richie_b Posted September 15, 2005 Report Share Posted September 15, 2005 Im finally looking to get my S3 chipped! Ive got an 02 S3 225 with 30k on the clock:- dunno if that has a bearing on which chip would be best, but im unsure as to which one to go for: AmD or Revo ? I notice from the poll that most people have the AmD, but can you guys tell me the differences between the two? i guess its mainly where the 'new' power appears ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
harminder Posted September 15, 2005 Report Share Posted September 15, 2005 Dont revo do a free 5-hour trial? Try it and see how you get on....some like it and others dont...can depend alot on driving style.. If you dont like it then you can always try AMD.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MattS3 Posted September 15, 2005 Report Share Posted September 15, 2005 I went for Revo purely because the tuner who did it was both local to me and also did the Ecutek re-map on my old Impreza. He's well acknowledged as being good at his trade, so the choice was obvious. If AMD were closer, I would have looked into that as well. Just easier for backup service if getting it done locally. Whichever way you go, you'll not regret it, just makes the car a complete package and real easy to drive with the extra torque. Enjoy! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
richie_b Posted September 15, 2005 Author Report Share Posted September 15, 2005 is one not more spread power and the other more boosty ? im sure ive read posts before about where the power is on the rev band ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doogal1972 Posted September 15, 2005 Report Share Posted September 15, 2005 Revo do a free trial, not sure how long it works for though. Apparently the software stops working after the set time limit. But it won't delete it's self, it will just stop giving extra boost and all the other stuff it does. I would personally be a little dubious of inactive software left on my ECU. I would either go for it or not. Why Revo offer the free trial is because they say as soon as you have it done, you'll be back to have it done properly. Fine if you do that, not so fine if you decide you don't want to do it as you'll be left with software on your ECU which apparently isn't doing anything. Just my tuppence worth and I don't profess to be an expert by any stretch of the imagination. Just don't like the sound of inactive software kicking around on my ECU if you have the free trial. Everyone on here says the upgrade, AMD or Revo, is blinding and makes the car how it should've been in the first place. Me personally, I like to leave things standard. Whatever you do, you've got a top notch car anyway Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mollox Posted September 15, 2005 Report Share Posted September 15, 2005 There’s a distinction here between “software” and “data tables”. If the trial does leave this data in your ECU the nature of the REVO application will ensure that it will never be read at all so why worry? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kalheer Posted September 15, 2005 Report Share Posted September 15, 2005 i tried the Revo 5-hour free trial software on My 2000 S3 and it was great fun. It lasted for 5 hours of driving time.. works by using a quartz crystal that vibrates for 5 hours.. when it dies the s/w turns of.. but like a few others have said, the s/w must still be on there... I didn't go for it in the end as the misses found it too scary to drive and considering she takes the 7-month nipper with her.. stuck with the normal parameters... The revo was really 'boosty' and found i had to change gear really quickly as the rev counter shot up in the lower ranges.. but bang it in 6th on the motorway and drop your foot at 100.. BOSH.. hitting 130 in no time.. No-one touched me in the 5 hours i had it...!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mollox Posted September 15, 2005 Report Share Posted September 15, 2005 You don't believe the Quartz crystal bit do you? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
richie_b Posted September 15, 2005 Author Report Share Posted September 15, 2005 i must say im a little wary of fiddling with beloved S anyway, so im not really keen on installing software for it to just sit thier dorment however harmless it may be. hence the post. Id like to make a informed decision on reliability / service and performance. I think its safe to say that both are reliable and ive seen few complaints on here about service and general issues with having the car chipped - far less than complaints about dealers fixing relativly simple alements anyway!! So i guess its mainly the performance. Im not too keen on making the car overly boosty, that maybe fun in the short term but i can image being a bit of pain for general driving. Im after a more even increase - maybe the AmS is best for this ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mollox Posted September 15, 2005 Report Share Posted September 15, 2005 In my personal experience the Revo map does not hamper your daily driving experience in any way. In fact, on the few occasions that I've switched mine back to standard I've just thought "yuck! this is disgusting - I can't believe how bloody slow this car was!" It really enhances and compliments the driving experience (and this is true of all the top 3 or so tuners' products) rather than simply adding a sledgehammerful of torque. If you want to spend that bit extra you can get the REVO SPS3 controller which lets you adjust boost and timing as well as switch back to standard perdormance in less than 10 seconds. I think its great but to be honest I stopped tinkering with mine ages ago and just left it with a pretty aggressive map. I can’t say that it makes any difference to the driving experience. At first I thought there might have been the tiniest amount of added lag (I’m talking really small here) but you could argue that any lag that was there is now more perceptible because of the amount of glorious boost that now follows. The best thing for you to do is have the trial in my opinion. Your concerns are justified but I don’t think you fully know what they do to your car. Ultimately your car’s performance is determined by the data tables that constitute a ‘map’. An analogy. You’re a CEO, you have a secretary and you run your company from a set of key files you store in a locked filing cabinet. Whenever you face a problem you send your secretary to the corresponding drawer of the filing cabinet and she pulls out the relevant document telling you how to proceed and you make your decision based on it. You’re a reasonably successful company doing well against your competitors and you enjoy good share. But your actions are relatively conservative. Lets call this filing cabinet “A”. What you, as the CEO, didn’t know was that you have another 3 filing cabinets in the same room that have been empty and gathering dust for years. What revo do is open up another one of those cabinets, drop in some more aggressive strategy documents into say Cabinet “B” and then hypnotise your secretary so that without thinking she pulls files that look just like the one’s she wanted but from the 2nd cabinet. You as the CEO act on this information, making you much more aggressive in the market, more profitable and increase your market share. When the REVO trial runs out all that happens is that your secretary forgets all about the other filing cabinet, pulls all the files from the original one and that dossier just sits in Cabinet B forever. No one will ever look in there because there’s never been any files in Cabinet B and it will never affect anything. Except you’re back to being just “OK” as a business Get the trial! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
simon elman Posted September 15, 2005 Report Share Posted September 15, 2005 I think Revo then leaves lets say cabinet "C" open and closing A and B and thats the problem SimonS3MTM Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
seadweller Posted September 15, 2005 Report Share Posted September 15, 2005 AmD over Revo Have you concidered MTM? I would not do the trial for reasons I cannot remember. I had AmD stage one, and it was great, but would use MTM if I did it again. The main thing is that S3's need remapping (IMO), mine was soooooo much better after the remap, the main reason I sold it was that I then realised that the suspension, brakes and stereo (I had Bose, bad move in an S3!) needed sorting, and could not justify the cost. Hope this helps Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
richie_b Posted September 16, 2005 Author Report Share Posted September 16, 2005 not not really thought about MTM, i mainly assumed AmD would be the best choise as many members on here seem to have the AmD and think its great. However when looking at the alternatives i (from the chip poll on this site) Revo seems to be second favorite and the others have pretty minimal uptake. I will take a closer look tho.. (nb. i thought i heard once of some car company that were offering a Revo mapped verion of thier car directly from the showroom, cant remeber much more than that now tho..) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cosmicblue Posted September 16, 2005 Report Share Posted September 16, 2005 [ QUOTE ] not not really thought about MTM, i mainly assumed AmD would be the best choise as many members on here seem to have the AmD and think its great. However when looking at the alternatives i (from the chip poll on this site) Revo seems to be second favorite and the others have pretty minimal uptake. I will take a closer look tho.. [/ QUOTE ] I have had the same thoughts - MTM is priced very competitively, can AmD really be worth almost twice the price? With the sootchucker S-Line on order the idea of another 40 bhp and 75nm of torque would make an already pretty quick car a whole pile of more fun -and probably offer improved fuel economy when motorway cruising through less throttle opening for a given road speed. Has anyone ever read/got any reviews of the MTM upgrade? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mastermofo Posted September 16, 2005 Report Share Posted September 16, 2005 ???? I think the MTM is the more expensive of the remaps I had AMD remap on group buy from AS.net and got it for 460 all in with rolling road time and im very happy with it (there is currently a group buy running on AS.net at the moment) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
richie_b Posted September 16, 2005 Author Report Share Posted September 16, 2005 ..whats AS.net ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mastermofo Posted September 16, 2005 Report Share Posted September 16, 2005 Audi Sport Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
harminder Posted September 16, 2005 Report Share Posted September 16, 2005 [ QUOTE ] Has anyone ever read/got any reviews of the MTM upgrade? [/ QUOTE ] Love it! I think a lot of people describe the MTM remap 'boosty' and to be fair I would agree but thats the way I like it.. Lots of lovely torque and then around 3000rpm you get a major shove in the back when the boost kicks in.. When the boost does kick in everything lying in the centre console goes flying into the back seats (can no longer keep my mobile in the middle under the dash!).. The power tends to ease off around 6000rpm (maybe a little less) and so the power band is very short.. When you first drive it the car can seem a bit crazy especially when you are give the right pedal some stick out of a corner....the boost kicks in and if your not to careful then you can end up a little embrassed! Having said that I have driven the car for 4 months now and have slowly learned to caress the boost.....this then also makes it great for everyday driving since the power delivery makes over taking easy.. Reliability wise......no issues at all! I brought the car private and it had already covered over 25k with the remap and with no problems.. If you like driving cars too the red line then MTM is not for you..(although it can still handle it with the rest)....you dont need to strangle the car to get the power out of it!! Cannot comment on the rest of the remaps but would recommend MTM! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cosmicblue Posted September 17, 2005 Report Share Posted September 17, 2005 I have been doing a bit of research and have come across these guys: ChipTuningUK who are quoting a very reasonable sounding £470 inc VAT for another 40bhp+75nm more torque on a 2.0TDI. £590 inc VAT for you S3 folks steps up from 225 to 260+70nm more torque. Initially I was rather cynical and then found the RICA company RICA Engineering (NL) these guys are using and discovered that unlike the other players in the market their web site has power/torque curves plotted standard/upgraded for every upgrade. If the plots are to be believed then the upgrade is a smooth, linear improvement over standard - no flat spots or scary peaks, just more of everything. I note that the S3 performance stats are different between the UK agent and RICA's site. For my 2.0 Tdi (due late October), £470 (and a 14 day money back and reset to standard if not happy) seems like something that is worth a shot! Has anyone come across these people before? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mastermofo Posted September 19, 2005 Report Share Posted September 19, 2005 AMD Group buy - save some cash here !!!! AMD Website Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Please sign in to comment
You will be able to leave a comment after signing in
Sign In Now