ECU software update – £60 – WTF???

Just had my wifes beetle serviced and they wanted to update the ECU software – at a charge of £60! Apparently it will improve fuel efficiency and performance – but the cars 10 years old and does abot £5k a year. I told them to get stuffed (politely).

Can’t believe there’s a charge for this though – has anyone ever paid for similar? Is it worth it (even in a newer car?)

Can’t believe there’s a charge for this though

Why would it be free? Someone has to spend time doing it, and there is the cost of buying the equipment etc too.

If it’s anything like Windows then your car will go much slower after the updates 🙂

Sounds a fair price TBH. 30 mins @ £100/hr + VAT for dealer seems about right.

I get annoyed at costs like this, but I was chatting to the guy when he did it to my car, and they spend about 30 min updating/checking parameters etc etc
I suppose there’s no ‘item’ to pay for as such, but it’s still ‘costing the garage’ money for you to be there.

DrP

I’ve never heard of that. I personally wouldn’t pay for it. Sounds like a dealer trick / gimmic to generate money. I am a VAG group fan but I wouldnt be taking a 10 yr old VAG car to a main dealer, we are lucky to have a very good independent near us (Old Woking in Surrey if you are in that area)

Sounds like a dealer trick / gimmic to generate money.

That’s the general purpose of being in business though isn’t it, to generate money and profit.

I know that when our TT went in for some warranty work recently, they also did a “recommendation” list of stuff to be done. Came to around £1500 + VAT and lots of it was crazy, e.g. £79 to change wiper blades, but fair play if some people will pay it, let them charge it. I saw a guy pay £2k+ when he collected his S4 at the same time as I got our car back, he obviously had the wedge to afford it so it’s all good IMO.

Its an independent VAG specialist I use for both our cars.

I get annoyed at costs like this, but I was chatting to the guy when he did it to my car, and they spend about 30 min updating/checking parameters etc etc
I suppose there’s no ‘item’ to pay for as such, but it’s still ‘costing the garage’ money for you to be there.

DrP

Fair enough I spose. If it was a main dealer I’d think differently. Don’t think I’ll bother with it though!

I know that when our TT went in for some warranty work recently, they also did a “recommendation” list of stuff to be done. Came to around £1500 + VAT and lots of it was crazy, e.g. £79 to change wiper blades, but fair play if some people will pay it, let them charge it. I saw a guy pay £2k+ when he collected his S4 at the same time as I got our car back, he obviously had the wedge to afford it so it’s all good IMO.

Or not good at all. Dealer’s do try and take advantage of people, I’ve been quoted £800 for new gearbox, when it all needed was just a lubrication of the mechanism – £30 job for a garage.

I think it’s pretty despicable to be honest, not everyone wants or should have to know about cars. Some pensioner will end up paying £79 for wiper blades as they don’t know how much it should be – it’s just morally wrong.

@andytherocketeer I found Audi the worst the recommended work, I posted on another thread about the £1500 of essential work required which the independent did for £60, a control lever had become dislodged just after a service. Not an accident in my view. I love the car (A6 Quattro) but the dealer has a reputation for good reason. I have my other car main dealer serviced still after 7 years and will continue to do so to preserve its value and for my peace of mind and I get no nonsense from them at all.

If it’s anything like a Windows update, then it’ll turn itself off and on again every two minutes for the next month, the glove box will be under the boot, the steering wheel under the bonnet and the clutch pedal on the roof. Oh and it’ll go at a maximum of 7mph as well. On Tuesdays.

My dad had that with his Fiesta, it helped MPG and a misfiring issue.

£60 is cheap anyway, I’d do it. I paid similar to have an indie reflash my ECU. They had to send the details away to Autologic, whose computer built a custom program specific to my actual car. It’s that simple of a process.

If its a known fault and they are doing an update, if your car has full dealer (THAT dealer as they are franchises and going from VAG dealer in town A to town B you might as well be on Mars) they often do this stuff for free or as part of an existing service.

It is fairly common, esp for Diesels and turbo/supercharged cars to have ECU updates come out at a later date to address issues.

Most dealers will charge £60-70+ VAT just to read your fault codes (which you can do with your own computer/smartphone and a £10 ebay cable at home whenever you like. But to actually connect, and change/update parameters is something worth paying for, esp if you have issues as doing it yourself unless you are familiar can lead to more trouble.

Currently running a 10 yr old diesel volvo with one of the most popular engines in it, yet none of the three local Volvo inde’s (all highly reputed) have the software to make changes to the ECU, only read its fault codes. Dealer themselves admitted they no longer have the computer capable of doing the work either, but if they did it would have been a LOT as its a ‘trial and error’ type of job requiring to be plugged in, altered, road tested, rinse repeat about 6 times!

&&^^^ So I spent over £100 on legit software + hardware to do the job myself as dealer would have been on £70/hr to the tune of about 4 hours at a guess.

Don’t know if this is relevant, but a few years back I test drove a motorcycle. Throttle was a bit grabby and this resulted in a few small accidental wheelies (good fun if you mean them, less so if you don’t). Mentioned this when i got back to the dealer who told me that they (Triumph) were aware of this issue and were releasing an upgrade to the ECU which would be applied for free at the garage. garage (Glasgow) was a fair distance from me (Aberdeen) but was told that shouldn’t be a problem as they could email the update to me and I could apply it using a laptop.
Is this an option with your VW?

Triumph dealers charge about £25 to upload a different tune into your bike’s ECU, for an exhaust change etc. I downloaded a free programme called Tune ECU and bought a cable for £15.00. You can change all elements of the engine map (if you dare!) download new tunes, read and reset error messages and balance throttle bodies etc. Excellent.

If it’s working with no issues then IMHO don’t bother unless they can tell you specifically what it is going to improve.

Every time I have a software update on one of my cars something new goes wrong. Mine now doesn’t bong when lights are left on any more (though the display says so, so the sensors are still working and it bongs for other stuff so the speaker is still working) and the wife’s car now switches its lights on whenever it likes.

They are a Focus and a Cit C2 btw. Both done by main dealers.

Is this an option with your VW?

You need a special lead and some SW, which is available. I used to use VAGCOM for my Golf.

I used to use VAGCOM for my Golf.

I thought vagcom was just a diagnostic tool – you can apply ecu updates as well?

I’m pretty sure VCDS aka VAGCOM doesn’t let you flash the ECU.

If it’s a main dealer saying “your car wasn’t built right when it left the factory, so we’ve got a fix from the manufacturer. That’s £60 please” then it’s a bit cheeky.

If it’s an independent company saying “we can upgrade your car. That’s £60 please” then it’s a different matter isn’t it? An optional upgrade which you can say no to.

I’m pretty sure VCDS aka VAGCOM doesn’t let you flash the ECU.

Been years since I used it, so no idea what the latest version can / can’t do. My version required a serial port on the laptop, which just shows its age!

VCDS will not re-flash an ECU… Only the VAS system that the dealers use has this ability and that would be downloaded from VW.