I should start by saying that my last 3 cars have all been mapped, my 225 TT, my Merc CLK and my M3 all with varying degrees of results/success..
So, I have been looking into a map for this car, I was extremely tempted by the DMS group buy and had I been around (holiday) I probably would have gone, my only reservation being that they were some distance from me and if I ever needed any updates or re-flashes, even back to stock for whatever reason it would be a 5-6 hour round trip..
So for initially practical reasons I started looking for tuners in the midlands.. I spoke to Thorney about the superchips map, Revo about theirs and settled on MRC due to their experience with specifically Audi tuning, the B5 guys know them extremely well and rate their work very highly...
I spoke to Minhea directly discussing how I found the car and without him giving his trade secrets away what the map changes and how it might affect my car... As Minhea was in the country I thought I would drive over and meet him and make a decision once there, they are only around 40 mins from my office...
Before Minhea or I agreed to proceed we hooked up vag-com, looked for any fault codes and went out to do some data logging...
The car was fine, apart from one of the ECU's reporting 'running rich' something I was thinking anyway due to the very black sooting of my tail pipes.. only a minor thing and had only been reported once in the fault codes..
We discovered something from the data logging that I infact have posted about here... I had said that the car seems to really surge at 5.5k revs in non sport mode and that this virtually went when sport on. Minhea was able to confirm that the throttle was only opening to 60% until 5.5k revs and then fully, in sport mode fully open all the time... The only reasonable explanation for this is for Audi to create a bigger difference between sport and non sport modes, it really feels like something is happening when you hit the button...
Anyway I decided to proceed...
At the moment MRC do not have the facility to tune via the OBDII port, this may change in the future... flashing this way is actually more detectable as even with Vagcom you can see how many times the ECU has been flashed and it does not take long for any Audi tech to work out how many audi issued flashes your car should have had and what the clock is showing. Having said this, removing the ECU's is alot more intrusive as they need removing from their security cradle, the 'tamper proof' bolts removed and then opening up the sealed ECU, all of which if need be is very detectible by a tech if the are really looking for it. I will have new tamper proof bolts added this week. Mapping in this way is done "in the back ground" and is far less detectable than a flashed ECU, so I have been told..
We had a couple of problems with one of my ECU's not taking the map cos it was getting too hot, it had to be cooled before it would eventually take.. I was a little stressed at the time, but Minhea had copied my original map and ECU before attempting the remap. Worst case scenario if the ECU died, I would need a new one which would have been cloned to my ECU from the back up Minhea had made.
Anyway all done and back out for data logging and testing.. Its worth stating at this stage that MRC do not have a rolling road to assist with mapping, all of my previous cars were mapped without a rolling road, so I am not too bothered about his... the data logging should highlight any running problems and faults...
Immediately i could tell the difference just pulling away in 1st gear... there was far more urgency in the car, I felt for the first time I was actually controlling the car with my right foot as it was extremely sensitive compared to normal. It sounded different too, far more induction noise than I was used to, this was probably due to the fact that the throttle was now opening all the way...
Rev limiter has been moved to 8,400 (looks more like 8,700 on the clock
), but vagcom confirming 8,400 and the top end limiter removed. I am very pleased about the extra revs.. I found I kept hitting the rev limiter in 2nd and 3rd all the time, not because i was trying but because the car was still pulling and it still 'sounded/felt' there was more to go.. since the map, I dont seem to go anywhere near where I could take it but just over the previous limit where it feels right to change gear.So how did the car drive....
It pulls so much more, torque seems to come in from between 3-3.5k revs and there is still a small surge in power at 5.5k revs the overall power delivery s now far smoother and constant... 2nd and 3rd are amazing gears, always were, 4th is now very "torque'y" the car is definitely accelerating more quickly, holding the power well and pulling so much harder.
Not a measure of a map I know, but on my daily commute with brain disengaged I approached, took and exited a roundabout in 6th with no bother as there is heaps more pull in the car...
So far this is all in non-sport mode.. Activate that, the grumble seems a little deeper, probably because of the induction noise.. and it flies... I joined a dual carriageway and floored it and surprised myself how quickly I got to the bottom of the slip road and how bloody fast I was going by the time I got there, I actually hit the brakes as soon as I entered the carriageway!
So having a play is one thing, what about day to day, stuck in traffic driving... first gear is taking a bit of getting used too, i was so used to having to dial up loads of revs for a quick getaway, it just does not need it now, low revs its pulling so well I have been a little jerky.. anyone that has driven an SMG M3 with sport activated will understand what I mean... 2nd is much more manageable... cruising is lovely, I have just taken some elderly clients out for lunch and I was "driving Miss Daisy" very easy to drive very smoothly..
Big question next is MPG... If you are caning this car we know the results.. since the remap I have seen figures on the DIS I have not seen before.. on my 18 mile commute home in rush hour traffic, I hit 27.4mpg where as at best i would previously only get around 25.2mpg
All in all, I am very happy, Its the first time I have had any dealings with MRC, I found them to be very knowledgeable, very informative and friendly.. whilst I was there, there were 3 other forum members there getting things done to their cars, admittedly B5 owners but they have been using them for a long time and only have great things to say about them...
I did not fully know what I could expect from this map, after having the M3 done with very little noticeable performance improvement, apart from the kangarooing from cold completely disappeared, I was not expecting much... I was Very, very wrong... I think that anyone driving my car over stock would immediately tell how much better the performance now is, to me that’s all you could ask for...
Dyno's for these cars as we know is not easy due to the 4wd and in particular the differential between front and rear on these cars... I don’t know what the bhp increase will be, there has to be some because of the way it now drives.. feels like more than 15bhp, I expect less than 30bhp I am really pleased I now don’t feel like I have to 'wind the car up' to achieve peak performance, it now feels like its there under my foot at all times...
There you go, please don’t start any fights and remember I am not a tuner if you start asking questions... I will do what I can...
Jason
P.S. obvious thing I missed £600+VAT
so not to offend anyone.
