A warning & an apology

[Icemaker]

Over the last few years i have reported on my seat alhambra and told how pleased we are with the car for both towing and solo use, and even now i stand by what i have said about the car it really is one of the best cars i have owned for towing.

I have allso over the past 18 month adviced on the engine re-map that i have been using, note that i did have the better option of a re- map as opposed to the less technical chip, however i have to retract all my advice from the past regarding this re-mapping and chipping.

I took my alhambra to the dealer for some warranty work and during a routine health check they found that the engine was over full with oil which has created serious back pressure and damaged the egr valve the turbo and had allso filled up the intercooler and pipework with oil.

I was absolutely gobsmacked as to where the excess oil had come from untill i had it annalised and found it be contaminated with diesel, it turns out that the engine had been overfuelling and had filled the sump with diesel diluting the oil and filling up the sump along with the other damage.

It has been a costly repair to say the least and it did not end there as we where adviced by the mechanic that other damage could have been done that is not yet visible.

now the car did genuinely have a fault with the fuel pump so most of the cost was met by the warranty but most if not all chips and engine re-maps work by increasing the fuelling so this fault could suddenly happen to anyone using these mods with very costly results, in excess of £2000.

We have had to cut our losses as we had lost faith in the car due to this and have now sold it and are picking up a new s max next week, i just hope it lives up to the alhambra which is a tall order.

To anyone reading this the alhambra is still one of the best cars i have ever had and i will allways say this but i strongly advice anyone using these mods on any car to remove them immediately they are just not worth the cost of the repairs.

 

[AlfromYC]

I too have had a load of problems with my TDi Galaxy (same as Alhambra/sharan) after fitting a 'tuning chip'.

New fuel pump & new turbo was needed (BIG repair bill).

Sorted now though, and the 'chip' is in the bin!

 

[clivea]

Hi, I would like to know what you feel about the S-max when you have towed with it.

cheers

 

[parker1158]

Hi Icemaker

I am sorry to hear of the misfortune with your Seat and tuning/chipping device.

You may or may not recall in the past I have been less than reverent about these devices even after I spent years in the late nineties fitting such things to various makes of cars. Although a good many seemed to work I saw as many go wrong either in the short or long term these ranged from simple (but inconvenient) breakdowns to major disasters.

I still maintain that getting the right car for the job is preferable and hopefully your new acquisition will meet your expectations

Best of luck

 

[emmerson2]

Icemaker, it takes guts to admit when you've got it wrong. Well done, and lets hope others take note of the possible future problems.

 

[seth1]

hello icemaker,bit of bad news sorry to hear it.people will probably disagree here but i dont think the remap played any part in it.surely if it was overfueling it would be blacksmoking,and i dont disagree when flashed the amount of fuel injected does increase,but so does the boost pressure and diesels run weak anyway with an excess of air all the time.its more like the low pressure pump or an internal leak on an injector has filled it up.the turbos pass oil from new ,the crankcase breather arrangement makes sure of that.is it a high milage engine?

 

[Icemaker]

Hello Seth, i too was at first very reluctant to admit that it was the mod and even now after all the work has been done i still have a few doubts, but the fact remains that the dms engine re-map i was using primarily worked by increasing the fuelling along with the turbo boost and oil pressure.

I had no smoke at all from the exhaust other than jet black when i booted it but i saw the engine full of oil and diesel myself so it was definately over full and this is what has caused the engine to fail so catastrofically.

Obviousley there is a chance that the mod played no part but all 3 of the engineers who worked on the car said it was allmost certainly the culprit whether directly or indirectly.

The engine was in fact a very low milage unit having only covered 19,000 miles in the 2 1/2 years i have had it.

On a more positive note i have just seen my new s max for the first time tonight and it is absolutely stunning, cant wait for thursday to pick it up. s max 2.0 tdci zetec.

 

[GillC1]

Icemaker

Thanks for the advise, we have a td4 freelander, with a chip and recently got black smoke, my husband had a look yesterday and decided to remove it. Since then no smoke at all.

 

[brenda_374246826]

Hi Icemaker, I am feeling a little nervous after reading your post. If you recall we got ours remapped with the seat garage about 6 months ago.

Turbo replaced 2 weeks ago and last week they claim they changed everything that could be changed because of strange noises and general lack of performance. (And thats without towing) All warranty jobs thank god but very worrying especially now that I've seen this.

 

[scottironsbtinternet.com]

Hi Icemaker,

Sorry to hear about your car,Can I ask why you chose the S Max over the Galaxy or a new Seat or VW?

 

[Icemaker]

Hi scott, It was quite a hard decision really, i wanted the galaxy originally but after reading all the literature and technical stuff i found that the new galaxy offered no real advantage over the S max.

The towing limits are not too indifferent the nose weight is the same the engine power is the same the gearbox is the same and they both carry seven people although obviousley the galaxy is slightly bigger so has more leg room.

having driven both on test drives i found the S max to be far nicer to drive (although both where tested solo not towing)it just seemed to handle better and gave a much more re-assuring feed back.

Allso the galaxy does appear to be getting some negative reviews in the press mainly to do with visabilty and handling, allthough i will admit i had no trouble with either, its just that the S max was better.

The reason i did not get another alhambra / sharran was becouse next year vw are replacing it with a new one and i did not want to suffer the depreciation that comes about when cars are replaced with new versions.

I will report back on the S max once i have had it a while and towed with it.

 

[brenda_374246826]

Can I ask what bhp your alhambra was both before and after remapping?

We went from 90 to 115. Friends of ours went from 130 to 180. Bigger jump but does that make any difference do you know..

 

[giovanni_5060838]

brenda. 90bhp to a claimed 115, in my opinion is too big a leap.

Also does the 90 bhp version come fitted with a intercooler?

This is very important, because if it does not[usually the lower powered versions of cars do not] then its definately to big a leap, if they are correct with there claims.

My advice is to spend

 

[giovanni_5060838]

Icemaker. sorry to hear of your woes, but from what i hear and read dms are indeed a well reknowned remapping company.

So although it is wise to advice people of your woes, i do not think you or i for that matter should be giving advice on the pros or negatives of these issues.

Have you spoken to dms? you state the three wise men informed you of the believe? based on what? without actually reading the ecu, and comparing it to the original settings all they are doing is talking mumbo jumbo, as it could have easily been a faulty ecu unit or even a dirty airfiter, given the daft service intervals.

sorry if i come across abrubt but 8 remaps down the line, i have had one ageing turbo go.

So should i be saying they are very reliable? Well no, it really does depend on how big a bhp gain you are after and the fact is you should also shorten the service intervals too.

And who did you sell the car too? i want to swap ecu's....

 

[Icemaker]

Hello Brenda, my alhambra was the tdi 130 bhp version as standard.

With the engine re-map it was tested on a rolling road at 172 bhp 394 pound torque.

Sounds like your friends have the same re-map as i had, might be worth showing them this thread just so they know to watch the oil level in case it rises like mine did that way they can stop using the car before so much damage is done.

Once again i re-iterate that there is still a possibility that the mod played no part but i know of alhambras being used as taxi's that have done over 150 thousand mile with no problems and no chips, mine was re-mapped and blew up at 19 thousand mile ?.

 

[Icemaker]

The ecu was checked in fact it was the very first thing they did when the car was found full of oil as they wanted to check how the car had been driven, (i did not know they could that)apparently they can check the max revs the car has done and how hot the engine has been amongst other things.

The engineer did mention that the airfilter could cause symptems like overfuelling or lack or air if bloked but my alhambra is fitted with a k & n lifetime filter which i fitted to allow more air to flow so as to stop the common fault of the turbo pipe callapsing under high power that the vw tdi suffers from.

Honestly everything was checked and the only thing they found was the faulty fuel pump, they did not advice me what was wrong with it but i gathered from overhearing comments that it was electrical.

It just seems very strange that i know of so many very high mileage vw tdi's that are as good today as they where new but mine has let go at only 19000 miles and the only difference is the engine re-map.

But as ive stressed before on this thread it may be completely innocent, i just cant see any other reason for the damage the car was very well looked after and serviced every 5000 miles which is half the miles seat recomend.

The car has been sold to a main dealer and is being sent to

auction so i have no idea where it will end up.

 

[giovanni_5060838]

Now you see you had it rolling road set up, so really the fueling should have been really good, although again 130 bhp to 172 bhp on a rolling road! seems like it was set to a very high max.

But having said all of that, clearly you would never be driving it at a constant 3500 to 4000 rpm.

I think the point i am making is, although i am not a fan of the vw engine[but i too have one] they are indeed extremely reliable

even when tuned.

So much has been done with these engines in various cars that they are possibly the engine that has the most information on there tunability of all diesels, if they had a weakness for remapping it would be known,and dms are not a back street garage set up, as you know.

I am sorry to hear of this,and yes would be interested if a definative answer to the problem was known, as it would seem you suffered the worst kind of problem........

Did the dms do the rolling road set up? or was it a local spotty kid, if you get my drift...

 

[seth1]

i dont in any way want to sound rude,or keep banging on.if this was my car ,id very interested to talk with dms.i had our stilo flashed 2 years ago,its been 100%relieable up to now.but its nothing like a pd,but what staggers me is this has only happend since the last oil change,which it would have been filled to the correct level afterwards.so the remap which is just a different calibration of the present parameters in the engine ecm,and once calibrated would normally stay at that cal.surely if it was a bad flash it would have suffered from day one.i do agree looked after they,ll run for a good while,but they are heavy on turbos,and relie heavily on boost pressure.

 

[giovanni_5060838]

icemaker.

I do have one concern, your car is going to the auctions, and you believe there could still be issues.. could you give the reg number out, or atleast the year reg and colour just incase someone here was to come across it, and bid.........

 

[Icemaker]

For obvious reasons the car was returned to the standard map each and every time it was sent to the dealer so i supose it could have had a bad flash when i got it back after the last service i really dont know.

personally i dont think i will ever know the truth but as ive said nothing was found that could conclusively be put down to the car in standard form and due to the fact the car did give out considerable amounts of black smoke when driven hard or towing up hills when the mod was in use the engineers drew the conclusion that the mod may have been to blame.

i think every one needs to make there own mind up really as to whether they feel the benefits are worth the risk not forgeting that for the past 18 month i was very much in favour of chipping its just that i have now fallen foul of an unexplained and expensive engine failure and the only thing i can see that has changed enough to cause this damage is the engine re-map.

As i stated on my first post this is a warning as to the possibility of my miss fortune happening to somebody else and an appology due to my withdrawing my previous advice in regard to engine re - maps.

Does that make sense ? hope so.

 

[Icemaker]

Again i dont know what the reg will be gio, i have transferred the reg to my new car and when i bought the alhambra i had it first registered with my private plate.

Quite a few on here will have seen the car im sure, just avoid black alhambra's for a few month.

 

[giovanni_5060838]

damm. its even in black. cheers.

 

[giovanni_5060838]

icemaker.. re.... re flashing.

Now that is a strong possibility.

 

[Icemaker]

Sorry gio i thought you where aware that dms supply the re-map software on a module so you can modify or unmodify the car when ever you please.

Obviousley you have no control over the parrameters but i could flash the ecu whenever i wanted.

 

[parker1158]

Hi all

Further to my posting above, when I was fitting chips and doing other performance work in the late nineties and early twenties! We had on average one or two chips in every ten that would be faulty on fitting, either the car would not start or there were obvious running faults immediately detectable. Of the successful fitments about the same percentage would go wrong in the short term. Clearly in the long term we never really got to know about them as the cars perhaps changed hands or the warranty period of the chip/conversion lapsed. By far the most common fault was overfueling, ok if picked up quickly and rectified but potentially expensive if left.

Now I would be the first to admit this was some years ago now and I'm sure technology has improved but the chips we fitted were from MTM a well established German company and through them we were fitting chips to Audi, VW, Seat and other German car franchises, both new and used vehicles.

The other interesting point is Icemaker comments that the garage interrogated the ECU to see how the car had been driven. This is one of the many ways a dealer can find out about that 'undetectable' chip that has been fitted, so many people have been caught out like this at great expense to themselves (Including a friend of mine who had to stump up over