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Just remapped my Tdi! £45 :o DIY!


Rickpercy87
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I thought I would post my experience in case it is of some use to some of you guys.

Iv'e had my Tdi for about 3 months now and was craving more power. I was torn between Awesomegti (who many of you know already) and a DIY option using a cable bought from ebay and the remap bought from a website (www.blacksmoke.co.uk)

In the end I decided to go for the DIY option, and if it all went t*its up, get it remapped at awesomegti.

The owner of the website, Andrew was really fantastic. He even offers to fix your ECU for free if you somehow brick it. He says he works with local garages who tune cars and he gets a cut when he sells a map.

The process of buying the map was very easy. Paid with paypal and took a hour or so to arrive. I backed up my original map in case something horrible happened. I'm very happy with the remap. He claims it is 100bhp with a much better power delivery, which indeed it does feel correct, with minimum smoke at high RPM.

The cable I used was a galetto 1260 (£9.90 delivered) which comes with the software to read and write maps onto the flash.

I'll report back if anything horrible happens.

All in all £55 quid for the best power mod I could have hoped for :)

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Catastrophic engine failure in 5...4...3...2

Only joking, did you find this guy via recommendation or just googling? How has he learned to do what he does - I'm sure its quite complicated

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I know someone else who performed an economy remap via a DIY cable from eBay and there was no issues as such. My only problem with a DIY remap is that aren't they all the same? Like, a proper bespoke remap involves you collecting data on the engine because each car performs slightly differently right, so the garage is able to provide a custom ECU remap specific to your car?

The other issue is as you say, bricking your ECU... surely your car won't start if it's completely bricked? Is there any going back?

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Awesomegti charge £150 for a generic map now on the tdi's, WITHOUT a rolling road! So i'm sure mine is fine. He genuinely did seem to know his stuff and from all my research I can only find positive reviews on his remaps.

Iv'e been out in it for a while today. The transformation is astonishing, 40-80 in 5th gear, pulls like a train. So much of an improvement over standard, seriously!

I can feel a massive difference in the torque from about 2000 RPM all the way to 4000RPM, The power delivery is really the major positive. It feels a little bit like a petrol now haha.

I gave it a good thrashing today and it runs perfectly still, no strange noises, nothing.

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Does them for Gti?

No, just VAG diesels

I know someone else who performed an economy remap via a DIY cable from eBay and there was no issues as such. My only problem with a DIY remap is that aren't they all the same? Like, a proper bespoke remap involves you collecting data on the engine because each car performs slightly differently right, so the garage is able to provide a custom ECU remap specific to your car?

The other issue is as you say, bricking your ECU... surely your car won't start if it's completely bricked? Is there any going back?

Yeah, every car is different so really if you want to get a bit more power, and have a say in how much torque you want, or BHP, you should get a custom remap. The thing is with modern engines, the ECU self adjusts to small changes automatically. I was speaking with somebody from awesomegti, who even said if I got a remap and then afterwards decided to get a custom manifold and exhaust, the ECU would automatically compensate and deliver more fuel thus improving power.

Catastrophic engine failure in 5...4...3...2

Only joking, did you find this guy via recommendation or just googling? How has he learned to do what he does - I'm sure its quite complicated

Yeah, pure google. I was researching for days, there are many websites but I picked blacksmoke because of the reviews and is VAG specialty. He doesn;t do the maps himself, he gets them from tuning shops. I did have a look on his ebay, he seems to buy ECU's for about £20 and put maps on them and sells them for £150! Nice business!

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  • 1 month later...

Just thought, i'd give a little update.

Still really happy with my remap. I have found it picks up so much better lower down the revs, even before the turbo has kicked in. I can easily accelerate from 20mph on a flat surface in fourth gear. I now find myself sitting at 30mph in 5th gear too. Probably not amazing for the engine but it doesnt sound like it is struggling at all.

I recently filled the tank with regular shell fuel and achieved 450 miles before I bottled it. This consisted of my daily journey to work which is only 15 minutes away at about 8 miles. And about 4 miles on the motorway. Not much else other than the odd trip here and there. This was taking it very easy most of the time apart from the last quarter of a tank where I would give it a bit of a hammering on the motorway. I think I could get 470 miles quite easily doing my daily trip without the heavy foot. Much, much more if I did longer journeys.

Clutch is still fine, and has never been changed in 116,000 miles

MOT flew through emissions. Sadly failed on the front droplinks.

Hope this helps!

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Someone do the maths, I can't be buggered.

I need to check what I can get in the Golf*, so far I've only put 20 quid in at a time and it sure don't get you up to half a tank like in a Lupo :lol:

*the GTI that is. We've had the Mk5 TDI over 60 mpg :D

Edited by Koop
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  • 2 weeks later...

there's a secret button that allows more fuel into the tank. i fitted about 40L in my SDI, right up to the cap.

then went for a long drive. filling it to the cap and parking it in the sun is just a waste of money.

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This is very tempting.

Would be interesting to log fuel ratios and boost pressures etc after the map.

So you buy the cable from eBay and the map from that chap. You then use your laptop to load the software across?

Do you get a program or something?

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  • 2 weeks later...

This sounds like a popular mod that has been carried out countless times on Clio 172/182's. You buy something called an RSTuner, download the maps from fastchip.nl and then plug it into your computer/car, upload the map and then 10-20 mins later a few things have changed. With the RS Clio's being N/A the difference is negligible, apart from an increased rev limit, pops and bangs (if you choose that map), better cold start idle, and a slightly smoother power curve. Some people claim better mpg but again i doubt this is much different to the std map.

If it were me id be paying (purely out of curiosity) for it to be plugged into a tuners computer/dyno and see just how well its running and whether they can make any improvements to the map provided.

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I bet unless your getting it done bt a custom tuner you won't see any difference. I got my arosa done via a generic map. I remapped my brothers cars. They joke drive the exact same.

I also disagree with the rstuner. It got rid of the 5k kick and it was better on fuel. Notifebly better.

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