ecu remap help

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Soldato
Joined
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ok i know the ecu is the engine computer that runs the car, but when people are on about a remap what exactly does the remap make the ecu do different??

also as the remap increases power doesnt it mean the engine wears out more quickly, the gearbox/clutch/head gasket under more stress??
also wont the car fail its emmisions if its remapped??

for arguements sake say a golf 2 litre is remapped the emmisions would be too high for the standard 2litre.
please help me understand :p

are there any downsides to a ecu remap?

thanks in advance
 
Hi,

The ECU controls everything which contains parameters that control ignition timing, spool time, etc etc. Basically the ECU tells the engine how to work and when.

The original purpose of it was to increase torque in trucks. But now its very common for car tuning. Obviously if the turbo is working harder, it will reduce the life of it. Its not only that, its the fact that you've got that additional power and you wanting to use it all the time will have an impact on the parts. But generally if its done properly, as in, its not tuned to the max on a high milage car, then you'll be OK.

Generally the main parts that wear is the clutch / thrust bearing as it cannot handle the extra power (well, the torque). Some do, providing the power increase is not that high.

My Punto JTD (rolled at 72bhp) can manage 130 and even 140. I had it at 112BHP, but the clutch wasn't coping that well. You have to work around the problem (don't floor it in 4th and 5th gear around 2,000 RPM). I also noticed my MPG went up :) Managed 55mpg on the motorway, after the remap, was getting 58 mpg.

Diesels remap very well as they generally driven by a turbo where you can easily set the amount of boost. This goes with turbo petrol engines. NA cars can also be remapped, but the gains are not as high.

In terms of emmisions, it should be fine. I had mine checked and it was still very low. :) Some compaines just change the fuel line parameter which means its just dumping more fuel into the engine (the same sort of thing those resistors do and those clip on tuning boxes) which can result in a lot of smoke and higher emmisions.
 
On a normaly aspirated car you don't generally get much increase in peak power/torque but it may improve driveability. Big gains can be had with turbocharged engines, either diesel or petrol.
 
so what your are saying trigger is that an ecu remap isnt going to make things wear out any quicker if the remap power increase is by a sensible amount (my friend has a golf tdi 150hp and wants 180hp out of it by a remap). When you say things will wear out quicker i assume you are on about thrasshing it and generally having fun :) which makes any car wear out quicker.

how would an ecu remap affect insurances?

say the 150 golf was remapped to 180 would the engine do less mileage before it blows??

thanks for the quick replies guys :D

EDIT: the ecu is what controls the boost given from the turbo??or can it just control the timing?
 
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mglover070588 said:
so what your are saying trigger is that an ecu remap isnt going to make things wear out any quicker if the remap power increase is by a sensible amount (my friend has a golf tdi 150hp and wants 180hp out of it by a remap). When you say things will wear out quicker i assume you are on about thrasshing it and generally having fun :) which makes any car wear out quicker.

how would an ecu remap affect insurances?

say the 150 golf was remapped to 180 would the engine do less mileage before it blows??

thanks for the quick replies guys :D

EDIT: the ecu is what controls the boost given from the turbo??or can it just control the timing?
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The ECU controls everything including boost, spool times, ignition,and can reduce turbo lag.

If you do a reasonable increase and service it more often, you should be fine. 150BHP TDIs are good for 180BHP and even more. I'd say stick to 170. What's the milage / age of the clutch? Remaps are good on low milage cars. As the parts are generally new, they won't fail. But obviously they will fail eventually, especially with a remap.

As long as you maintain it (service it more often) don't thrash it everywhere and you don't go for a stupidly high remap, it should be OK.

In terms of insurance, they'll normally charge you the power increase. 20% power, 20% more on the insurance.

If the TDI was remapped to something like 200+ on standard components and trashed everything, turbo will go quick and the clutch would need replacing. Injectors would also take a huge bashing. Brakes would need uprating also.
 
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its 53 reg around 37k miles i think. he hasnt asked for help its just something i know of and can relate to :p thing is hes 19 years old and just floors it everywhere and actually scares me at times speshly when he overtakes.

i can fully understand the service intervals being closer together, as the higher tuned a car the more it needs servicing (thinking of an evo here very highly tuned needs servicing much more often).

can i assume that a remap to 170-180bhp wont wear anything out much more quickly at all if the car was not floored 95% of the time and overall not thrashed
 
The way the remapper explained it to me on mine was that it is tuned from factory for the lowest common denominator customer. Someone who forgets to change oils, misses services, runs it on 95RON fuel, doesn't warm/cool the turbos etc etc.
 
i can change oil and service and do so because i believe look after a car and its more likely to look after you, but whats Ron95 fuel?? is that the 95 octane stuf (normal stuf opposed to bp ultimate or shell optimax). also whats cool warm turbos please explain :)
 
Yep, normal unleaded instead of super unleaded = RON95 or RON97/98 for super.
Warming and cooling your turbos = not ranting the testicles out of them from cold, get the oil up to temperature before you start gunning it at all. Cooling can be done in a couple of ways either by running casually for a couple of miles before you get home or by sitting with the car running for a couple of minutes when you arrive at your destination. I just do the take it easy for a couple of miles personally until the oil temp has dropped to around 80 degrees.
Neglecting to do so can knacker your turbos.
 
The engine itself is de-tuned from factory but not always! This doesn't necessarily mean every component is high quality. Components such as the turbo, gearbox, clutch, injectors are custom to that power. For example, the 130/150BHP TDI are quite similar, but the 150 needs a bigger turbo / clutch and other parts to maintain that power and prevent wear. You can tune a 130BHP into a 150BHP but you are still using the same turbo. If VW thought the turbo on the 130BHP would be enough, they would use it.

Running decent fuel and servicing your car often helps maintains it, like any other car.
 
The VAg 1.8T lumps are very tuneable, which is why you see so many parts and services offered for them. I had a Leon cupra which used the same engine. I had it up to about 210bhp from 180 and put quite a few miles on it. I've not heard of engine life being significantly reduced in any but ridiculously tuned engines.
 
triggerthat said:
The 1.8T is a awesome engine.

How's your clutch coping with that power? Was planning on getting a car with that engine.
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Sorry, not sure if that was aimed at me or not! I'll answer as if it was!

There was no problem with the clutch slipping at all. The only problem I had was getting the traction down, as the wheels bounced under hard accelleration. The next item on my list was a new dog bone mount, which by all accounts significantly decreases the bounce.

Sadly I sold the car last year and replaced it with an 850R. Love the Volvo, but it's a bit thirsty in comparison, although hugely practical. I sold the car to a friend, and he is still grinning every time he drives it.
 
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