To remap or not to remap, that's the question....

[Greg3227]

Gurus,
I'm in the market for a C6 RS6. There's plenty about around the £20-25k mark.
A few have had a Stage 2 remap, producing, obviously, so fairly incredible figures.
Is this a good thing or a bad thing?
In your experience, would you tend to advise going for one which has had the remap done, or stay clear of them.
I'm thinking, fuel, insurance, reliability, performance, servicing considerations etc.
Any advice from your wealth of experience would be hugely appreciated...
Cheers
Greg

[don0301]

Hi

I've had my RS6 for 3 years next month. It supposedly had an "early" map from the previous owner of 640ps. On advice of some people on here I went to JF Automotive in Maidstone for "stage 2" and gearbox map. That was a waste of £1200! Soon after I took it to MRC for the same, the car was night and day different. I would say if you are gonna buy a mapped one, make sure it's from a very reputable tuner. General consensus is MRC are the best.

Fuel wise, they're not great to start with! mine's pretty terrible round town, or blasting it, but on a sensible long run not bad at all really. I don't really care TBH.

Insurance depends on many things, Shop round.

My car had full long life audi service history when i bought it, I changed to specialist indies annual service. 4 rings for the first one, and MRC since.

Apart from one weird engine fault unrelated to the map (diagnosed and fixed by MRC very rapidly), my car has been faultless engine wise. There have been some cases of munched gearboxes, I haven't heard of any engines blowing up. As it's a V10 5l, even at 770ps (mine) its only 77ps per cylinder which is not massive, the torque of 1100+Nm is something else though. To date I've had no problems though.

The performance is EPIC stage 2....

A known car from here might be a good place to start looking. I still love mine after 3 years. Doubt there will ever be a car as bonkers again.

[IanH755]

Where to get the map from - MRC, 100% every time all the time. Mechanically most independents are good with little difference but for mapping it's always MRC.

Experience - I found that, when still stock, the C6 didn't quite "feel" as fast as the near 600hp output would suggest, despite seeing the speedo rapidly shoot around showing that it was actually quite quick.

I feel that this was due to the very Linear way the OEM map brought the power on, feeling like a constant slow push rather than a more exciting old school style "big shove" as the boost came on. The stage 2 map combines the two feelings so you get this "big shove" feeling which then keeps shoving you til the redline in every gear without really feeling like it's run out of steam (even at 200mph).

As the map "only" adds around 25% extra power, the rest of the car seems to be able to cope quite well without any additional problems being added although, as the cars are now getting older/more mileage, that may start to change in the future. However currently a stage 2 map doesn't seem to bring out any horror stories on the forum so far.

Insurance & extra costs - My insurance went up £50 with the map which seemed more like an admin fee for changing the policy rather than a specific increase for the map. Fuel/tyre wear etc all stay pretty much the same, you'll use a bit more full with a map but only when hooning it around at full throttle, I still got the same distance per tank before/after with mine but if you expect to see over 20mpg in mixed driving then this is the wrong car for you

Servicing - There is still the £500-ish 10k Minor and £800-ish 20k Major regime to follow (Independent garage prices, not Audi) but I personally add a £150 oil change every 5k miles which isn't really "necessary" TBH but keeps me happy.

[Jim Haseltine]

I get between 260-290 miles of mixed driving between refuels which is around 5 days use at the moment (depending on what I'm doing at the weekends) running on standard Tesco fuel. I find Premium *seems* to add around 20 miles to the range if I drive with a light foot but makes a huge difference to throttle response - on standard it's easy to pootle around town like I'm driving an ordinary A6 while the switch-like throttle on Premium can make doing the same thing somewhat embarrassing.
*results vary

[it_s8]

When it comes to mods, I'm very much Mr 'factory standard please' - but I've got to say, an MRC stage 2 on a C6 RS is just a must. There is a real sense of thrill if you take a standard car to MRC, have it mapped and drive out in a rocket ship, but you can save yourself a good chunk of money buying one already done.

The main RS issues, oil seal, coolant pipes etc occur regardless of the remap, and I think popular opinion is that a stage 2 from a reputable supplier does nothing to harm the car or its value....

I found fuel economy went up ever so slightly after the stage 2, but dont get excited, you dont buy these for economy.

By the time you're insuring 570 bhp, insurers don't really seem that bothered about another hundred or two I've found. But its the torque that gets the grins flowing on a stage 2, not so much the bhp increase....

[Greg3227]

Fellas,
As always, you never fail to disappoint taking the time and effort to reply with such knowledge. I really appreciate it, thank you.
No horror stories which is great to hear, possibly even airing on the side of recommendation which is superb.
Fuel figures, I'm not really fussed about either to be honest, not even sure why I mentioned it!
Good to hear insurance is doable. I struggled on my last C5 which had a map, and would be interested to see who you guys have used. I appreciate that's probably covered on another thread.
MRC are definitely the way to go. I'm blessed geographically being quite close to them too. The few I've seen, have had the maps done by them, so that's perfect.
Some really interesting comments regarding the effect the map has. Thanks again.
It's certainly pushing me in a certain direction.
Cheers guys

[Greg3227]

Where to get the map from - MRC, 100% every time all the time. Mechanically most independents are good with little difference but for mapping it's always MRC.

Experience - I found that, when still stock, the C6 didn't quite "feel" as fast as the near 600hp output would suggest, despite seeing the speedo rapidly shoot around showing that it was actually quite quick.

I feel that this was due to the very Linear way the OEM map brought the power on, feeling like a constant slow push rather than a more exciting old school style "big shove" as the boost came on. The stage 2 map combines the two feelings so you get this "big shove" feeling which then keeps shoving you til the redline in every gear without really feeling like it's run out of steam (even at 200mph).

As the map "only" adds around 25% extra power, the rest of the car seems to be able to cope quite well without any additional problems being added although, as the cars are now getting older/more mileage, that may start to change in the future. However currently a stage 2 map doesn't seem to bring out any horror stories on the forum so far.

Insurance & extra costs - My insurance went up £50 with the map which seemed more like an admin fee for changing the policy rather than a specific increase for the map. Fuel/tyre wear etc all stay pretty much the same, you'll use a bit more full with a map but only when hooning it around at full throttle, I still got the same distance per tank before/after with mine but if you expect to see over 20mpg in mixed driving then this is the wrong car for you

Servicing - There is still the £500-ish 10k Minor and £800-ish 20k Major regime to follow (Independent garage prices, not Audi) but I personally add a £150 oil change every 5k miles which isn't really "necessary" TBH but keeps me happy.

Just realised I owned your old C5 for a while mate... top motor!!

[Jim Haseltine]

Fuel figures, I'm not really fussed about either to be honest

Nor am I but every so often I'll do a rough mpg calculation...... but then I get back in the car, start the engine and forget it.

[TomRS]

Had two RS6's one with a "generic" 650bhp remap and then my second car was MRC Stage 2, as Above the car is transformed and overall it makes it into a savage beast of a machine.
Ian runs 900+ and with regular servicing the general internals of these engines is fantastic, overall a remap wont affect its reliablity its the overall heat cycles and everything else that wears them out.
Each is different and mine unfortunately suffered gearbox issues and i ended up getting rid!

But i loved my C6 it was far superior with a remap than it was without one, i was actually dissapointed in it when it was in standard form, i know it sounds like a lot of power but the oerall torque is fairly low given its capable of so much more and the weight ruines it a bit, so a remap in my eyes just finishes the car off! but certainly look into brake upgrades.

[Greg3227]

Had two RS6's one with a "generic" 650bhp remap and then my second car was MRC Stage 2, as Above the car is transformed and overall it makes it into a savage beast of a machine.
Ian runs 900+ and with regular servicing the general internals of these engines is fantastic, overall a remap wont affect its reliablity its the overall heat cycles and everything else that wears them out.
Each is different and mine unfortunately suffered gearbox issues and i ended up getting rid!

But i loved my C6 it was far superior with a remap than it was without one, i was actually dissapointed in it when it was in standard form, i know it sounds like a lot of power but the oerall torque is fairly low given its capable of so much more and the weight ruines it a bit, so a remap in my eyes just finishes the car off! but certainly look into brake upgrades.

Thanks Tom.
Again, a useful insight backing up Ian's description of the power.
Have my eye on one, advertised on here, so forum owned, but unfortunately the seller is refusing to budge on price!
Really appreciate your time and comments made though.
Cheers
Greg