After reading Chip's thread about the Mondeo remap I quite fancy a remap, more for the mpg increase to be honest (I must be getting old)
I've got a 58 plate VW Passat 140ps model but it's still under warranty and I still have 2 free services left, if I have a remap will VW Dealer beable to tell and will effect my warranty or servicing?
Cheers Rich

 

Anyone got any thoughts?
Rich

 

tbh we remap loads of cars with guys at evolution chips and normally none of dealers ever pick it up

 

It will void your warrenty, but they would need to examine the software to tell, another scenerio is you may have to tell them if you get your car serviced, else otherwise they may perform a firmware upgrade and this will overwrite your remapped software and you have to then pay to have it done again!

Martin

 

They'd pick it up on a test drive since your car will feel far more punchy to drive than a 140bhp Passat should... but I'd be very surprised if under normal circumstances a mechanic was to notice or give a toss to be honest.


Cheers,
Grant

 

When I looked into it, it seemed that most reputable places will re-load your map for free if the dealer has wiped it during servicing/repairs mate.


Cheers,
Grant

 

I have a dreamscience remap handheld unit for my vxr nurburgring 08 plate, when its due to go in for a service will download oe map first

 

Your dealer may overwrite the map as part of normal routine updates, while your car is under warranty you cant prevent them from doing this without invalidating it.

If you take your car in for another problem and they believe that your car has been remapped, they MAY send the ECU off to have it examined by the manufacturer, they will NOT be able to work out themselves if it has been remapped or not.

Be a little bit wary of people offering to reinstall a map for you if its been overwritten, if the firmware has been changed as part of the dealer update to alter any memory location of map entries then its perfectly possible that re-uploading the map again will leave the car unable to start, or worse still brick your ECU as a result, NOT common, but possible.

 

Probably best to give MSD a bell then and see what they say.
Rich

 

I seem to remember MSD will charge in the scenerio I mention above if the map gets overwritten.

Martim

 

mate gave he vxt to the dealers for a few probs.. they believed it was remapped .. my mate said it aint no way!! because the mapper said it wont be found... but he got the call from vauxhall and they said it been remapped etc and that the warantee is void! so he had to pay for the work

 

The reason for that will be that as per my reply above, if the original has now been modified in such a way that simply reflashing the modified file you had on before could now be totally invalid for your vehicle, so they have to do the work again to be 100% confident that you will once again have the correct map for your particular vehicle and its new firmware if its been updated in a way that moves the memory addresses around.
Thats the only truely safe way to do it.

 

Had my Seat Leon Cupra TDi remapped some years ago. The engine let go ( dealers fault) and it was replaced under warranty. The dealer didnt detect the map or even question it....

 

Thats the usual scenario, and the cost of the dealer sender the ECU off and the manufacturer inspecting it etc is obviously quite high considering how rarely they would get to then back out of a warranty, but it is technically possible that they could do so, so people should at least be aware that although very rare it does happen.

 

Its not always or even usually the case.
I wrote a comprehensive reply to this somewhere on PF quite recently, but I cant remember where. Will try and look tomorrow as heading out for the day now.

 

My bad, I read that thread.... save you the work

https://passionford.com/forum/genera...servicing.html

Although you do mention a small labour charge or the price of the remap again in scenerio 2.

Martin

 

unless any failure to the vehicle has been caused by or could be proved to have been caused by the remap then the dealers really will not be bothered.

They cannot just invalidate your warranty because you have remapped your vehicle, if this is the case then, you change your wheels/lower your suspension and that too should invalidate your warranty, in fact anything you change would be altering the type approval give to the manufacturer for that vehicle.

Any good dealer will work with any good customer, at the end of the day all you want is a good service from the dealer and all they want is to see you once a year (or at your service interval) and have your car serviced/repaired with them.

To get into an argument/slanging match with a customer for no real reason about whether the car is modified or not is totally bad for business.

And for the one who says 'they will send the ECU off' what a load of shite, what leave the customer without his car so you can potentially try to get one up on him to see if his car was remapped, please - reall world.

the only way the manufacturer would see the software is with an upload, and even then, think about how many cars, and how many software uploads happed every second in the world, to find one thats been modded and for it to cause any concern is very very rare.

but, please, use a good remapper, not a back street unknown, research whos software it is, and what the software does to increase the power.

 

iirc it could be very easy to see if certain cars (vag?) have been remapped as there is a counter for the number of maps that have been written that they can easily compare with the dealer history of the vehicle. i can't remember the details, but i'm sure a good remapper can fill you in on the details.

 

Nick, if you have a remap that is of YOUR map (ie something like an evolutions chip not a generic one), then whats to stop the remapper just making sure it goes back on with a non incremented count? Or is it located elsewhere on the ecu?

 

i can't remember exactly Chip, but iirc it automatically increments with every flash of the ecu. there is another remapping 'tool' to change the count so that they can't see that is an extra cost.

google 'vag flash count' for more info

 

Chip my car will be going in for service with oe map re-installed as the dreamscience unit stores the map, so they can overwrite it, but it is a chance im taking if anything major goes wrong, sending the ecu away for checking ect, it helps to know people on the inside in this matter also