Car Remap

[egasso 10]

Hello everyone!

 

I'm looking for some advice/personal experiences from fellow motorists regarding remaps of car engine to achieve higher performance and mpg. I have mazda 6 Takuya version 2012 2.2 turbo diesel and thinking about remap. I do care about my cars and was always getting filters, oils fluids etc replaced on time, my dad is also quite skilled auto mechanic who often helps me out if I dont know what I'm doing (I'm IT engineer myself so car questions are not my strongest side).

 

I know now that remap prices goes £150-£250 depending on company. I also just had carbon cleaning done by really cool guy from Revive carbon clean company, and he suggested the remap might give a pleasant performance boost.

 

What is other peoples opinions and personal experience on this matter?

 

Thanks

 

P.S. sorry for some grammar errors, english language is my second, but I'm trying my best!

[Resident 1,190]

Check with your insurance company first regarding any mods to your car.

 

They may not allow remaps on your policy and as they are becoming a common thing to have done they are likely to check your ecu in the event of an incident. 

 

As for the remaps themselves generally you can go one of 2 ways. Economy or Performance. Both would see power gains however obviously the economy remap would be less gainful than Performance. 

 

Personally I wouldn't use any company that does remaps without the aid of a dyno.  They tend to use generic maps and don't bother health checking the car first. Plus without a dyno you could simply plug into the obd, say you've done the map and actually have done nothing or made it worse. 

 

At least with a dyno you get a print-out as proof. 

 

The other thing to consider is supporting mods. Are you planning to add performance parts such as Air filters, larger intercooler, exhaust.  These are often better done beforehand and can result in more power even prior to remap and will lead to better gains with the remap itself. 

[carosio 186]

A friend has a 2003 Focus 1.8 tdi which was bought new. Quite a few years ago he fitted an off-the-shelf plug in chip (I believe it was) and the increase in power and economy was impressive. I've drove the car and was just as impressed. That's my only experience of this, perhaps a re-map is something different?

[Guest]

A proper remap is specifically for your car. They may start with a standard map for your setup as a quick start but as Resident said, a proper remap will be done on a dyno or sometimes on the road. It's a map for your car, specific to your car. Buying a plugin chip is just a fixed map as far as I'm aware. It won't be as good. You tend to get better economy even with performance maps, they can map across the rev range and can map for load so if you're not hammering it you get the benefits of better economy.

[mafya 247]

Stage one remaps are the ones that don’t require any performance parts changing adding on etc.

ive had my Range Rover stage one remapped and it’s gone from 280 odd bhp to 335bhp.

it goes pretty fast for a big car and as for fuel economy we’ll to be honest I drive for pleasure and not for fuel economy but computer is showing  20mpg. It’s a 3.6 twin turbo diesel by the way.

my insurance hasn’t gone up as it’s only a stage 1 remap so I would say go for it...

[geared 315]

18 hours ago, Resident said:

as they are becoming a common thing to have done they are likely to check your ecu in the event of an incident. 

 

I've heard anecdotal remarks about this, but personally I think it's mostly nonsense, especially for an otherwise standard car.

 

Firstly the inspection and analysis of the ECU is way above the normal skill set of an insurance assessor, you need specialist knowledge and very expensive tools to do the job.

 

Secondly the insurance company will still need to prove the claimant was the one who installed the map, if the claimant simply states the car was like that when they got it and had no knowledge then their claim is perfectly valid.

This point has long been established in law, the insurance co are well aware of it.  So with all the costs and work involved for something with very little chance of success I can't see anyone actually doing it in reality unless they've got a very good reason.

Edited July 25, 2020 by geared

[Resident 1,190]

11 hours ago, geared said:

I've heard anecdotal remarks about this, but personally I think it's mostly nonsense, especially for an otherwise standard car.

 

Firstly the inspection and analysis of the ECU is way above the normal skill set of an insurance assessor, you need specialist knowledge and very expensive tools to do the job.

 

Secondly the insurance company will still need to prove the claimant was the one who installed the map, if the claimant simply states the car was like that when they got it and had no knowledge then their claim is perfectly valid.

This point has long been established in law, the insurance co are well aware of it.  So with all the costs and work involved for something with very little chance of success I can't see anyone actually doing it in reality unless they've got a very good reason.

A laptop, USB to OBD and a copy of the manufacturer's diag software.  

 

Many manufacturers now include a 'flash count' into the ECU's EPROM. Counter goes up one each time the ECU is reflashed (remapped). Usually a car will leave the factory with this number being 2 (base program then model specific map). 

I would say 99% of remappers out there are not skilled enough to bypass the EPROM flash count so all the assessor needs to do is ask the manufacturer what their records say about the counter (because obviously if they needed to reflash the ECU for a repair etc). If those numbers don't match then bingo, unauthorised remap, no detailed analysis required. Takes 2-3 mins. 

[geared 315]

Which as I've already mentioned is a complete and utter waste of time because it does not prove the current owner is the one who installed the remap.

 

oh and relying on the flash count is also totally useless as it's quite possible for someone to have bought a car that has been mapped and then had it put back to the standard map. 

 

I'm not saying they can't or don't ever check for remaps because I'm sure there will be cause for it.

but they won't do it on a routine basis for every accident, they will profile the type of claim, the driver and the vehicle, if it's deemed at risk then they'd inspect it closely..

Edited July 26, 2020 by geared