A Turbo is under £1000,

if it is Crank Bearings, Rings/Pistons that goes obviously you can do a Rebuild. But a Base engine is getting on for £3,000

 

That is the gamble you take, not just a ECU & a Turbo, but we have been over all that before.

Thing is Oli, a stage 1 remap on the vRS 2.0 TSI is a bit more than a little more poke. In a straight line it's bonkers. Less impressive on the twistys as the pretty average grip becomes swamped by all that much more difficult to modulate wave of torque, so an uprated RARB is pretty much essential if you want to avoid that slipping head first into the scenery sensation on every RAB.

Yeah. Just carrys risks i suppose doesnt it. Especially when its not strictly owned by the person driving.

Id worry incase it went wrong and i had to work even more hours to make up for it. If i was to finance, which i wont, but thats another topic

A Turbo is under £1000,

if it is Crank Bearings, Rings/Pistons that goes obviously you can do a Rebuild. But a Base engine is getting on for £3,000

 

That is the gamble you take, not just a ECU & a Turbo, but we have been over all that before.

You're right George, but most things (including the design and homologation of new cars) is about balancing risk. Any car could be made to last 1000 years, but it's not economically viable. The chances of the bottom end failing (when you know what it's made from / how it's designed) makes it pretty remote. the risk is turbo impellor shaft failure, it is on all of them. So long as it gets replaced if it does in the next 12 months I don't care.

As long as you are happy covering breakages and not expecting the person doing the remap to if it is a bigger failure and the warranty 

is void then you know where you are,

Caveat emptor, and plan for everything going tits up. That way you can only ever be pleasantly surprised

Steve,

Have you concluded to still go ahead with your uplift in power and remapping project next week.

Steve,

Wish you all the best in your project upgrade adventure, with your Leon 280 > 330.

Hope all goes well for you and that you achieve what you want, without drama .

Looking forward, as said before, to your review and on going reports.

Makes for scary reading (see post 50)....

http://www.seatcupra.net/forums/showthread.php?t=193416&page=3

Makes for scary reading (see post 50)....

http://www.seatcupra.net/forums/showthread.php?t=193416&page=3

Ouch.....

Steve,

Wish you all the best in your project upgrade adventure, with your Leon 280 > 330.

Hope all goes well for you and that you achieve what you want, without drama .

Looking forward, as said before, to your review and on going reports.

Having read that, and checked my PCP agreement, perhaps not after all. Although I have a reasonably compliant dealer (I hinted at remapping the Octavia, and they said probably not a great idea as we won't be able to warrant all of the parts). I stupidly never checked the finance agreement, but given it's all the same company (VW finance UK) then the terms I am sure will be identical. The lawyer in me says don't do it, especially as I need my car for my job at the moment.

Shame, I was looking forward to a bit more, but I guess it will have to make do....

At least you have had good input from your friends /fellow members on here that it has helped you to finalize the correct decision for you, albeit a bit 11th hour.

The main thing, as you know, working in the industry you do,it's about teamwork and talking through and listening,to get the best conclusion with minimal risk.

Edited 20 January, 201511 yr by vrskeith

Indeed, this is exactly one of the great things about t'internet and social media. I've just read through again all of the contract docs, the pre-contract agreement and the hire purchase agreement. Nowhere does it state thou shall not modify in any way, the closest is the usual prohibition for racing, rallying etc. I think it's worth call to them to clarify the situation. I can live with having to underwrite a broken turbo, but not if they can seize my car!

Indeed, this is exactly one of the great things about t'internet and social media. I've just read through again all of the contract docs, the pre-contract agreement and the hire purchase agreement. Nowhere does it state thou shall not modify in any way, the closest is the usual prohibition for racing, rallying etc. I think it's worth call to them to clarify the situation. I can live with having to underwrite a broken turbo, but not if they can seize my car!

I agree with that entirely. Definitely worth a call to VWFS to check the modding situation. If they don't mind and you are prepared to underwrite any potential damage then potentially game on for the remap!

On the other hand what you don't want is the dealer rejecting a warranty claim and reporting the map to seat UK who then inform VWFS.... Who then get shirty and demand the car back (fixed) or full payment of the outstanding balance as happened to that poor chap in the thread I linked to above.

I'm sure that's a rare isolated case but it always pays to assume the "worst case scenario" when assessing risk.

Good luck Steve and let us know what the finance company say! :-)

Very common actually that Warranty Claims are rejected.

 

Breakdowns on the Road, a Skoda Assist or who ever called out, OBD2 Reading, car Recovered,

VAS Diagnostic, Report Filled out, Declaration signed for Warranty Claim.

Then the Owner gets the Opportunity to withdraw the Warranty Claim and pay the Expenses up to that point,

or if work is done and later it is found out there was a False Claim or Declaration you are offered to the chance to pay rather

than the Legal Action being Taken for Fraud..

(Very similar to what Insurance Underwriers do with Claims where there are Undeclared Mods, so 3rd party cover stands,

and the Proposers Insurance is Void.)

 

There are Fabia MK2 vRS owners that purchased a Used car, had the Issue that many of them have had,

gone to have the Oil Consumption Test, Breather Mod, ECU update,

only to be told that the ECU has been Previously Remapped & VWG will not entertain Warranty Work.

& that happened even with 'Skoda Approved Used Cars', 

 

Because its not many Dealers that do not put cars back to Factory Settings, and Apply the Latest SKODA Software etc.

Selling Customers a car that they should have no worries about previous owners Modifications.

 

One Briskoda member rejected the vRS he bought on Finance because Skoda UK rejected the Warranty Claim 

on the Used Approved Skoda he had just purchased.

 

Sauce for the Goose and all that.

Very common actually that Warranty Claims are rejected.

That's true George but I was more referring to the scenario of a finance company cancelling the credit agreement and demanding either full payment of the balance owing or the return of the goods in working order. That nightmare scenario must be a little more unusual?

One usually follows on from the other.

First there is a Failure / Breakdown,  then a car needs paid to be repaired, Warranty or Cash Money.

 

The Reason Dealers put in their contribution for that Good PCP Deal, Audi. BMW etc is because the car is going back 

to them often, and the Finance for the Audi/ VW is VWG's money.

 

Or say you Lease a Merc/BMW/Audi/VW in parts of Scotland, is the Finance from Mercedes or is it Arnold Clark's Finance.?

 

How ever it works, where the car is Financed the Keepers are Keepers until they are Owners and have purchased a car.

Bank Loans can be different.

George you're mostly right here. The issue with finance is that up until a point in the repayment schedule, it is considered their asset, and would presumably have a value that is being written down on the balance sheet. If you the keeper devalue that asset in the early critical part of the depreciation curve where there is the most negative equity in the scheme, VWUK are financially exposed more than the GAP or similar insurance covers. You can't run a business where a third party is decreasing your asset value without your authority or control, other than state or tax legislation changes (e.g. tax, duty etc). 

Buying the car outright is a non issue, other than the cost of repairing parts that you would not normally expect to do so because the user has operated your product outside of the recommended design guidelines. I don't think it's fair of the customer to expect the supplier to underwrite any changes, unless you pay for them. That is either through an approved scheme, such as Ford / Mountune, an independent insurance policy (such as I am contemplating), or by paying in full for replacement parts and labour as and when the need arises. 

Understand the risk, find an acceptable way of mitigating it, and modifying your car is as painless as running it stock, so long as you can accept there is no such thing as a free lunch; but then that applies to most things in life including health care, refuse collection etc etc 

If you have a bank loan then there is unlikely to be an issue as the bank won't be aware of any problem with the car or interested in it unless of course you default on the payments. A rejected warranty claim and mods won't be reported to the bank and nor will they care. If you stopped paying and they tried to repossess a car which is FUBAR'd or with a blown engine they might not be too impressed tho lol!

The issue is if modding the car results in a breech of the finance agreement and this then gets reported to VWFS by the manufacturer (I.e in house as they are obviously functioning separately but within the same parent company).

Some good news, SEAT UK confirm that remapping the car will only void the warranty of the parts directly affected. 

 

Just need to check the contract hire agreement with VW finance, if they say OK, then off we go. It's not written in the contract I have so I'm expecting a positive outcome.

What are the parts directly affected.

Is it any failures with the like of the Head, Valves, Pistons, Rings, bearings, water pump etc, ie the Base Engine ?  

Who knows George. The chances of those plopping are so remote I'm more likely to die in a fireball on some lonely mountain pass in mid Wales. So longs as the pressurised bits are covered then I'm satisfied. Remember, I wasn't in the camp worrying about my chain tensioner, I got the Octy remapped immediately from new, and didn't spare it much. It's all about the shape of the torque curve, there will be no sudden massive increases sending a shockwave through the engine, all of the action will happen at 5k+

I think to be honest that will count for about half the car. Exhaust, clutch, flywheel, engine management, Cylinder head, pistons, belts, turbo, intercooler etc etc etc lol

Some good news, SEAT UK confirm that remapping the car will only void the warranty of the parts directly affected. 

 

Just need to check the contract hire agreement with VW finance, if they say OK, then off we go. It's not written in the contract I have so I'm expecting a positive outcome.

As above I'd imagine if pretty much anything under the bonnet breaks it wouldn't be covered by warranty (I.e all the expensive bits). If you have a suspension fault or bits of trim fall off then they will cover that as you'll keep the warranty on those parts.

You're probably right guys, but you know, if I get it serviced with the same dealer, I'm nice and pleasant to them, etc etc goes a long way to sorting something out for you. I will be a returning customer if I get the right level of service, so I have a commercial lever too.

The chances of the strong parts of the engine going pop? The common parts with a 400bhp Golf version? Unlikely, so a risk I'll take again! The Octy didn't explode, no reason why this engine will. Clutch, flywheel; they are always classed as wear items, remapped or not. Suspension parts, brakes, they all wear out. If the engine overheats, and blows a heat exchanger, well that's covered by the map policy (as it's traceable to thermal logs etc). Look at how many stage 2/3 2.0 Tsi engines are running about that haven't thrown there big ends out of the pram, bear in mind the pistons, cylinder head con rods are all stronger than that engine. 

You appear to have made up your mind, so just as well to go for it, it is only money after all if anything goes wrong.

Or loss of mobility leading to unemployment!