Remapping your car under warranty

[The Doc]

To be done properly when I get 3 spare hours.....

The only way to make a VW dealer diagnostic tool not see that your have had or currently have a remap is to remove the ECU and flash it off the car.

To be 100% sure that this would not be seen at any point the cars ECU would need to be put back to standard by the same method prior to going into the dealers for any work of any kind to avoid detection. (i.e. the dealer may find another fault on the car while it's in that you are not aware of and VW DE may ask for a download etc)

If you self flash your car through the OBD port:

In the event of a large component failure VW DE will ask the dealer to download certain programs from your car, they can then see that it has been flashed too many times or in some cases can't read out the information they require as the "clever tuning company" may have put anti read software in place.

Please feel free to ask further questions on this and I'll try to help 

[mike.]

Does opening the ECU not void the warranty as well?

I thought there were some sort of security screws on the bracket holding the ECU.

[The Doc]

Does opening the ECU not void the warranty as well?

I thought they had some sort of security screws on them.

Yes in theory, but you'd need to remove it to see and the security bolts would be in place - it's much easier to plug into the diagnostic port hence the "VW dealer diagnostic tool not see"

When I flash an ECU off the car I remove then replace the security bolts, see the post here :- http://www.golfgtiforum.co.uk/index.php?topic=203496.0

[GolfTi]

Does bluefin not reset the flash counter?

My warranty is nearly up with no problems, 30k+ running a bluefin remap so not that worried, interesting to know 100% though.

Never thrashed (for long). Just the odd bit of fun now and again.

This (ed35 chunk thread) is a bit naughty of VW, they could lock the ECUs easily if they wanted, obviously they don't as it would affect sales.

Watch out all you people with rear LED lights/RNS/Xenons/wheels or anything else retro fitted. If VW are playing silly bu9gers then all could, in theory, cause warranty issues.


The remap well worth the tiny risk IMO.

[Rhyso]

The majority of ecu's are locked these days.  Try remapping a derv via OBD...........

[Ed35 chunk]

Going to speak to solicitor Tom and get my car back on the drive, sadly not fixed, would like to thank all for there help and advise

[ScottA]

Fortunately I have been very lucky in that my clutch was replaced when it was slipping due to a leaky slave cylinder, despite the car being mapped and showing as mapped when VW ran diagnostics on it. I have found a good VW dealership and I am grateful that they helped me out, as they could have refused from the beginning and I would've had a hefty bill to pay on a 2-3 month old car.

It has certainly opened my eyes to the fact that remaps can cause warranty problems. I never had a problem with warranty on my A3 but I didn't really have any serious failures so to speak, only a few little issues every so often. Either way, I would agree it's a small risk to take as a remap totally transforms the car.

Would I do it again? yes

Would I now flash it back to std if I had a new car and it had to go in for warranty work? probably - but I was too tight to pay £100-150 extra for the unit when I had my car mapped, and even then VW might still be able to see it

[The Doc]

Cool mate, I'm glad you'd still get her done, I'm just giving people the benefit of my knowledge so you can go forth knowing what's what.

[Rhyso]

I think having an upfront and open dialogue with your dealer is also key

[ScottA]

I think having an upfront and open dialogue with your dealer is also key

+1 I think it's good ... although they did say "don't do it" and I did anyway but I told them I had. There are a few master techs at the dealer and one is totally anti remap and another has mapped all of his cars and thinks it's great. Just luck of the draw really, I guess if you find someone who's had a mapped car themselves then they will fight a little bit more for you, should they have to.