Hi folks! Good to be on here! I have a Skoda Superb L&K with the 2.0 170tdi and a DSG gearbox. It’s really sluggish off the mark. I wrote Veizu, as I’d had a car remapped through their vswitch before (now my vswitch is apparently obsolete I’m writing them off, St Albans Car Clinic, Celtic. Viezu quoted 210bhp, St Albans 205, and Celtic 227! Obviously I like the idea of the extra power but do you guys think this is too much for this car, and the DSG gearbox? It’d be great to have some advice, before I take the plunge.. Cheers! John

I have chip from DTUK - almost from new, installed at about 5k - done about 30k miles and no problems at all - no need to switch to "S"

 

If you don't do proper remap - on a rolling road - then chip is the same as generic remap - but chip is removable and transferable between cars - with the same engine of course or can be reprogrammed. 

 

Chip/remap is a must completely transfers the car from big sluggish brick to feisty coupe  and better fuel economy

 

A tuning box is never a good idea since it messes with sensor readings to fool the engine into over fuelling and over boosting. They're just a bad idea, no matter what anyone who's bought one says.

 

From what I've seen, the best you'll get from a remap from a competent tuner is about 210 bhp. Anything more than that is pushing into compromise territory with reliability.

Cheers both. Chimaera, yup. Totally agree. I was thinking the same. 227 seemed optimistic lol! I was worried about the DSG box, which I’m told can be delicate... However, my wife has a tt roadster tfsi with DSG. We’re sure that’s been remapped, as in Sports mode it wants to kill you lol! Even in Drive (I call it granny mode) it’s fairly evil. Anyway, thanks fir the advice. Sorry Jafo  I wouldn’t chip it. Take care fellas!🙂👍

Just to say, got the car done at St Albans car clinic. Brilliant service! £249 and it’s up to 205bhp and an extra 70nm, therefore now 400nm. It feels like a totally different car to drive. Little or no lag and effortless. Seems smoother and a couple of mpgs more economical (around town) too. If you open it out, immediate grunt. In Sports mode, it now actually feels like it HAS a Sports mode lol! Anyway, just thought I’d report back. Cheers for the advice and help!👍

Hi bren_j@live

 

Hope you don't mind me messaging out of the blue but I saw your post about remapping your Superb and was considering doing the same and considering St Albans Car Clinic. Wondering how it was still going for you? Sounds like you thought it was worth the money. Can I confirm it was a remap and not chip. 

 

Cheers

 

Mark

 

 

Hi Mark! Good to hear from you. Yes! It is AMAZING! Others offered higher bhp - but - it’s the extra 70nm of torque on this particular map that makes a huge difference too. If you have the same engine in your car, you’ll know it’s sluggish off the mark, and general acceleration is gloomy too. My wife drives a tt tfsi, which we (and the garage) think has been remapped. It’s a monster that wants to kill you lol! My wife found my car VERY tricky to drive, given its lack of response. As I drove it away from the car clinic, and I put my foot down (a bit..) the thrust was unbelievable. It’s now so driveable. Tbh it doesn’t need more than the 205bhp and 420nm of torque. It’s well balanced (unlike me lol!), powerful, smoother sounding at idle, just as economical. It’s a different car. It was a compromise for me, before. I hated driving it, although it’s practical, economical and has lots of toys. Now it has everything. £249 well spent, for sure! My wife and I were driving in tandem yesterday. I overtook a slow moving car on a slip road - it flew. My wife said “You just disappeared - it was amazing to see THAT car do that!” Sorry for the tome. Does that help? I’d go for it! Seriously! Let me know how you get on mate!👍

 

ps. Yes. A remap. From my research, better than chipping for the car. This one is also well within safe parameters for the engine and gearbox.😊

Thanks for the reply and appreciate the detail!! You've sold the remap at St Albans to me, it is a little way for me to travel but knowing that they have done to yours then it's a no brainer and £249 sounds reasonable given the results.

 

Picking up my Superb MkII (FL) L&K DSG 170BHP next week from Platinum Skoda in Bath, but it is the load lugger estate so if the remap helps it move along the tarmac then I'm interested. I had a break after my first Superb and had a couple of Passat's, just not the same so returning to what I know and like. As you say they are practical, economical and damn the L&K has toys, I am liking the ventilated seats, but it is not the most exciting of drives so this could be a game changer. 

 

I'll give you a shout when I get it sorted, fingers crossed that will be early August. The TT sounds like a beeeeeeeast.

 

Once again really appreciate the swift response. 

Mines the estate too - AND it has a towbar (previous owner had it fitted) so yeah, I know what you mean. My feeling is you won’t regret it. Mention mine. They’re good blokes there. You can message them on fb messenger too. They actually posted about my car. It’s a grey one. Take care. Let me know.

Honestly, I wonder if your cars are a bit broken. I can't say I've felt short of power in mine, even in D rather than S mode.

1 minute ago, chimaera said:

Honestly, I wonder if your cars are a bit broken. I can't say I've felt short of power in mine, even in D rather than S mode.

The car is good but it could be better. I've driven lots of different vehicles both for work and socially and 'poke' wise it could tear up the tarmac a little quicker...especially on an overtake.  

6 minutes ago, SomersetSkodaSuperb said:

The car is good but it could be better. I've driven lots of different vehicles both for work and socially and 'poke' wise it could tear up the tarmac a little quicker...especially on an overtake.  

Like I said I don't find it wanting, and given the extra fuss that comes with insuring a remapped car here it's not really worth it.

It can feel a little flat at times but that's largely due to the torque curve being flat over a decent portion of the rev range which means the force pushing you forward is constant. We feel power as a change in the force on our body, so when it stops changing it feels like we're no longer being pushed forward even though the vehicle is still pushing forward. This is amplified by the DSG which tends to want to keep revs in that part of the rev range.

3 minutes ago, chimaera said:

It can feel a little flat at times but that's largely due to the torque curve being flat over a decent portion of the rev range which means the force pushing you forward is constant. We feel power as a change in the force on our body, so when it stops changing it feels like we're no longer being pushed forward even though the vehicle is still pushing forward. This is amplified by the DSG which tends to want to keep revs in that part of the rev range.

Now if only I could drive a before and after 😉 ....I hear what you are saying.

I have driven before and after - without a ‘silly’ map that would damage it. The difference is very noticeable...

I am having to wait until the two-year emission update (trust-building) warranty expires to do mine, can't wait.

I'll stick to the chip much safer - ECU still have 100% control and is removable

 

Of course, I get that proper remap on the rolling road is the best option - but what is the real difference between generic remap and chip?

 

What is the difference between:

 

read sensor -> modify -> feed ECU

 

ECU reads sensor -> use different than stock value

 

if in both cases x -> y? The only difference is at which point x become y... 

1 hour ago, jafo said:

I'll stick to the chip much safer - ECU still have 100% control and is removable

 

Of course, I get that proper remap on the rolling road is the best option - but what is the real difference between generic remap and chip?

 

What is the difference between:

 

read sensor -> modify -> feed ECU

 

ECU reads sensor -> use different than stock value

 

if in both cases x -> y? The only difference is at which point x become y... 

It is not safer, in fact it is very much the less safe option. You are biased because you have bought one and are not willing to accept the downsides of the product you have purchased. Some further reading on the matter: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Choice-supportive_bias

 

The ECU is not 100 % in control because it is being fed faulty data from two sensors (fuel rail pressure and manifold absolute pressure) by the device. Any control system that's getting bad data is not in control of the process. The many maps on the ECU are designed to work together based on correct information from all sensors on the engine. If a sensor reading is incorrect the engine can run into problems because the ECU is getting bad data: think of how often our first troubleshooting step on these cars is to plug in a diagnostic device and check for faulty sensors.

 

The tuning box is telling the ECU that these values are lower than they really are (e.g. at 2.1 bar MAP it might report 1.8 bar to the ECU) and the ECU is then further increasing output on the engine until it reaches the setpoint. If the offset applied by the tuning box is fixed, then the turbo and fuel rail are always being pushed higher than they should be. The lower limit for MAP is going to be around 0.9 - 1.0 bar as that is atmospheric pressure and if the box is applying a 0.3 bar offset, when the ECU thinks the engine is at 1.0 bar MAP it is actually at 1.3 bar. Under low boost conditions, EGR is switched on, but it's now being switched on into an inlet that's under pressure (possibly greater than the exhaust pressure) and this is going to mess with EGR reliability. This is an example and reality is likely more complicated but it illustrates the basic point. Some of the more sophisticated devices I believe have variable offsets, but this is akin to putting lipstick on a pig.

 

In a remap scenario, the tuner can adjust the boost map so that MAP is correct in all operating scenarios, so in the example above, the EGR is functioning at the correct manifold pressure but the extra boost is available when the driver wants it. The tuner has all of the maps available to him/her too, not just boost and fuel pressure so they can make far more subtle and balanced adjustments to the engine's operation across all speed and power levels, and they can ensure that everything works together properly with the ECU getting full and accurate data from all sensors.

Thanks Chimaera. That’s why I went for remapping instead. A gentle one at that. You gave me good advice before, so thank you.

I have just completed my first 1,000 miles in my "new to me" CR170 DSG estate. First 500 pre-remap, second 500 post (sensible) remap. 

Before the remap the performance was.....OK. Much in line with my last but one car, a Passat CR140 DSG, but better than most recent - Volvo S80  2.4 D5 Geartronic. 

Verdict so far is very positive - well improved mid range pulling power and more confident overtaking.

 

I had considered a simple pre-Dieselgate rollback, see how that went & then decide whether to have a stage 1 remap. In the end, had both done together.

 

I am told, but do not have the technical knowledge to confirm, that it is best to have the rollback done before the remap as this "levels the playing field" Whichever, I am delighted with the result.

 

Two things I did check out first: Remap adds £20 to the annual insurance (may be  more for younger folks - I am pretty (but not very) old), and remap is fully reversible.

 

Main point of this post, apart from some personal confirmation of other posts, is that for anyone up herein the frozen North, Dyno Remaps of Stockton-on-Tees offer a first class service.

 

19 minutes ago, Cyberplod said:

I am told, but do not have the technical knowledge to confirm, that it is best to have the rollback done before the remap as this "levels the playing field" Whichever, I am delighted with the result

 

 

When doing a remap, the tuner is usually editing the parameters in the map on the ECU to change the performance, essentially changing the input data the ECU software uses to calculate how to control the engine. They will leave the ECU operating software untouched.

 

The EA189 NOx update changed the operating software on the ECU as well as the map data. Leaving aside arguments about the update itself, this creates a few scenarios for the tuner to navigate:

1. Remap on the new software. The tuner has to learn how the new software works before they can develop a new map and if they are going to be thorough about it they will need to test their remap before offering it to customers. It's a bunch more work for them, but work that only has to be done once.
2. Roll back the ECU to the pre-update software and remap. This requires the capability to reverse the update, but it's plain sailing after that as they can continue offering the same remaps they did before.

 

I do keep thinking about doing mine. With the journey I am doing now I'd be worried about EGR and DPF clogging. ... I used to do 64 miles a day on dual carriage ways but now 12 miles on a mix of stop start urban and short stretch of dual carriage way