Overhaulin'

Dont remap your car... bad idea not as good as i thought?

I drive a 2006 Audi a3 2.0TDI i asked my local garage where i have been to for about 20 years if they know anywhere that remaps and they got some guy to remap it for £200 ... the remap has its good points... better mpg ( upto 70mpg @ 50mph in 6th) and major mid-range punch..and low rev pull... unfortunalty the car needed a new dual mass flywheel and clutch ( £1000) then water leaks so new water pump and cambelt!! which was only just changed not so long ago (£600) and still have water leaks and just been told the head gasket is going ( £900-£1000) and its gone through the front tyres like i would eating chocolate, its come to the point where we have to sell our car.. we loved the car but the remap has just started destorying all engine components... what do you people think?? i also blame the garage we have been going to for the past 20 years... i dont know anything about engine tuning... our audi had about 108,000 miles on the clock when it was remaped and they told us about the dual mass flywheel and didnt tell us that the remap would make it worse.. any thoughts??

Public Comments

1. You got ripped mate, remapping is good in loads of different ways, go to another garage and ask for their opinions, they've just been charging you stupid amounts for stupid things by the sounds of it and have done a shit job. You could possibly take them to court too. They clearly aren't doing their job right if they've had to replace near new items on the car. Honestly, ask around at other garages and see what they say!
2. Don't you think your car was set up originally by the people who know best? Why pander to the people who want to make a buck out of telling you they know better? Most remaps I have heard of have 'Ended in tears'
3. The remap will have had nothing to do with the problems you have described and if the flywheel was on the way out then the remap will have made no difference. You have a high mileage car needing attention to keep it going. My freind has an RS6 and he has had to spend thousands on it over the last 2 years. Audis look screwed together well but it seems are no more reliable than anything else
4. When you remap the ecu, theres a lot more needs to be done. you need to upgrade the clutch to match the extra horsepower, cone or other free flow air filter and bigger exhaust to allow more air in and more exhaust out to keep the engine cooler
5. Well, you never get something for nothing in this life and you've just found that out to your cost. It amazes me how some back street cowboys think they can set a car up better than one of the top 5 car manufacturers in the world. To be fair though, the faults you've experienced probably aren't related to the re-map, rather they're typical Diseasel Audi problems. DMFs are the work of Satan admittedly, and a common failure on VAG group cars, but every car needs new a cambelt every few years, and the head gasket failure is usually down to poor maintenance but the re-map may have been causing the engine to run a bit hotter than usual. Maybe you're just unlucky with this car, but frankly it's about what I'd expect from a Diesel Audi, they're nowhere near as reliable as some people seem to think, and doing a cheap 'turn the wick up' job on it at 100k miles was asking for trouble.
6. Lets face it its a tarted up volkswagen golf with a silly bloody badge on it.When Auto Union was an independent manufacturer they were good now they are just another overpriced Eurobox.Should have bought a beemer if you want anything like quality.