Diesel Tuning Chips

[tim batten]

Has anyone got experience of diesel tuning chips for the Cali engine. Mine is a 2008 174bhp 4 motion, now out of warranty.
I would be interested to hear from anyone who has had this done, either as a plug in upgrade (eg Chipexpress) or the software reprogramme (eg Revo Technik).
Cost seems to be about £300-400. Power should increase by about 20%, and they claim an improvement in economy. Thanks.

 

[calikev]

Hi mate. Martin Adams is your man T5WOB. He has had a remap. I'm sure he will be able to advise you.

 

[jerrythegerman]

I had a remap as opposed to the chip.

It was done at Pendle performance, at Pendle.

Martind did the work and rather than installing a generic map, he works specifically on yours. He takes a copy of the original first and then clears/looks at any fault codes before working on the map with a overlay template.

Its tuned specifically to your bus. I ended up with 205-210 hp and a whole hump of torque more, I have auto box in my 174 so he allows for that. It goes very well, uses less fuel if I am easy on it and tows like a tank.

He can even tune for economy too if that is your aim.

Definately worth a call and the village has a lovely cafe around the corner.

 

[Freeley]

I'm undecided about remaps etc.
I had my previous transporter work van remapped from 85 to approx 115ps.
Went like a train but within a year a driveshaft went as did the intercooler. could be a coincidence of course but i would steer clear of remaps now.

 

[jerrythegerman]

Yes, I was carefull.

This chap has a lot of experience (especially VAG) and has been around a while now (unlike quite a few I looked into). That's why I went there.

Too many will try and trap you with the extra 3 hp gain over the other bloke and in real terms, HP is not what your after. Torque is what you use 90% of the day, HP is for flat out antics. That leads to increased boost pressures and mis calculated fueling.

I can vouch for this chap, mine's been done now, well over 12 months and its been great.

Stay way clear of the boxes that end up kidding the ECU into a different fueling requirement. Asking for trouble.

 

[Graham]

I had a remap done to my 130 by Angel tuning (who apparently share ideas and I suspect solutions with e-maps). Significant increase in torks. Max fuel point is 2000rpm so opening the throttle provides instant response. Driven with a light foot at an indicated 65mph, I now get 38-40mpg on a run (vice 30-33 before) but the extra power/torks tempts pushing on. It tows like a train. It was done about 9 months ago, 10k miles since then and no problems - happy customer.

 

[lfm]

I had my 2004 Touareg 174bph 2.5 TDI R5 (exactly the same engine as the T5) remapped 4 years ago by Simon at e-maps. He drives out to you and does it on your drive... if you let him use your wifi it's a little easier for him as he emails the map back to his chap and then uploads the new custom map. Roughly around £450 depending on how far he has to drive from B'ham. I'm near Cambridge and he said he drives all over the country but tries to avoid Scotland purely due to distance.

As for reliability I've since done 60k miles and haven't had a single problem related to it. As for drive train issues etc, I've only had the ones that are common to the car anyway. If you think about it you are not necessarily putting any more stress on the drive train. Sure, you might be a bit heavy with your foot every now and then but why is that any different from making a hard get-away from a junction??

I'd say do it, the 174 remaps really well and e-maps and Angel are the two names that keep coming up roses in the Touareg forums. In gear acceleration in 6th is lovely!

Note: You should tell your insurance company... and Direct Line didn't care for a few years then doubled my renewal so I voted with my feet and shopped around.

 

[smgcowfoldparts]

Be careful with remapping and use someone who is safe and doesn't ask you how much extra power you want. A remap for £300-£500 is generic and as someone has already said it will more than likely be shared between tuners. I would assume that they may add or remove as they see fit though.

Bad experience from me with emaps with my car I'm afraid, but I am probably in the minority but I wouldn't recommend either.

cheers

 

[BMVS-Camper-Hire]

Thumbs up for emaps from me, he has done loads of my cars and customers. Very knowledgable, and all maps are custom written by his man in Germany. He is very well respected in the BMW tuning world.

What were your issues Alex?

 

[smgcowfoldparts]

As soon as he had mapped my M5 I had a knocking noise from the nearside cylinder head behind the VANOS unit, and I mean literally first turn of the key he asked if the knocking noise was there before, which it wasn't. Then a while later a big end shell span round the crankshaft nearly totalling my engine (four days before a Nurburgring and Spa trip!). During investigation we found that my car had a rasied rev limit which I had particularly asked Emaps not to raise as this is an issue with the V8's. Simon admitted to me that he didn't even know what the stock rev limit should be on my car and was not aware that my rev limit had been raised :headwall

I think someone who is selling maps should know basic things like rev limits for any car they work on. Emaps also used to (still do?) claim that their maps are custom, yet we found the exact same map on another M5 that was mapped by a different company altogether, not Angel Tuning as previously mentioned.

Credit where credit's due, I know a lot of people are happy with his work and I'm not blaming him for me rebuilding my bottom end. If the rev limit was raised without me knowing I sure as hell used it, but there are elements where I would expect more knowledge on rev limits etc... I used Emaps through the BMW community and the map was reasonable, but the end result was poor and I have another map on there by someone else and a stock rev limit which I am much happier with.

At the end of the day with remapping, just do an enormous amount of research on who you are using and what they can provide, especially if you have a vehicle that needs a bit more attention than normal. We also found one of Emaps maps on a customers vehicle a few years ago in our workshop which caused a warranty issue and some time to resolve, and I think Emaps used to claim that their maps were not detectable? Not sure if anyone still does claim this really.

Please don't take the above as me trying to destroy someone's reputation because I'm not, but everyone needs feedback - good and bad!

cheers

 

[Stu]

I think I can firmly agree with much of what you say Alex.

In my younger years I would have always had my cars remapped and I've been down the road of trying to extract every last HP/lbft out of the engine which is when you find out that each step costs dramatically more than the last!!

I have a motto which has served me well through time which is 'Buy Cheap - Buy Twice', now I don't mean that looking for the best price on a specific product such as buying your Cali when the playing field is level.

You could go onto eBay and buy a DVD of files for not a lot and try flashing these to your car with an inexpensive Chinese clone of a professional tool (and people do) without really knowing what you are getting. The next step is to become an affiliate or partner to a brand name and this is where you generally find your 'I'll meet you in a layby or come to your place of work' type people who don't really have premises to trade from and have bought or lease a tool from the brand name and buy files on an as and when basis.

Anyone who needs an internet connection to map your car is not custom mapping in the true sense of the word, someone is modifying the file elsewhere or even just supplying a bulk file. Bulk files can be bought from a little as £65 from places such as http://www.chiptunawarehouse.com or http://www.ecutuningfiles.com/ and http://www.ecufiles.co.uk/

You don't suddenly get up one morning and decide that you can remap a car. Many so called remapper really just load files for other companies which isn't always a bad thing so long as the file is good and the support is in place should you have a problem.

I've read stories of people who give a guy £150 or so to do his car at an organised bulk mapping session etc, sometimes in a supermarket car park or similar, and they love it but it's really a case of the easily impressed being easily impressed.

Research is the key.

 

[smgcowfoldparts]

Absolutely. I went (still going!) down the road of increased sensible power with the M5. First dyno run was a very impressive 410 with a really nice power curve. Power is now at 442bhp with a set of 4-1 equal length exhaust manifolds and race cats. I took the M5 off the road at the end of March but hope to get it back on the road in a month or two's time and will continue with the mapping to try and reach 450bhp if possible. If it's not, then it's not. Am sure I wouldn't really notice an extra 8bhp, but it's driveability that counts for me. Supercharger kits for V8 M5's are getting more and more reasonable these days too...

I also know someone who decided they could do some remapping and bought a franchise from a company (can't remember the name) and all he would do is go to the persons house or specified location and connect to a server and then download the required map to the clients vehicle, take some money and drive away.

Equally I don't know of anyone who has had problems who has been able to successfully claim repair costs against mobile companies such as Emaps who travel to you for the work.

cheers