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It is changing the programming of the ECU. Some of the things that are changed are:
– **Timing** – the number of degrees before/after TDC that spark plugs fire, at any given RPM and Throttle position.
– **Boost Levels** – for cars with Turbochargers, how much boost (how compressed of air) is being fed into the engine , at any given RPM and Throttle position.
– **Fuel Maps** – adjusting how much fuel is injected into cylinders, to ensure a good air/fuel mix for combustion, at any given RPM and Throttle position.
Those are probably the most common (for a general car), but there are still tons of other things, such as the fuel pump pressure, valve timing (if possible), or even the max RPM to allow the engine to go (before cutting fuel).
**Edit:** as u/80081356942 pointed out, there is also suspension tuning. This would be the processes of changing the ride height of the suspension, and its springiness, as well as changing the angles that the tire meet the road (camber, toe, and caster), to optimize tire contact for whatever you’re doing.
Feel free to ask questions if you have any, or to add any to my list if I forgot something obvious.
“tuning” can refer to a lot of different things.
Traditionally it’s about modifying parts in the engine so that it creates more power, like putting in a cold air intake or adjusting how much fuel gets used in each piston.
In the modern day you can do stuff like swapping out the computer in your car that controls the engine for a modified computer that adjusts the engine for more power automatically and, potentially, allows you to do stuff like accelerate the engine to higher RPMs before it limits you.
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There are different ways to interpret this. In a general sense tuning is modyfing a car for some purpose, generally being better/faster.
Tuning is also adjusting components to perform better. When you tune an instrument you adjust different elements so that it performs as well as possible. Tuning a car for a certain purpose does that too. You can tune a car to be faster around a track by adjusting elements like suspesion, fuel injection, and more (but this can sacrifice things like fuel economy). There is a lot of ways to tune a car, but in essence it’s just adjusting the car parts for a purpose; track racing, daily driving, offroading, etc.
Your question is way too vague, tuning can refer to a myriad of things. What most people refer to is tuning an engine, which is to say, try to make it make more power. To do that you try to force as much oxygen and fuel inside it as possible, and regulate when the sparkplugs fire to explode the mixture. There are a ton of ways of achieving that, like getting colder air into the engine, making the valves open more and for longer with a different camshaft, increasing the rev limiter, increasing intake pressure if the engine is turbocharged, and about a thousand more ways to do so. You can also tune suspension, to get the car to adhere better to the ground.
In the most basic sense, tuning a car is getting it to do exactly what you want, in the best possible way, when you tell it to do so. Be it rolling while cornering, accelerating, braking, clutching, or whatever else.
Fundamentally a gasoline car is a big air pump. The more air the car can utilize the more power and the faster is goes.
Imagine you have a fan near your bed to blow air on you. How could you make it cool you more? Remove clutter from intake side. Same for exhaust side. Get the fan to spin faster applying more energy. Adjusting the fan blades.
Maybe this leads to follow up questions like “If you can make a car faster by tuning it, why doesn’t the manufacturer deliver it like this?”
The answer is: Best possible compromise.
Manufacturers try to find a balance between power, emissions and reliability, with emissions often set to meet regulatory standards.
Back in the day, I had a simple car with a simple 4-cylinder engine. About every 5000 miles I gave it a tune-up. This involved:
* Adjusting the valves by setting the clearance between the valve stem and the rocker-arm with a feeler gauge.
* Removing the spark plugs, cleaning them, and adjusting the spark-gap with a feeler gauge.
* Cleaning and-or replacing the points in the distributor. The points are the mechanical switch that opens and closes to trigger each spark. If the points were replaced, replace the condenser (capacitor) that is also part of the spark circuitry.
* Balance the carburetors. It had two. Adjust them so that all 4 cylinders generate the same power as you push on the gas pedal.
* Adjust the timing by rotating the distributor using a timing light to get it right.
After doing all these things, the engine was quiet, smooth, and reasonably powerful. Over time everything would get out of adjustment, and the engine would get noisier, less powerful, and poorer gas mileage.
On modern engines basically none of these things are necessary.
You basically change the engine setting to make more power at the great expense of fuel efficiency, cause you can’t have both.
Most car manufacturers tune cars for fuel efficiency.
An engine is a machine with many moving parts that work in harmony. When the engine is not running right, it is “out of tune.” Back in carbureted cars, a “tune up” would be new spark plugs, fuel filter, air filter, adjust the timing and the car would be back “in tune.”
The “tune” of the machine can be adjusted to be more efficient or to produce more power, or somewhere in between.
When you “tune” your car, you adjust the components so that the engine aligns better with your needs. Generally is more power.
In the age of computers, tuning a car usually means changing the software so the engine produces more power, but I can also mean changing components, like bigger injectors, or changing the way a (automatic) transmission shifts.
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