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I'm just dealing with a remapping outfit to get some sensor bits fixed in the ECU on my old Citroen for the MOT, but looking at remapping stuff online has got me toying with the idea of maybe having them do some bits to the engine/gear box (semi-auto 'EGS') to maybe make it a little more responsive to the throttle, possibly change the shift points, or just to see if they can improve MPG...
The Car is a decade old and TBH probably not worth much if I sell/trade it in, So I might just keep it now, take the missus off the insurance, get her the yaris she wants, and run the citroen to death as my bike transporter, Tip trips and general "Daddy's mobile skip" car. but I'm wondering how a remap will affect insurance, and if I have things bumped up a bit too much, will it simply eat the DMF inside of 10K?
Anyone here got experiences with remapping (good or bad) to share?
I've got a map (amongst other bits) on my 135i and it's made a lot of difference. It was quite rapid before but it's pretty damn quick now. I've insured it through Adrian Flux with the changes declared and it's not made a massive difference to the premium.
I've had derv's mapped previously (335d and Audi Q7) and both were noticeably quicker and in the case of the 335d better on fuel. You could probably get away without declaring it but personally I'd not want to risk it. I part own a body shop with a mate and we've got a 150bhp Astravan with about 200k on it - we've just had that mapped to something like 190bhp and it goes like a rocket, although we're half expecting something to let go fairly soon as it's not in the best of health anyway.
I think there's a chap on here who is heavily involved with car mapping and he's not a fan, however I've had 4 (I think) cars mapped now and never had any issues.
Remap will only affect insurance if you tell them (which of course, you should). However, how they would ever find out, and how on Earth you are meant to know what the owner before you did to the car, I’ll never know...
I had an old (W reg) Merc C250 remapped, to take it from a ‘stately’ 150hp to ‘fairly normal’ 180hp level of performance and was very pleased with the result.
I suppose it's worth mentioning at this point that re-mapped Dervs supposedly produce huge amounts of extra nitrogen, but for the most part I've never heard of anyone's car suddenly dying because of one.
I remapped my petrol Octavia 2 weeks after it arrived from new. That was 90k miles ago and it's been great never skipped a beat (well, not from the drive train or anything caused by the remap!) Slightly better fuel economy under normal driving and 25% more power for erm.... showing off.
If you gain a big increase in torque and use it all the time then I would expect to see increased clutch wear, so it's worth checking to see what the clutch is rated to before taking the plunge.
It does make the insurance more expensive, and not all insurers will touch a remapped vehicle. If you don't tell the insurance then you are effectively driving an uninsured car.
I'd remap another car for sure.... except hopefully the next one will be electric.
One thing to be aware of is if you've got a dpf you might end up with issues with it blocking if it's a bit of a smokey map. The internet should help with finding out if your engine is likely to be an issue.
For example if you search for the Octavia VRS PD engine you'll find lots of dpf issues. The VRS CR was fine.
You do realise improved performance and or fuel consumption will result in worse emissions.
Some may argue that this is not good news for your Singletrack family
My understanding re emissions is that they go up massively, someone on here mentioned it on a previous remapping thread.
personally, if you want more power, get the high performance version to start with.
saves issues with emissions or insurance, plus the quick one will have the proper suspension/clutch etc.
IIRC there's something about legalities of remapped cars where the remap takes them outside their emissions standard but as noted above a remap without other changes is likely to shove emissions figures up in some areas.
Remap on a turbo car will normally always give good gains.
However it will stress everything more (intake hoses, clutch, turbo etc), so stuff that is worn out, but "fine" will be under more load so more prone to failure. If you want to keep the car as long as possible as cheaply as possible it probably is not the best decision, if you just want a bit of fun then go for it.
I love the mid range torque a remap on a turbo car gives (as well as peak hp), it can really transform how a car drives.
You can always phone the insurance for a quote, cost me about £20 to declare it last time, other insurers will just refuse or give silly prices.
I remapped a second gen Smart Foutwo.. yo! In fact I did all the company cars (7 at the time)
Mapped for different reasons than yours, the gearbox was woefully slow changing so that was altered and the stage 1 map on the engine proved to be about 20% improvement in power and more importantly accelerating from London traffic lights. More mpg was a gain I didn’t expect, normal smarts do about 65’ish but we’d get aves in the 70’s which frankly was bonkers.
No idea what they did, other than stick a new air filter on and some intake plastic bit and stick a computer into the dash.. £100 bish, bash, bosh..
No damage to the cars, dealership serviced and told them of the map because wanted fsh by a dealer and they acknowledged smarts were common to have maps done and provided the map didn’t go past stage 1 the warranty wasn’t affected... insurance co were informed, but I was paying a company policy at the time anyway and didn’t notice any increase in cost.
I sold my “personal” fortwo to a club friend and it’s still as good now as it was when I sold it 6 years ago, and it’s now done 90k and still fsh by the same dealership...
...it will stress everything more (intake hoses, clutch, turbo etc), so stuff that is worn out, but “fine” will be under more load so more prone to failure. If you want to keep the car as long as possible as cheaply as possible it probably is not the best decision, if you just want a bit of fun then go for it....
TBH I think I've talked myself down a bit since yesterday, it's just an old french diesel MPV with 100k on the clock, not a relatively young German saloon/estate under 50k. it could have all the power in the world but it's still a wardrobe on wheels and cornering will never be it's forte so the 'Fun' element will never really be there...
Yes there's theoretically lots of extra torque and power available, but if I want to drag a few more years of service out of it, I think I should keep to the Stock map and Gearbox operation, as it's mainly intended to protect a Clutch and GB which are probably sized more for a 1.4-1.6 petrol engine not a 2.0 HDI with all the taps wound out...
Cheers all, I might start thinking about my next used motor with some of this in mind...
From what I've read (on Smart Roadster fora) it's how hard you drive it that gives rise to the extra stress - ie you can havea remap but not nec floor it 100% of the time, just use the extra torque a bit.
Good decision, the suspension, steering etc. will be worn and sloppy. My colleague has just picked up a brand new Ford Explorer and says he can't believe how taut it feels compared to his old, identical Explorer after 6 years of driving on the rocks that pass for roads in Nigeria and frequent dousings in muddy water.