cheers for the info lads,the only thing thats bothering me is. does it stress out the engine any?? or reduce the life of the engine??
Not in my opinion as long as you let yourself be guided by the tuners. They will have a good idea how much is too much and will work well within those parameters. Engine stress, wear and life is far more dictated by driving style than level of tune.
What I would suggets though is that you stick to the normal services intervals, don't stretch them too far.
Ensure that service agents use high quality oils (your car will have to have a fully synthetic low ash formulation anway because of the particle filter - my 2.2 engine was the same, albeit a slightly earlier derivative)
Be gentle during warm up (applies to ANY car, regardless of tune).
Be careful to let the engine idle for a minute or two before you switch off (this, too, applies to ANY turbocharged car). It can make the difference between turbo failure at 80,000 miles or running the same turbo for 200,000 miles.
Use decent fuel - no Tesco or Asda diesel etc. Supermarket fuels do not contain the same additive pack that branded fuels contain and lubricity is decreased (same for any car, really).
There's a pattern emerging here, isn't there?
Basically, all the tuners are doing is taking up the slack that manufacturers build in to allow for poor maintenance by owners and operators.
My car was tuned in April 2006 (with just under 50,000 miles on the clock) and it packed up completely on June 24th 2009 with 132,000 miles on the clock.
Not, you understand, as a result of engine problems but due to the actions of a very stupid person who emerged from a T-junction without looking and drove straight across my path whilst I was approaching on the major road (at de-restricted major road speed, circa 55-60mph!!). The driver of the offending car was new to automatic transmission and hadn't realised that they continue to move foward if brake pressure is relinquished.
Clearly the engine was useless after the ensuing - and extremely serious impact - as was the rest of the car.
But up until that point I had experienced no mechanical issues at all. Had the collision not occurred I had planned to keep the car for another 3-4 years; I did not anticipate any reliability problems based upon my experince with it up until that point.
So, in short, go ahead and enjoy is my advice. (But watch out for drivers of black, 5 series BMWs
)