Had the car remapped and now have problems

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r88sch

New Member
Joined
Jul 12, 2013
Messages
13
Location
Chislehurst, Kent
Car
C250cdi sport+ coupe + handling pack
Afternoon all,

Fairly new user here, and I'm hoping you lot will be able to help.

I had my new 63 plate C250 cdi coupe remapped about a month and a half ago, and have only just got round to putting it on the Dyno, due to holidays and other commitments.

I had noticed a rather obvious flat spot just after 3k rpm, which i reported to the Mapping company as im sure it wasnt there before the map.

So Saturday i took the car to my trusted garage, where ive had my last 4 cars dyno'd before and after, all producing exactly what they are meant to.

This time around i didnt get chance to do a before run whilst the car was stock, but the results after the remap were shocking.

After shelling out £420 on a remap the car is only producing 203.4BHP and 380lb/ft.
Which as your aware is 0 bhp and 11lb/ft more than mercedes are quoting as a stock figure.
The graph does show a large dip just after 3k, as i thought. It drops about 35bhp then climbs back up a bit at about 3750rpm. The Tester commented on this and said its very noticable and he didnt need the graph to know that, which confirmed my problem.

I have gone back to the tuning company in question to ask for the map to be removed and a full refund given, and even said i will drive to them for this work (which will be a round trip of 200 miles).

They are fobbing me off with loads of different reasons as to why they wont just refund me. Blaming the Dyno, which i know to be 100% correct from past experience/saying the car is faulty (Its brand new with only 5k miles on it now)/Saying that the power quoted by mercedes is only a maximum and all cars wont meet this criteria (if they dont make the exact figures surely they would be pretty close??) etc etc

A couple of questions for people here, may sound silly but im new to Mercedes:

1. Is there a difference ECU wise between a BlueEfficency model and a non-BE model??
2. Could the tuning company have used the wrong map if there is a difference?
3. How would you go about dealing with this??

your response will be greatly appreciated as im getting a bit irate with the company now.

Cheers for reading

Rob
 
Did they give you any kind of agreement? t&c's?

I would read them in detail, write them a letter highlighting the letter of the law. If they fail to respond with a desired outcome your only choice will to seek legal advise.

Who did you use for the remap?
 
Has the battery been disconnected since ? Some remaps reset to factory when the battery is disconnected.
 
Nope battery has not been disconnected since it was remapped

Their website does say their Guarantee is 100% refund, which the way things are going seems highly unlikely appearing.

The company id rather leave out of it at the minute on public forums until everything is sorted.
 
Are you aware that during servicing the dealer will apply any necessary software updates which could overwrite the remap? This is why I've always steered clear of doing this to new cars.
 
yeah im aware of this, i searched for a company that will reflash the ECU for free after services and this company do do that.

its not due its first service for quite a while yet
 
Is the power figure you quote from the test post mappingmeaured at the wheels and the MB figure quoted measured at the flywheel? That would explain the apparent discrepancy
 
Definatley sounds like an issue with the map,
C250 is a twin turbo (i think) so that should be pushing 250BHP after the map and you would definatley feel the difference even without the dyno graph to prove it.
Are they a well established company?
 
So if it's a twin turbo that could explain the flat spot at just over 3krpm so boost not properly mapped between the two turbos....?
 
@DSM10000 - The power figure post mapping was at the FLY, that was my first question to mechanic.

@LeeC63 - They are a well established company, they do a lot of Bentleys and 63 AMGs.

@NeilMackay - That was initially my thoughts as well regarding the drop/flatspot.


I have asked them to refund me the map and remove it, so i can get the car back onto the Dyno for a stock reading, that way i can compare the differences. But Flatspot aside, there still should be a power increase?? am i right in assuming that??

Just to check with other people who have the automatic trans, the only way teh bloke could get a reading was when the box was in manual mode and in fourth gear, i asked him to try in Eco and Sport modes, but it kept on kicking down a gear and he couldnt do it. Is this correct??
 
This won't be much help initially, but another guy, a while ago, ended up with a massive flat spot after a re-map.

Perhaps someone can recall the thread?
 
Sorry to hear of your experience but good to see someone going to the trouble of getting results measured.

Saying that the power quoted by mercedes is only a maximum and all cars wont meet this criteria (if they dont make the exact figures surely they would be pretty close??)
I think the manufacturer's figures are a minimum (assuming no faults), so are often exceeded in reality.

3. How would you go about dealing with this??
Same as you seem to be planning- getting before & after figures then comparing it with whatever the mappers claim (e.g. +X bhp or +Y% power). If the standard mapping meets the manufacturer's figures then there should be no argument that the vehicle is at fault.
 
@Paul/ - as it stands i have asked for a full refund and removal of the map back to stock, so i can get it back on the Dyno, i have said i will travel to their head office (Chelmsford - for free (60miles)) for it to be removed and refunded, and i will also cover the cost of the second dyno run, which seems to be a problem, they want to run tests on it to make sure the car isn't at fault. (In Norwich)

They expect me to travel 140 odd miles each way to Norwich for these tests, and cant get me in for at least 2-3weeks.

I'm getting fed up with the customer service from this company.


Does anyone know whether the maps etc are different on a BE model and a NON BE model??
 
cheers Paul, that does look suspiciously smooth

reading that article they reckon it was done in 2nd gear.

I had mine done in 4th.
Was this the right gear to be doing it in??
 
Next silly question (again sorry for this sounding potentially stupid - but im new to Mercs)

Switching between Eco, Sport and Manual modes so they release different powers?
or is it purely gear timings etc??
 
Hopefully someone more knowledgable than me can confirm, but I assume that auto boxes make it harder for the tester to get accurate controlled results.

Hard performance data on the different g-tronic modes is thin on the ground, they differ in more than just shift points (e.g. ignition timing, fuelling etc- at least when changing gear) but might all have identical behaviour in kickdown (i.e. 75%+ pedal travel)...

but hopefully all that can be ignored if you can get the same tester to do a before and after test with the same equipment- even if the absolute figures have a limited accuracy, the relative figures should allow a reliable comparison.
 
Hi,

That almost seems as if no remap has been carried out :S

We do dyno pulls in 4th as it seems to give the most realistic readings.

With a c220cdi you will most certainly feel the result, we did one last week and It felt pretty quick to me ! (I drive a 324bhp-788nm 350cdi daily)

Where abouts are you based ?

Regards,
 
That map graph looks awful! Something is definitely not right there!
 

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