Questions - FAQ

There are a number of questions which are frequently asked by people who are considering a REMAP for their vehicle.

Here, we have tried to answer some of them. Of course, you may have other questions too. So, give us a call so that we can reassure you about all the benefits of an ECU Remap.

Will it affect my manufacturer’s warranty?

The official line from the manufacturer is that to refuse a warranty claim, it would need to be proven that the modification to vehicle has directly led to the failure of a component. For instance this is the official view of Fiat UK: “Any vehicle which has been altered from standard specification and is subsequently the subject of a warranty claim may have that claim rejected if the altered component has directly, or indirectly resulted in the failure of itself or another component.” In reality this is very hard to prove. For complete peace of mind we do provide an additional 1yr/ 30,000mile warranty.

Will it damage my engine/ car?

With regard to increase loads on the clutch, transmission and other associated components we are very careful not to push the tuning past the safe operating limits of these parts. We firmly believe that the remap should provide a genuine improvement to your vehicle without having any detrimental effects to the reliability or longevity of the car. In many cases we are just giving the vehicle the performance it should have had in the first place before the manufacturer placed compromises in to the tune. Most manufacturers will purposely offer the vehicle de-tuned as standard, they do this for a number of reasons, this could be so they can offer a higher HP model at an inflated price, to satisfy all markets they sell the vehicle in (this could be to take in to account varying fuel quality, temperature and altitude or for local emission laws) or to fit in to a particular tax banding for company car customers.

Can it be detected by my main dealer?

Unlike virtually all other performance upgrades, we don’t add any additional hardware to the vehicle so visually there are no clues that anything has altered from standard. With regard to the manufacturer, on most vehicles they can’t see any further than when the ECU was last read and written too, but they cannot see if any alterations were made to the file. On some of the very latest vehicles it will be potential visible foe instance VAG vehicles show immediately as modified when plugged into a main dealer tool.

Should I tell my insurance company?

The responsible answer to this would be yes as they should be informed if you have deviated from the standard specification of the car. This may result in an increase to your premium.

Can I ‘’lose’’ the map later on?

Once the ECU has been mapped the changes to the operating parameters are fixed so letting the car’s battery go flat or jump starting it for example will have no effect on the map. The only time you can ‘’lose’’ your map is if your main dealer re-flashes the ECU with the latest version of the vehicles software. They will only do this for two reasons, firstly if the model is brand new on the market they may still be working bugs out of the early vehicles. When your car goes in for a service they will install the latest software to fix any of these bugs that have cropped up since the model was launched. Unless the model of vehicle you drive is under a year or so old this is fairly rare. The second reason will be if the vehicle has developed any electrical ‘’gremlins’’ that they can’t get to the bottom of. The ECU controls virtually every aspect of most modern vehicles so say for example your one touch window function stops working or your automatic wipers develop a mind of their own, if the technician working on your vehicle can’t find the root cause of the problem they may try re-flashing the ECU with the latest software in a hope that the problem goes away. In this case our alterations will be over written with the default parameters. In both of these scenarios we will reinstall your map free of charge.

What exactly do you do to my car?

When we remap the ECU we go in and adjust various parameters such as fuel pressure, boost pressure, injector duty cycle, rev limit etc. to fine tune where in the rev range the vehicle makes its power as well as getting the very best result without compromising the vehicles longevity or durability. When a manufacturer launches a new engine they need to be certain that it will work in every region they intend to sell it in. This means that the manufacturers’ maps are very conservative as they need to take into account widely varying fuel qualities, as well as making sure that the vehicle will still operate at extremes in temperature and altitude not to mention the end user being potentially lax in maintaining the recommended service routine.  All we do is essentially go in and optimise the mapping to release the true potential in the engine. We would never take the tuning past the safe operating parameters of the unit itself or the ancillary components such as the turbo, boost pipes or clutch. We firmly believe that the work we carry out should enhance the vehicle without any drawbacks.

How will it save fuel and make my car quicker?

With the extra torque especially at the bottom of the rev range you should see a decent fuel saving too as it will require less throttle input to maintain motorway speeds and you can drive in a higher gear at a slower speed as well as significantly improving performance when fully laden, towing or on gradients and even in start stop traffic. Giving exact figures on the fuel saving is a tricky one as it will depend so much on driving style as well as the type of journeys you are doing however a saving of 10% is very easily achievable if you just drive the car as you always did, or as much as 20% if you really make the most of all the low end torque and adjust your driving style to suit.

What is ECU (ENGINE CONTROL UNIT)?

All modern cars and vans on the road today have an ECU (ENGINE CONTROL UNIT). This Engine Control Unit can almost be described as the vehicles ‘brain’ and contains a processor that takes information from various sensors throughout the engine. It analyses information such as the engine temperature, accelerator pedal angle, oxygen content in the burnt exhaust gases as well as many more parameters. Using the information from these sensors it can then add the right quantity of fuel, at just the right time to provide a good mix of fuel economy, performance and emission control when pulling away, overtaking, pottering down the road or zooming down the motorway.

When a manufacturer develops a new car they have to take into consideration all of the conditions it may be subjected to in all of the regions in which they intend to sell this model. This means instead of just optimising the ECU’s program or ‘map’ to deliver the best performance or the most fuel efficiency they have to make compromises to the map to take into account these potential differing operating conditions. These could include sub-standard fuels, extremes in temperature and altitude, differing emission laws and even the possibility that vehicle may not be serviced on a regular basis and in accordance with the manufacturers recommended instructions.

ECU remapping is taking a read from the ECU’s processing chip of the vehicles standard compromised map and adjusting various parameters within the map such as fuel pressure, boost pressure (on turbocharged applications) ignition advance and throttle pedal control amongst others to release the true performance from the engine. It is a completely safe process as it is just giving the engine the performance it should have had in the first place before all the compromises were applied to the original programming. Every engine will have its own unique map and by adjusting this we can fine tune the characteristics of the engine; unleashing more power and in many cases reduce fuel consumption too.

The other main benefit of remapping will be a reduction in fuel consumption. With the extra torque especially at the bottom of the rev range you will see a fuel saving, as it will require less throttle input to maintain motorway speeds, you can drive in a higher gear at a slower speed as well as helping significantly when fully laden, towing or on gradients and even in start stop traffic.

When we remap a vehicle, especially when fuel saving is the priority we focus on improving the low end torque in particular and widening the power-band as far as we can.

This increase in low end torque will mean less throttle pedal input is required to maintain cruising speeds, when fully laden or when on a gradient. It will also mean that the vehicle will be more comfortable in higher gears at slower speeds as well requiring fewer gear changes overall.

If you combine these factors with adjusting your driving style to make the most of the extra low end torque you will see an improvement in fuel consumption. This is most effective on turbo-diesel engines where the savings could be as much as 20%!

We do not change any hardware in your vehicle, we just modify the operating parameters in the ECU’s program or ‘map’. In many cases the map stored on the ECU’s processor can be accessed via the on-board diagnostics port (OBD) in the vehicle, normally found under the dashboard. In some newer models the ECU will have to be removed from the vehicle and the casing opened, our technicians will then use specialist tools to read the original map straight from the processing chip.

The technician will then upload the original map to our map writing team who will adjust the parameters to maximise the performance, fuel economy or a clever blend of both. Depending on the vehicle and ECU type the remapping process can take under an hour and if at any time you wish to return your vehicles ECU to its original default settings, this can be done easily and free of charge as we always keep a copy of the original software as a backup.

YES - There is nothing illegal about remapping an ECU on an engine. Although you should inform your insurance company of any alterations made to the vehicle.