Hexup Custom Remap, done!

[J5BWS]

This morning I had my car remapped by www.hexup.co.uk and I thought I'd let you all know just how happy I am with it and what lead me to the decision to go with a relative unknown.

A few months ago I had a Revo trial installed on my beloved Golf and whilst reasonably impressed it didn't impress me quite enough to shell out my hard earned on the full version, so I let the trial expire and thought that would be the end of it.  I looked into other tuners and decided to give APR a go, however I never actually pulled my finger out and booked myself in to get it done.

So about few weeks ago one of my clients who owns a garage started talking to me about the remap company he had been dealing with, he had received a lot of positive reports back from his customers and as a result I gave Peter at Hexup a call to discuss the options.

Peter explained to me that it was a full remap service, a custom map for each car rather than a generic map based on the model type, when he told me the price of £295 I was sold.  Baring in mind Peter's company is fairly new to the industry this price seemed bang on but on reflection I think he is under-pricing himself looking at the competition.  

A couple of days later Peter turned up at my house and had a look at my car, checked the ECU for fault codes of which there were none and proceeded to try to download the map.  Unfortunately when Revo put their trial software on your car they protect their map by essentially blocking other tuners from being able to map the ECU via the OBD II port, the only solution at that point looked like being a re-flash of the ECU which could only be done by taking it out of the car.  

Obviously I wasn't best pleased that this is what happens and that I wasn't informed of this when I booked in for the trial map, but I do understand that Revo don't want their maps being read or even stolen, however a couple of calls to Revo (got to say the Rob at Revo was really helpful with my issue!) and the installer (Allan Fishburn @ The Golf Centre, Darlington) later Allan kindly agreed to re-flash my ECU which he did at really short notice which was great of him.  He used the Revo-flash software and it took 10-15 mins from start to finish.

So this morning Peter turned up with his mapping tools and worked his magic, downloaded my map, custom mapped it in front of me based on my requirements and my installed gubbins (Magnex Cat Back un-resonated plus ITG panel filter) and re-uploaded it to my car.

My first drive was in the wet and getting used to it meant a lot of free-revving wheel spin, but the car feels amazing.  I am amazed at how the car copes with all the power running through the front wheels, one of my past cars was a first gen Focus RS which were well-known for their torque steer and pretty horrible in tuned (Superchips + Mongoose Straight Through in my case) guise.  I haven't the time or inclination to try a Revo, APR and my custom Hexup map back to back or on the rollers, I'm past all that kind of thing really having owned my own tuning company in the past and having it rule my life, but I've achieved what I wanted from my car, which was to improve a great driver making it truly rapid yet maintaining the versatility and drivability that the Golf GTI Mk 5 is renowned for.  Pull throughout the rev-range has been dramatically improved, it sticks my head to the head rest and accelerating from about 70 (on a private road of course!) in 6th feels absolutely fantastic!

I have no ulterior motives or real loyalty to Hexup but they are definitely worth a look in my opinion and I really don't think you'll be disappointed if you take the plunge!  

Many thanks to Peter and also Allan and Rob at Revo.

[Janner_Sy]

i know of two people who had the same issue after having a revo map. It locks out their ECU, so you cant go elsewhere.

Good to see you are enjoyiny your map. If you go for a further upgrades will he be able to update it to stage 2 or more?

I'll pop hexup as an option in the remap pol in the gerneral area as well.

[RedRobin]

Unfortunately when Revo put their trial software on your car they protect their map by essentially blocking other tuners from being able to map the ECU via the OBD II port, the only solution at that point looked like being a re-flash of the ECU which could only be done by taking it out of the car.  

....I'm surprised to hear that. I thought that a Revo trial simply 'self-destructed' after timing out and that any blocking during the trial, if there is any, would protect the ECU. An unusual scenario perhaps but, how would your VW dealer update your ECU while a Revo trial was onboard? I believe it's a straightforward plug in and load which probably either overwrites or clears the decks first, but we are now in Geekland.

Also, I don't believe that ECU's need to be physically removed nowadays for a re-flash. But I stand to be corrected.

Hopefully, Carl will be along from Revo to post clarification on this subject.

[chungster]

Did you not know the Revo Trial is only 50% of the full version? It gives you a wee taster of what more power is like, but does not give you 100% of what the full remap is, so its a shame you didn't get that explained to you by Allan.

I'd beware of the "custom map" marketing spiel. I mean, how "custom" can you get?

The OEM Bosch ECU is a rather complicated thing, and I don't think someone charging £300 for a remap is doing all that much really. He would change the fuelling, timing, boost settings as per all other companies out there. By "custom" he would probably set them at a certain level for your requirements i.e. reliability, fuel economy, etc etc. Most other mappers out there can offer just the same.

But glad you're enjoying the car with its new found mojo anyway. 

[J5BWS]

Thanks guys! :)

I've gotta say the Revo trial definitely felt like 50% (or less!) of what I've got now so I'm still more than happy! ;)

I would imagine that VW would have the ability to re-flash the ECU with their tools no problem, this was an option open to me, however, I didn't want to raise concerns as my car is still very much under warranty, however I definitely wouldn't of been happy at all if Revo hadn't offered to help me out given the fact the reseller told me that my ECU would simply revert back to stock after the trial had finished, but they did so no worries! :)