An OEM will refuse a warranty claim if the faulty part has been modified itself or has been otherwise affected by another part that is non-standard. Similarly maintenance items or lubricants should meet the same specifications as the OEM parts to ensure the warranty is maintained.

 

A window seal fault will be honoured irrespective of a remap. If there was push back by the dealer or Skoda UK, they should clearly explain how they arrived at the decision that a remap has caused the fault so that it is not covered by the warranty. 

 

Generally, an OEM will usually rely on the dealer to make any technical diagnosis, but they can get it wrong. This may be especially true for new models when a fault has occurred that is not common or is yet to be identified by the OEM and a technical bulletin has not been issued to the network so dealers don't aren't aware of it.

Most reputable  remaps to stage 1 won’t kill your engine/clutch, if you drive it with a modicum of common sense. Constant Santa Pod style getaways probably won’t do any car much good, mapped or not. The additional torque for making progress, is to my mind the best thing.  The rule of thumb should probably be, if you can’t stomach the cost of repairing an unwarranted fault, don’t do it. Personally having had a remap,  I think it was worth it. 

Had a much more logical reply from Rainworth dealership:

 

 

Thank you for your enquiry, the contractual warranty can only be declined if a component or components on your vehicle fail as a result of the re-map being carried out.

 

Any non-related claims shouldn’t be an issue.

There you go then. For the relatively small amount of money it really changes the car’s performance. 

Indeed. I'd like to pass on my thanks to all for an excellent discussion. I definitely did not want to rush into this and have done some lengthy research on Google and YouTube, on this forum, obtaining quotes, checking insurance and looking for reviews of local tuners. 

 

If I go ahead, it will certainly be a reputable tuner with rolling road testing rather than a box that I do at home by simply plugging it in.

 

I must say, I'm surprised Skoda don't do an approved tuning scheme given their well respected vRS range. Ford offer the approved Mountune package on their ST models. 

4 minutes ago, Doctor_Strange said:

I must say, I'm surprised Skoda don't do an approved tuning scheme given their well respected vRS range. Ford offer the approved Mountune package on their ST models. 

Cupra offers an approved remap. 

Maybe the start of things to come within the rest of VAG?

I've had my last 4 cars remapped, BMW 330i, BMW M3, Mercedes E320 CDI and my current Octavia 1.6 tdi CR. I've not had a single issue and i do a lot of miles. I've used Motech and Superchips. The Superchips remap on the Octavia has been great. The 1.6 tdi is underpowered but the remap has extended the power band, it now revs out more and doesn't run out of puff so quickly. It's not a huge difference but it's certainly an improvement on a car which was frustrating to drive at times!

On 11/02/2020 at 20:18, Doctor_Strange said:

Yes it seems completely illogical to me and the window seal example is obviously far fetched but they claim every aspect of the warranty is void if a remap is purchased. 

 

Some remapping companies say that they clear the flag that would indicate a remap had been performed - are these claims valid?

11 minutes ago, nickcoll said:

Some remapping companies say that they clear the flag that would indicate a remap had been performed - are these claims valid?

But what they can't do at the time of the remap is delete the data (which will be gathered AFTER the remap during driving) that shows that some parameters (such as boost pressure) have exceeded "normal" values) so it will still be possible for a dealer/manufacturers diagnostic tools to detect that a remap has taken place.

1 hour ago, nickcoll said:

Some remapping companies say that they clear the flag that would indicate a remap had been performed - are these claims valid?

I fail to see how they can alter the checksum or incremental counters though so I would presume it's BS. 

The crux is don't get a remap if the worry of 'what if something goes wrong and then the dealer checks and finds the new map and then ...' etc 

 

If this worry exceeds the pleasure of driving a mapped car then don't bother. It will cost you a bit more in fuel, maybe more in insurance (£33 last time for me) and the cost of the map.

 

But then again life is short. 

I agree with the above if you have any doubts don't do it. My previous car an Octavia Vrs245 averaged 37mpg when standard because you had to trash it to get decent performance from it (249bhp) but after the remap (302bhp) with 467nm of torque just 2,000rpm was needed to make decent progress so fuel economy improved to 40.3mpg over 29,000 miles. My latest car had 283bhp as standard and on the first tank averaged 37.3mpg yet after the remap (359bhp) thanks to a mighty 514nm of torque lower down at 2,800rpm (standard torque of 369nm was produced at 4,500rpm) it now averaged 39.99mpg. Not everyone has my gentle 27 mile commute or light right foot however so if you drive the car hard it will use more fuel, it's down to whether you drive mainly in town or like me out of town on the motorway. A remapped car is far more enjoyable even with a light brush on the throttle with all that extra torque, because torque shoves you back in the seat to give you the excitement experienced by powerful electric cars and the extra power simply means the car's top speed will increase which is something that will not be experienced unless you find yourself at a private runway or on a German Autobahn.

On 11/02/2020 at 09:56, Scot5 said:

How much extra insurance are people paying when they declared their remap?

Hi.

If you need any help with insurance at all for a re-map then please feel free to drop me a line.

Regards,

Dan.