3+ years of running a ECU remap. Final thoughts... 

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Absolutely logic and healthy thinking! Great video!

Thanks for not eating the boogie , good clean up its a must when getting a second hand car .

I’m so glad I watch this I have a 2 L diesel Audi and I was thinking about a remap are a chip but not any more I’m happy with what I’ve got

I'm glad i saw your video and just in time to because i was just about to make an appointment to have my 1.6 163hp 240 torque remapped to 205 hp 320 torque, i kinda always knew it putts extra stress on various components on the engine but still i wasn't convinced not to do it but your video just changed that i definitely won't do it now , so thanks for your honest review on remapping

Thanks for making my mind up for me. No one really explains things like this subbed and looking forward to seeing some more vids hopefully 👍🏿 South london showing some love

I rate this guy man, kept it 💯 I’ve just got a 220i M Sport and been debating getting it mapped but unsure if it can take it, longevity etc and this was probably the video I needed to hear! Thanks man

Respect for putting this up. Hindsight will teach you that a remap of a standard car to gain 30/40hp is not worth it after experiencing problems and shelling out unnecessarily for the cost of remap and replacement of parts

Mate your on the level and convinced me

Finally a genuine guy with a genuine answer. I have a Skoda Octavia petrol 150bhp wanted to remap to get 180 nearly did it too but then I took a step back after this video. It’s a family car wtf am I doing lol thanks man

Great advice and wise words, like most things in life there is always a trade off, well presented.

Thank you for the honest information, it is a great help.

The breakdown it’s pretty much simple. You choose to remap your car get ready to upgrade the standard parts of it, clutch injectors turbo etc( btw diesel cars can have issues with dpf filters in eu in case of high mileage ) or leave it stock and enjoy it for the longest time at a relatively low price. Nice video very well explained and honest. We need more people like this guy👍🏻👍🏻

I was considering remapping my 1.7 turbo diesel. Since watching this, I’ve changed my mind. I’m now fine with my stock 130bhp 😅

100% agree with this. Knowledge is key! Look past the gains and weigh up the pros and cons. Yeah sure get a remap but if you have a chocolate gearbox then be prepared.

When you're upgrading anything it has a knock on effect. Most good tuners will tell you what you need to improve to handle the power of the map. If you follow their instructions you can run a map safely for tens of thousand of miles.

Well done mate I appreciate your genuine advice it all actually make sense.

You know what man, you’re bang on. I’m sat outside a garage about to go and book myself a remap but I realised it’s just not worth the risk especially as my car is higher than average miles. I’ll pay that money for a major service instead 👍. Cheers

How on earth can anybody give this video a thumbs down SMH. This guy is giving you valuable *FREE* information. Some people Ha-ha.

Man this was the best advice I could've receiveb right now. As you said its not what anyone want to hear but thats the truth and the results are out there, premature and unusual wear on your car. Keep it up

Really straight up video loved it always chasing that extra bhp there are consequences loved this honesty 🙌🏼

Appreciate you being one of the honest people regarding remaps. Most remappers dont mention the other stress' a remap would and does cause. A remap for the most part just isnt worth it at all, period. The only exception id say is importing a japanese car and remapping for UK fuel etc, you might be able to safely squeeze a bit of juice, and have a smoother ride (twin turbo cars with a VoD issue between the turbos etc) out of it but not much. Glad you are one of the honest ones that tackles the clutch, flywheel & other general wear a 'simple remap' adds on. I'll give you a sub, you come across as a sound & genuine guy, best of luck on the videos!

Great vid. The golden rule is no more than 30% increase if you want to retain reliability. Manufacturers tend to build in a 50% margin, so the closer to that you get to that figure, the more likelihood of something going wrong. More than 30% also means upgrading the engine internals, up-rating the brakes and transmission etc. Audi manual gearboxes are notoriously weak, that's why I'm glad I've got a DSG. I had a stage-1 remap and the car drove like it should've come from the factory. I upgraded to stage -2 with an exhaust down-pipe (around 20%+) increase and now the car flies. Lookup "Darkside testing tuning map" who've done a rolling road comparison of tuning boxes v remap on diesels.

Was looking looking for this! Tnx for the advice

Thank you all once again for the comments, negative or positive, it's good to share and help others. Please do me a big big favour by subscribing to my channel... I'm nearly at 1,000 subs. Thank you to all of you that have already subscribed and those of you that will.

Thank you. I have an M4 and am considering all sorts. I've learned something today. Thanks

It will still boils down to how you drive your car. Had mine remapped going 3 years now and got no issue with it. Just keep in mind what type of remap you want to do and have it done with a trusted tech. The key in remapping is setting all the parameters within manufacturers limitations.

Glad I found this video! Excellent advise.

thanks for your insights! I was thinking about it, but now I feel informed enough about potential problems not to let my fantasy of how much of a difference it would be crowd my judgement.

Well it’s definitely changed my mind thanks fella

Valuable free information for people with low to mid range cars.

I appreciate the honesty, because I was on the fence about doing it, that's why I was doing the homework first. VW 2.0tsi

Brilliant video and description of your experience, thanks for sharing.

My 2012 C250 has been on stage 2 for 3 years now, and on stage 2 with flames and pops for the last year with no problem

Great post 👍🏻 I stage 1’d a brand new S3 and pretty soon after got clutch slip problem, so I totally agree with this video and would even say don’t bother on the S or RS models either. If an S/RS stock vehicle isn’t fast enough take up F1

I believe this guy is honest. Thanks for the invaluable insight from real experience. Worth 100% value and support. God bless you more.

This is fantastic advice. I had the same issue with the A3. Got it remapped and the clutch and flywheel packed in 3 months later.

Very informative opinion. And also correlates to what, despite them not being real, racing video games are basically telling you while you are modifying your cars. You HAVE to upgrade EVERY part on your car for each part compliments and supports the other! Games like Need for Speed and Gran Turismo go in depth letting you know that you can only upgrade one part of your car to "Street" "Underground" or "Pro" for so long while still racing the other parts still on stock and NOT see any huge improvement compared to where if you UPGRADE everything so that each part can handle what the other parts are putting out. Gran Turismo does this the best by telling you how you'll only see gains by using a closely tuned or compatible part with another. So yeah, before doing any ECU remapping, upgrade the core parts to withstand that new output demand. SO GLAD I watched this video before investing in just an ECU for my daily driver to give it a small boost of 60 to 70 HP to it's already lame 78 HP. Because that would have damaged the stock parts inside of it like SUPER bad and voided the warranty that I still have on it should anything bust and it's due to the aftermarket ECU installed. Oh well...

Thanks very much for the info, this video made me go and research more about remaps and the tolerances on my vehicle. Ive got a performance saloon which has higher rated components than its current output and driving it, the car feels choked, like it has more to give, hoping a remap makes it feel smoother to drive more than anything. If not, the company offers 14 day free reversal if I'm not happy 👍

How you imitate the sound of juddering is really enlightening to think twice on getting a remap. Taking ur advice. Cheers. Good honest vid.

immense respect. i was wanting to upgrading my jetta tdi. thank u very much

Absolutely great advice. Definitely going to break something. And the guy with the sports model still goes past you :)

I had a Mk2 TT 2.0 TDI. Same engine as yours. 170bhp standard. Remapped to 208bhp. Drove it for 2 years taking it from 70k miles to 105k miles then sold it. No issues at all. No problems with the flywheel. There are maps that are safe and maps that are not, I have seen some terrible maps on cars. Also. Yes if you get a remap then drive it like you stole it all of the time, of course its going to wear out components faster due to the extra power. Just have to be careful. Wait for the time and the place to boot it. I'm remapping my Mk3 TT 2.0 TFSI Quattro on Tuesday at Viezu Technologies. Not anxious at all seeing as though I have mapped 2 cars there before over the last 6 years and had zero issues. Choose a reputable tuning company that will dyno and create a custom map for you, not just throw one on that's for your model of car. That's the key.

Very imformative!! YOUR ABSOLUTELY RIGHT ABOUT upgrading parts. After removing my dpf from my 1.6tdi golf i remapped it. Ended up with messed up clutch kit and fixed it for like £700 total. Drove the car for 2months and there was a slight tickin sound and a mechanic told me my flywheel is about to go. Quickly sold that car. MORAL OF THE STORY: DONT REMAP CARS THAT HAVE STOCK PARTS AND ISN'T MEANT FOR "SPORTY" DRIVING.

Mate,I really needed to watch this 👍👍 I,m picking up a focus ST diesel this week & I actually considered getting a stage 1,so glad I watched this. Cheers mate 👍

I wish I’d have seen this video before I blew my turbo in my VW Touran 2.0 TDI. It’s costing me £700 to fix and then I’m undoing the remap which is another £150. Lesson well and truly learned but yeah I only heard the positive stuff related to a remap and I wasn’t aware of the dangers......I’ll be spreading the word though. Great video cheers!

I had my 325d remapped. It has the same straight 6 as the 330d, so handled the remap perfectly well as the engine/clutch/gearbox is already designed to handle what a 330d has. This man speaks sense!

Great video, I was thinking of getting my 1.7 astra h diesel remapped, now I'm keeping clear as you say, it's a normal car and I can see it going bang. Keep up the great videos...

Great video. I have a 2000 1.9l golf and I'm glad I watched.

I had a seat Leon cr fr 170bhp diesel remapped 6 years ago when the engine had 95000 miles on the clock, it remapped to 212bhp and 335lbs/ft torque, changed it into a very capable car that was fast enough in every way for me, no problems all these years now has 186000 miles on the clock, thing is a stage 1 remap is safe and I’d say worth your money.

It depends on how over-engineered and over-built your car is. It also depends on how aggressively you drive it.

Great words man. Seriously made me think twinge about it in my CLK

Gday from Aus...Good review mate honest and straight to the point 👍

Thanks for the info. That makes a lot of sense. I studied engineering in the US Navy. Most things are tested and built to be a little more than you actually need yet to push the boundaries every day with out up dating the parts is a bad idea. For instance I put slotted brakes on my f150 but I up graded to better shocks and struts, better tires etc. But that all cost money.

Great advice from a 35 year engineering veteran

Great to hear a honest long term review, nice video dude

Thanks for this , been thinking of remapping my 2L VW T5 from 102 bhp to 170 bhp, don't think I'll bother now, really don't want the mechanical problems that'll follow. 👍👍

Glad I ran across this before doing it

I can agree with this. Had my bmw 330d mapped and the gearbox went a few days later

German cars especially with ZF auto gearboxs are much stronger at lasting longterm with a remap. In 1990s i fitted a tunning box to a 110hdi french car. Full boost gave 140hp and too much torque than the clutch could handle. But Eco boost was 128hp and ok. Tunned at 9000 miles it lasted 17 years more and did 504,000 miles. But first clutch went after 12000 miles on full power. With eco power clutches lasted 100,000 miles. Next up was a 320d bmw. Took it from 184hp to 241hp and 280lbs to 350lbs torque. Got it 3 yrs old with 58,000 on the clock still have it with 345,000 at 14 years old. Totally reliable. No engine or gearbox trouble ever. Both cars improved the fuel economy so much it paid for the tuning within 20,000 miles. Id say check the clutch or autobox maximum torque capacity before you buy the car to make sure its strong enough. Tunning transforms the car.

This is a great video! Definitely doing more homework before jumping in with the remap

Great video fella. I've been debating wether to buy a BMW 320d and remap or a 330d and leave it stock and you've answered my question and likely saved huge headaches in the future. Thanks again 👌🏻

Everything in your vehicle works as a unit. With that in mind you really have to pay attention to what and how much you upgrade on it. If you add more power you need to be sure of what else is being stressed because of the extra boost and either upgrade those items as well or drive only to the limit that it can handle. Took me 4 years to finish my 88gt Complete engine dismantle and upgrade to stage 3 track everything except heads top to bottom even injection was staged 3 and man did it ever preform. Every time I got out I was shaking all over from the rush as if I had just escape death lol I did everything by the book for my engine build but forgotten about the clutch..duh .. it didn’t last long.. I ordered a stage 3 race kit $600usd. It was amazing and so much fun ... 3 weeks later I had to change the transmission because it completely shattered Few weeks later another transmission.. then another until I realized my engine was killing them and it’s been parked for years now I should have been smarter about it and took my time

Thanks bro. You might have saved me a lot of money and headache!

You have just stopped me from remapping my Audi TT and probably saved me over 1000 euros in the future, thank you

Mapped my bmw 635d from 286bhp up to 360 2 years ago no problem whatsoever for mpg too

Thank you. You’ve validated my assumption and helped me decide not to bother with a remap

Nice to see honest free advice. Keep up the good workman.

I think you've saved me a lot of pain. Thank you bro.

Tried explaining this to one of my friends who has the exact same car as the one you remapped and he didn’t understand that his going to stress all the OEM parts to the point of failure. But i found your video and sent it to him and he backed down after hearing your experience with remap on his car. Good job explaining mate.

I got a 1.9 tdi a4 b7 it was originally 116 hp, after the remap it got to 150, been driving it for 3 years had absolutely no problems with it.

Thanks for the honest advice. I've got an Audi S1 which I'm considering getting more power out of but I am also very cautious. Only company that I have found that let's you keep your warranty is ABT which adds a whopping 85bhp but I'm considering changing the clutch and flywheel first. Was going to change the exhaust until I found out the price. £3k for a decent full exhaust with sports car sod that!!

2nd year with my mapped ST180, loving it. I've had every car (bar my EP3) remapped to no issues. If you're gonna start upping power, you gotta do it all...clutch, brakes whatever

I watched this video after I remapped my Jeep Compass 2.0l disel 4x4, 170-230hp,350-450nm.

Great video! It brought up a lot of interesting points to my mind 😁 I think it depents from car to car. For example I think a Fiesta 1.0 with the 100hp could easily handle a remap to get it up to around 125hp and also 20pounds extra, because there is also a version from Ford with this kind of power... Also a 911 Carrera might handle a slight remap aswell due to the similatities with the Carrera S. Your Audi was the top of the range version of this engine (Correct me if I‘m wrong), so it wasn‘t the slightly detuned version of a engine. Another example would be the C63 AMG and the C63S... Just a different software ☺️

You make a lot of sense. Nice that you’ve given these youngsters a heads up that wants to remap their 1.2 Ford Fiesta. I understand they want more power. What 18 year old doesn’t.. But I always try to advise them just wait! Wait till you can get yourself a nice motor that’s already got a nice bit of poke. Then research the mods you can make sensibly without damaging your motor.

Had my VW Caddy van mapped to 170. Love that element of surprise when someone goes for an overtake on a hill cause they still think vans are going to slow down :)

Thank you so much made my mind up leaving it alone will save up and get a more powerful car instead keep up the fantastic work my friend 👍👍

Great advice and honest! I've got a stage 1 BMW M4 (520bhp), the map is running fine but I'll tell you what's really bugging me, you can literally hear the turbos spooling a lot faster! Sounds weird, soulless!! And because of this reason, I'm selling it.. Like you said - lesson learned, I'm never tuning my cars again!

I was contemplating getting the remap on my 420 d m sport bm but after watching this video I'm not going to bother you give good advice and it sounds more trouble than its worth juice ain't worth the squeeze thanks mate 😉

Thank you, I was thinking about this 'coz in my country it is about half of the price compared to UK. I was blinded by the figures like increased hp and fuel economy. However I did not thik about what the increase of hp would do to the rest of the components such as gearbox and turbo . . . until now. Dad always says to me son if you want a gti save up and get a gti stop puting lipstic on a pig, hate to admit it he is wright.

Was thinking of remapping my car but what you said makes sense.im going to leave it and you’ve probably saved me a headache. Cheers pal

Big thank you! I almost paid big money for ecu re map for my Audi A4. Thank goodness I found your video

Unfortunately nobody ever gives the pitfalls of a remap so I appreciate the honesty.

Nice Mercedez man. I will follow your advice by not remapping my GTI.

Thanks for some real feedback. I suspected this would the issue of a remap that no one really talks about. So matter of fact is, you need to know your limits of all your mechanical components. Which is extensive research, maths and physics required. End of the day you will reduce the life span of your car parts, therefore that extra cost and fuel 'economy' will cost you an arm and a leg.

VERY smart point of view - the comment with the lift is a SPOT ON, at some point you really need it. dude this was one of better tuning after thoughts videos i seen.

Stage 2 flywheel and clutch kit in an A5 would have set you back about an extra 200 quid on top of the Sachs one. You didn't have to sell it, should have just put a upgraded clutch and flywheel in to handle the power gain. And bigger brakes to stop faster, of course, because supporting mods matter.

Cheers bruv 🤙🏻. Good to see something honest about remapping instead of the usual bullshit.

Kudos on a thoughtful video thats purely meant to help. Ive been debating a remap on an e350 3.5 v6 and might just stay away now. Cheers

I was looking to remap my old 2005 mercedes CLK 200 petrol auto car..noting special just wanted a little bit of power torque and maybe little petrol saver lol but honestly thank you for your honest opinion..many RU-vidrs will just sugar coat it but you where honest and to the point. Appreciate it hence earned a new sub . Good luck 🤞

100% correct, this kid is spot on and I'm an experienced mechanic and 30 experienced mechanical/aerospace engineer and this kid is right on the money. Listen to him or your car is going to go dud dud dud dud dud lol :)

Thanks for your honest feedback. It’s made me rethink remapping

Good advice. Thanks. I'm going to leave my '18 Golf R as is. It's my Retirement car. My last (true) performance car was an '85 Mustang GT. My '88 Suzuki Forsa Turbo was quick as well, but my R gives me much more. It's a blast in the Summer, and even more so in a (Canadian) Winter. And that is the reason I bought it in the first place.

Was thinking about a tune on my Megane 3. With all the research I think the honest feedback here makes sense!! Thanks for the information.

Depends what car you got & how well you do your homework on the hardware that’s in the car; for example; a 2015 BMW 320D Efficient Dynamics (163hp) has the exact same hardware as a 325D (220hp) gearbox, turbo, torque converter all the same! So you can safely stage 1 to 210hp; plus a stage 2 Xhp gearbox flash for the auto box actually improves the life of the gearbox; provided you don’t thrash the ass off it! But that principle applies wether a car is remapped or not

Just had my 2001 Mini Cooper remapped. Hoping I didnt make a mistake 🤞

Useful vid, thanks Mr Lopes.

Thx, was thinking to stage2 my A4 2.0 Tfsi and now you gave me a 2nd thought about it, definitely going to check tolerances

Thanks so much for your valuable feedback. I’ve just changed my mind about a remap since hearing about the potential problems. It’s engineering logic when you think about it. Placing all that additional stress on the drive parts will inevitably lead to failure.