Do-it-yourself ECU remapping

Does anybody know of someone who sells remapping software/hardware for the TDI 2.0? I am installing a mobile computer in my 2010 Jetta and I want to be able to remap my ECU at will for fuel economy and various performance levels. Has anybody done this before?

Are you sure you know what you are getting into? Are you asking the question you meant to ask?

It is possible to have the stock ECU remapped with a pre-developed complete program. It is not practical for a normal individual do-it-yourself mechanic to tinker with the ECU at the bits-and-bytes level. Also, most people don't get it programmed for "various performance levels". Your right foot selects how much power to use, no matter what it's programmed for. The stock ECU is already programmed very close to the best possible economy under the constraint of maintaining the emission control equipment.

Your car has an extremely complex ECU with something like 10 complete sets of maps for: normal driving down the road, driving while regenerating the DPF catalyst, driving while regenerating the de-NOx catalyst, driving while regenerating the de-H2S catalyst, and more ... You really don't want to get into that yourself ...

I don't want to develop maps on my own. However, I do want to get my car "chipped" but I want to be able to select between stock ECU maps and the stage 1, stage 2 or stage 3 tuning that is offered (that is assuming I can get my hands on performance maps or download them from the ECU after purchasing them). I don't want to start changing developed maps, but I do want to be able to select maps.

dirktheeng said:

I don't want to develop maps on my own. However, I do want to get my car "chipped" but I want to be able to select between stock ECU maps and the stage 1, stage 2 or stage 3 tuning that is offered (that is assuming I can get my hands on performance maps or download them from the ECU after purchasing them). I don't want to start changing developed maps, but I do want to be able to select maps.

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I am no ECU guru, but I think you will find the kinds of things that are "switchable" are the plug-in cards that tell an ECU false things to try to fool it into doing something that it is not programmed to do (i.e. shifting some parameter such as air/oil temp, MAP signal, etc.) so as to wander further down the fuel delivery, boost or timing curve of a particular map). I doubt you will ever see that in a VWAG CRD for all of the reasons Go Faster just posted.

Also, for again the reasons previously mentioned: just stick with a good PROVEN tune and keep your foot out of it if you want to be economical. Aftermarket tuners can optimize a bit more since they aren't making an EPA certified engine.

dirktheeng said:

I don't want to develop maps on my own. However, I do want to get my car "chipped" but I want to be able to select between stock ECU maps and the stage 1, stage 2 or stage 3 tuning that is offered (that is assuming I can get my hands on performance maps or download them from the ECU after purchasing them). I don't want to start changing developed maps, but I do want to be able to select maps.

Click to expand...

I am no ECU guru, but I think you will find the kinds of things that are "switchable" are the plug-in cards that tell an ECU false things to try to fool it into doing something that it is not programmed to do (i.e. shifting some parameter such as air/oil temp, MAP signal, etc.) so as to wander further down the fuel delivery, boost or timing curve of a particular map). I doubt you will ever see that in a VWAG CRD for all of the reasons Go Faster just posted.

Also, for again the reasons previously mentioned: just stick with a good PROVEN tune and keep your foot out of it if you want to be economical. Aftermarket tuners can optimize a bit more since they aren't making an EPA certified engine.

There are tuners; Aligator, Kerma and Rocketchip (soon) that offer flash tuners capable of carrying 2 tunes plus the stock tune. However, none of them have developed anything for the 09+ engines as of yet. I believe they are working on them, it just takes time to develop proper tunes. The CBEA engine is a complicated one to work on so it takes some time. I have no idea if these ECU's are flash programmable or not so it may never even be an option on these cars.

Besides, most people just tune it and forget it. There is no real need to change tuning unless you are upgrading hardware. You can have an engine chipped for high performance and still get good (and usually better than stock) fuel economy.

Fuel economy is determined solely by your right foot and your brain.

My right foot works just fine for switching between power and economy modes.

TDICADDGUY said:

There are tuners; Aligator, Kerma and Rocketchip (soon) that offer flash tuners capable of carrying 2 tunes plus the stock tune. However, none of them have developed anything for the 09+ engines as of yet..

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Are you telling me that these tuners download the entire programme on flip of a switch??

yes

There are various ecu programming boxes sold by Kerma and Alligator (and others maybe) that allow you to store the stock programming from your ecu when it is married to the programming box, as well as 2 other modified maps.

It's not flip the switch and change the programming on the fly though like you might be thinking of on current diesel trucks. These boxes require you to turn off the car and plug into the ODB port, reflash the ecu, remove the programming box, start car and go.

I have a new, lower power wintertime tune that I'm loading on my q-loader this am and will upload to my ALH later today. The q-loader will store my summer, high torque, tire destroying, medium smoke tune and my wintertime no smoke, lower torque, snow tire saving tune and I can switch back in the spring.

This thread might be insightful:

http://forums.tdiclub.com/showthread.php?t=259238

tivoKlr said:

There are various ecu programming boxes sold by Kerma and Alligator (and others maybe) that allow you to store the stock programming from your ecu when it is married to the programming box, as well as 2 other modified maps.

It's not flip the switch and change the programming on the fly though like you might be thinking of on current diesel trucks. These boxes require you to turn off the car and plug into the ODB port, reflash the ecu, remove the programming box, start car and go.

I have a new, lower power wintertime tune that I'm loading on my q-loader this am and will upload to my ALH later today. The q-loader will store my summer, high torque, tire destroying, medium smoke tune and my wintertime no smoke, lower torque, snow tire saving tune and I can switch back in the spring.

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See I just leave the high torque, tire destroying, medium smoke tune in all year round and just refrain from pressing the skinny pedal down far enough to destroy my snows.. Your right foot determines torque output haha..

dirktheeng said:

Does anybody know of someone who sells remapping software/hardware for the TDI 2.0? I am installing a mobile computer in my 2010 Jetta and I want to be able to remap my ECU at will for fuel economy and various performance levels. Has anybody done this before?

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Welcome to Freds TDI Club. Now, ROTFLMFAO, if it were only that easy

TDIJetta99 said:

See I just leave the high torque, tire destroying, medium smoke tune in all year round and just refrain from pressing the skinny pedal down far enough to destroy my snows.. Your right foot determines torque output haha..

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My thoughts exactly. Even stock torque output will spin snow tires at WOT. Plus there are still plenty of days in the winter when the roads are perfectly dry and you just want to pound onramps and back roads...

There are ways to store more than 1 program on the ECU. It just doesn;t seem like the currenty TDI software guys have put it into action. on my A4 (regular gas) i have 3 programs that i change by using my cruise control stalk. I have have a 93oct file, track file (100+ oct) and winter file (with lower torque request). It takes all of 10 seconds to change files. I am sure the TDI software guys will get to this eventually.

Hi I am not trying to hijack someone's thread but I have a question about permanent removal of limp mode from my 2000 tdi engine as I am using it in a off road vehicle and please don't say Malone's I all but begged for a program and they said fix the problem again I am using this power train in a non standard off road vehicle thanks for any help you can give me

If you are worried about limp mode, convert to mechanical and ditch all the electronics.

JRoaden said:

Hi I am not trying to hijack someone's thread but I have a question about permanent removal of limp mode from my 2000 tdi engine as I am using it in a off road vehicle and please don't say Malone's I all but begged for a program and they said fix the problem again I am using this power train in a non standard off road vehicle thanks for any help you can give me

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ALH is very easy to 'fix' by deleting codes from the computer's binary

get the $20 silver MPPS cable on ebay and 'find' winOLS software, get an account on ecuconnections forum and search the internal code numbers on there
There are some things that you can't eliminate from the harness like the N75 valve (or at least I haven't figured out how to eliminate them from the program)

What codes is it setting? (not 4 digit P0xxx codes, but the other 5 digit ones that the vag-com spits out)

JRoaden said:

Hi I am not trying to hijack someone's thread but I have a question about permanent removal of limp mode from my 2000 tdi engine as I am using it in a off road vehicle and please don't say Malone's I all but begged for a program and they said fix the problem again I am using this power train in a non standard off road vehicle thanks for any help you can give me

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Like I said in our email exchange, it's setting an underboost code which is the reason it is going into limp mode.

You need to fix the problem with the setup that's causing it to underboost..

[486] said:

ALH is very easy to 'fix' by deleting codes from the computer's binary

get the $20 silver MPPS cable on ebay and 'find' winOLS software, get an account on ecuconnections forum and search the internal code numbers on there
There are some things that you can't eliminate from the harness like the N75 valve (or at least I haven't figured out how to eliminate them from the program)

What codes is it setting? (not 4 digit P0xxx codes, but the other 5 digit ones that the vag-com spits out)

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Are you referring to this one?
Why do you specify silver?
https://www.ebay.com/itm/SMPS-MPPS-...199991?hash=item3cd06333b7:g:KHgAAOxyYYlRrvUQ

the blue one is vag-com, it can't edit anything meaningful
silver one is mpps, it can do anything you want, if you can figure it out in the binary

underboost codes can be removed easily, very common thing to do when going to wastegated turbos. Mine has the underboost and overboost codes removed and the SVBL set higher than the MAP sensor will read. Actually, still using the stock MAP sensor at 45 psi, because the fueling is all MAF controlled on mine.

TDIJetta99 said:

Like I said in our email exchange, it's setting an underboost code which is the reason it is going into limp mode.
You need to fix the problem with the setup that's causing it to underboost..

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Yup.

It's going into limp mode to protect the engine and/or turbo from damage, because the ECU has lost control of the turbo. Worth solving!