Remaps/tuning - what's the catch?

[Robbo]

A friend of mine has recently had his brand new S3 'chipped' to about 370bhp. He says there are no downsides to it, I don't know much about tuning and remaps really, but there must be a catch somewhere?

 

[Robbo]

Is his S3 a manual or an STronic? The manuals are notorious for shafting clutches after a remap, seems that they are only rated slightly higher than the stock torque.

STronics tend to cope better, but he's still put his warranty in the bin (potentially). Get him to look up TD1 and TB1 flags.

STronic, I think it's Revo stage 1 but I'm not totally sure. He said it was about £600.

 

[Robbo]

There seems to be a lot of opinion from people who obviously don't really know too much about it.

OP, if you are seriously considering a map for your car, I'd suggest speaking to someone who really knows your car. There will no doubt be a specialist tuner for your particular model car that knows all the ins and outs. At least they will be able to explain it all to you, instead of saying "it's like overclocking" without actually knowing.

Did you read the OP? I'm not considering it, I just wondered whether it was as great as some people claim.