What is a Remap?

Mike Knowles • June 11, 2025

What is a stage 1 remap and how it can benefit your cars performance and economy?

A stage 1 remap in short is were a tuner, such as MSK Remapping, raises your vehicles performance to the maximum that the OEM parts fitted from factory can handle. Before we can explain why we can do this, we first must understand how the manufacture operates. Every manufacture around the world must be able to sell there vehicles in every country and in any conditions in order to make sales and profit, to do this they put what you would call a factory file on the vehicles which allows the car to operate regardless of the conditions, such as fuel quality or hot and cold climates which would effect air density, which intern effects performance. However as a UK based company we know what the conditions are, we know the quality of fuel, the air conditions we have, as well as many other factors, this means as tuners we can raise the vehicles performance to the maximum potential within these conditions and safely within the specifications of what the OEM parts can handle. This works for both Performance and Economy tuning as we can adjust the vehicle files to meet customer requirements. 

Different types of Remapping!


There are 3 types of methods to reprogram an Engine Control Module (ECU), OBD, Bench and Boot. The most common method is OBD, this is were the ECU file can be obtained through the On Board Diagnostic plug or OBD, this allows the ECU file to be read from the vehicle and then modified to the customers specification before being written back to the ECU, as a rule of thumb this is generally the easiest method to access the ECU file and the safest. Next is Bench, this is were the ECU is removed from the vehicle in order to access the pins inside the plugs that connect the ECU to the vehicle, by connecting to certain pins in the plug we can read and write files to the ECU like we would in OBD, this is slightly more difficult than OBD and if performed incorrectly can lead to serious damaged to the ECU and lead to large repair bills if not done by trained individuals. The final method is Boot which is similar to Benching an ECU but inaddition to connecting to specific pins in the plug we also nhave to open the ECU lid, we do this to access a certain point on the computor board which deactivates the Tricore protection on the ECU which is put there by manufactures to stop tuners from programming ECU's, this is most difficult method for remapping an ECU and comes with a large list of risk involved which can increase the cost of a remap if this method of programing has to be used.

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    OBD Method

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    Bench Method

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    Boot Method

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    Autotuner Tool

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    Alientech Kess3 Tool

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DPF, EGR and AdBlue Solutions!


One of the biggest problems we find that effects people with modern vehicles is the introduction of new systems like the DPF, EGR and Adblue. These can all be costly items to diagnose and repair, with bills reaching £1000+ on average, and it is unavoidable that these systems will fail over time. The DPF system uses expensive materials that deplete over the course of the vehicles life, they become blocked with carbon and soot if not properly maintained, resulting in costly repairs regardless of the fault. The EGR also common for issues can result in blocked inlet manifolds due to carbon build up as well as coolant leaks if the cooler becomes damaged, both resulting in the EGR needing to be replaced. Finally the one that has become a main issue for all new cars since it became mandatory for the system to be fitted, ADBLUE. The Adblue system can have a large number of issues arise, from pump failure, injector failure, sensor faults, tanks bursting, the fact on some vehicles you have to buy adblue in order to refill the tank and that is only the tip of the metaphorical iceberg. The other problem being is to correctly diagnose an Adblue issue requires large amounts of knowledge and time resulting in very expensive bills, even before the repair bill has been quoted. However MSK Remapping, whilst having the knowledge to diagnose and repair these systems,  can also provide an affordable solution for all these systems which means you wont have to worry about large repair bills, we can affordably and quickly resolve faults caused by these systems on all modern vehicles, simply contact us to find out more and get booked in today!



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