ECU Remap Answers

PAS Performance FAQ'S

 

1. What do you do exactly?

We link to the vehicles ECU or brain with our unique remapping equipment through the vehicles diagnostic socket and read the current engine management file which is custom optimised for your vehicle. The technician programs the new PAS Performance optimised file into your vehicle and you then have opportunity for yourself to experience the amazing results. On some vehicles it is not possible to carry-out this function via the diagnostic socket so in this case the ECU is removed and either a chip change or boot loading function is carried out, direct into the ECU. The final effect is exactly the same, only the process is different. Depending on the vehicle, the remap normally takes in most cases less than 1 hour to complete the re-map.

2. Is it safe for the vehicle?

Our PAS re-mapping process enhances and optimises the power of the engine within safe limits, not beyond them. Extra power will also result in fewer gear changes. Manufacturers have to build in a tolerance for the parts in the engine, to manage the effect of wear and tear, production variations, and to ensure their warranty claims during their warranty period normally 3 years, are kept to a minimum.

Most race and rally engines are pushed for every last bhp, and thus they more common to fail, whilst normal car/van/lorry engines are limited back, well away from probability of multiple failures. Each individual engine is different as in how much it can be pushed in a remap, but a good remap from a quality tuner will never get close the limits of component failures

You will see that the top companies within the market place all develop vehicle improvements to similar outputs. Beware of tuners who claim significantly more, it's either lies hoping that the average customer wouldn't be able to tell the difference, or the engine is being pushed too hard and will quickly become unreliable.

3. Why don't the manufacturers do it?

Manufacturers generally sell one vehicle that covers various markets, with different tax and emissions regulations; different climates with extremes of heat, cold, humidity; different fuel qualities; different operating altitudes, etc. A manufacturer has to take all of these factors into consideration and make substantial compromises in the vehicles operation.

Sales and marketing also have a big affect on the way an engine is mapped. If you look the in manufacturer brochure at the engine specs, the torque graph will rise, then flatten out on a straight line, and then drop off. This obviously isn't how an engine breathes, and it's the request of sales and marketing to produce this flat lining of the torque. Why? Well it's about having better torque figures than the competition and about local market taxation laws.

4. What warranty do you give?

Every PAS Remap is guaranteed to ensure your complete peace of mind and continued service.We offer a lifetime warranty against software faults. If the installation becomes faulty, we will re-install the mod free of charge. A professionally remapped engine will not cause technical faults with a well serviced and maintained engine.

In the extremely unlikely event of a problem we will 100% stand by the quality of our product, should any fault be assessed to have been caused by the upgrade.

5. Please explain what remapping is?

If you want to tune your vehicle and still keep the vehicles safety and durability functions for the engine/transmission/ESP intact, the only way to tune a vehicle is to make changes in the existing control system of the engine.

That is exactly what we offer with a PAS Remap. Our tuning process has total control over all parameters at any moment, and we don't disturb the safety functions of the car, by deceiving the system.

Apart from an obvious power, torque and fuel economy benefits you get the following advantages with a PAS Remap.

6. Do you offer a trial period?

We are very confident that your PAS Remap will both improve your driving experience and save you substantially on fuel. But, don't take our word for it, try the upgrade for 14 days and if you are not delighted with the results we will take it off and give you a full refund.

7. What about insurance?

We advise that it is your responsibility to inform your insurance Company of any modification to your vehicle. We are finding that more and more insurance companies are not penalising their customers for saving fuel and recognise our economy upgrades. We can provide a certificate of conformity if required.

8. Do you keep a copy of the original tuning file?

Yes, in secure archival storage, should you ever require your vehicle to put back to original.

9. Does it affect the manufacturers warranty?

This question does not have a straightforward answer. There are European Commission laws in place to stop anti-competitve practices in the motor vehicle sector. Our research indicates that It is deemed anti-competitive and therefore against the rules for manufacturers to invalidate a warranty because a vehicle has been worked on by an after-market supplier of parts or services. We believe this should apply to ECU remapping and tuning services.

If it is stated in your vehicle’s documentation that remapping your ECU will affect the warranty then it is possible that your warranty may not apply. However, firstly the warranty company would have to prove that your vehicle has been remapped and secondly they would have to prove that a remap was the cause of a failure.

Unlike many remapping companies, we ONLY carry out sensible, tested remaps that stay within the mechanical limits of the vehicle’s components. A PAS Performance, remap has never been questioned in relation to mechanical or other failure. However, to give our customers peace of mind, we have fully underwritten product liability insurance warranty (optional cover), UK insurer so that in the (completely unheard of) event that failure were to occur and was not covered by standard manufacturers warranty, it would be covered by our own insurance.

Part of the European Block Exemption Ruling states that a manufacturer cannot cite after-market servicing or parts to void a warranty or reject a warranty claim. There needs to be proof that the work carried out is the direct cause of the failure. If this cannot be proved (and the burden of proof lies with manufacturer) then the claim should be fulfilled. Although this section of the ruling is mainly aimed at servicing we believe, at the time of writing, that remapping / tuning comes under the same rule – i.e. it has to be proven to have caused a failure or the manufacturer must fulfil the warranty claim.

10. How does the remap improve the vehicle?

A full PAS engine remap alters the fuel, boost and torque characteristics of the engine. By controlling the fuel pressure, injected fuel quantity, maximum permissible visible smoke limit, boost pressure from the turbocharger and the torque characteristic APAS Performance Map offers a fully controllable change to the engine characteristics, whilst still operating with full engine feedback control and within all the preset engine sensor limits.

11. What do diesel add-on tuning boxes do?

We do not fit add-on tuning boxes, which normally just interfere with engine management signals to trick the injectors into adding more fuel. Our service is a custom re-map of your ECU, specifically for your vehicle.

These differ from how a remap works. A tuning box relies on the principal of more diesel fuel = more diesel power. That theory is correct and boxes do increase power, but they can't control the amount of black smoke (maximum permissible visible smoke limit) coming out the exhaust.

Too much smoke is undesirable, both environmentally and visually. More importantly, the black smoke is un-burnt diesel fuel attached to combustion chamber, with deposits exiting straight out the exhaust pipe, thus wasting fuel which hasn't had any effect on power gain. The results are raised emissions, a higher thermal load on the engine (i.e. exhaust temperature) and frequently defects such as "bucking" are often the result. It should be clear what this means for your engine.

In a modern engine there are complex engine control systems that cooperate with each other to make everything work perfectly. A diesel box manipulates some signals in order to either increase the injection time or fuel pressure. Unfortunately this manipulation is done entirely without the engine control system's knowledge. This means that a diesel box tricks the engine control system of the vehicle and the consequence is that a large amount of values and control data will be incorrect.

 

 


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