Citroen C5 Tuning

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The C5 is one of those cars we are often being asked if they can be tuned or improved. Perceived by many as a family car many owners yearn to tweak it a little to make driving it more fun.

The large family car from Citroen, proved popular, and the revision in 2007 was largely to compete with luxury brands from Germany.

Most owners have in mind subtle upgrades that enhance the drive of the car, from engine mods, to suspension upgrades, but we have seen some pretty extreme projects out there!

 

You can do a lot to improve the performance of your C5 with our step by step tuning tips.

The C5 is a good car tuning project to execute. We see people wasting money on their C5 doing the wrong mods and then having to start over. Follow our tips to avoid making the common mistakes

Tuning tips and articles

Engine tuning Transmission tuning Care care Intake & exhaust mods Improve handling Forums

Top end torque should be your overall aim with a nice fat wide peak torque band.

Following our guidance for tuning your C5 you will create a practical but sporty car that will beat bigger cars.

Sadly with smaller engine sizes you are wasting your time spending money on modifications, so if this applies to you get yourself an engine swap then apply the following mods.

Engine tuning mods.

The following uprated mods are usually installed by our members, decide how far you wish to go in your tuning project before you start.

Getting the best motorsport upgrades for your planned usage of the car is essential. Stage 3 (competition) mods just won't work well on the road difficult in stop start traffic.

Please watch TorqueCars Video tutorial on car tuning. And be sure to subscribe and support our new channel.

Guide to the Best Tuning Mods & Upgrades

  1. Mods that Remove a Restriction

    If the intake or exhaust are restricted in any way this will have an impact on your cars performance, so use an induction kit/filter upgrade and better flowing exhaust whenever your tuning creates a flow restriction.

  2. Mods that Improve Handling

    Braking, Suspension and general alignment of the suspension components is vital for any tuning project even before you start increasing power.

  3. Fit Stronger Parts

    Tuned cars will show up weaknesses, typically in the turbochargers, clutch and internal engine components. Whilst most engines can cope with mild tuning mods, TorqueCars recommend that you upgrade the internal components before these weak spots manifest themselves.

  4. ECU Tunes & Remapping

    While some cars can be easily remapped, others may require piggyback ECU's or aftermarket ECU's but this is the most vital step of your tuning project as it fully releases the power from all of your mods and upgrades. Expect 10-20% on NASP engines and 30-40% on turbocharged units.

  5. More Power Needs More Fuel & Air

    Every tuning project will aim to increase the air supply, but fuel supply is just as vital and will need to match the air the engine can utilise. Fuel to Air ratio is vital so upgrade the fuel pump & injectors. Also you can look to perform head mods (flowing and porting), bigger valves, fast road cams and forced induction upgrades to improve fuel.

Stages of Tune

Stage 1 mods: Alloy wheels, Panel air filter, Suspension upgrade (drop 30-40mm), Sports exhaust, Lighter flywheel, Remap.

Stage 2 mods: high flow fuel injector, Ported and polished head, Fast road cam, fuel pump upgrades, Power/Sport clutch.

Stage 3 mods: Competition cam, Engine balancing, Sports gearbox, Adding or upgrading forced induction (turbo/supercharger), Internal engine upgrades (pistons/head/valves).

C5 Engines

There was a wide array of engine options on the C5.The range was revised in 2007 and the engine options were tweaked a little.

Petrol engines
EW/DW family was introduced in 1998 as a replacement for the XU engine

  • 1.8 L EW7 1749 cc 113hp @ 5500rpm 120lb-ft @ 4000rpm
  • 1.8 L EW7 (auto) 1749cc 113hp @ 5500rpm 120lb-ft @ 4000rpm
  • 2.0 L EW10 1997cc  134hp @ 6000rpm 140lb-ft @ 4100rpm
  • 2.0 L EW10 hpI 1997cc  140hp @ 6000rpm 142lb-ft @ 4000rpm
  • 2.0 L EW10 VVT 1997cc 141hp @ 6000rpm 150lb-ft @ 4000rpm
  • 3.0 L ES9 V6 2946cc 204 hp @ 6000rpm 210 lbft @ 3750rpm
  • 3.0 L ES9 V6 VVT 2946cc 208 hp @ 6000rpm 210 lbft @ 3750rpm

Diesel engines (The DW10's feature common rail injection and were branded HDI)

  • 1.6 L DV6 HDi  1560cc 108hp @ 4000rpm 180lb-ft @ 1750rpm
  • 2.0 L DW10 HDi 1997cc 89hp @ 4000rpm 151lb-ft @ 1900rpm
  • 2.0 L DW10 HDi 1997cc 108hp @ 4000rpm 180lb-ft @ 1750rpm
  • 2.0 L DW10 HDi 1997cc 134hp @ 4000rpm 240lb-ft @ 2000rpm
  • 2.2 L DW12 HDi 2179cc 131hp @ 4000rpm 232lb-ft @ 2000rpm
  • 2.2 L DW12 HDi 2179cc  170hp @ 4000rpm 300lb-ft @ 1750rpm

The range was revised in 2007 and the engine options were tweaked a little.

Petrol engines

  • 1.8 L I4 1749 cc 125 bhp (93 kW; 127 PS)
  • 1.6 L I4 1598 cc 120 bhp (89 kW; 122 PS)
  • 2.0 L I4 1997 cc 140 bhp (104 kW; 142 PS)
  • 1.6 L I4 1598 cc 154 bhp (115 kW; 156 PS)
  • 3.0 L V6 2946 cc 211 bhp (157 kW; 214 PS)

Diesel engines

  • 1.6 L dieselI4 1560 cc 109 bhp (81 kW; 111 PS)
  • 1.6 L diesel I4 1560 cc 109 bhp (81 kW; 111 PS)
  • 2.0 L diesel I4 1997 cc 136 bhp (101 kW; 138 PS)
  • 2.0 L diesel I4 1997 cc 140 bhp (104 kW; 142 PS)
  • 2.0 L diesel I4 1997 cc 161 bhp (120 kW; 163PS)
  • 2.2 L diesel I4 2179 cc 170 bhp (127 kW; 172PS)
  • 2.2 L diesel I4 2179 cc 200 bhp (149 kW; 203PS)
  • 2.7 L diesel V6 2720 cc 208 bhp (155 kW; 211 PS)
  • 3.0 L diesel V6 2992 cc 240 bhp (179 kW; 243 PS)

Your aim when tuning the engine should be a flat and wide torque band. You don't want all the power to be at the top end of the rev range unless you are creating a motor sport car.

In this article we shall give a little insight into the world to the best modifications for your car, but we'd encourage you to spend some time on the site looking into the details of each type of performance mod.A fast road camshaft usually proves to be one of the best NASP power modifications you can do from a single upgrade to your engine.

The intake and exhaust flow play a large part in your cars power band, but be careful here, getting this wrong can upset the idle and make the car difficult to drive in traffic. You'd need to follow a cam upgrade with other mods and finish with a reflashed ECU for the best performance gains.

When pushing up the power you will need to uprate to the fuelling. More power needs more fuel.

If you find you get flat spots and power surges after your kits you should check the fuelling and try a higher octane fuel as well. Larger injectors will enable you to supply sufficient fuel to the engine.

A fuel pump will only deliver a finite amount of fuel, so you may need to uprate this if your injectors are demanding more fuel.

Intake and Exhaust Tuning.

The next area for modification is the intake and exhaust. Contrary to popular belief there is often a small power gain got by fitting an induction kit, they only become beneficial and are recommended after you increase the engines power to the point where the standard air intake box cannot cope!

Induction kits can work well on turbo engines and larger engines (if supplied with a suitable cold air feed or air box), generally though we'd just recommend for C5 engines you should go with a high performance panel air filter preferably made from cotton.

Sports exhausts generally help improve air flow from the engine but avoid an exhaust that is too large or you may end up will reduce the flow rate. Stick to 1.5 to 2.5 inches as a rule of thumb.

flowed (porting and polishing) the head will allow you to maximise your air/fuel charge. Leave this to a professional though with a proper flow bench and machine tools Your clutch can seriously let you down as you increase the power if it starts to complain and the standard clutches are only ever good for power gains of up to 40%. Fit an uprated clutch to avoid power loss through the transmission. The best mods in our opinion for your C5 are fast road camshaft, remap, induction and exhaust, suspension.

Remaps offer large power gains on all turbo charged cars. On NASP engines the benefits are doubtful. However a remapped ECU on a NASP engine will help unleash the potential if you have done a lot of mods.

We've also come across some owners experimenting with twincharged applications and making some very high power hikes.

The most phenomenal power gains for NASP engines usually involve the addition of forced induction. Turbos are generally harder to add than a supercharger. It is difficult to map fuelling with a turbo as the boost comes on exponentially with revs.

Superchargers will give a boost which is correlating to engine speed so is easier to map. Adding forced induction will generally require a lower compression ratio or water injection.

Handling/Suspension upgrades

Many C5 owners uprate the handling of their cars with tuning suspension upgrades as a priority, this will certainly increase your enjoyment of the car.

We found that most C5 factory suspension setups need tweaking, a few degrees of toe out -1 to 2, and a bit of negative camber will dramatically enhance your cornering and handling.

We would go to a maximum drop of 27mm - 40 mm on most models. You risk grounding out if you go lower than this.

Alloy wheel upgrades.

Alloy wheels can help the brakes cool down and are usually less heavy than the steel ones. If you are serious about performance then you will need to carefully choose your tyres - ideally with a directional tread pattern tyre. Large C5 alloys can decrease performance. If you get big alloys you will be changing your final drive ratio.

Although some people have installed larger rims we would stick to a 17 inch rim size as the maximum.

There is a more updated version of this Citroen C5 Tuning article on TorqueCars.com.

For more information on Tuning your car please join us in our friendly forum where you can discuss C5 options in more detail with our C5 owners. It would also be worth reading our unbiased Citroen tuning articles to get a full grasp of the benefits and drawbacks of each modification.

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