118 octavia Awesome results with Superchips and Bluefin

[Graybags]

Easy, there is no substitute for power. Let alone power at such economy..

It was tongue in cheeck and a bit of stiring. A 500hp would be fun and sound great (V8 Maserati anyone?) but for the power and fuel economy my Vrs is fun too but I didnt buy it for either really its just worked out that way.

To put an end to this fuel economy after being reflashed how about I drive from a to b, lets say Melbourne to Bendigo with Bluefin installed and without it driving with the cruise on same speed both trips, should give some indication. I suspect the extra torque from remapping gives the advantage of holding higher gears and lower revs to aid fuel economy.

[brad]

I've yet to see any proof that they can run more efficiently with remapping of the ECU including increasing boost, altering timings and increasing fuel delivery. Volkswagen spend billions of dollars on making cars more efficient and you're claiming that just by making a few changes to the ECU you can produce both more power and reduce fuel consumption.

As I said, my consumption didn't improve but I wouldn't call going from 6.5L/100km to 6.8L/100km as being anything terrible & I'm pretty sure I know why it has changed as well - because I do lots of flat motorway driving & I'm sitting on 110kmh for a lot of the time. If I'm on a call & sitting in the slow lane doing 70-85kmh then often at the end of the motorway I'm sitting on 5.2-5.5L/100 for the 40km trip.

While I agree that VAG and others spend a lot of money doing their maps, you have to remember that they map the cars for the lowest common denominator and many different countries with vastly different climates & fuel qualities. Lots of turbo cars run rich to stop detonation in hot weather or with poor fuels. Holden does the same with the LS6 (and previous V8s) so that they can run on 92ron for tight-arse Aussies. The 118TSI in question has a minimum octane requirement of 95ron. When you do a remap you have to go to 98ron or you will get detonation (LS6 et al are exactly the same & need better fuel for the higher tune). I know for a fact that Commodores get much better economy with a remap.

WRT factory maps, often the manufacturer gets it wrong too. eg: look at how many ECU updates the twincharger engines have had since inception. ALso how many crap tunes that SUbaru have allowed into Australia (B4 & the original quad-cam 2.5 to name just a couple)

perhaps you could provide some proof that it reduces fuel consumption as I'm sure that bluefin would have had some independent testing performed as it's a big selling point (or for that matter some independent tests of any of the companies).

With turbo-diesels, Superchips/Bluefin offer a money back guarantee if you don't get better consumption. They make no fuel economy claims with turbo-petrol engines.

I didn't Bluefin mine to improve economy, that aspect of the vehicle was already far better than I'd expected.

You had a bad experience with Bluefin IIRC? Crap packaging, bad service, etc? Or was that the other handheld device? We all have different experiences, mine was/is good & I'd go Bluefin again.

[Maverick]

You had a bad experience with Bluefin IIRC? Crap packaging, bad service, etc? Or was that the other handheld device? We all have different experiences, mine was/is good & I'd go Bluefin again.

I had a bad experience with chippeduk, bad packaging, lies and so forth.

My comments here were regarding the claims about improved fuel efficiency with such large increases in power and torque which as you pointed out isn't the case.

[Jmac]

I've yet to see any proof that they can run more efficiently with remapping of the ECU including increasing boost, altering timings and increasing fuel delivery. Volkswagen spend billions of dollars on making cars more efficient and you're claiming that just by making a few changes to the ECU you can produce both more power and reduce fuel consumption.



Actually I'm not the one selling the product, I'm merely stating that common sense and science say it's not possible. It's hardly call for a personal attack either (especially with your being a mod), perhaps you could provide some proof that it reduces fuel consumption as I'm sure that bluefin would have had some independent testing performed as it's a big selling point (or for that matter some independent tests of any of the companies).

Sorry if you took it as a personal attack, i probably stupidly reacted to your negativity, i should have been used to that having read too many rants and plenty people being upset and got sucked in this time more fool me. Sorry about that.
Anyway moving along
Jmac

[brad]

I'd also like to point out that driving in light rain gives me a 0.2L/100km economy hit & changing from 205/55x16 to 225/45x17 cost another 0.2L/100km.

[parso_rex]

Your not going to gain any extra mileage unless your doing something to reduce the fuel consumption OR improve the efficiency of the setup so you are using less fuel to achieve the same result eg like leaning out the mixture or adding in a couple of degrees of timing and so on. Some places do this however most maps I've seen only touch the top end some of them midrange and upwards but no body touches the part throttle areas and why would you. Most places will actually increase the fuel consumed up top to cool the charge ? A diesel might be a different story.
Anyway any performance gain is going to give the owner a big smile and that what really counts

[slipshot]

I've used Bluefin before - firstly, on a 2.0 TDI Audi A3 and then when I swapped that I had a Focus ST (XR5 here). Both cars were great to drive after the Bluefin. With the Audi, the fuel consumption did differ - it got slightly worst - but to be honest I put some of this down to the fact that I was driving the car a lot harder because I could. I never really did back to back tests to get a good comparison because it was brilliant in that Audi. We did a proper comparison with my former employees (in the UK) on both a dyno and race track with a 232 bhp Mazda RX8 (all that was easily available at the time) and the acceleration of the Audi was virtually identical to the RX8. An impressive performance.

In the Focus, the fuel economy did not differ at all when Bluefin was fitted. I drove the same route every day which was a hard and fast route, and if it changed it was down to more overtaking etc than anything else. Averaged out it was the same before and after. That said, the Focus drank fuel like a mentalist, and, mpg only I'm afraid, averaged about 16/17 to the gallon. Shocking car for fuel economy at the crazy high UK prices.

I've nothing to do with Bluefin but having had very good experience of their product, rate it highly. Never had an issue with it on those two cars - although both were fairly new - and it always made the smile factor a lot better after fitting.

[mrx]

Hiya, I haven't been on this forum for months, can't believe Maverick hasn't been perma-banned yet!

Brad, I think you'll find the boost is increased across the range, at least it is on the 2l. My vagcom logs are even probably someone on this forum (if not mk5 golf).

I had no issues with shoddy packaging and actually rate the Chipped UK map better than Bluefin for smoothness of power delivery (I have 2 cars & both remaps). Again the logs are somewhere on the web... I haven't had any problems with either & because the Skoda has never been to the dealership after purchase the flash counter sitting at 2 is not an issue for me. BTW Maverick, I'm still waiting for the Chipped Uk guy to get back from Italy with a fix for the flash counter - haha!

[mr gee]

I've used superchip products on my cars since 1994 with no issues whatsoever. In all cases, fuel consumption should small but quantifiable improvements. I take it that improvements in fuelling and/or torque made for smaller throttle applications in normal road use.

When the ECU program of my car (Golf 118TSI) was changed due to 24S4, average fuel consumption took a 0.5l/100km hit. Interestingly, a trip to sydney and back showed that highway cruise fuel consumption improved by almost 1l/100km.

After my ECU was flashed back via Bluefin, my fuel consumtion improved by 0.3 though I could not get back to the initial bluefin fuel consumption

[jbviajero]

Hi everyone,
I've been reading several posts such as this. I didn't initially plan it but I've become quite interested in giving my 2010 Octavia 1.8 118 TSI a dose of the ECU remap treatment. I've noticed several forum members here have had their 118's done, including bluefin / superchip.
I'm interested to know:
1) superchip don't mention anything about needing to go to 98ron. Is that the case? Superchip say nothing about that on their websites. 98 ron can be hard to find in western new south wales where my car will need to go (including in 40degree summers, once or twice).
2) has anyone had problems with the engine itself or gear box. The power and especially torque claims are so high I'd worry about the drivetrain coping with it?

Any thoughts, including your actual experience as a 1.8 118TSI remapped-owner, very welcome.

[brad]

Hi everyone,
I've been reading several posts such as this. I didn't initially plan it but I've become quite interested in giving my 2010 Octavia 1.8 118 TSI a dose of the ECU remap treatment. I've noticed several forum members here have had their 118's done, including bluefin / superchip.
I'm interested to know:
1) superchip don't mention anything about needing to go to 98ron. Is that the case? Superchip say nothing about that on their websites. 98 ron can be hard to find in western new south wales where my car will need to go (including in 40degree summers, once or twice).
2) has anyone had problems with the engine itself or gear box. The power and especially torque claims are so high I'd worry about the drivetrain coping with it?

Any thoughts, including your actual experience as a 1.8 118TSI remapped-owner, very welcome.

1) It's better to run 98ron. But it's better to run 98ron without the remap. I (foolishly) had a tank of 95ron in mine when I remapped & gave it a big boot up a hill within 2 minutes of doing my remap & had 2 audible detonations & I assume the ECU dumped some extra fuel & wound the timing back a bit to compensate. I sent Bluefin a note asking what fuel & they said "as high as you can get" (99ron is quite common in the UK). Occasional lack of 98ron wouldn't put me off. I'd probably try & do some homework & put 98ron stations into my GPS as POIs.
Also, if you have a handheld, keep it under your seat & put the car back to stock if the fuel is really bad. Takes about 2 minutes max.

2) No issues with engine or gearbox but mine is the manual. As I mentioned earlier, I'd take the tuners claims with a grain of salt. I'd estimate +20-25kw / +60-70Nm.

You might have issues with the encryption on your ECU if you use a handheld device but there are plenty of (non-hanheld) options out there that can overcome this.

[jbviajero]

Thanks heaps Brad. I'm going to look into the bluefin as a first port of call in the hope that encryption is not my enemy. So I guess the wind-back is an option if needed. Point taken re the power claims, but even taking your low number on the torque increase side, that would put the output at 310nm which is about equal to a stock RS (or GTI for that matter). I doubt we have the same (manual) gearbox as they have.

And can I ask - how many k's have you done since the remap?
Thanks again!

[brad]

I did the remap in October or November 2009 & do 25,000km a year. Car is now at 67,000km total, so I guess I've done just over half my km Bluefinned.

I'm comfortable there is plenty of headroom in the gearbox in the same way the GTI/RS gearbox has plenty of room to handle significantly more torque. I think the clutch/dual mass flywheel might give up early from riding the torque curve in high gears but I'd still expect it to go to ~150,000km or a bit more. Good excuse to fit a slightly lighter single mass flywheel when it happens.

I guess it depends on your driving style. I don't thrash the car - just make use of the big torque curve using light throttle openings.

[jbviajero]

Thanks heaps Brad. I normally drive the car in a similar way, even on the stock tune it still has good drivability. It's only when I see a pimped up Merc or BMW that my inner p-plater shines...

Thanks again

[Jmac]

So approximately how much and what is imvolved?

$749 from all Superchips agents here in Aus now, we just recieved an email from our head honcho in NZ clarifying that.
Cheers
Jmac