefin actually flashes the car's ECU ( which makes for a load of flashing lights and beeps during the process ), whereas the racechip acts like a 'Power Commander', intercepting and adjusting the OEM ECU signals in almost real-time. Having both would, I imagine be counter-productive?

There are also no user settings on a Bluefin, the map is supplied 'as is' from the company, that said, 'superchips' have a good deal of experience in their field, so it should be more than okay as it is! Like I said, I chose this route because of the complete lack of physical evidence or the need to 'tamper' under the bonnet, because I'm crap with cars; I can just about inflate the tyres without hurting myself!

-LaZ-

It would be one or the other but The only reason I would go down the bluefin route would be better results which we will all be interested in how you get on and yes to stop having to remove the racechip of servicing etc but saying that I could probably remove it just as quick a you take to reflash the ecu. It would be better not the have the box their at all.

 

[Lazarus]

I continue to monitor the fuel consumption after the Bluefin upgrade.

The wife's weekly urban and rural mix of B roads, A roads and some Motorway mileage have resulted in a fairly consistent 35 MPG over the last 2 full tanks worth.

However, adding a Horse Box to the mix drops it down to the low 20s!

These figures are not too bad given that the Bluefin has added 26BHP of Power and 52nM of Torque.

Come the Winter, as wifey starts to do both an early morning and an evening visit to the horses, as well as her commute to work, I think the additional 'town' miles will see the MPG drop a little to those we are presently achieving.

Incidentally, our figures were sitting happily around the 40MPG mark but, DPF regenerations put paid to those!

My fuelly page for the Antara and all the figures can be found HERE .

Happy Driving!

-LaZ-

 

[♠ChumBucket♠]

Thanks for the update Laz

 

[Lazarus]

Three weeks since my last MPG post.
In addition to her daily commute of 30 miles in/30 miles out, the wife is now doing 2 shuttle runs each day to feed the horses, from Dunfermline to Dalgety Bay, which is ~5.6 miles each way.

Figures over the last 3 weekly fill-ups have been:
34.4 / 33.0 / 34.1

No particular driving style is applied, it is just driven like a normal car, apart from being called upon to do ~4 miles off-road (down a horrible pot-holed lane) every day! Here's hoping the suspension will last ....

I think that our regular running average looks set to remain around the 34MPG even with the extra performance given by the Bluefin.

Weekly Monitoring continues ....

-LaZ-

 

[♠ChumBucket♠]

Thanks for the info Laz, good stuff.

 

[wilma08]

This is interesting ( I am not taking the P) I will read with interest.

 

[Lazarus]

The last two week's MPG figures are as follows: 33.8 and 33.4 MPG.

A little down, by approx 1 MPG , on the previous weeks' readings. I am guessing that it might be to do with the lower temperatures at 5am when the wife heads down to the stables before coming home etc., then commuting to work; she has said that the air conditioning has been used most mornings due to the windows misting up so bad!

In the true spirit of scientific experiment, after today's fill-up I have restored the engine map to VX's original configuration in order to better gauge the driving experience versus recorded MPG. I shall leave the engine with its original map over the next 3 or 4 fill-ups so I can gather some data and compare it more robustly with the Bluefin modified map over the Autumn/Winter period.

-LaZ-Edited by: Lazarus

 

[♠ChumBucket♠]

Thanks again Laz, all interesting stuff & good info.

 

[Lazarus]

With the BLUEFIN software removed, I have been running the car on the standard VX fuel map for the last 4 fill ups so as to gain a better baseline over the Winter.

Here are the figures:

34mpg over 431 miles.
31.6mpg over 409 miles.
33.9mpg over 449 miles.
33.6mpg over 424 miles.

The BLUEFIN has now been re-installed and I shall again monitor over the next month.... well actually the wife will as I'm away to Saudi Arabia for 5 weeks!

-LaZ-Edited by: Lazarus

 

[♠ChumBucket♠]

Nice one Laz, look forward to the comparison. I'm still considering a remap or Bluefin.

 

[Lazarus]

Fuel consumption figures over the weeks I was away in Saudi. Well done wifey for maintaining my record keeping at every fill-up!

32mpg over 352 miles
34mpg over 422 miles
33mpg over 371 miles
35mpg over 430 miles
29mpg over 196 miles*

* The final figure of 29mpg is attributed to the wife's 'holiday week', when all journeys were made up of short, urban trips of around 6 miles each-way, to the stables and back and also the obligatory drive to Asda or Tesco.

It just goes to show how the Antara doesn't do so well about town but prefers to be driven on the open road!

The wife then uninstalled the Bluefin map as she thought she had a starting problem, just in case it had to go into VX. Fuel consumption figures over those 2 weeks back on the VX map were;
33.6mpg over 406 miles
33.4mpg over 375 miles

The car then went in to VX for the safety recall.

I'm now monitoring consumption after the recent recall and software upgrade, which required me to request a new Bluefin fuel map from Superchips, as the Bluefin handset didn't recognise my car after it came back from VX.

Stay tuned for more dull mpg figures in the future!

-LaZ-
Edited by: Lazarus

 

[Demonwiz]

Hi Lazarus,
Is it reallythat simple to uploadand remove?i.e. re-map and de-map the ECU?? Is there a limit to the number of times that Bluefin (superchips) will support a rebuild in the event of VX "upgrading ECU software" Having had re-maps before and having lost mapping on a dealer sevice the ability to control the de-map re-map sounds really appealing / flexible!



I plan to keep car long term so am very interested in this option

and with a 48 BHP lift to 211 sounds awesome.



Demonwiz

 

[Demonwiz]

Hi Guys,I went with Bluefin, WOW what a difference, SO EASY as advertised and soooo flexible. Power delivery awesome, smooth, progressive and full of torque, MPG is instantly better but I have to evaluate. The car is SO MUCH IMPROVED!! LOVE IT …. It is as easy as described, must confess was scared because I didn't want ANY problems, was THAT SIMPLE!! SO EASY! Step by step lead by the hand 10/10

 

[DREWD]

Hi Demonwiz,

Great to hear that you are impressed with the blufin, did you go to Falkland Performance Centre in Glenrothes. I live close by and intend to go in for a chat. Ive heard that it may cause issues with regens of DPF? Hopefully not as i am certainly interested in getting one, hope to hear from you soon as to how you are getting on with it. mpg figures etc