ECU Remap, are they worth doing

[jonnysideways]

Hello all.

I have just acquired my first B6 S4 Avant. And one of my friends has a Audi garage, and has suggested an ECU remap, but I wondered if 1. Are the gains that I have seen advertised, at 365 BHP achievable. 2. Is the power noticeable and 3. What does it do the MPG's as I have heard in some case a remap can smooth out the power, and can in some case give a better fuel economy, and finally 4. What does the insurance company think about them, if you tell them of course.

cheers

John

[spikeyboy101]

Dont think 365 BHP is achievable just with a remap - you will need to change a few other things - Air Filter, Exhuast.

Is it worth it ? good question - depends on how much the remap costs really. It will make it better on the MPG but not by much, it will make the power band better and easier to drive.

If you do go with Sports Cat and Air Filter a remap will be needed and will give bigger gains.

[nihc]

Hi,

If you do a search on the previous posts, there has been quite a bit of chat about it years a go.
I got a Revo remap a few years a go and I'm very happy with it. You can tell that the torque curve has been raised as the car just keeps pulling harder and harder all the way up to the new rev limit of 7500. There's no drop off - it just feels it could keep pulling harder.

There is a bit of mis-understanding about remaps. Many people talk about "generic" ones and ones that have been "tuned" for the car. It's a load of rubbish.
The "tuning" comes from setting up the fuelling and ignition timing offsets - not changing the "maps" for a specific car. Changing the maps for a specific car would take weeks of rolling road time. The map tuning is the "generic " bit, as the tuners couldn't do it for every individual car - they might have graph displays of maps on their laptop to impress , but believe me they aren't changing it for your car.

Also, some "tuners" don't even change the maps, or just change one ( for example an ignition timing map) with no regard for the effect it has on the others - they just change the offsets.
Now, this is where the Revo remap comes in to it's own.
When you get your car remapped the guy will set the fuelling and ignition timing offsets, probably not correctly and you hear people complain, as I did when I first got my Revo remap loaded by a bit of a shambles garage in Newcastle.
I had to take it back after 10 minutes - the guy had set the fueling offset way too rich and the ignition timing advance to low.
So, I bought the Revo Select Switch for £100, or somewhere around that.
This gem let YOU set the fueling, ignition offset and throttle responce. I was glad just to set the throttle responce lower as I think Audi's have it set too high.

If you want to you can use Vag-Com ( VCDS) and the Select Switch to set the fuelling and iGN timing for different fuels, temperatures, if you want to. Or you can choose a "good" performance setting.
Revo seem to change many of the ECU maps - I was told that they changed 12 maps for the S4 remap.
All I can say is that it does drive well and I can change the settings, rather than being stuck with the guy who installed it's idea of what is right.

After the remap I had custom downpipes with single sports cats and an x-pipe fitted. I used the Revo Select Switch to raise the ignition timing offset and fueled it a bit more.

You'll never get massive gains on NA engine, but you can feel the difference. One of the guys who used to be on here had the same Revo remap and the same exhaust mods done and he was putting out 340BHP before and 390BHP in the end on the same rolling road.
With the tune I can do with the Revo Select Switch, I recon I must be nearer the 400BHP.
A few little road scuffles I've had would seem bear that out

Cheers, Chris.

[MaLicE]

are you using an afr gauge when you adjust your fueling or are you just guessing???

[nihc]

Hi,

I'm using VCDS ( Vag-Com) - it tells you the AFR from the horses mouth
I thought that I'd said that in the post, though, maybe not.
VCDS gives you the AFR figures direct from the Lambda sensors in the exhaust, so their's no need for an external AFR gauge. The ECU uses the values from the Lambda ( oxygen sensors) for it's own calculations.

Cheers, Chris

[jonnysideways]

Many thanks for the feedback.

[535dboy]

I can't imagine it is a massive difference on its own just being a simple remap on a NA car

You should tell the insurers. My remap was detected by my dealer so I would expect that it would be possible for the insurers to do the same if they were so inclined. Should not make a major difference to premium because of the low percentage gain but some insurers will not touch you at all - as the guy that just bought my X5 found out!