Remapping

This website is just to give you a little background about Remapping, Tuning, Tuning Boxes or as I answer the phone to people everyday call them super chips.

What are these Super Chips anyway?

Well first of all lets clarify Super Chips - "Superchips" is the company name for the most well known Remapping company in the business they have outlets all over the world, people often mistake there well known name as the actual procedure or job they want doing on there car saying can you super chip my car or do you do them super chips.

So then what is remapping?

Remapping is the process of getting the "maps" inside an ECU altered these maps control various parameters of the engine such as air-fuel ratios, fuel volume, fuel pressure, torque limiters, boost pressure etc.

How does this affect my car?

• Diesels - The most popular type of vehicle to get remapped is the Turbo Diesel engine these produce some of the best results on average depending on engine size most diesels will get around 35bhp and 70nm of torque extra, this makes a noticeable dramatic difference. This can also allow for an improvement in MPG take a look at these stories in the press (here and here).
  
  
• Petrol Turbo's - Again these produce an excellent upgrade of power on average around 40 bhp and 65nm of torque
  
  
• Normally/naturally Aspirated (non Turbo) Petrol cars - These cars get the lowest results as there is no turbo there is not much to adjust on average around 8-16 bhp and 20nm of torque depending on engine size, however the bigger engines and V6,V8 etc engines do get a better gains.

For a list of power results that your car may achieve have a look here (tuning results).

Will it affect my cars warranty?

The simple answer is YES, if a dealer finds out the vehicle as been remapped they will void the warranty on your car. If your car had to be chip tuned then a dealer may notice the ECU had been opened and if checked inside may see removal of a eeprom (for more info see Chipping further down) but most newer cars do not need this type or process.

Dealers diagnostic equipment cant read the specific map data of the car and even if it did they would have to have an experienced programmer to compare the data with an original which again they would have to be able to have. I myself have had my car into the dealers for lots of warranty work and never had an issue with my remapped car (Link).

Should I notify my insurance?

By law you should notify your insurance of any upgrade to your vehicle! Shop around as some insurers don't know what remapping is and others do if your having your car remapped for economy for example why should this affect you policy my insurance went up by £10 for having my car remapped. (Any insurers who may wish to advertise here please contact us at: info@super-chips.co.uk).

How is this remapping done?

There are 3 Main ways in how a remap is performed:

1. OBD - OBD is the cars diagnostic port where information from the ECU can be read using diagnostic equipment etc, this also is commonly used in the tuning business for remapping a vehicle using a specialist piece of hardware normally attached to a laptop however stand alone units are also available this equipment reads the data form ECU and allows Modified data to be wrote back in.
   
   
2. Chipping (chip Change) - This again is the part the people get mistaken with. Mainly for older vehicles (pre 2000) the ECU in particular vehicles could not be remapped via the OBD port so the ECU would have to be removed and then a EEPROM (memory chip) removed from the the circuit board this memory chip would the either be reprogrammed or a replacement chip would be installed as the existing chip could not be reprogrammed.
   
   
3. BDM - BDM which stands for background debug module is another way of programming newer car ECU's that for whatever reason cant be programmed via the OBD port, the BDM connects to pads on the printed circuit board inside the ECU and reads and writes the data from there.

Who does this remapping?

There are probably more companies now offering remapping than there are fast food chains, again a lot of these companies operate in the same way normally a bigger company who provides the tuning equipment with a group of other companies normally garages that offer other garages services, MOT's etc these normally operate as a franchise, agent or distributor for the larger company.

Can I start my own business remapping cars?

Of course whether you want to add it to your portfolio of car services you currently offer or you just think it would be a good business for you to get in to. Just about all of the bigger chain companies will allow you to buy a machine to be on there network of tuning agents some charge you a monthly fee where others just charge you for data you need to buy for the remapping of the vehicle.

Well that's as much as I can think to tell you for now but if you would like a non biased answer to any tuning related question i'll be happy to see if I can help email info@super-chips.co.uk.

Tuning Boxes

A tuning box is a plug in unit mainly for diesel vehicles but petrol turbo tuning boxes starting to be come available.

The most common of the tuning boxes is the COMMON-RAIL tuning box this box normally plug into the common rail sensor or the cars injectors and makes an adjustment to the fuel pressure this results in a good gain in bhp and torque and even can still give an increase in MPG.

As engines are advancing these tuning boxes are advancing also and the latest tuning boxes have multi channel technology these boxes plug into more than just the common rail, they plug into boost pressure sensors and temperature sensors etc this gives a better result and can also eliminates issues that people have with DPF (diesel particle filters) and the normal common rail box.

What box should I go for?

Well there are again so many available if looking on ebay I would say don't spend less than £100 some of these units may just be being controlled on resistance normally with some basic electronic components inside they give the ECU a false reading based on the electronic signal returned to the ECU after its passed through the box.

The more expensive boxes are micro processor controlled these analyse the signal from the ECU and accelerator pedal and make the adjustment based on programming from the boxes manufacture like in the remapping these units have been extensively tested to make sure there programming will give good results without damaging the vehicle.

Some single channel units with microprocessors can be picked up for around £100+ these are normally in plastic housing with a fitted wiring harness and for most cars will give a decent gain.

The more premium of the boxes retail at around the £300 - £400 mark these boxes are normally in a metal housing with a separate wiring harness and come in various types for whatever type of engine your car has.

What's best, a tuning box or a remap?

This is down to personal preference but a remap will normally give a slightly better result than a tuning box. However you can remove a tuning box whenever you like so if you are worried about warranty issues then you just unplug it when taking it to the dealers.

A tuning box can be either reprogrammed for a different car or can be sold on where as a remap will stay with the car unless you have it removed buy the people who installed it for you originally some offer this as part of the service some will charge up to £50 to have the car reverted to its original state.

Again if you have any questions on tuning boxes i'll be happy to help. Send me an email to info@super-chips.co.uk.