Remapping Vectra c 150bhp

bazmc35

Hi ive a Vectra c and was thinking of getting it remapped,

1. What about Insurance what kind of loading can i except.

2. Is it one map fits all engines or can it be suited for driving needs,

3. Who in Sligo dose it.

4. If its done without a rolling road how do you know if its done right.

Drummerboy08

bazmc35 wrote: »

Hi ive a Vectra c and was thinking of getting it remapped,

1. What about Insurance what kind of loading can i except.

All depends on your circumstances, age etc. Best to call your insurance company to check before you do anything.

2. Is it one map fits all engines or can it be suited for driving needs,

A custom map will be suited to the car and engine, a generic tuning box will be more a One-size-fits-all approach.

3. Who in Sligo dose it.

Nobody with a rolling road AFAIK. There's a guy in Galway, and a few in Dublin/surrounding areas.

4. If its done without a rolling road how do you know if its done right.

Ultimately you don't. You wont be able to see the increase in torque and BHP, nor will you be able to track AFR's etc.

The only way to get a car mapped is on a rolling road IMO, anything else is a waste of time.

ironclaw

If you are after a performance boost, a remap alone with no internal modification is not going to do much.

What type of increase are you expecting? Or is it for fuel economy?

Supergurrier

ironclaw wrote: »

If you are after a performance boost, a remap alone with no internal modification is not going to do much.

What type of increase are you expecting? Or is it for fuel economy?

It will do plenty tbh, easy 30bhp and much improved throttle response

Drummerboy08

You'll get a decent jump in torque in a diesel engine which will be the most noticeable. No need for any internal mods, or external for that matter.

bazz26

A remap is not designed to increase top end speed. It will increase torque and bhp which help get you there quicker.

Insurance is hit and miss, some insurance companies have no issue with it while others adopt the fear of the unknown.

jimgoose

bazz26 wrote: »

A remap is not designed to increase top end speed...

It is possible on a car that won't pull full revs in top gear in stock trim.

dougie-lampkin

bazmc35 wrote: »

Hi ive a Vectra c and was thinking of getting it remapped,

1. What about Insurance what kind of loading can i except.

2. Is it one map fits all engines or can it be suited for driving needs,

3. Who in Sligo dose it.

4. If its done without a rolling road how do you know if its done right.

1. I ticked the engine map modification box on my renewal under modifications, they didn't ask for any specifics and I wasn't loaded. Your mileage may vary.

2. It's pretty much one fits all for each engine, but a decent tuner will be able to dial it down a bit if you wanted. There isn't a lot of scope to develop fully custom maps on a standard engine, really all you can do is turn up or down fuelling at a given RPM under different conditions. To radically change the way the car drives you'd have to change the physical characteristics of the engine, like cam lift, crank stroke, compressor size, etc. This what determines the torque curve, the ECU maps are only altering the scale of the curve.

Any of them that claim to give you a "fuel economy map", walk away. Anyone that offers that clearly doesn't know what they're doing, or is only interested in your money. The set of maps currently in your car will give you the best MPG.

3. Be prepared to travel if you want it done right. A couple of hours drive to someone reputable is a lot better than replacing a welded turbo because you let a cowboy who doesn't understand or care about EGTs at your ECU.

4. A map won't be developed for your particular car unless you spend days at a rolling road and pay for the privilege. Ideally whoever does the job will have done a 1.9 CDTI before, and will have experimented to find a good map for that engine. You don't need a rolling road for this, a road test with a diag laptop plugged in does the same thing. The assumption is that your engine will be in the same condition as the guinea pig one.

Honestly, most of the tuning companies with rolling roads are using it as a gimmick so you can see the before and after power figures. They're not using the rolling road to tune your car unless you pay vast sums of money to exclusively hire it and a professional for at least a full day. They may turn down the fuelling if your car starts smoking on the rollers, but that's the extent of the tuning you're getting. There's mobile guys who can give you a better researched map than some rolling road garages.

ironclaw wrote: »

If you are after a performance boost, a remap alone with no internal modification is not going to do much.

What type of increase are you expecting? Or is it for fuel economy?

A remap to a (healthy) turbo diesel will easily see a good 30% extra power, with little to no black smoke. Of course you can expect to see a 30% drop in MPG at peak torque also.

It's also a common misnomer that a remap increases fuel economy. A remap is adding more fuel, it does not make your car more fuel efficient. Someone with access to a rolling road and several days of experimentation might be able to get a % or two extra MPG by playing with injection advance, rail pressure and boost levels, I don't know of anyone who offers this service in Ireland. It would have to be done for each individual car that comes in. You can rest assured that the manufacturer who designed the engine has a fair idea of its characteristics and spent many millions designing maps to suit it.

It's also worth noting that a common and cheap tactic by tuning companies is to alter the injection time table to increase fuelling. The injection time table is a flow rate chart, calibrated to your specific injectors from the factory, so the ECU knows how long to open the taps for a requested injection amount at the current rail pressure. Altering this map tricks the ECU into dumping more fuel than requested, which has the effect of increasing the calculated MPG you see on the dash. This is where a lot of the increased MPG claims from remaps come from. If you were to do a proper measurement by brimming two tanks, you'd see that your MPG has decreased rather than increased. This is also how the vast majority of plug in tuning boxes operate.

bazz26 wrote: »

A remap is not designed to increase top end speed. It will increase torque and bhp which help get you there quicker.

Generally the top speed will increase, unless you were already on the limiter in top gear pre remap. By increasing the power, you can get further up the rev range. You're right though, it's not designed to do that, it's just a by-product.