Does Car Remapping Or ECU Tuning Work?
Car Remap Service In London: A Guide
How does Car Remapping Service and Car Tuning work? If you’re reading this article, then you must be here to do the research and find out if it’s for you; we’re here to help meet your needs and to let you know whether or not your car is suited. Rather than a how-to guide on how to DIY it (which we don’t recommend) we’re instead here to teach you about what it is and whether you should do a Car Remapping service in London.
By changing the variables on your car, you can create the perfect mix for peak engine performance.
Let’s tackle the commonly asked questions based around car remapping service:
Table of Contents:
- So What is a Car Remap?
- How Does Car Remapping Work?
- What Does ECU Remapping Do To My Car?
- Is My Car Right For A Car Remapping?
- What Will Happen To My Vehicle Before The Remap?
So What Is A Car Remap?
Car Remapping really comes from our need for speed: our love and joy of getting that tingly feeling when we put our pedal to the metal; of feeling the oomph as our car performs how we always dreamed it would; the adrenaline of high performance and ultimately feeling that high of freedom and speed on the road. We’re here to guide you through whether this feeling is attainable for you and if your car remapping service in London is in sight.
You might see the terms ‘car remapping’ and ‘ECU tuning’ used fairly interchangeably; that’s because they’re the same thing. ECU tuning is to do with when the Engine Control Unit (ECU) is tinkered with to optimise the capacities and settings across several areas of the car’s performance and expression.
At Car Remapping Service in London, we plug-in to write over the settings that the car has with a new software and original files that control a number of different areas of the car, including:
• Fuel injection;
• Airflow;
• Sensors; and more!
All of this is done within the legal parameters to ensure that your car remapping makes your cars fly, but in a way that is safe, insurable and durable.
How Does Car Remapping Work?
When you buy a car from a manufacturer, it would have generally been mapped with longevity in mind; this is because the manufacturer wants to do all that they can to ensure that your car is going to fly through the warranty period completely issue-free. A good way to do this, is for it to be mapped to an average level of speed performance, to take pressure off all of the key components such as your gearbox.
A remapping means that the software is tweaked to the owner’s specifications, and the possibilities of what the car can achieve is, quite literally, remapped. Car remapping service in London can be a bit of a minefield, so we’re here to make it easy for you.
The ECU software that the car comes with is remapped via the car’s serial port (AKA an OBD port) by plugging in a new software. Previously, this would have been done via a literal re-tuning of the car’s carburettor by a mechanic, kind of like a musician tuning up a guitar for the best sound.
Nowadays, the process is quite different and based around software and electronic data, as opposed to a hands-on engine tune of valves. This is as cars are now designed to have all of these things changed via the car’s computing system, hence the change in name from car tuning to car remapping as it takes on a new form.
What Does ECU Remapping Do To My car?
The combination of how you plan to drive your recently remapped car, combined with how the car remapping has been carried out, will determine the ultimate performance of your recently tuned whip. If you’re really aiming to get the most out of your newly optimised car, you may drive it slightly differently to get the most out of the engine to really have fun with your new beast.
There are a couple of things to bare in mind as side-effects of this, however. One of the biggest ones, for many people, is fuel economy. A lot of the time the car remapping is based around getting the ultimate performance out of your car and one area of this is demanded the most: speed. In order to get faster 0-60mph performance and, ultimately, speed, fuel injection into the engine and airflow into the engine is changed and optimised. This optimisation more means more fuel into the engine, so your engine become very thirsty. A thirsty engine means higher fuel costs.
For many people, these higher fuel costs are a necessary evil of the car remapping process, because it ultimately leads to that supercar feeling that is truly special, leaving your mate’s car in the dust. This ‘enthusiastic’ form of driving means that you also either consciously, or subconsciously, give your car more welly when driving around after the car remapping.
Now, if you play ball with your car and drive it more economically, this will of course be a different story. You can do this by making the most of the torque, power and increased rev range between gear changes, which will improve things significantly.
If you car remapping is done by a reputable place (like us!) you can have horsepower increased by up to 30-40 bhp and torque of up to 80nml – now that’s what we call a tasty drive.
Another big, fat, plus-side to this, is that your car’s engine will respond more to you, meaning that during long drives on the motorway, you can overtake with ease and confidence, meaning less gear changes and an ease of handling situations requiring more torque without the need to drop to low gearing. If you use your car remapping in a strategic way, your fuel economy will actually get boosted. We love this part of car remapping service!
Get Car Remapping Service Today: Book Now
Is My Car Right for a Car Remapping?
A big question to consider: is car remapping is right for your particular situation and car? It can be expected that any car modification, maintenance or change to your vehicle will have it’s perks and drawbacks, so it’s important to consider both sides before going ahead with your car remapping in London.
The 5 main considerations to make are:
1. Is my car the right age for a car remap?
One consideration to make is around the age of your vehicle: if your car was on the forecourt before the year 2000, it’s likely to be too old to be able to run the remapping software and to achieve optimisation.
2. Who is conducting the car remapping?
Unless you can hand-on-heart say that you’re an expect in the field of cars and remaps, we really don’t recommend that you attempt the car remapping via DIY methods. Although it may be tempting to save on the cash expenditure, you’re likely to cost yourself a lot more £££s in damaged parts and a faulty system in the long run. By going with Car Tuning London, you’re massively minimising your risk and creating a safety net for any issues that may crop up in the future.
3. What does my insurer need to know about my car remap?
You may see a change in your car insurance costs by opting to go for car remapping; you’ll need to give your insurer a buzz after you’ve had the car remapping completed to let them know that you’ve had it done (as well as if there have been any other car mods, of course).
4. Does my car have the right build for a car remapping?
A reputable car remapping company, like Car Tuning London, will be more than happy to explain whether your car is right for car remapping before you decide to go ahead. For example, you may be advised to change or upgrade certain parts of your car so that your car is then able to get the most of a car remapping service in London.
Remaps create a significant increase in power, so it is possible that your car will need have these improvements in order to really be able to handle the power of the car remapping. If your car is built to be able to take more power, a car remap could work excellently for you, without the need for upgrades, but if it isn’t built for it, it’s good to get advice on the best way to go before taking plunge.
Turbo diesel engines (TDI, HDi, CDTi) are especially well-quipped for handling ECU software changes and can be remapped beautifully and increase your fuel economy by up to 10%.
5. Any pitfalls to my car getting ‘chipped’?
It’s certainly true that engine remapping could cause issues with your car, mainly with it putting additional stress and strain on your gearbox and turbo, but it shouldn’t affect the reliability as long as you go for a reliable car remapping service expert like Car Tuning London. When developing our software, we were careful to ensure the temperatures and pressures were all where they were supposed to be, which means your engine should be flying with no problems at all.
What will happen to my vehicle before the remap?
A visual inspection of your car will be carried out to ensure that there are no problems in the engine bay that would prevent a car remapping service from being carried out. Provided this all looks great, we will then connect our diagnostic equipment to see if there are any error codes that may have been flagged – this is to ensure that there haven’t been any flags by the ECU that may cause the issues later down the line. If this is all perfect, we are then good to start the car remapping process, usually be beginning through connecting a computer to the car, downloading the data files and optimising the best settings to proceed tuning the car with.
After this, we start the engine once again to carry out a further diagnostic check that there are no system errors flagged at this stage either.
Next up, it’s time to take the car for a spin! We take it for a test to carry out further checks by one of our fully ensured engineers. If the car passes all the usual road checks, then it’s great news: we are ready to begin. Once the car remapping is done, it’s time to take your baby for a spin and to have fun!
If you decided to buy a new car ahead of the remap, webuyanycar.com is a great place to start to find out the cost of your current vehicle. Contact Us or Book Now for your car ramapping.
(no mods needed) for stage 1 remap: you do not need to do anything on your vehicle.
If diesel: Dpf delete (needs to be physically removed from the car) minimum. Intercooler & air intakes optional but helps.
if petrol: full decat minimum, Inter-cooler & air intakes optional but helps.
=full decat or do full exhaust system including downpipe + Intercooler, air intake
Non-Turbo: can not have stage 2, because for stage 2 need a standalone ecu, good turbo, inter-cooler, air intake.
Hybrid turbos plus intercooler, decat/dpf delete, exhaust system & air intakes minimum.
full decat & a good exhaust system is required
Makes the gear change quicker and crispier and rev matches better with a stage 1, Gets rid of gearbox lag
Gearbox remap is not adding extra power it is that engine torque and torque to the wheels will be married up, rather than for example, engine torque is 400nm whilst torque to the wheels from the tcu is only 350nm, both will be 400nm
no turbo no pops & bangs nor popcorn
=> Petrol Car (pops & bangs): need full decat -remove inside of cat or replace with a de-cat pipe/down pipe, cat are different on all cars but it comes off the turbo or manifold on non-turbos. Decat cost starts from £75 >
=> Diesel Car (popcorn): need full dpf removed to hear it. dpf removed cost starts from £75 >
***The word decat, stands for D-for delete and C-for cat, which stands basically for a deleted catalytic converter. A car exhaust system has a catalytic converter fitted to it, to remove the dangerous gases created by gasoline burned in the engine.***
Only on diesel cars, must remove DPF filter, need to reset dpf values & then map the file.
Can I leave dpf but delete dpf from the ecu? Yes, but, you will still have dpf issues, DPF will still get blocked, car can go into limp mode and lose power.

(dpf remove/delete is not required) but, to delete EGR you must disconnect EGR and add a blanking plate. When you do EGR delete you are also recommended to delete DPF otherwise after 2/3 months your DPF will be blocked because of the EGR delete (car can still go into limp mode). 
Not all cars need to disconnect AdBlue tank, you may ask your file supplier.
=> Disconnect the AdBlue, reset value, read & write. Some cars AdBlue tank in the boot or under the car.
***Need some tools to disconnect -Ratchets spanners***
need to find location of most modules that need unplugging on a lot of vehicles.
swirl is a part inside the engine & you must unplug/ remove it before you map swirl flap. Once you remove another fault code may come, note that and send to office.
dtc is an error code, you need to know which dtc is possible to delete which is not can’t just delete everything
Audi/VW have this in the boot it tells you engine and gearbox code
other information:
Select Your Service (location: e151pg)
Stage 1 -£175 (all maps 100% custom)
Gearbox/ DSG Remap -£250
AdBlue Delete -£225
Stage 1 & dpf/egr- £225
Stage 1 & adBlue delete -£250
Stage 1 & crackle/ pops & bangs – £250
Bench Remap cost extra -£50
Stage 2 – £275, mods required
Stage 2 & dpf/egr/adblue – £295
Stage 2 & pops & bangs – £325
EGR/DPF/adblue/nox sensor – £175
Original File Supply – £150
RTO (return to stock) only if we have tuned it – £75
Mobile Service starts from -£25, vary depending on the distance

