ECU Advice - REMAP, PREMAP & Who's who?

[Dub2Dub]

Hi all,

I have seen a number of threads but cannot seem to locate the specific type of information I am looking for, hopefully we can answer that here or someone could possibly point me somewhere they know it was discussed before? Most discussions seem to point to one tuner and never really see a 'conclusive' set of results across the board. Maybe that's just the nature of car tuning though?

I've always wanted to tune my car but for one reason or another I just haven't done it. Now with cash being a little easier to come by and having just purchased a 3.0 Quattro A5 Diesel, which interestingly came to learn is the Common Rail 236BHP, which REVO claim to tune to 280-300 which is surprisingly higher than the TDI variant even thought that has a higher stock number. I also seem to read TDI spec's on tuners sites and not common rail (Am I just being misguided?) That's wrongly or rightly due to my understanding as I had thought the TDI was the superior lump. I digress.

Back to topic in hand, so REVO Claim those numbers but from reading their website these look like PRE-MAPPED chips - Is that the case?

If you hunt around tuning cost vary from anything as low as £150 to £3000 + and here people state 'tuning' with others 'installing a chip'.

Ultimately what I want to find who is who is reputable and what to look out for?

My car is a manual CAPA (engine code) has 30k on the clock and I plan to remap within the next 6 months.

I, like every most other users on this forum want the smoothest/fastest/economical car I can get (subjective, but anyway).

Trouble is why would I go out and spend £1k if the £150 option is doing the exact same. I've only seen two websites that seem 'reputable' and they are ABT and REVO, but these guys are mechanics not software developers (well, not websites anyway!).

Here are some of the common names I'm coming across can any one help me which in turn will help many other users out?

shark
angel
ABT
amd
REVO
superchips
DTUK

I'll put it out there, I'd love to see 300 BHP with the DPF intact and returning high 40's on my motorway runs (2-300 miles a go). There, I said it, my dream target for this car without additional modifications. Possibly a non-starter?!

 

[Paul @ Unit 9 Remaps]

to be honest the DPF will have to be removed to get the extra flow needed for good figures

 

[Dub2Dub]

For those doing their research like I did, I've spoken to Mark at South West, 01454 323 500 who was recommended by a local garage. Following that recommendation I did some googling and seems to be positive all round.

As I understood it, takes a 3rd party performance map, loads it, and tweaks it to suit your engine.

Sub £300 with Dyno.... Although not for me, I'm 4WD so I'll need to find somewhere that has a Dyno!

 

[desertstorm]

Have a look at my build thread.Theres a link in the signature. My car is manual with a CAPA engine so identical to yours.
I looked at all the tuner options basically all the companies you have listed and a few others including MRC.
In the end I took my car to Rick at Unicorn Motor developments in Stockport.
http://www.unicornmotordevelopments.com/
He is a forum sponsor on here and writes all the maps himself. My brief to him was get as much power out of the car as possible and make it reliable. I wasn't too fussed about keeping the DPF so that was removed and gutted when I took it to be mapped. This aids performance and economy, no more regens .
Rick doesn't have a 4WD dyno, his is a 2WD he has access to a 4WD but mine was mapped on the road using a baseline start map written by him and then ammending it. There are many torque limiters and various other issues that exist when mapping these cars, If you don't know about them you won't get what you want.
I believe 300bhp is probably possible with a DPF but it would be right at the limit, The DPF will cause losses and higher EGT temperatures in the turbo.
You can see the performance potential from the videos and timeslips I have posted at Santa Pod / GTI International. Your car with less weight/ better aero should be a little quicker.
The intercooler would definately be a worthwhile mod, probably around £300 for all the parts and an easy fit.
Depending on how you drive it on the motorway mid 40's is very achieveable in mine. Managed around 45mpg on a trip down to Harry Potter at Watford with a fully loaded car. The worst I have ever out of a tank was 27mpg with a fully loaded car, 4 adults,2 dogs .a boot fully loaded and a 1300Kg caravan on the back for the most part of it and we were stuck on the M5 for about 2 hours in very slow moving traffic.

Karl.