Anyone had problems after a remap?

[Transporter]

I know but the car is now with VW so I had to make a choice what to do next. I am guessing there is physical damage to repair anyway so my plan is to get it fiixed first then drive back to the tuner to get the stock map put back on then try and recoup the repair costs somehow.

How many km's have the car done in total and from the last service? Was the right oil used when serviced last? Also you should have the fuel tested, just to make sure the failure is not the fuel related. It's very easy to point at the performance tune and of course the dealer done that, at the same time I'm not saying that the failure couldn't be caused by the tune. Anyway, good luck with it and I hope it's not very expensive for you.

[gldgti]

kind of sounds like a hydraulic lifter has failed....

Thing is, in a diesel engine, theres not much can go wrong and the engine still seem to run perfectly and also make a loud noise like that.

If it is a lifter, pretty unlikely that a performance tune would be the root cause. And its also very unlikely VW would accept that the performance tune wasn't the root cause. (IMO)

[Lucas_R]

Unfortunate to hear mate. Obviously its possible that the tune was the culprit, but a tune can also quickly bring to the surface other issues with the car too - which is more likely the case. I assume you have chosen some type of reputable tuner to trust with your near new vehicle?

As mentioned before, how was the condition of the engine before tuning? How many km has the engine done? Is it serviced as required etc.

My brothers Octavia TDI (140hp) has been tuned for nearly a year now and he does alot of driving (about 40,000km since its been tuned) and the cars runs perfectly. That was using DNA Tuning which you might know is a UK based tuning company.

Plenty of other tuned TDI's on here by Bluefin/Superchips, CustomCode etc.

[DNA Tuning]

At this stage as others have suggested, if you get the tuner to put it back to stock and re-test then you can at least rule out whether or not the tune is either:

a) Not right
b) Revealing a mechanical weakness in the engine

[Naresh]

Guys thanks for the feedback. The car has been with VW since last week and only after 5 days of excuses did they actually look at the car in more detail. The same day they call me to say that there is a "performance enhancement" on the ECU and warned me it may not be covered under warranty to repair and wanted my authority to continue. At that stage only the engine cover was removed and the diagnostic tools used so without getting a copy of the stock map direct from Germany I don't know how they detected the remap.

The car is 18 monthls old and covered exactly 20,000 miles. The last service was carried out by the same garage 2 months ago at around 19,000 miles. I have only covered about 100 miles since the remap and it always ran perfectly before that with no sign of any problem whatsoever.

[walbjj]

not wanting to lay the boot in while a man is down, but surely u would have known the risks of choosing a lesser known tune vs the plethora of established guys out there.
i mean, if it was for a few bucks, then i guess this is a great example of why u should just stump up the extra few bucks and go with something that is known.

anyway, i think that putting it on a flatbed would have been the first option for me

[Wynnston]

Sorry to hear about your woes. Sometimes these backyard tuners are hit and miss. I tuned my old car with a small tuner (compared to the rest) and it was the best tune I've ever had, but having said that, I have a lot of friends that get tunes for their JDM Modified cars etc and I hear stories of snapped this, blown that etc. so it really is hit and miss. Of course, you can always have hiccups with the more reputable brands but they do a lot more R&D than the others and ensure that you're not putting a tune on something that has hidden issues already (the cause most of the time).

Re-Mapping the engine isn't going to get rid of that knock. It sounds very much like a bad lifter, or worse. Is it smoking a lot or anything else besides the noise?

[h100vw]

Get tuner to the car if you can't move the car. They surely will want to clear their name if they are worth their salt.

Gavin

[tigger73]

Get tuner to the car if you can't move the car. They surely will want to clear their name if they are worth their salt.

Gavin

Surely if it's a bench tune you can remove the ECU and take it to the tuner for reflash

[Naresh]

Basically the way this stands is that the car is with VW up on a ramp with the engine removed. The crank case looked ok to me but the bottom end contain small brass fragments and one piston was removed and on the table looking damaged. (I'm no expert in engines but there were scratches to the u-shaped section below it) The car has one of the newer generation tricore protected ECU's so was in fact bench flashed. Due to the noise I felt not travelling the 60 miles to the tuner and instead took it 4 miles to VW in an attempt to get the work carrired out under warranty as I was advised by the tuner the map was virtually undetectable.

Yes, in hindsight I could have risked a drive up to the tuner (and experienced a possible engine seizure) or taken on a flatbed but at the time there was no way I could have anticipated the scenario to have spiralled so out of control. After all, I have been running a 1.8T with a map for over 5 years from another lesser lower tuner with no issues and some good reviews from a colleague helped me decide on the current tuner in question. My initial choice was to pay a little extra and go with Revo but it's too late for that now and this whole experience has put my off remaps for life. Poor tuners, in my opinion, should be banned from touching cars as I believe (with backing from VW) that the remap is to blame and this particular tuner has very poor experience in common rail 2.0TDI's who put a bad map on my car causing this catastrophic failure.