'Economy' mapping....how is it different?

[teccyjim]

Out of curiosity more than anything, what is done specifically to a map to achieve the best economy rather than all out peak power/torque? I'm not asking tuners to 'give away their secrets' but a rough idea as some tuners will charge a different fee for an economy map over a 'normal' or full power map and wondered why. Could anyone describe the 'feel' of the car post economy map?

It's something i'm considering as most of my mileage is up and down the A1 so may as well save some dosh while i'm at it!?

Regards,
Jim

[FlashRemapping]

Out of curiosity more than anything, what is done specifically to a map to achieve the best economy rather than all out peak power/torque? I'm not asking tuners to 'give away their secrets' but a rough idea as some tuners will charge a different fee for an economy map over a 'normal' or full power map and wondered why. Could anyone describe the 'feel' of the car post economy map?

It's something i'm considering as most of my mileage is up and down the A1 so may as well save some dosh while i'm at it!?

Regards,
Jim



It hard to say how “Tuners” write economy maps, we can only really say how we do it.
When we look at economy tuning we diagnose the spread of both power and torque, we look at the applications the particular engine are used in and look for the best economy levels within those applications.
Quite often an instant gain can be found using this method, that is both time saving and guaranteed for an instant result. Other times this isn’t so easy and we run a vehicle with a particular engine on the dyno looking for areas that we can improve, usually by opening up the torque curve through the midrange yet altering it accordingly at the lower and upper end of the rev range.
At this point it would be quite easy to give away our secrets and of course that wouldn’t be right as these are closely guarded but for peace of mind, we extensively test economy tuning at Millbrook Proving Ground in Bedford and this year have already clocked up over 12,000 miles on the circuit, in 2 years we are yet to see anyone else doing these tests.
On top of the Millbrook testing we have also had huge testing done with cross European runs done to prove longevity and reliability. We recently tested the new 3.0d Range Rover with a drive from Nottingham to Salou in Spain, that was a 6000km drive with only rest breaks aimed at DPF and reliability testing.
All in all, from a totally in house view it’s all about testing. Some things work, some don’t, there are certain patterns but this isn’t replicated throughout all cars which means the struggle is in the adaption of testing, the consistency of testing and the time taken for testing. It is very hard for smaller companies to offer this due to logistics and manpower, the only way is for people to work together to secure the end result is right first time.

[TDiBoraSam]

Having researhed this topic before (when I really wanted a remap) I'm not really convinced that the science of economy mapping is any different to power remapping. All a tuner will do with an eco map is not bump the bhp up by as much as they would on a power map. It's just how tuners market their various maps. They all claim mpg increases over standard from both power and eco maps.....unless you actually use the extra power, then you suffer mpg loss compared to standard. Therefore, an eco map is pointless, and a power map is fine, afterall, if you're interested in extra power, you're accepting a loss in economy as the trade off.

However, I've come to the conclusion that if you want a more powerful car, buy one with more bhp as standard, which will have been designed to have other components such as clutch, injectors, turbo tolerate the power, and will have been setup properly by the manufacturer. If you want more economy, buy a bluemotion...simples.

I've yet to find a tuning company who will give propers answers regarding the science behind remapping. Every post just turns into a thinly veiled marketing ploy as to why their maps are the best, coz they do 'the most testing'.

I would love to believe that remaps can provide that utopia of extra power, extra economy with no effect on the car's longevity. Truth is, they can't, hence cars come out of the factory setup the way they do, with the best balance between power, economy and longevity.

Remapping is fine, but the driver has to accept that their car probably won't last as long, due to the increased wear on other components. If anything, it'll be the turbo and/or clutch that will fail. Both expensive to fix.

As an aside...I'm just wondering how many used cars are out there that have been remapped and sold on, and the new owner has no idea it's been remapped previously or that they're driving around in a modified car that's insured as 'standard'?!?!