Remap a high mileage 2.0Tdi

JJJJNR

ok been thinking about a subtle upgrade for my car but not sure if i should bother or not, im planning to hold on to the car for the next while and dont cover the huge mileage i used to. It has 170,000 miles now but gets an oil service every 7.5k so everything should be ok with regard to the turbo.

Remap would cost about 500 euros but i will upgrade the intercooler pipe work to darkside hard pipes to prevent a boost leak thats another 400 euro, might do thi s before anyway as there a little bit of oil on them now..brakes are upgraded all round. Anything else i should consider changing before hand, like fuel or brake lines etc.

bazz26

Clutch and possibly flywheel are probably the only other things to worry about at that mileage presuming they were not changed. A remap might put extra wear on a clutch that has already seen better days especially if you start driving it hard.

Chimaera

€500 sounds very high for a remap. Have you contacted Chipped Ireland? They're very good and a custom map from them on the rolling road should be under €400 IIRC.

Oil changes every 7500 miles is a waste of oil and money. Use the correct spec oil for your car at the correct intervals and your turbo will be ok.

Oil in the intercooler pipes is perfectly normal: a small amount of oil will always escape the turbo shaft seals and make its way through the intake system. A good blast on the accelerator every once in a while will blow this through and keep things clear. The stock pipes are not going to rupture with the slight amount of extra boost a remap will bring either - keep the €400 for something useful.

Clutch/flywheel is the only element which will be seriously put upon by a remap. The money you save by not doing excessive oil changes and fitting unnecessarily beefed up intercooler lines could be spent on a Sachs performance clutch kit when it comes time to change it.

mickdw

I wouldnt call oil changes at 7.5k miles a waste of money. If paying labour for the oil change its possibly alittle excessive but if its only costing the price of oil and filter, well it can be a good thing.

Gary ITR

bazz26 wrote: »

Clutch and possibly flywheel are probably the only other things to worry about at that mileage presuming they were not changed. A remap might put extra wear on a clutch that has already seen better days especially if you start driving it hard.

The clutch and fly usually only come under pressure if you start driving like a spa tbh. If your driving style stays similar then it'll be grand

keithclancy

IMO You'll be getting a new clutch a few months after the remap.

YbFocus

Yep that's all I've ever heard, lads getting cars mapped and the dmf calling it a day soon after.
Mostly I think because when you get a car mapped you naturally want to drive it on more so it just multiplies the problem!

TBi

Chimaera wrote: »

Oil changes every 7500 miles is a waste of oil and money. Use the correct spec oil for your car at the correct intervals and your turbo will be ok.

My car would be wrecked if i stuck to the 'correct intervals' They are way too long for turbo cars. I'd rather pay the extra now to get extra life out of the turbo. It's not that more expensive and cheaper than a new turbo/engine.

MaxFlower

If you can do the oil change yourself, then I think it's well worth it. I didn't spare a previous car but always changed oil and filter at 6k and it had 270k on it when the clutch went. Engine was spot on though. I used bog standard oil too.

JJJJNR

Yea do the oil and filter myself, wouldn't dream about sending to someone at that interval, engine and everything else on the car is 100% hope I get another 170k miles out of it.. get my money's worth..

BuzzFish

When ppl post to these thread they should state whether they have remapped or not as there are a lot of "I hear this fails and that fails" without substance.

Angel Tuning remapped my car (Alfa 156 1.9 16v) @ 110,000 miles and as the posters above mentioned, I needed a new clutch at 120,000. the DMF however was fine.

@170,000 ish the inner CV joint (spider bearing) wore to excess and started vibrating meaning I had to change that also.

The DMF finally failed at 210,000 and I dropped in a new clutch while I was at it.

The car still runs perfectly, I also oil change every 7,500 miles.
I replaced by clock with a turbo gauge to keep an eye on pressure and it continues to boost correctly and without any issues.

I have however blown the lower turbo hose on the car once also but this is a weakness of the 156 as the rubber hose runs across the front above the road as has no protection. Lower engine covers are far too low on these cars and most have been removed.

Gearbox is also in perfect working order 220,000 miles in.

So read into that what you like, maybe these things could have happened without the remap, maybe they wouldn't but hopefully the info provided will help you decide.

TBi

BuzzFish wrote: »

So read into that what you like, maybe these things could have happened without the remap, maybe they wouldn't but hopefully the info provided will help you decide.

Can depend on the remap too, some remaps alter the engine slightly to give you slightly more power and efficiency, other remaps try to get as much power as possible out of the engine. This pushes the engine past it's safe operating point and leads to failures.

Chimaera

TBi wrote: »

My car would be wrecked if i stuck to the 'correct intervals' They are way too long for turbo cars. I'd rather pay the extra now to get extra life out of the turbo. It's not that more expensive and cheaper than a new turbo/engine.

Let me guess, you use whatever oil is on special in Lidl too?

I bought my car ('99 Passat TDI 90) with 148 000 km on it and have serviced it at the manufacturer stated intervals (15 000 km) with 505 01 oil (oils have been Castrol Edge Turbodiesel, Castrol Magnatec Turbodiesel, or more recently LiquiMoly TopTec 4100). The car now has 268 000 km on it with less than 0.5 l of oil consumption between services still (high oil consumption being a pointer towards a dying turbo).

It got a remap at 235 000 km and needed clutch and DMF at 240 000 km and doesn't get babied at all.

Short service intervals were needed in the days of mineral oils but with modern synthetics you can go to the manufacturer stated interval on a lot of cars without issue. You've also got no chance on warranty if you deviate from the manufacturer spec.

Popoutman

mickdw wrote: »

I wouldnt call oil changes at 7.5k miles a waste of money. If paying labour for the oil change its possibly alittle excessive but if its only costing the price of oil and filter, well it can be a good thing.

Depending on the engine, the 4.5l of oil could be costing over €60.. so it would be a waste of €200 if you change the oil three times faster than needed.

Take a look at BlackStone Labs, they do proper oil analysis and you'll get a real indication of how your oil is behaving, and if you really do need to change it. They are real tribologists there.

I've used them in the past and they've been pretty good. No other affiliation other than a satisfied customer.

On the VAG Tdi engines, the clutch/flywheel combo is effectively a wear item. Mine went at 175,000 miles, of which 85,000 was at a torque output of 320Nm...

darragh o meara

Chimaera wrote: »

Let me guess, you use whatever oil is on special in Lidl too?

I bought my car ('99 Passat TDI 90) with 148 000 km on it and have serviced it at the manufacturer stated intervals (15 000 km) with 505 01 oil (oils have been Castrol Edge Turbodiesel, Castrol Magnatec Turbodiesel, or more recently LiquiMoly TopTec 4100). The car now has 268 000 km on it with less than 0.5 l of oil consumption between services still (high oil consumption being a pointer towards a dying turbo).

It got a remap at 235 000 km and needed clutch and DMF at 240 000 km and doesn't get babied at all.

Short service intervals were needed in the days of mineral oils but with modern synthetics you can go to the manufacturer stated interval on a lot of cars without issue. You've also got no chance on warranty if you deviate from the manufacturer spec.

Did 99 Passats have dual mass flywheels?

I had a Passat tdi remapped myself a few years back and it was the turbo that gave up shortly afterwards. Coincidence probably.. The car was much better on fuel after the remap too surprisingly enough.

tossy

Popoutman wrote: »

On the VAG Tdi engines, the clutch/flywheel combo is effectively a wear item. Mine went at 175,000 miles, of which 85,000 was at a torque output of 320Nm...

Clutches and DMFs are a wear item on EVERY car.

TBi

Chimaera wrote: »

Let me guess, you use whatever oil is on special in Lidl too?

BMW/ Mini Spec Castrol Edge fully synthetic from the main dealer.

Engine problem with all Mini Cooper S', not the type of oil used. Google it and you'll find a load of other unfortunate souls.

Chimaera

darragh o meara wrote: »

Did 99 Passats have dual mass flywheels?

I had a Passat tdi remapped myself a few years back and it was the turbo that gave up shortly afterwards. Coincidence probably.. The car was much better on fuel after the remap too surprisingly enough.

All the TDIs had DMFs for MY '99. There was a changeover in '98 on some engines from single to dual mass flywheels.

TBi wrote:

BMW/ Mini Spec Castrol Edge fully synthetic from the main dealer.

Engine problem with all Mini Cooper S', not the type of oil used. Google it and you'll find a load of other unfortunate souls.

Yes some engines have had specific issues, mostly due to design flaws. That doesn't change my point that in general it's better to follow the manufacturer's specification. Specific issues will emerge pretty soon in a car's production run and can be addressed case-by-case but it's unreasonable to extrapolate from that situation to assume all cars should be serviced early because some have issues.

corkgsxr

Alot of manuals say 20k oil changes and lower that figure if you do alot of city driving or harsh conditions.


20k is mine. Yours could be 15 or 18 etc

JJJJNR

Chimaera wrote: »

All the TDIs had DMFs for MY '99. There was a changeover in '98 on some engines from single to dual mass flywheels.



Yes some engines have had specific issues, mostly due to design flaws. That doesn't change my point that in general it's better to follow the manufacturer's specification. Specific issues will emerge pretty soon in a car's production run and can be addressed case-by-case but it's unreasonable to extrapolate from that situation to assume all cars should be serviced early because some have issues.

i agree to a point but i think cars are engineered to fail just like lightbulbs are so should be serviced at shorter intervals if you do high miles under stress.. i.e fast daily long commutes, regardless what the manufactures book says.