Has anyone added an aftermarket chip to there car to improve performance / ecomomy ? Do they work, I have a VW/Audi 1.9TDI, lot of chips out there..just wonder if they basically kill your car…

My wife chipped hers – slapped the flipping door with the seat belt buckle half way out….

IGMC

A ‘chip’ isn’t such a great idea, as they just fool the ECU. A ‘remap’ is better where they change the programming of your car, and should make sure that it’s all going to be ok.

They are good, take the claims of fuel economy gains with a pinch of salt though (although with a diesel it won’t go down if you drive it the same way). And you also will invalidate your insurance policy if you have an accident (and they find out), unless you tell them. If you tell them your premiums will go up a lot.

DO NOT go for those rubbish ones you get from ebay for a few quid, they can wreck your car. What you’re after is a proper remap, about £300 and give a massive bang for buck. Where are you from?

GENERALLY – chips are considered a bad idea, whereas a custom re-map is considered a better solution…

Have a look at:
Jabba Motorsport
P-Torque
Custom Code
Revo

Will at P-Torque always gets a good mention on the SeatCupra.net forum for remapping various cars – mainly the 1.9TDi when talking about diesels though.

I think you can expect to get the 100bhp version up to about 130bhp.
The 130bhp will go up to 170 with no bother (apparently), but take it much higher and you get issues with the intercooler being too small (side mounted, instead of the large front mounted versions) and you also start getting close to the limits of the clutch.

I looked into getting one when I first bought my car (Ibiza 130 TDi) but was concerned that I’d then have to fork out for an uprated clutch (something like a Sachs @ £500 or more) and didn’t really want to find out if it ruined my fuel economy. Many people reckon it improves the fuel economy, but I find it hard to believe……

http://www.tunit.com/ £350 quidish but haggle.

Cool mobile fish’n’chip shops. 😀

The idea is that fuel economy goes up because you can use higher gears at lower revs. However most diesels (esp that one) can be driven with revs so low as to be at the limits of smoothness anyway, so I can’t see what difference it would make in reality. You could probably show an improvement if you specifically tailored your driving style to highlight the difference in the maps I suppose.

I’ve got about 400lb/ft from my pd130 and the standard clutch is still going fine after 25k of abuse.

More than doubled my insurance quote and each year it gets harder to find anyone who will consider insuring a re-mapped car. I’m 40 with 15 years no claims and pay best part of a £800 for a V6 4motion Golf when the un-modded car would cost £300 to insure.

So, I’d say don’t do it….

£350 for the custom remap, £500 a year extra in insurance – not a great move.

I’d say remapping an NA petrol car is pointless anyway unless it’s heavily modified. But you need to find a decent insurance company.

Done every turbo car I’ve ever owned. Never had a problem with any of them.

It does make your car faster tho. I called a widely recommended company and they said that they could take my Passat 2.0 TDI 140bhp to 200bhp with a stock map.

You could always use Bluefin. If you do have an accident or claim then you can just put your standard map back in and no-ones the wiser.

I know plenty who have done it, friend has a re-mapped Golf GTi, brother has an EVO VIII with an Autronics race ECU designed to hold several maps for different driving conditions. No issues with them.

I know it invalidates insurance if its not declared but how are they going to know? If you are worried look into something called a Bluefin it uploads custom maps from a little handheld device, it also stores a copy of the original map so you can swap it back to original condition if you take it to the garage or let the wife drive.

You could always use Bluefin. If you do have an accident or claim then you can just put your standard map back in and no-ones the wiser.

If you are in a fit state to do so and have access to the car !!!

If you do have an accident or claim then you can just put your standard map back in and no-ones the wiser.

As long as you have access to the car…

Has anyone actually been caught out by an insurance company finding a remap??

When i had a crash, the insurers just wanted to sort everything out asap. It was booked in at a local repairers (i was asked if i’d like to choose which one), quote was too expensive, car written off. i don’t think they did any investigation unless they asked the local garage to do it.

I’d say it depends on the circumstances. If someone’s claiming off you and dangerous driving comes into it, your company might try and wriggle out of it by examining your car…

Be careful, some models (Golfs/Seats as an example) have smaller clutches in the same model. i.e. A 105bhp TDI Golf’s clutch would be smaller than a 130nhp models and thus would potentially fail quicker.

Also on 5 speed VAG cars the diff is riveted onto the crown wheel this is a known weak point on modified cars. Especially oil burners that can develop a lot of torque.

I am not sure about the 6 speeds, I know about the 5 speeds as I have had one apart and replaced the rivets with a bolt conversion.

ARP do a kit for this.

Out of interest what bhp engine is it? Whats ‘missing’? I found my 105bhp Altea more than adequate if it was driven properly (ride the torque etc etc).

I don’t trust them, even from the big names like DMS.

Sure a gentle remap can be okay but you are putting a lot of strain of an already strained drivetrain. It can also make the car a PITA if it’s a torquey number.

If the car is old or you don’t plan to keep it long, not a bad idea (Loddrik used to change his cars almost weekly…) but if it’s newish or you want to hang onto it I’d avoid.

£500 gets me from 286bhp/428lbs-ft to 350ish/510 but I’m not interested.

Yes, tuning on an older car will show up/or push forward any issues!

Sure a gentle remap can be okay but you are putting a lot of strain of an already strained drivetrain.

The theory is that, with diesels, the engines are so overbuilt anyway that it’s fine. Although I suppose you mean clutch and drivetrain.

Got my 320d remapped – about 40 bhp more and a nicer torque spread. Decent improvement in driveability, and an extra 5mpg.

The insurance was an extra £100, which is easily covered over the course of a year by the fuel saving. The remap cost goes under the “boys and their toys/having fun” heading. We’ll have to see if it creates any otehr problems down the line.

emaps did mine btw – good service.

I would love to remap to improve fuel economy, but if you phone a remapper they have this ‘does not compute’ attitude.

JE – what’s your driving style? Struggle to understand this 5mpg improvement.

and an extra 5mpg.

Is this a real value (e.g. tank to tank calculations) or what the computer says?

I’ve heard that a re-map throws the computer out and it will always over-read. No one has ever confirmed the extra mpg to me with some geeky fuel calculations so it would be nice to have some.

I think my car is past a re-map anyway – it’s on 140k miles & I put over 30k miles on it annually. Not sure the turbo/clutch/hoses/drivetrain would appreciate the extra strain…….and I don’t intend chopping it in any time soon….

What stumpy said. I love my mapped Ibiza!

Course – the drivetrain only struggles when you actually use that power. So if you only boot it occasionally, wear and stress is minimal.

I had a PSI Powerbox on my Nissan Terrano, mainly to give it a bit more power for towing.

Despite the clutch being relatively new the Powerbox meant I was able to induce clutch slip when driving the car solo in 2nd & 3rd when accelerating. Car was about 60K when chipped, I’d not bother unless it was a young, very good condition vehicle again, but even then you cannot be sure the drivetrain will cope with the extra torque. They do make a difference, but if I had not sold the Terrano I could have seen it needing a new clutch (£400) every two years or so, Not good.

We run 6 speed Mk V’s in the VW cup and VAG Trophy. We change maps from 270 to 350 using bluefin and run standard boxes and driveshafts. Just run an uprated clutch. And our cars get a real hammering.

Presumably not that many miles though neilb67?

We get our engines from breakers, most have between 10 and 20 grand on the clock. We have to run them standard and run a power to weight ratio. The 270hp Sciroccos have to carry 150k of ballast so they are worked pretty hard.

neilb67

Does standard mean you are not allowed to fit an LSD ?

Must be interesting with 270bhp and an open diff 🙂

No we run a LSD but with a very light preload.

Which one do you run out of interest ?

The fact you mention preload I guess means you don’t run Quaife ATB diffs.

We run the 2 Sciroccos of Mike Kurton and Kieron Griffin. And 2 MkV’s for Mark Clynes and Richard Walker was in the black one this weekend

No not a Quaife…