Sorry but Im not getting into naming and shaming on here... a friend local to me had his Audi done by a well known and ahem, respected company and it was down 15 bhp and he also has mates with VAG group cars with similar tales.
Im sure there are companies that will do it properly, as for warranty claims, well thats a grey area. The dealer Im using says it will invalidate it.

nuovapanda said:

Sorry but Im not getting into naming and shaming on here... a friend local to me had his Audi done by a well known and ahem, respected company and it was down 15 bhp and he also has mates with VAG group cars with similar tales.
Im sure there are companies that will do it properly, as for warranty claims, well thats a grey area. The dealer Im using says it will invalidate it.

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Of course they will invalidate it, the problem for them is they won't be able to find out it's been remapped...

So, when you bring in your Multijet with its remap adding 25 bhp, and the service guy takes it out for a test drive because you have a warranty issue.... he comes back and says that 500 goes like stink, alarm bells start ringing and service manager rings you and says I think your cars been remapped, warranty is invalid
Its bound to happen.

seadragon said:

And Suzuki ECU's are as dodgy as hell, I speak from experience

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All new Suzuki ECUs are made by Denso, who happen to make most Jap cars ECU's which of course have an enviable reputation of very high reliability, so can't see how that works.

nuovapanda said:

The dealer Im using says it will invalidate it.

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I would think this is probably in the back of the mind of anyone with a remapped/tuned engine if they are still in the 3 year period. But I fail to see how a dealer can turn round and say 'we're not going to fix your failed air conditioning unit' or 'interior trim issues' because of an ECU tweak. Anyway, don't the dealers get paid for warranty work!?

Strangely I heard the other day that a tuning company turned up at a Fiat 500 launch in January at a very reputable dealer and was just walking around offering up services to potential 500 customers!!?? How confusing is that

Weighing up the pro's and cons it's the owners choice to get the work done if they want extra performance and most probably say to themselves that 'nothing is going to happen to my car because I'll look after it' in the hope that that's the case. If the dealer says, well we know you've had a remap/tune so we'll gladly replace your exploded clutch for a new one ---but for a price:devil:!!

Maybe you just have to accept that the extra fun factor could come at a hefty price and just get on with it live on and enjoy

(I Wish the Fiat group would offer a branded tuning service (Abarth tuning shop?) that retains the Fiat warranty)

J333evo thanks for your technical expertise and taking the time to write all that.

As for after market remaps...I'm not letting anyone touch it. Didn't buy a 1.3 multijet to race around in

J333EVO said:

All new Suzuki ECUs are made by Denso, who happen to make most Jap cars ECU's which of course have an enviable reputation of very high reliability, so can't see how that works.

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It WORKS like that because my old ecu went kaput and I had to get a new one (3 month wait, Mitsubishi ecu, same as my Vitara) and that ECU didnt work either.

Enviable would be a matter of personal experience I guess and I wont buy a Suzuki again, my cars power went down by about 30%.

seadragon said:

It WORKS like that because my old ecu went kaput and I had to get a new one (3 month wait, Mitsubishi ecu, same as my Vitara) and that ECU didnt work either.

Enviable would be a matter of personal experience I guess and I wont buy a Suzuki again, my cars power went down by about 30%.

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Funny that about Suzuki; My gf's parents own a c.20 yr old Suzuki swift (that has been driven every day by different members of the family. Not a thing wrong.

A friend of mine bought a new Suzuki Swift sport and has been having nothing but trouble with the keyless GO electric windows and alignment ( that's prob her fault though )

So it's all personal experience and luck of the draw really....unless reliability is due to simplicity...in which case all modern cars are unreliable....

Thing is with modern stuff is its not fixable easily... if my Panda goes wrong, which it hardly ever does then its right again very quickly with no messing or fuss... we have a VW which wont idle, its a 95 model and so far no one can fix it, hows that progress? Looks like we may have to scrap an otherwise perfectly good car, what a waste

Denso also make the Mk2 Punto wiper motor/linkages, and we all know what those are like

That sucks. A colleague of mine is having turbo (diesel) trouble with his late 90's passat estate. No one can tell what's wrong but he says he's losing power at motorway speeds and it is becoming a dangerous liability.

Thing is no one can tell whats wrong!!! How IS that for progress???

So how do you mean it don't idle? Does it stall at lights or something?

Baerius said:

That sucks. A colleague of mine is having turbo (diesel) trouble with his late 90's passat estate. No one can tell what's wrong but he says he's losing power at motorway speeds and it is becoming a dangerous liability.

Thing is no one can tell whats wrong!!! How IS that for progress???

So how do you mean it don't idle? Does it stall at lights or something?

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Thats why i changed the engine on my JTD, Fiat said the only way they could find out what was wrong with it was to strip the engie down

nuovapanda said:

So, when you bring in your Multijet with its remap adding 25 bhp, and the service guy takes it out for a test drive because you have a warranty issue.... he comes back and says that 500 goes like stink, alarm bells start ringing and service manager rings you and says I think your cars been remapped, warranty is invalid
Its bound to happen.

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I think this is a good point. But how can a dealer tech justify driving your car fast on a test run?

From what I've read on this forum (Alfa and VAG ones too) remapped cars have been going back to the dealers for service/warranty work without any issues at all.

Maybe it's just a question of time before they clamp down on it. In the mean time I wish the record was set straight once and for all.

It is going off topic, but lets be honest, how high Fiat come in reliability charts, not very is the answer, where do Jap cars come, high in general, in fact Ignis was 3rd best supermini in UK in 2006, Suzuki were fastest climbing car manufacturer as well, dealerships ranked 7th IIRC, but this is all irrelevant to the topic on a car I think is great.

Baerius said:

That sucks. A colleague of mine is having turbo (diesel) trouble with his late 90's passat estate. No one can tell what's wrong but he says he's losing power at motorway speeds and it is becoming a dangerous liability.

Thing is no one can tell whats wrong!!! How IS that for progress???

So how do you mean it don't idle? Does it stall at lights or something?

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Yep, stalls all the time.... wont tickover at all, tried diagnostic and other parts changed... so far no luck. Drives brilliantly otherwise.

Personally I'd steer well clear of re mapping, you have to understand the amount of development work that goes into driveability hot/cold climate altitude testing etc and its a compromise based on performance consumption and emissions, most diesel re-maps are just based on increased fuelling which brings increased smoke, the sometimes tardy set off with the 1.3 SDE is due to a fiat spec for low smoke from standing start. If anyone claims they can remove the lag and keep the same smoke levels then theres a job for them in FPT or Magnetti Marelli I'd guess.

AJ69 said:

Personally I'd steer well clear of re mapping, you have to understand the amount of development work that goes into driveability hot/cold climate altitude testing etc and its a compromise based on performance consumption and emissions, most diesel re-maps are just based on increased fuelling which brings increased smoke, the sometimes tardy set off with the 1.3 SDE is due to a fiat spec for low smoke from standing start. If anyone claims they can remove the lag and keep the same smoke levels then theres a job for them in FPT or Magnetti Marelli I'd guess.

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Yes. Understanding driveability restrictions due to hot/cold climates (atmospheric pressures) required by a globally distributed product is one of the main reasons drivers get their cars remapped

N500SHP said:

We've done 85,000 miles of testing with a 1.3 MJ engine with DPF's and have eliminated the lag on them. It was a real issue with these engines and an area that we concentrated on rather than ultimate power.

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Please can you tell me how you cured the turbo lag problem sent a pm would you like a smoke signal thanks

mandator said:

Please can you tell me how you cured the turbo lag problem sent a pm would you like a smoke signal thanks

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They've remapped the ecu. Have a look at their site www.nuova500shop.com

There was something else that has been niggling at back of my head for a few days now about the 1.3 MJ car.

Then I remembered.:idea:

It has very small brakes on front 240mm non vented??? and drums on rear, same set up as 1.2 if I am not mistaken so even if yes you replicate the performance of the 1.4 16V after its remapped, its never going to stop as well or as often from the higher speeds that the car can achieve cross country say with the extra power, so the 1.4 will always be quicker. Its a fundamental rule, to make a car go quicker, you need to make it stop quicker consistently. The 1.4 has 257mm vented front, 240mm solid rear discs so it has by Fiat been beefed up to cope with extra performance.

If you want the extra performance to keep up with motorway/dual carriageway traffic, then yeah get it done, if you plan on using car for spirited drives cross country, buy the 1.4 you get a batter base to start with, because diesel engines are more expensive to produce than petrol engines, so they had to save money somewhere to make it same price as 1.4, looks like brakes were one area. And if you change any of the components for anything non standard it will invalidate warranty and brakes are pretty obvious.