Any Remaps Available for the Octavia MK3 VRS 2.0 TDI...?

[Slotty]

Hi Guys,

 

I don't own one yet but wanted to find out if any reputable ones offer the remap for VRS Diesel 2.0 184bhp engine...?

 

Firstly, I have been told by one of my mates not long ago that there is one who quoted him £375.00 (3 hours - needs ECU tunning on the bench) and gains are 37bhp and 70nm.

 

Secodnly, I you remap a brand new car are you still covered by the Skoda warrantly...?

 

The campany that was mentioned by my mate offer the lifetime warranty on all their remaps so if remap direclty causes the problem they will sort it out for me as they have the insurance that covers that.

 

Thanks, Matt

[Timoctav]

Hi Guys,

 

I don't own one yet but wanted to find out if any reputable ones offer the remap for VRS Diesel 2.0 184bhp engine...?

 

Firstly, I have been told by one of my mates not long ago that there is one who quoted him £375.00 (3 hours - needs ECU tunning on the bench) and gains are 37bhp and 70nm.

 

Secodnly, I you remap a brand new car are you still covered by the Skoda warrantly...?

 

The campany that was mentioned by my mate offer the lifetime warranty on all their remaps so if remap direclty causes the problem they will sort it out for me as they have the insurance that covers that.

 

Thanks, Matt

 

I got "flamed" before on here for saying this but on a brand new car  personally wouldn't touch any engine mods unless you are not worried about the OEM warranty - if there is a problem with the engine subsequently how do you prove whether the aftermarket kit or the original engine spec caused the problem, in all likelyhood Skoda would put the onus on you to prove that it was not their fault.... and the aftermarjket kit supplier would do the same with you trapped in the middle...potential liability nightmare. I prefer to sleep easy at night, thanks!!

 

I don't know about Skoda but Porsche - also VAG - simply walk away leaving the customer potentially £££££ out of pocket.

Edited 5 August, 2013 by Timoctav

[Slotty]

That's what I thought about the warranty but wanted to check just in case...

[mattvrs13]

It would invalidate the warranty but revo work very closely with vag so I would use them as a preferred option. The gains seem similar to what I am getting on stage 1 on my 170vrs fl.

[Slotty]

Thanks Matt. I currelty have the remapped MK2 Fabia and absuslutely love it. the only reason why i ask about the remap is because i'm not sure if 184bhp is enough power for the hatch version but I might change my mind once i test drive one of these.

[philhoward]

The campany that was mentioned by my mate offer the lifetime warranty on all their remaps so if remap direclty causes the problem they will sort it out for me as they have the insurance that covers that.

 

Thanks, Matt

If that's the case, then I'd want to see it in some very hard black and white that they'll cough up if Skoda refused a warranty claim because of the remap; not just if they said the remap was at fault...

[DGW]

I had a look at the Superchips warranty recently out of curiosity. Apart from it only being valid for 12 months, 30,000 miles, or whilst the car is within the manufacturer's warranty period, whichever is the shortest, its exclusions include the following:

Any alteration to, or modification to, the Motor Vehicle, save for routine service/maintenance in accordance with the vehicle Manufacturer’s recommendations, before or after the fitting of the Superchips product, shall invalidate this Warranty.

You can download and read the full warranty via the link below and decide for yourself if a claim is likely to succeed gievn all the terms, conditions and exclusions.

http://www.mybluefin.co.uk/assets/pdf/SuperchipsWarrantyBooklet.pdf

[Sheldon.Cooper]

Unless you can remove the remap fully at the roadside when sat next to your fubar'd engine so it couldn't be detected there is no way a manufacturer will pay out if the ecu was reprogrammed.

 

Go into it with your eyes open and with the assumption that if it breaks you need to pay for a new engine yourself and you won't be dissapointed.

 

I've had 5 car remapped over the past 8-10 years and only 1 went bang and that was due to the turbo vanes shattering then getting injested by the engine which in turn broke a load of valves and a couple of thousand pounds in repair bills.  Can software break turbo vanes?  manufacturer said yes, tuner said no.  Neither would pay out so muggins here had to.

[DGW]

Go into it with your eyes open and with the assumption that if it breaks you need to pay for a new engine yourself and you won't be dissapointed.

That is very sound advice.

[Slotty]

What about the Tuning Box...? Is this the same as remap as I heard it can be roved at any time...?

[Timoctav]

Unless you can remove the remap fully at the roadside when sat next to your fubar'd engine so it couldn't be detected there is no way a manufacturer will pay out if the ecu was reprogrammed.

 

Go into it with your eyes open and with the assumption that if it breaks you need to pay for a new engine yourself and you won't be dissapointed.

 

I've had 5 car remapped over the past 8-10 years and only 1 went bang and that was due to the turbo vanes shattering then getting injested by the engine which in turn broke a load of valves and a couple of thousand pounds in repair bills.  Can software break turbo vanes?  manufacturer said yes, tuner said no.  Neither would pay out so muggins here had to.

...all of which reinforces my opinion - don't do it. If you have a need for speed buy something else. Even if it means low mileage used.

[Dodgy]

Attitudes have really changed on this forum on remapping.

[Brimma]

...all of which reinforces my opinion - don't do it. If you have a need for speed buy something else. Even if it means low mileage used.

 

Except the bit which suggested going into it with your eyes open, which leaves it to the individual to decide

 

Some might be willing to take on the risk, others might not

[Timoctav]

Except the bit which suggested going into it with your eyes open, which leaves it to the individual to decide

 

Some might be willing to take on the risk, others might not

 

Which is why I said reinforces my opinion

[Sheldon.Cooper]

What about the Tuning Box...? Is this the same as remap as I heard it can be roved at any time...?

Remap = exactly what it says on the packet, a remapping of the fuelling tables within the ecu and boost levels.  Can be done 'live' to give very good results.

 

Tuning Box = Worst case scenario a resistor (ebay special), best case scenario a digital box which fools around with the fuelling signals to the injectors.  Does not affect boost levels. 

 

Boxes are very easy to remove,undetectable once removed but are not as good as a good remap. 

 

You pays your money...........

 

One interesting thing is that in the cars I've had done previously (Golf Mk IV 130TDI & 150TDI , Freelander TD4, Audi A4 2.0TDI, Renault Laguna 2.0 DCI, Mondeo 2.2 TDCI) the fuel economy didn't change one bit.  Deffinately more power, no reason not to believe the claims of +30% hp & torque but on a monthly log of fuel economy you could not tell when the remap took place!

 

It was the Golf 150TDI which went bang and the Golf 130TDI which made the biggest difference!

[Slotty]

Remap = exactly what it says on the packet, a remapping of the fuelling tables within the ecu and boost levels.  Can be done 'live' to give very good results.

 

Tuning Box = Worst case scenario a resistor (ebay special), best case scenario a digital box which fools around with the fuelling signals to the injectors.  Does not affect boost levels. 

 

Boxes are very easy to remove,undetectable once removed but are not as good as a good remap. 

 

You pays your money...........

 

One interesting thing is that in the cars I've had done previously (Golf Mk IV 130TDI & 150TDI , Freelander TD4, Audi A4 2.0TDI, Renault Laguna 2.0 DCI, Mondeo 2.2 TDCI) the fuel economy didn't change one bit.  Deffinately more power, no reason not to believe the claims of +30% hp & torque but on a monthly log of fuel economy you could not tell when the remap took place!

 

It was the Golf 150TDI which went bang and the Golf 130TDI which made the biggest difference!

Thanks. So basically until the car is under the warranty none of you would reccomend touching it at all...I think I'll have to go with the Petrol option as doing under 14,000 miles a year diesel doens't really work out much cheaper...

[Dr Zoidberg]

Attitudes have really changed on this forum on remapping.

I don't think they have. For as long as I've been here, people have been saying very clearly that a remap will invalidate your warranty, and getting one on a brand new engine like the one in the VRS is especially risky as there's no way of knowing what potential problems there may be.

[Dodgy]

I don't think they have. For as long as I've been here, people have been saying very clearly that a remap will invalidate your warranty, and getting one on a brand new engine like the one in the VRS is especially risky as there's no way of knowing what potential problems there may be.

 

I've never mapped any of my cars, but I honestly think there's a more resounding stance on the dangers of doing it, much more than say 3, 4 years ago.

[Yeti_Man]

Every single one of my cars has been mapped. Some twice or three times (for various levels of hardware tune). They've all been done with between 4,000 and 9,000 miles on the clock. I've never encountered a single component failure related to the remap and I've only ever had a Ford dealer tell me they thought it was mapped and not happy about it. No issues whatsoever with warranty support. To a large degree I simply see remapping as a way of optimising the software calibration to the fuel and environment the vehicle is being used in.

[Slotty]

Every single one of my cars has been mapped. Some twice or three times (for various levels of hardware tune). They've all been done with between 4,000 and 9,000 miles on the clock. I've never encountered a single component failure related to the remap and I've only ever had a Ford dealer tell me they thought it was mapped and not happy about it. No issues whatsoever with warranty support. To a large degree I simply see remapping as a way of optimising the software calibration to the fuel and environment the vehicle is being used in.

Hmmmm...That's teh interesting one...No issues with the warranty support...? If that was the case i'd go with the diesel one and remap it on the day 2...

[Dr Zoidberg]

Every single one of my cars has been mapped. Some twice or three times (for various levels of hardware tune). They've all been done with between 4,000 and 9,000 miles on the clock. I've never encountered a single component failure related to the remap and I've only ever had a Ford dealer tell me they thought it was mapped and not happy about it. No issues whatsoever with warranty support. To a large degree I simply see remapping as a way of optimising the software calibration to the fuel and environment the vehicle is being used in.

 

But you hadn't had any issues with warranty support, because nothing engine-related went wrong to require a claim.

 

What would be far more relevant would be the experiences of people who's remapped engines did have issues.

[damianscott71]

Hang on, the original post was "Any Remaps Available for the Octavia MK3 VRS 2.0 TDI...?"  Did anyone get around to actually answering the question?

 

So far, I'm pretty sure that there are no remaps available for the Octavia vRS.  There seem to be no remaps available for the Golf MKVII, which has been out for a touch longer than the vRS.  This is due to the fact that the encryption on the newer ECU's (as used in the Octavia III) has yet to be cracked and the methodology released to the mapping community.  Certainly the previous generation of Bosch ECU's as used in Yeti's and Octavia II's have to be removed from the car, opened up and unlocked via software on a rig before a remap can be applied. This process takes about an hour and a half to do and it's a bit of a fiddly job.

 

I've got a new vRS on order and my guess is that it will be a while before any remaps become available.

 

A quick comment on the reliability of a vehicle once remapped, I've had 7 vehicles remapped over the years with mixed results.   Issues include cracked manifold & clutch slip (Honda Civic 2.2 diesel, remapped to 220bhp by Celtic Tuning), blocked DPF, faulty exhaust pressure sensor & mega fuel efficiency loss (Pre-FL vRS 2.0 PD TDI, remapped by Celtic Tuning), split turbo boost hose (Golf MK5 2.0 GT TDI, remapped by Superchips).  In each of these cases, I would say that remap played a part in the problem and in most cases, the dealer was able to spot that the car was remapped.  On one occasion, a warranty claim was refused on the grounds of the remap, and only was resolved by having the map taken off the car & me pleading ignorance!

 

The best maps that I've had on any of my vehicles have been done by Motech Performance in Northamptonshire (you're looking around £350 for an ECU out remap) and have offered the smoothest response, crafted to my driving style without compromising fuel economy or stressing the car's components.  They can build a map to suit whatever you want, but there's a genuine appreciation from them that if you push things too far, then things can & do go tits up!

 

 

[RickGroove]

I don't really get remaps, why doesn't the car manufacturer optimize the ECU better if is clearly that easy.

Could it be equal to pouring ethanol in your moped as a boy, making it go faster for a little while but components wear off so much faster ?

[Timoctav]

I don't really get remaps, why doesn't the car manufacturer optimize the ECU better if is clearly that easy.

Could it be equal to pouring ethanol in your moped as a boy, making it go faster for a little while but components wear off so much faster ?

More likely because the manufacturers priorities are getting the best possible economy and CO2 figures for the largely meaningless (in real life) EU official tables rather than what might be more appropriate for the open road.

Edited 6 August, 2013 by Timoctav

[magic62]

No remaps up to now, as far as I know.

See Damianscott 71 answer.

 

The only possibility is a box. Even the German tuners wont get around these. Even ABT is already producing boxes for the newer cars.

MTM already have them for some while (Cantronic) and other tuners are also switching to boxes.

 

Purely because it has gotten too difficult (and therefor too expensive) to get into the ECUs. 

There are even rumours that some tuners are developing their own ECUs so that you can exchange the entire module.

Dont think that will a cheap solution 

 

Times of OBD tuning is starting to get over. Having had a Bluefin device (before Shark introduced their STS), I know how practical such a device is.