geethoi
Guest
Hey guys,
I’m sure there’ve been plenty of topics about this in the past but I’m a bit of a newbie to the forum so I thought I’d ask all you seasoned veterans for your opinions.
As the title will suggest this is all about whether to remap my 1.9 tdi Altea XL or not. The story so far…… I’ve just recently become the (proud) owner of said vehicle. We decided to go for the 105bhp version as it was the most economical (on paper!) As it turns out, it is good on juice but just not as good as they say. And the lack of torque throughout the rev range is very disappointing to say the least.
The last motor was an Audi A4 Avant 1.9 tdi Quattro Sport (130 bhp) This, in complete contrast, had as much grunt as I ever needed, as soon as I put my foot down we were off, an absolute dream to drive. This was probably helped by the fact that I had it remapped to (approx.) 180 bhp by those stand-out fellas at Celtic Tuning.
In fact, the only reason for replacing the A4 with the Altea was that the engine went pop (crankshaft/bearings/flywheel) at around 150k miles. Nearly all the mechanics I spoke pretty much said the same thing, that it was surprising I had an engine failure at such low mileage as the VAG 1.9 tdi engines are usually good for at least 250k.
Which got me to thinking, if they are good for that kind of mileage, why did mine go so early? The only thing I can think of is that I had the A4 remapped at around 75k, so I’d have been driving it around for 75k at increased the power and torque. I know a lot of tuners say that the engine can handle the extra power and torque as they are over designed and have a lot of safety factors built in. But maybe those built in safety factors are there for a reason (longevity of the engine?) so the engines are actually only designed to take the load from the standard (un-tuned) unit’s power and torque setting to achieve the 250k miles life. Once you increase the power and torque, you will increase the amount of fatigue the engine will have to endure throughout its life and consequently reduce the lifespan of the engine before something serious fails. Well that’s my theory anyway.
Which leads me onto my dilemma. On the one hand I want to remap my (woefully underpowered
) Altea 1.9 tdi to a more respectable power and torque figure (if nothing else, just so I can accelerate up a hill!) On the other, I want to keep this car for at least another 60k to 70k miles, but there is the fear that if I remap it things will go pear shaped again some way down the line.
So back to the question, remap or no remap?
Has anyone else had any issues with their remapped engines? What are your thoughts/opinions/views?
I’m sure there’ve been plenty of topics about this in the past but I’m a bit of a newbie to the forum so I thought I’d ask all you seasoned veterans for your opinions.
As the title will suggest this is all about whether to remap my 1.9 tdi Altea XL or not. The story so far…… I’ve just recently become the (proud) owner of said vehicle. We decided to go for the 105bhp version as it was the most economical (on paper!) As it turns out, it is good on juice but just not as good as they say. And the lack of torque throughout the rev range is very disappointing to say the least.
The last motor was an Audi A4 Avant 1.9 tdi Quattro Sport (130 bhp) This, in complete contrast, had as much grunt as I ever needed, as soon as I put my foot down we were off, an absolute dream to drive. This was probably helped by the fact that I had it remapped to (approx.) 180 bhp by those stand-out fellas at Celtic Tuning.
In fact, the only reason for replacing the A4 with the Altea was that the engine went pop (crankshaft/bearings/flywheel) at around 150k miles. Nearly all the mechanics I spoke pretty much said the same thing, that it was surprising I had an engine failure at such low mileage as the VAG 1.9 tdi engines are usually good for at least 250k.
Which got me to thinking, if they are good for that kind of mileage, why did mine go so early? The only thing I can think of is that I had the A4 remapped at around 75k, so I’d have been driving it around for 75k at increased the power and torque. I know a lot of tuners say that the engine can handle the extra power and torque as they are over designed and have a lot of safety factors built in. But maybe those built in safety factors are there for a reason (longevity of the engine?) so the engines are actually only designed to take the load from the standard (un-tuned) unit’s power and torque setting to achieve the 250k miles life. Once you increase the power and torque, you will increase the amount of fatigue the engine will have to endure throughout its life and consequently reduce the lifespan of the engine before something serious fails. Well that’s my theory anyway.
Which leads me onto my dilemma. On the one hand I want to remap my (woefully underpowered
) Altea 1.9 tdi to a more respectable power and torque figure (if nothing else, just so I can accelerate up a hill!) On the other, I want to keep this car for at least another 60k to 70k miles, but there is the fear that if I remap it things will go pear shaped again some way down the line. So back to the question, remap or no remap?
Has anyone else had any issues with their remapped engines? What are your thoughts/opinions/views?
