Not advice on the specific engine, but I have a VW 1.6TDi van remapped, and it transformed it.
No negative points at all.
I would expect the same from the 1.4.
Have just taken delivery of a Leon ST FR with the above engine and my midlife crisis has already kicked in a touch harder than I thought it would, so does anyone have any experience of having this engine remapped - common figures suggest 170-180bhp and 300nm is the ball park for a stage 1 map.
I've never had it done previously, so any experiences or advice would be greatly appreciated.
Cheers
Not advice on the specific engine, but I have a VW 1.6TDi van remapped, and it transformed it.
No negative points at all.
I would expect the same from the 1.4.
I got the remap done the week I bought the van, so had no 'before' mpg to compare too.
I do my own servicing so no issues, but if you plan to go to a Seat dealership they may plug in and wipe your map.
If the car is still under manufacturers warranty be aware that a remap could invalidate such warranty.
It will show up on diagnostics even if it is deleted prior to any work being undertaken.
As above, beware of the warranty. Especially if it's a lease.
Sent from my Pixel 2 using Tapatalk
new Seat/Audi/VW Group cars have something called TD1 that can be flagged by remapping the vehicle. if youre looking to add some extra power to your car then take a look at these guys www.diesel-performance.co.uk as they offer a plug and play tuning box for your 1.4 Leon
I thought the VAG TSI was petrol rather than an oil burner!
With that td1 business it's seems like a big risk getting a remap.
Remapping a petrol engine can be a mixed bag and of course there will be warranty implications.
Diesels are more straightforward as there is usually a huge excess of air to the engine so a remap involves adding lots more fuel at the right times - usually by raising the pressure in the common rail and deceiving the sensors. Hence some remapped diesels are very very smoky when you cane them and smell of neat fuel passing through the exhaust.
Petrols are far more critical on the stoichiometric mixture and don't enjoy being run rich as it fouls the plugs and causes misfires, and will potentially detonate when run too lean. IF someone really knows what they're doing there are decent power increases to be had, but often this will involve improving the breathing, improving the exhaust, possibly camshafts, uprated pistons which will be running hotter etc etc - a whole world of pain beckons even before you consider the clutch, brakes, MOT emissions and importantly insurance.
Personally I wouldn't bother as you will still end up in the queue on the motorway.
I had that exact car for 2 years as a company car. It's a cracking engine, and I would suggest that 150bhp from a 1.4 petrol is pretty good to start with in a production car.
Do you know of a company that is offering the power upgrade you suggest ? I would check their claims, and if it's not your car, then be really careful as your warranty could be voided.
I am also not convinced that the clutch will be up to that power increase. Mine juddered a bit when I got rid of it.
Pete
Remappng an engine that’s already giving a high specific output sounds distinctly risky to me.
If you want a faster car buy a faster car, that’s the sensible answer. Buy the right tool for the job.
Paul
I'll admit that I don't have the technical knowledge to argue the point but I'm quite surprised by this.
I have never heard of any of issues being more prominent from petrol engines due to remapping than diesel engines. Is this a well known and documented phenomenon? I've remapped numerous petrol (turbo) cars and never suffered a hint of a problem from any of them but I will always pay more for a well-developed and specialist map.
Once out of warranty the 'if you want to go faster, buy a faster car" argument just doesn't stand up. There is a huge margin of safety built into the engines for both reliability and emissions compliance, not to mention the deliberately conservative tuning of cars to not have lower models tread on the toes of more expensive models. Depending on the engine it's usually possible to get large (20%) power increases without hitting the limit of any of the engine components.
I’ve been running a TMC Tuning Box on my Golf GTE for 50k miles now, it hasn’t missed a beat. (The GTE uses the same 150bhp TSI lump as your Leon, just with an electric motor too).
Power is approx 180bhp, and my mpg is actually marginally higher since the box was fitted.
The scare stories are often put out there by people who have never used a plug in box product, and/or prefer a remap.
The TMC, in common with lots of the better plug in boxes, connects to the cam shaft, air flow and manifold pressure sensors so it’s using a few parameters to achieve the results.
You can get better ultimate gains with a map, especially if your car has other modifications like an exhaust or intake, but if you want a bit more go from a standard car and would prefer if it was removeable then a plug in is the way to go.
With my insurer, there wasn’t even an increase in premium when I told them I was fitting one.