Citroen DS3 Crossback Tuning

"Thank you for reading my DS3 tuning guide."

Competing with the Q2 and MINI Countryman, the DS3 Crossback has a lot of work to do.

It has a great specification and very stylish interior. Time will tell how well the DS3 Crossback sells but we are sure it will be popular with car tuners the world over.

In driving the DS3 Crossover beats it's rivals in our opinion, smoothing out rough roads and giving a good feel through the corners.

Engine wise we are promised an electric powered version some time in 2019. At the moment the engine lineup includes a 99bhp 1.5-litre diesel and the 1.2-litre PureTech petrol offered in three states of tune: 99bhp, 128bhp and, making its debut for the PSA group, a new 152bhp model.

The DS3 Crossback will be popular among our members for their tuning projects, and we'll eagerly await an off road Crossback project that turns this into a forest trailblazer.

Please take your time and research DS3 Crossback tuning to avoid making the usual costly errors we often see.

Handling modifications are usually your first port of call for the DS3 Crossback. Drop the car by as much as 30mm and fit sports stiffer dampers (but don't go too stiff, adjustable suspension is the way to go here), and bigger drops will need other modifications in most instances or you'll sacrifice the fantastic ground clearance..

Turning our attention to the DS3 Crossbacks engine we need to get a bit more power out of the top end.

With performance tips you can change your DS3 Crossback into a really fun car, potentially beating more powerful cars on the track.

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.

This list of the stages and performance mods are usually installed by our members, decide how far you want to push your car before you get going.

Getting the right sports modifications for your planned usage of the car is essential. Stage 3 motor sport mods just don't work well on the road making the car difficult to drive.

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Modifying to Stage 1:

 Remap, Panel air filter, Alloy wheels, Sports exhaust, Lighter flywheel, Suspension upgrade (drop 30-35mm).

Modifying to Stage 2:

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

Modifying to Stage 3:

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

Your aims when modding your car should be a wide torque band. You want to avoid sending all the torque to be at the top end of the rev range unless you are creating a competition car.

The whole point of our articles is to give a limited introduction of car tuning upgrades and point you in the right direction, our forum is best place to go if you need more detailed advice and tips on your modified car project, the best sport mods and all aspects of modding cars.Fast road cams offer one of the biggest performance gains for your money as far as a single motorsport modifications goes on a NASP engine.

The intake and exhaust durations play a large part in your cars power band, but be careful here, getting this wrong can upset the idle and make the car hard to drive in traffic. You'd need to follow a cam upgrade with other mods and finish with a reflashed ECU to fully realise your gains.Don't forget to uprate the fuelling when you are increasing the power - it makes the car more thirsty.

Frequently power losses, flat spots and erratic idling after motorsport parts are done can usually be traced to fuel delivery or timing issues.Uprating the injectors is another beneficial modification and will deliver sufficient fuel. 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.

Breathing mods are usually next up. Induction kits are only beneficial to add performance if your air intake is struggling! Adding an induction kit to most standard engines will see NO POWER GAIN AT ALL.

If you have heavily modified your engine and it's need for air INCREASES DRAMATICALLY then an induction kit is the answer and will help remove this restriction. Derestricting the air flow into the engine is the primary part of performance tuning so get a better flowing air filter if you find that the car is running lean. Induction kits can sound fun but due to the warm air in the engine bay they will not do much to increase power and actually rob you of power.

Sports exhausts can help increase the flow of air through the engine. But if the exhaust pipe is too big, ie: it's over 2.5 inches bore, you will lose a lot of the exhaust flow rate and end up sapping power and torque.

Getting the head polished and ported will help get more air into each cylinder.

This is definitely a job for a professional with a flow bench. Your clutch can seriously let you down as the power goes up if it starts to weaken and the standard clutches are only ever good for power gains of up to 46%.

Fit a competition clutch to avoid power losses through the transmission.

Turbo engines are just asking to be Remapped. You will see large power gains on most modern turbo charged cars including diesels making a remap one of the most cost effective and large modifications for your money.Adding forced induction will see large power gains but this is usually too expensive to be cost effective. It is often easier to add a supercharger than it is to bolt on a turbo. Turbos give boost in increasing proportion to rising engine speed and this can make mapping difficult.

The nice proportional boost and rpm characteristics of the supercharger make them simpler to map. Alternatively you could add water injection to cut down knock.

Alloy wheel upgrades.

As alloys are less heavy they improve performance and they can help to cool the brake disks. Large DS3 Crossback alloys can decrease performance. If you get big alloys you will be changing your final drive ratio.

Due to this try to keep the overall rolling diameter of the wheel your OEM settings. In all cases not going bigger than 17 inches but we love the look of chunky tyres on 16 inch rims, they seem to set the car off really well and in our opinion really improve the handling and feel of the car.

There was an 18inch option on the crossback but we felt the handling was compromised compared with the 17's but we're not sure if it was the chosen low profile tyres or the weight of the rims.

For more information on Tuning your car please join us in our friendly forum where you can discuss DS3 Crossback options in more detail with our DS3 Crossback 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.

Please help us improve these tips by sending us your feedback in the comments box below. We love to hear what our visitors have got up to and which mods work best for them on each model of car. Comments are used to improve the accuracy of these articles which are continually updated.

This article was written by Waynne Smith on TorqueCars, and I appreciate your feedback and suggestions. This entry was filed under Citroen. You can leave a response below or join TorqueCars forum to discuss this article and car modification in detail with our members.

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