Will I need new hardware to go with remap software

[roaddetective]

3 minutes ago, IamGaz said:

 

Looks (sounds) can be deceiving!

 

I went with Revo (yes they are the upper end on the cost range) purely on having been to JKM in Portsmouth several times, liking Jim and Kate's approach, and positive recommendation from good folks on here, who I'd also met at JKM.  There were certainly other options, but I'm afraid I'm not knowledgeable enough to make an informed recommendation.

 

My only advice would be to wait until the warranty expires.  My turbo went pop just outside of warranty.  The cause was not related to the map.  Had I not had it mapped, Skoda would have covered it as they knew the car well (Mine from new and FSH with them).  Having found the marker, they didn't want to know, and it was an expensive lesson for me.  Them's the dice.

 

Gaz

Yes Gaz I know there is a risk. My car is on 17k miles and I have a service contract with Skoda for one more service. After that it will be serviced by my local independent garage, so Skoda usually object to that if a warranty claim comes up. So in effect, I know I will be okay for any warranty claim till the car gets to 30k miles, as on that mileage the independent garage will be doing any work on it. As you can see, I have thought about the warranty, the remap and it's implications. Just not sure I can wait till over that mileage, till I get some extra power. Have to do more thinking on that one!

[themanwithnoaim]

Tuningbox may well be your answer, my 245 ran just under 290bhp with a DTUK one, it now runs 302bhp with a revo remap.

 

Wouldn't advise buying a 2nd hand one though as they are everso slightly different for each type of engine/gearbox combination 

[roaddetective]

29 minutes ago, themanwithnoaim said:

Tuningbox may well be your answer, my 245 ran just under 290bhp with a DTUK one, it now runs 302bhp with a revo remap.

 

Wouldn't advise buying a 2nd hand one though as they are everso slightly different for each type of engine/gearbox combination 

I never wanted to go the Tuningbox route. Revo are a bit expensive, but so are Racingline. I have been looking at a company called Performance Torque, who do have some good online reviews, but I can't find too many so far with the VAG engines, still looking. How does the Revo map put down the power. I don't really want a spike in the power delivery, but smooth linear power through the rev range.

[themanwithnoaim]

4 minutes ago, roaddetective said:

I never wanted to go the Tuningbox route. Revo are a bit expensive, but so are Racingline. I have been looking at a company called Performance Torque, who do have some good online reviews, but I can't find too many so far with the VAG engines, still looking. How does the Revo map put down the power. I don't really want a spike in the power delivery, but smooth linear power through the rev range.

Below are the JKM Portsmouth dyno printouts for both the DTUK tuningbox & the Revo Stage 1 map. Both produced smooth power delivery with the air fuel ratio being the only noticeable difference between the 2 approaches to tuning, the tuningbox runs the engine a lot leaner & therefore, the engine will run hotter. Long term, this could create issues but, for a shorter period of time it shouldn't be a problem, my tuningbox was on the car for 2 year & about 22k miles.

 

Kinda depends how safe you wanna be with warranty compared to how quick you wanna be, its a balance & only you can make that decision 

 

[roaddetective]

Just out of interest, was your car mapped while still under warranty, did you take that risk?

[Ads230]

On 02/06/2020 at 13:18, roaddetective said:

I know Shark are now Racing Line, but I don't think they have rolling roads

Racingline now do have a rolling road in their MK facility, as I went up there to get some after-install support (as I initially had mine installed remotely by Adam at AW Tuning - who was awesome, but Shark/RL had a recurring issue with the EMS light turning on after 30 miles per-install).

 

I've not kept track of any of the remap companies who have developed maps for the newer, GPF'd engines. But like all software development, the quality is in consistency over time - so sounds like your research is the best effort. I personally got mine remapped inside warranty because a) was lucky enough to buy it outright, and b) I wasn't ever going to take it back to Skoda garages unless absolutely necessary.

 

For original post - Even for Stage 1 cars, you may get noticeable differences by also installing an induction kit and turbo elbow mount. Whatever 'gains' made from the different types out there is debatable (it's the Internet...), but from a sound and less-restrictive setup perspective, it definitely improved on the OEM car... plus the Racingline remap.

 

Other additions might be to get an upgraded lower engine mount (MQB versions 1 or 2 - 034, APR, and any of the poly- based ones). These will immediately reduce 'wheel hop' under the increased torque and acceleration you'll get from a remap, but do your research on how much noise/vibration/harshness (NVH) you're willing to put up with dependent on your setup. I personally went 034, although recently upgraded to the billet stainless steel APR setup as of last Friday to alleviate my own concerns about the billet alu 034 one bending... it hadn't though 😅.

 

As for the clutch, it seems dependent on the initial state of the car. Mine's currently on 32k miles, and even though I noticed some slippage a little while back post-remap, that may have been due to inappropriate acceleration in wrong gears (i.e. in 5th on motorway at 60mph, rather than changing down). I will likely upgrade mine when it needs replacing, but it's not necessary for a standard stage 1 increase to 280-300bhp.

Edited 4 June, 2020 by Ads230
Forgot OP info :)

[roaddetective]

11 minutes ago, Ads230 said:

Racingline now do have a rolling road in their MK facility, as I went up there to get some after-install support (as I initially had mine installed remotely by Adam at AW Tuning - who was awesome, but Shark/RL had a recurring issue with the EMS light turning on after 30 miles per-install).

 

I've not kept track of any of the remap companies who have developed maps for the newer, GPF'd engines. But like all software development, the quality is in consistency over time - so sounds like your research is the best effort. I personally got mine remapped inside warranty because a) was lucky enough to buy it outright, and b) I wasn't ever going to take it back to Skoda garages unless absolutely necessary.

 

For original post - Even for Stage 1 cars, you may get noticeable differences by also installing an induction kit and turbo elbow mount. Whatever 'gains' made from the different types out there is debatable (it's the Internet...), but from a sound and less-restrictive setup perspective, it definitely improved on the OEM car... plus the Racingline remap.

 

Other additions might be to get an upgraded lower engine mount (MQB versions 1 or 2 - 034, APR, and any of the poly- based ones). These will immediately reduce 'wheel hop' under the increased torque and acceleration you'll get from a remap, but do your research on how much noise/vibration/harshness (NVH) you're willing to put up with dependent on your setup. I personally went 034, although recently upgraded to the billet stainless steel APR setup as of last Friday to alleviate my own concerns about the billet alu 034 one bending... it hadn't though 😅.

 

As for the clutch, it seems dependent on the initial state of the car. Mine's currently on 32k miles, and even though I noticed some slippage a little while back post-remap, that may have been due to inappropriate acceleration in wrong gears (i.e. in 5th on motorway at 60mph, rather than changing down). I will likely upgrade mine when it needs replacing, but it's not necessary for a standard stage 1 increase to 280-300bhp.

Thank you Ads230 for a very informative post. Racingline website seem to only show one dealer in Milton Keynes, Unit 18 who I know and they still don't have a rolling road set up. Maybe when Shark became Racingline, they closed the garage in Milton Keynes with the rolling road.

As for the GPF filter, from all info I have heard, my car does not have one, but they were fitted soon after my vehicle build date. I also had the hard cash to buy mine outright, but I did also buy at the same time a service contract, of which it has had it's first service of the two, but at 17k miles so far, the second service is not due yet at Skoda. Once contract runs out, servicing and any repairs will be done via independent garage. I have tried induction kits with a car in the past, but I am afraid the additional noise from one upsets my old ears and brain. lol. Aftermarket panel filters such as K&N are okay as I have used them in the past, but not sure what difference they really make, apart from they last forever. Have read about the elbow mount and that seems a good idea. Lower engine mounts I hear are a good thing to cut down on wheel hop, it's just that I have read stories about additional vibration they can throw up. This is something I might not be able to put up with. Old age again!   

I have also Shark mapped my last car, a 2011 Octavia VRS TSI and had no problem with the standard clutch afterwards. It did 50k miles before remap and 54k miles after remap.

So I will probably hold back for a while on the remap, until I no longer get the car serviced at Skoda. At least then if anything does go wrong between Skoda services, I should be covered on a warranty claim, if the buggers don't find a way out of paying of course. I am trying to keep my sensible head on and wait a while, rather than my impulsive head that says, I want more POWER!  

[themanwithnoaim]

On 03/06/2020 at 14:44, roaddetective said:

Just out of interest, was your car mapped while still under warranty, did you take that risk?

Mine is still under warranty until the end of August but, I've had my 3rd service so I thought WTF. TBH day to day driving wise the remap is slightly nicer to drive but, not amazingly quicker, doesn't seem to be any better on fuel either. 

 

Also like, @Ads230 I've now brought mine outright & TBH the Mk4 leaves me cold, its not urging me to replace mine at all

Edited 4 June, 2020 by themanwithnoaim

[roaddetective]

4 minutes ago, themanwithnoaim said:

Mine is still under warranty until the end of August but, I've had my 3rd service so I thought WTF. TBH day to day driving wise the remap is slightly nicer to drive but, not amazingly quicker, doesn't seem to be any better on fuel either. 

 

Also like, @Ads230 I've now brought mine outright & TBH the Mk4 leaves me cold, its not urging me to replace mine at all

I had my last Octavia VRS for 4 years, but I intend keeping this one a lot longer. I think for 99% of my normal driving, I probably would not make much use of any additional power from a remap. So I think I will wait a bit longer to have it done, to then enjoy that 1% of extra smile factor. I smile enough driving the car anyway!

[Redboy]

10 minutes ago, themanwithnoaim said:

..... TBH day to day driving wise the remap is slightly nicer to drive but, not amazingly quicker, doesn't seem to be any better on fuel either. 

I am surprised my 220 Shark stage 1 transformed the car. Could it be because the 245 has more torque and BHP as standard? Also is it a DSG? Having had manual and DSG, I think the manual makes the car feel a bit more responsive. I.e. no lag. 

[themanwithnoaim]

2 hours ago, Redboy said:

I am surprised my 220 Shark stage 1 transformed the car. Could it be because the 245 has more torque and BHP as standard? Also is it a DSG? Having had manual and DSG, I think the manual makes the car feel a bit more responsive. I.e. no lag. 

Yeah DSG but, i've remapped that too & use the paddles for spirited driving, dunno about the standard torque & power, tuningbox was 287.5bhp & 335ft/lbs, remap was 301.8bhp & 364 ft/lbs so, nicer but not amazing

Edited 4 June, 2020 by themanwithnoaim