Just had the S3 remapped..wow!

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After 4 weeks of S3 ownership I was starting to get a bit bored with the performance. It's a quick car off the line but in gear times aren't so good as the little 1.8 lacks enough torque lower down; trying to get almost 1.5 tonnes of metal moving is a lot to ask of it!

After doing plenty of research I decided to go with a relatively new company; Custom Code who have been getting very good reviews from VAG owners on the forums. They also have a 30% off deal at the moment so a stage 1 remap (up to 265 BHP), Forge 007P DV (as the standard DV isn't really built for the extra power) and a Green cotton filter all fitted by their mobile remap service in my works car park for £438.

Revo seem to be another popular choice but their S3 map tends to give you one big lump of power at 3k RPM and it's all gone by 5k. The CC map gives a much more factory standard feel and a very smooth power curve right the way from 2k RPM to the redline, with a nice kick at 4k.

To say I'm a happy man is an understatement. The car is now how it should have come from the factory. There was slight teething problem on the post-map testdrive as it turned out my coil pack on cylinder 4 was dying and caused a misfire at 3k RPM but I've now swapped all 4 coils and it's running sweet as a nut. I've got no way of testing 0-60's but I've seen many reports that after the remap the time has dropped from 6.5 to 6 seconds, but it's so much more driveable in-gear as well. And as an extra bonus, fuel economy has improved as well!

For those of you umming and arring about whether or not to remap your car..DO IT!!

 

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I think the point was more 'how do you know they aren't lying about it being 265BHP without RRing it?'

Apart from the fact the car drives noticeably quicker, many people have had their CC mapped cars on the rollers and obtained 260-265bhp. I understand that I'm putting my trust in CC's claims that the map they've put on my particular car is good for the power they claim but I'll find out for sure next time the car's serviced as it'll be going on the rollers at the same time.

Danny - I challenge you to find me a well-respected and proven stage 1 S3 map, Forge 007P (£80) and Green filter (£40) for the same price. The CC deal is a cracking one! There are some cheaper maps out there but from what I've read most people soon find out how useless they are and end up going with one of the big boys.

 

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I'm glad some of you have looked at the price of remaps recently! £312 for a remap is a damn good price and is the reason CC are so busy at the moment. Ok so yes the must still be making quite a bit of money considering all they're doing is turning up in a van and reflashing the ECU with a laptop but that doesn't change the going rate for the product.

Barry - It wasn't essential to get the new DV but the old Bosch ones have a habit of failing after a while. My car is on 108k miles and the DV may have been in questionable condition so I took the opportunity of saving a few pennies and investing in the 007P

 

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To the OP: did they do an on load fuelling and boost check, or just bang in a new map and walk away? It'll prob be fine, but its def worth getting it checked!

After applying the map we took it for a test drive which involved finding a nice straight bit of road, 3rd gear, 30mph and booting it. He sat in the passenger seat monitoring fuelling and boost pressure via VAG-COM.

 

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a lot of these mobile mapping companies are just re-selling other peoples maps and pay the guy who wrote it £50-£60

Yeah it's called franchising and is quite normal.

The Custom Code map is all their own work though. Apparently some of the CC team used to work for Revo but then branched out to form CC. They asked Revo if they could modify their map and resell it under their name but Revo refused, so CC built their own from scratch.

 

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Very expensive. Jabbasport is cheaper, and equally as good, if not better.

The Jabbasport remap is £375 which is £60 more expensive to start with. Then take into account that I live 160 miles from the nearest Jabbasport agent and I would have to take a day off work to get the work done so total cost works out at over £500, and that's without the DV or filter!

Please tell me how the CC map is very expensive in comparison?

 

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Very nice , was just reading your post on audi sport, well I'm presuming its you ? themanthatcan?

Well worth it then!

Yep that's me mate.

It's not been a smooth start to my S3 ownership but it's mainly just niggly little things that need doing like the temp sender I'm changing at the weekend as the temp guage is reading 80 degrees as opposed to the 90 it should. Things are coming together nicely though. It comes with the territory of owning a 108k mile car I suppose!

 

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Sorry, I missed the last few replies. Mine was 210BHP as standard. The 225 revision was released a few months after mine was purchased, but the upside is that the 225's have slightly higher co2 emissions and are in the new £400/year tax band whereas the 210's are in the £300 band They both produce the same amount of power after a remap though.

As I said in the OP the 0-60 has improved, but the general driveability and the way the power comes in has also changed for the better.. Pre-remap power used to pick up at 3k RPM when the turbo kicked in and then would drop off at around 5.5k. It now starts ramping up at 2k RPM and doesn't drop off until the redline.

The Yaris was never purchased as a performance car and as such I just "put up" with the performance. It was a tool to get me from A to B; it had plenty of torque which made it ideal for motorway driving though. The S3 however is a different kettle of fish however. As standard it's a quick car but you find that motorway driving just isn't as easy and as such it can feel "slow". Because it has a 6th gear, cruising at 70 means you're doing just over 2.5k RPM, where there was very little torque. The remap has changed all that and there is plenty of power available across the rev range.