ECU Tuning

What is ECU tuning?

In the old days tuning was done by adjusting carburettors, ignition timing and boost pressures. It was never an exact science. In modern cars all the adjustments to "tune" the car is held in a small computer called an ECU. (Engine Control Unit). The adjustments for fuel, ignition and turbo pressure are held as maps in the chips in the ECU. To extract more power or more economy each of these maps needs to be changed and aligned to allow the engine to run more efficiently, while retaining factory smoothness. Most cars made since 2000 will have close to 100 maps within the ECU to allow the car to run smoothly in all conditions.

What stage of tune is needed?

At autotechnikwe always take the time to listen to what the customer wants - we don’t just have a library of modifications, we are always willing to develop something tailor made to the customers requirements.

How is it done?

As soon as a car arrives at autotechnikthe original software is copied from the car and saved on our server. We keep all the original software from our customers cars (it is also backed up off site to ensure that we can return all cars tuned to factory tune) . We then modify the maps in the original software, our engineers use the best available tuning software along with tools and maps developed in house. Before loading in the new software we always scan the whole car for any existing faults and give the car a check over to make sure the car is ready to be tuned. Once the code is loaded we will test drive the car and dyno test it if the customer requires. The whole process can normally done within a day.

Why re-map at all?

There are two very clear reasons to re-map your car; more power and more economy. Happily, most of our upgrades will give you both! Better Economy: at autotechnikwe are very aware of the dual pressures of economy and the environment. Our basic upgrades will give most cars a 10% increase in fuel economy. This is better for your pocket and the environment. More Power: with many new cars you can not get the car to produce more power without modifying the ECU. When there is sometimes as much as 100hp to be gained from a software change it is a great value way of making your car more powerful.