TDI 75 remap longevity

[timmus]

You’re never going to prove or disprove VW motorsport’s assertion

Indeed. It’s also impossible to disentangle the remap from the driver and other associated variables. If, statistically, more remapped cars (throughout wider society, not within this community) die at a younger age, can the blame be at all attributed to the remap itself? Perhaps those who remap their cars are statistically more likely to drive their vehicles in a punishing, unsympathetic manner. Perhaps those drivers would have killed their vehicles prematurely anyway, even had the car not been remapped. Controlled scientific studies would be challenging to conduct.

So for the way a lot of people use their A2’s it’s probably fine, though that’s a million miles away from saying that any manufacturer could safely increase their engine’s output by x% with no adverse effects.

The manufacturers have to take many variables into consideration when writing the original map. I discussed throttling the output for insurance purposes in my previous post in this thread. Another factor is that fuel quality varies throughout the world. My remapped A2 is always fed the high quality fuel that we’re all used to in Western Europe. The remapping process was done using good fuel, and assumes that good fuel will continue to be used. However, had the same car been bought by someone who exported it to a less affluent area of the globe, they’d have needed a map that was happy running on poor quality ‘jungle juice’.
Car manufacturers need to write a map that’ll cope with huge variations in conditions and still run reliably.
If I was to drive my A2 overland to South Africa, via the Middle East and through Sudan, etc, it may be prudent to drive on a standard factory map and accept less oomph. Anyone up for a road trip!?

Cheers,

Tom

 

[CrispyEdd]

That's a journey and a half! Take a spare fuel button and earth cable

If you map a car sensibly but drive steady I doubt you'll do much damage, but some oomph if you need it. The power doesn't get used unless you put your boot down.

 

[Evoman]

Mine now near 250k miles, still going strong though unfortunately it didn't quite make the 250k mark without needing the original battery replacing...!

 

[Kramretsimis]

I fear I risk making myself very unpopular by posting this, but I promise I’m not trolling, just doing my homework before buying.

So I was discussing A2s with my dad this afternoon; he used to own one, and a 30 year career as a research scientist for Shell means that he’s got more knowledge about the internal combustion engine than an awful lot of people - not that he likes to talk about it . I spoke to him about how lots of people had remapped their 75 TDis, and evidently had very good results, and he was adamant that it was a really bad idea. His opinion was that the TDI 90 had the DMF and balancer shaft for a good reason, to combat the vibration inherent in a 3 cylinder engine, but they were absent from the 75 because it’s lower output didn’t necessitate them. By performing a remap so the output of the 75 is similar to, or even higher than, the standard 90, he asserted that this would put stress on the engine that it wasn’t designed to take without the DMF and balancer shaft, and that this could have a fairly drastic effect on longevity. I have to say I could see the cold logic in his argument.

So would anybody here like to provide evidence to refute his claim, either from practical experience or technical knowledge? How long have people been running remapped 75s without issues, and has anybody experienced problems?

Sorry again if it appears I’m being controversial for the sake of it, honestly that’s not my intention. But if the TDI 75 is seen as one of the most reliable options, I don’t want to risk significantly compromising it at the expense of improving the driving experience.

I had my 75 remapped about 3 years ago, also a Egr delete, it was greatly improved, I never experienced any adverse reactions from day one , when I recently sold it, it was still pulling very well with 190k no vibrations or smoke and very quite for a 3 pot tdi. Incidentally talk of members remapping is a taboo subject, when I was selling my car I had a enquiry from a very inquisitive chappie who only seemed interested in who had done the remap, when I quizzed him about why he needed to know, he got he hump and was abusive because I didn’t divulge the details, mums the word !!!