Citroen C4 Tuning

"Thanks for reading my Citroen C4 tuning article."

A great little car from Citroen, the C4 has proved popular among our members, and we've finally been able to write a C4 Tuning guide.

The smaller size and great choice of engines mean the C4 is a good car modification project to do.

Take your time and research C4 tuning to spare yourself making the usual tuning slip ups we frequently see.

Handling/Suspension upgrades

Handling modifications are high on most peoples lists for the C4.

Fully adjustable suspension allows you to fine tune the handling of you C4 usually improving your drive.

Drop the car by as much as 25mm - 37 mm and fit modified stiffer dampers, bigger drops will need other modifications in most instances.

Our aim in engine tuning should be to increase peak power and torque at the top end.

The best power gains come from larger engine sizes. The more you start with the bigger the return on investment so engine swaps are good value mods for small engined cars.

The best power gains come from larger engine sizes. The more you start with the bigger the return on investment so engine swaps are good value mods for small engined cars.

Tuning modifications.

First generation engines options

• 1.4 L ET3 I4 petrol
• 1.6 L TU5 I4 petrol
• 2.0 L EW10 I4 petrol
• 1.6 L DV6 HDi I4 diesel
• 2.0 L DW10 HDi I4 diesel

The second generation from 2010-2018 offered

• 1.4 VTi: 1397cc, 95 PS (70 kW)
• 1.6 VTi: 1598cc, 120 PS (88 kW)
• 1.6 THP: 1598cc, turbo, 155 PS (114 kW)
• 1.6 HDi: 1560cc, 90 PS (66 kW)
• 1.6 HDi 16v: 1560cc, 110 PS (81 kW)
• 1.6 e-HDi 16v: 1560cc, 110 PS (81 kW)
• 2.0 HDi 16v: 1997 cc, 150 PS (110 kW)

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

Getting the right performance parts for your planned usage of the car is essential. Stage 3 (competition) mods just won't work well on the road making the car difficult to drive.

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Stages of Tune

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

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

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

Your targets when modding the engine should be a flat and wide torque band. You don't want all the torque to be at the top end unless you are creating a motor sport car.

In this article we shall give an overview and introduction to the best performance parts for your car, but we'd encourage you to spend some time on the site looking into the details of each type of performance modification.Fast road cams offer one of the biggest bhp gains for your money as far as a solitary modified parts goes on a NASP engine.

It improves the intake and exhaust flow and increases the power if done right. Ideally you'd add other mods and finish up with a performance chip. TorqueCars would caution you not to go with a competition cam as this upsets the engines idling and general town driving characteristics.

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

Using higher octane fuel is another option if you find you are suffering from pinking or premature ignition on your Citroen project after fitting other parts. Bigger injectors will enable you to supply sufficient fuel to the engine.

Uprate the fuel pump to cope with the extra fuel requirements of your tuned C4s uprated injectors.

Intake and Exhaust Tuning.

Now we move on to the intake and exhaust and ensure proper flow through the engine. Please note that WE DO NOT RECOMMEND INDUCTION KITS, unless you have tuned your car with over 30 percent more power and are finding that the standard air intake has become a restriction.

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 C4 engines you should just fit a sports panel air filter preferably made from cotton.

Do not go with the biggest exhaust you can find this will reduce the exhaust flow rate - the best exhausts for power gains are usually between 1.5 to 2.5 inches. It is the shape and material more than the bore size.

Getting the cylinder head ported and polished will help get more air into each cylinder. This is definitely a job for a professional with a flow bench. When you tune up your C4 you will usally see that the standard clutch starts to complain so get an uprated clutch. The best mods in our experience for your C4 are fast road camshaft, remap, induction and exhaust, suspensionTurbo engines are just asking to be remapped. You will see large power gains on most modern turbocharged cars including diesels making a remap one of the most cost effective and large modifications for your money.

We've also come across some owners experimenting with twin charging applications and making some very high power figures.

Adding forced induction will see large power gains but this is usually too expensive to be cost effective. It is usually cheaper to bolt on a supercharger than it is to install a turbo. It is difficult to map fuelling with a turbo as the boost increases exponentially with engine speed.

Superchargers, however will give a boost which is correlating to engine speed so is easier to map. Alternatively you could install water injection to minimise knock.

Alloy wheel upgrades.

Alloy wheels will help the brake cooling and are generally lighter than the steel ones. We can't go into too much detail here about tires but they are how the car puts the power down on the road so are a critical choice.

Track legal slick tires work well on C4, and make a big difference over budget tires. We should point out that although they can look cool on the C4 large alloy wheels will actually decrease your performance. The larger you go the lower your acceleration will be - this to the change in your effective final drive ratio.

Although some people have with bigger wheels without problems we would restrict ourselves to a 16 inch rim size as the maximum.

For more information on Tuning your car please join us in our friendly forum where you can discuss C4 options in more detail with our C4 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.

There is a more updated version of this C4 Tuning article on TorqueCars.com

We need your help improving this article, so please send us your feedback in the comments box below and pass on any tips, points or facts we have wrong or have not covered. We really like hearing from our readers, and hearing about which mods were the most effective for them, it helps us improve our recommendations and articles to reflect current trends in modifications and ensures that our guides and tips are kept up to date.

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This article is flagged for an update, so please pass on specific tips below that I can include. All articles, and content was written by me, Waynne Smith TorqueCars founder. Some outlines are just too general so I appreciate your feedback and suggestions. This entry was filed under Citroen. You can leave a response below or join our forum to discuss this article and car modification in detail with our members.

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