UKC

I have a 2008 Fiat Bravo 1.9 tdi multijet (150) I am looking at maybe getting it remapped, i have heard wonderful tales of vastly improved power and economy! Does anyone on here have any experience of doing this? Any advice or recommendations would be most useful, I do about 20k a year so any improved economy would pay for itself pretty quickly, also a bit of extra power and torque is always fun!

Cheers

Si

In reply to maybe_si:
You are unlikely to get more Performance and Economy just from a re-map.
You are likely to get more Performance, manufactures have to calibrate for emissions and smoke levels, in many areas more power can be had by increasing the injected fuel quantity but the side effects are increased emissions, black smoke and fuel consumption.
If you get it done you run the risk of problems at MOT time although I think the risk is quite low as the requirements for MOT are much less stringent than what the manufactures have to work to, and if your vehicle is running a DPF (diesel particulate filter) that could give you problems as well.
If there was a way to get more power and better fuel consumption without some kind of negative side effect I can guarantee the manufactures would be doing it!

In reply to maybe_si:

The words 'cake' and 'eat it' spring to mind. Basically you cant have both....otherwise the manufacturers would do it.

In reply to maybe_si: Yes you can. I used a guy called van tuner (google him if your interested). He remapped my van and I had more power and my mpg on average went up from 32mpg to 34mpg but only if you drive it steady.
In my case the extra power just stopped the engine labouring at low speed due to the amount of weight I had in the back.

In reply to maybe_si:

I've done a fair bit of this. Yes you will get more power and better fuel economy (with a well written map) when driven like for like. In my experience having up to 40 more hp makes you drive faster, that uses more fuel. So the economy depends on your self control somewhat. The torque gains makes a car more leasurly to drive but be warned that clutch wear is going to suffer if you sit in 5th/6th and plant your foot.

Quite often we would have customers say our map had wrecked their clutch, in fact our map had found the limit of an already worn clutch that as standard had not been a problem.

Personally if money saving is the aim I'd continue to drive very carefully and don't bother with software. If you want more power software on diesels is amazing.

In reply to Blue68: This is one instance where you can get your cake and eat it. The manufactures map will be trying to meet stringent NoX and particulate legislation, at the expense of power/economy. It is quite easy to improve some of the 'flat spots' that we put in to meet the regulation points, improving the overall efficiency of the combustion cycle, at the expense of a slightly hotter burn and therefore more Nox.

In reply to fraserbarrett:

cheers folks, can you recommend anyone aound the manchester area? I dont really fancy handing my car over to 'dodgy dave' and his laptop, especially as this is something that i know a bit about but certainly not a huge amount! To be hnest im just want my car to go faster without any detrimental effect to fuel consumption (well not too much) or any other part of the car, clutch etc.

cheers

si

In reply to maybe_si: This bloke has a very good reputation on the Skoda forums: http://www.sharkperformance.co.uk/brands/index.asp Not in Manchester but if you want the job doing right...

His website doesn't specifically mention Fiat, but he does remaps for Alfa Romeo so the engines are probably the same, almost certainly worth asking him to see.

Had my turbo-petrol Skoda remapped to great effect (with a Revo map through my local independent VW garage), no overall change to fuel consumption as the times when I boot it are matched by the times I'm cruising around in a lower gear than before because the engine's not struggling, but I do accept the clutch is probably going to go a wee bit sooner do to the extra power going through it.

In reply to others:

I stand corrected. I really didn't think you could get improvements in both.

In reply to maybe_si: The way you will get a car to go faster is by getting more fuel and colder more dense air into the combustion chamber, therefore creating a bigger more powerful bang in each cylinder, you just cant have more power without loosing economy. You want the car to be more powerful so you can drive quicker? well by driving quicker you will straight away loose economy. One thing you could do yourself is fit a bigger front mounted intercooler, that will cool the intake air, making it more dense giving you a slight increase in power.

I have raised the fuel pressure and fitted an intercooler to my 1.9td t4 camper myself and its got quite a bit more torque, and actually pulls up hills!!

In reply to chris j:

If you'd had a diesel, you'd be driving my handy-work about. I didn't do Revo's petrol stuff though. Great software still.

In reply to dan:

The only downside to raising fuel pressure without a re-map is you lose control over the amount of fuel entering the chamber. Diesels respond well enough to dumping fuel in but you can find they get very smoky, ie unburnt fuel and poor economy. With a remap you can burn more of the available fuel, or not chuck in as much in the first place. Or you can get lucky and hit a good mix of the two by chance.

I did a race map for a Bora in the VW cup with no regard to economy, just dumped in the fuel and ran the turbo flat out. I ran it in my mum's golf for a while, it was quick but like a smokescreen behind under load.

In reply to fraserbarrett:

Being less polluting is more important.

In reply to fraserbarrett:
For the most part that is exactly what I have said but the difference between a lean burn causing NOx and the optimum burn from an emission point of view is quite small. Where as more power generally requires more fuel.

The fuel consumption claims of the re-map companies are inflated at best and I think the placebo effect plays a big part in the f/c claims of the customers.

If the car is driven in exactly the same way there may be a slight improvement in consumption but use the extra performance and that will change.

Not saying don't do it, drive it normally and you will get similar fuel con to previous but when you want the performance you have got it, just be aware of the possible side effects.