Remap options and experiences

[Fliptop]

Hi all. I've had my B8.5 S4 for about 10 months now and I'm very pleased with it so far. The Audi Approved Used warranty expires in a couple of months so I'm starting to contemplate some simple mods...one of the reasons I bought the car was the ease of getting more from them.

However since I have owned it, I've read a few horror stories about reliability of mapped S4s, things like DSG and Sport Diff issues - I don't know how much of this is real and how much is due to less than sympathetic/careful drivers though.

The lure of another 50-75bhp and a slug of extra torque is unavoidable. But I'm particularly wary of a map that just maxes everything out, I would rather have 8 tenths of maximum performance for 10 tenths reliability than the other way around. I do 20-25K a year in my car and will need to continue with this for a few years yet, so I guess what I'm asking is who has had what, and what has your experience been (over what mileage). Not too much to ask, hopefully?!?!

[SuprSi]

Glad you're enjoying the car

Good remaps don't really 'max everything out', the AFR is usually set reasonably rich to protect the engine, this doesn't cost any HP, then the ignition is tuned to the minimum timing advance that gives peak torque (or before it starts knocking). The only reason you get peak torque is because the max cylinder pressure is reached at the best crank angle for mechanical advantage. So the high HP and torque is just a by-product of it running correctly.

MRC are the no.1 tuner, especially for B8 S4's. Unit 20 is probably a lot closer though and would still do a great job. Or possibly revolution, not sure if they do remapping.

[Fliptop]

Thanks for the reply. I'm very familiar with remapping of forced induction cars, as I've been running tweaked Saab turbos for many years now.

I've seen different approaches to mapping, including those who try to squeeze every last Nm from the car at each rpm and those which take a less aggressive approach which, IME, leads to a more linear power delivery and generally being kinder on the standard mechanicals. As an example, my car that the S4 replaced was a 9-3 2.8T with a very mild factory-warranted remap, taking it from 250-302bhp and from 350-420Nm when I dynoed it. It was like a fast factory car, and ran pretty much faultlessly for 100K+ miles in my ownership.

I've driven similar cars mapped by other tuners which delivered far more mid-range torque (up to 550Nm just from a remap...) and a bit more top-end power (maybe 320) but they were not as nice to drive. They end up feeling like a big turbo-diesel - loads of mid range urge that peters out around 5000rpm, and potentially push the fueling to the limit so there is less headroom for additional fuel if it detects any knock. Plus that massive hike in torque can give clutch problems due to the big spike when the turbo spooled up.

That's what I meant by "maxing out" - I think a less extreme approach makes for a better car.

Obviously the supercharger on the S4 doesn't generate the same heat as a turbo and the whole power delivery is quite different to a turbo car. I don't know where the limits are in terms of flow or fueling, but while I've seen a few dyno plots for mapped 3.0 TFSi cars, they tend to just be the headline power & torque curves, not showing the AFR.

So that's another ask I guess, does anyone have a proper dyno plot for their remapped S4 that shows the fueling as well as the big numbers for bragging rights in the pub?

[u22mjd]

MRC are obviously very good at what they do but I throughly recommend Unicorn Motorsport. Rick is over on Audi SRS forum and did my stage 2 after I fitted my forge pulley the results were great.

[S4WON]

If it goes pop and you dont get warrant or assistance..

Gearbox - 6k
Sports diff - 10k

I wouldnt own an S4 without a warranty, personally.

[Fliptop]

MRC are obviously very good at what they do but I throughly recommend Unicorn Motorsport. Rick is over on Audi SRS forum and did my stage 2 after I fitted my forge pulley the results were great.

Thanks, do you have personal experience of MRC? What was it about Unicorn that you like so much?

Do you have any before/after plots to share?

If it goes pop and you dont get warrant or assistance..

Gearbox - 6k
Sports diff - 10k

I wouldnt own an S4 without a warranty, personally.

I hear what you're saying and I am willing to be convinced, but all of the warranties I looked at before buying the car, whether extending the Audi warranty or a generic policy, were a) very expensive and b) so water-tight in terms of non-standard mods as to be worthless on a modified car. And I bought this with the aim of a little tweaking...

Are they really so unreliable??!!

Anyway, what I'm asking for is real-world experience of remapped B8 S4s over a prolonged use...it's gonna get mapped one way or another

[u22mjd]

Came down to price for me forge supercharger pulley and stage 2 was 60% of same work performed by MRC. That and Ricks work is top notch swing buy the SRS forum and the recommendations don't come highly enough. I've now done 15000 on stage 2 and it's never missed a beat. Yes MRC will get more horses for you stage 2 470bhp plus however I'm only mustering 450 but for me I really didn't want to risk the extra stress on components.

[APA_telford]

Shark Performance had one of their own and carried out some development work.

I believe it features in Audi Tuner magazine to.

Another option for you

[robokn]

And didnt make much power either

[Fliptop]

Came down to price for me forge supercharger pulley and stage 2 was 60% of same work performed by MRC. That and Ricks work is top notch swing buy the SRS forum and the recommendations don't come highly enough. I've now done 15000 on stage 2 and it's never missed a beat. Yes MRC will get more horses for you stage 2 470bhp plus however I'm only mustering 450 but for me I really didn't want to risk the extra stress on components.

OK, thanks - I get the VFM factor, obviously. Have you had yours on a dyno? Do you have any plots to share?

At the moment the options I'm toying with are:
Revo
MRC
Maybe Unicorn...

But I really want to hear from someone that's done 50K plus with a modded S4 to see how theirs has fared. And see what the AFR plot and torque curves look like...

[xxx_mojo_xxx]

My S4 has been to the dealership so many times that I'm not sure if its safe to get it remapped?

[Skiptowncat]

Came down to price for me forge supercharger pulley and stage 2 was 60% of same work performed by MRC. That and Ricks work is top notch swing buy the SRS forum and the recommendations don't come highly enough. I've now done 15000 on stage 2 and it's never missed a beat. Yes MRC will get more horses for you stage 2 470bhp plus however I'm only mustering 450 but for me I really didn't want to risk the extra stress on components.

OK, thanks - I get the VFM factor, obviously. Have you had yours on a dyno? Do you have any plots to share?

At the moment the options I'm toying with are:
Revo
MRC
Maybe Unicorn...

But I really want to hear from someone that's done 50K plus with a modded S4 to see how theirs has fared. And see what the AFR plot and torque curves look like...

I'm at around 15k into mrc stage 2, recent dyno showed it making more power than it left MRC with.

[u22mjd]

Not had the car rolling road tested so I can only offer advice from the original stock set up and it is night to day! Originally had a Superchips stage 1 which was geeat but after fitting the forge pulley I got Unicorn to take advantage of the extra boost from the Supercharger pulley and certainly noticed an improvement in ignition timing and pick up in 2nd and 3rd gears it pulls all the way to 160 (track only).

[Geoff A]

u22, was your superchips a Bluefin experience? And was it any good as a stage 1, to get you on your way?
G

[u22mjd]

No unfortunately Bluefin wasn't an option but the performance for a Stage 1 was pretty decent. There was certainly a dramatic increase of stock they claimed an extra 62 bhp but I never had it dyno'ed so can only comment from the driving experience which was a marked improvement over stock.