hi guys, ive recently joined the forum and bought a 2002 octavia vrs which im chuffed to bits with.

i have a fault present thats bringing the engine management light up on the dash, when a friend of mine plugged his diagnostic machine in it just said ecu defective? but the car starts & runs fine with no known faults.

firstly my biggest concern is could there be a real possibility that serious damage could occur to the engine, and secondly the guy i bought the car from was advised by a tuning company (somewhere in peterborough?) that if he was to have the car remapped then this most likely would get rid of the problem as they found no faulty components when they tryed to diagnose the reason for the engine management light being lit?

i spoke to a couple of guys at AMD at thurrock in essex yesterday and they said that it is possible that a not so good map has been downloaded to the ecu? but would have to run their own diagnostics on the car to check it out which is fair enough.

can anyone vouch for AMD and has anyone had their cars remapped by these guys? they seem like a proffesional outfit but id like to hear some real testimonials before i hand over the money.

Alternatively if anybody knows of another good tuning company in or around essex that you would personaly recommend id be greatfull for their details.

finally thankyou all for taking the time to read my long winded post, i appreciate any help or advice you would be kind enough to give me.

thanks

nick

AmD are good guys and know what they're doing, don't have any hesitations if you are thinking of using them.

Sorry to hear about your problems. I've been looking at AMD recently so would be interested to hearyour thoughts if you do go for it.

Out of interest how much were you quoted for map? Did they give any discount from the web price?

thanks shark_90, thats exactly the sort of thing i needed to hear.

have you personally used them? or just know of someone who has?

Sorry to hear about your problems. I've been looking at AMD recently so would be interested to hearyour thoughts if you do go for it.

Out of interest how much were you quoted for map? Did they give any discount from the web price?

they quoted £395 inc vat. i have to say it sounded like they take their work seriously, the guys i spoke to said they first put the car on the rolling road to see what its currently producing and moniter the essentials, then they download the new map if their happy with the car in its current condition, then they take it on a road test with laptop plugged in to check all the parameters etc, and then once thier happy with that they return to the rolling road and re-test for new power / torque figures. so you you should get a before and after print out? sounds pretty good to my un-educated ears anyway?

How long have you had the car?

JonnyCatBiscuit had a dodgy postal remap on his which killed the ECU after the car was started a certain number of times :thumbdwn:

AMD seem to get a thumbs up from all the Mk4 and Leon owners round this part of the world, I'd go for a custom map from Impossible in Kent if it was me but AMD are closer to you.

I had my car mapped by AmD ages ago when they were based in Bicester.

I have a generic "One-click" switchable map which I paid £300 for through a group buy on here.

I had it done when it had about +/- 30k on the clock and it has given RR results of 173bhp & 290lb/ft. I now have 121k on the clock and have no issues whatsoever with it. Still running original OEM clutch.

HTH

How long have you had the car?

JonnyCatBiscuit had a dodgy postal remap on his which killed the ECU after the car was started a certain number of times :thumbdwn:

AMD seem to get a thumbs up from all the Mk4 and Leon owners round this part of the world, I'd go for a custom map from Impossible in Kent if it was me but AMD are closer to you.

thanks for your reply chicken_eyebrow, do yo know what impossible charge for their maps?

ive had the car for a week, but know the previous owner through a friend of mine. hes had the car for 3 &1/2 months with the same fault and has had no issues with driving or starting problems?

How is the ECU defective but the car's still running? Seems strange.

I was going to go for an AMD remap from the Thurrock garage but went for Angel Tuning instead. They were cheaper (£295 for the remap + £50 to fit my dogbone bush and Whiteline RARB – AMD were going to charge me £125 :eek:) and I've been more than happy with it since.

The Angel Tuning map is really smooth with good mid-range pull. Worth investigating maybe

thanks shark_90, thats exactly the sort of thing i needed to hear.

have you personally used them? or just know of someone who has?

I haven't used them since the AmD name went to Essex but I know enough people in the trade to know that they're good guys

How is the ECU defective but the car's still running? Seems strange.

I was going to go for an AMD remap from the Thurrock garage but went for Angel Tuning instead. They were cheaper (£295 for the remap + £50 to fit my dogbone bush and Whiteline RARB – AMD were going to charge me £125 :eek:) and I've been more than happy with it since.

The Angel Tuning map is really smooth with good mid-range pull. Worth investigating maybe

hi jigger72, im not sure about the ecu but your right it is strange that the car is still running fine if the ecu is defective? il take a look into angel tuning see what their prices are now.

thanks for your advice

thanks for your reply chicken_eyebrow, do yo know what impossible charge for their maps?

ive had the car for a week, but know the previous owner through a friend of mine. hes had the car for 3 &1/2 months with the same fault and has had no issues with driving or starting problems?

Sounds like it's ok then, Jonnys car gave up the ghost after it was started a certain number of times.

http://briskoda.net/octavia-i/ecu-broken/143820/

I'm not sure how much Impossibles remaps are, IIRC they were about £350 for a generic map and £450 for a custom map at the end of last year but worth phoning to check, their numbers somewhere on here:

Impossible Performance / Rapid Chariots

It would also be worth your while checking out the group buy being offered by one of our site sponsors in THIS thread.

Oscarli maps are highly rated and at that price with the chance of a freebie you can't go far wrong

hi guys, ive recently joined the forum and bought a 2002 octavia vrs which im chuffed to bits with.

i have a fault present thats bringing the engine management light up on the dash, when a friend of mine plugged his diagnostic machine in it just said ecu defective? but the car starts & runs fine with no known faults.

firstly my biggest concern is could there be a real possibility that serious damage could occur to the engine, and secondly the guy i bought the car from was advised by a tuning company (somewhere in peterborough?) that if he was to have the car remapped then this most likely would get rid of the problem as they found no faulty components when they tryed to diagnose the reason for the engine management light being lit?

i spoke to a couple of guys at AMD at thurrock in essex yesterday and they said that it is possible that a not so good map has been downloaded to the ecu? but would have to run their own diagnostics on the car to check it out which is fair enough.

can anyone vouch for AMD and has anyone had their cars remapped by these guys? they seem like a proffesional outfit but id like to hear some real testimonials before i hand over the money.

Alternatively if anybody knows of another good tuning company in or around essex that you would personaly recommend id be greatfull for their details.

finally thankyou all for taking the time to read my long winded post, i appreciate any help or advice you would be kind enough to give me.

thanks

nick

Depends what the ecu fault is? If it says internal checksum error then no obd remap will cure it. It will need a specialist repair before being remapped. Do you have any exact info on the fault code and/or description??