RICA % power increase for insurance purposes

[V70RMW]

I am planning to have my S60 2.0T Rica chipped but when getting an insurance quote they ask for the percentage power increase. According to the RICA claim of 225BHP this would be 25% which seems to send the insurance price rocketing (through Adrian Flux). On the basis that RICA claims will be, at best, optimistic I don't want to end up paying a huge insurance bill for a power increase I haven't got.

Have any other members been through this? Should I get a dyno before and after comparison so I can quote the actual power increase?

Any advice gratefully received.

[adieu]

I think you'd be better off stating around 10-15% increase rather than the full 25%. Not many people have seen the full benifits of a Rica upgrade.

Regards

Iain

[V70RMW]

Thanks for the advice Iain. I just concerned about my basis for claiming 10 to 15% to the insurers - apart from saying I think that RICA overstated the gain so I've knocked a bit off their claim. If the reality is really that different it might be worth the money to have it measured.
Richard

[sholtby]

Some of the Rica claims for say the 850 T5 do seem optomistic when they claim an increase from 225 to 305 bhp when other tuning companies quote around 280 bhp.
However with the 2.0t engine I notice the BSR ppc system quotes an increase of 50 bhp and a Rica chip does usually seem to give a slightly higher gain. So there could be some truth in it!

Simon

[adieu]

I believe Rica UK offer a 14 day money back thing. It might be worth looking into getting it done then ask them to dyno it. If it is as they claim then you could always ask them to tune it down for you or if insurance is too high go for the money back offer.

Regards

Iain

[bobcat]

Originally Posted by adieu

I believe Rica UK offer a 14 day money back thing. It might be worth looking into getting it done then ask them to dyno it. If it is as they claim then you could always ask them to tune it down for you or if insurance is too high go for the money back offer.

Regards

Iain

if volvtuning run it on their own dyno, then im sure it will make what they state for the upgrade, but as we know from results posted on here, volvotunings dyno seems to give very high bhp (10%+ higher) results compared to others (not sure why though). would you like to comment on this one volvotuning?

if you want to do it properly, get it chipped, then go to an independent dyno that has no connection to the chip and get a dyno run done, and use the figure they quote and work out the % gain. keep the print out as evidence and im sure the lower premium will pay for the dyno session.

[V70RMW]

Thanks for the great advice Guys. Sounds like my best bet would be to pursuade the tuner to do before and after runs. Any dyno inaccuracy would be (more or less) cancelled out as all I'm interested in is the difference and I have proof for the insurers.

BTW on the comparison with BSR, it's the 40% claimed increase in torque from RICA I'm after as opposed to the 22% from BSR. Even allowing for extravagent claims they're not even close.

[imac]

I'd go with 25% to be on the safe side, just to be sure!

[Andy]

I've often wondered about this, do you quote your new bhp at the wheels or fly wheel? Like they'd know the difference between them!

If you tell them its now, in my case, 280bhp but you don't know what it is standard then its up to them to do the maths...

I don't by the way- if your declaring mods then you might as well be truthful, you're paying for cover after all- not a piece of paper to obtain road tax.

[Ross9]

Exactly Andy, the amount of people who dont declare mods and then pay £600 for a piece of A4 paper that is almost totally worthless astounds me.

tell them 20% increase, anad contact Kieth Micheals insurance for your quote, tell them you heard about them from Ross Dickson. They were fantastic for me, saved me £320 on my renewal on a car with a 50% bhp increase and an A4 bit of paper for its modifications alone lol.

Ross