Engine Remap - Insurance

taliwillow

Hello all,

Just a quick one. Do you know if you have to declare it on your car insurance if you have the engine remapped and if so, how much of a difference does it make to your insurance premium? As an aside question, does anyone have any advice as to whether a remap or a tuning box is better?

Thanks

Taliwillow:j

James240

when u say u have had your engine remapped do u mean that u have had the ECU upgraded so your engine produces more power?

James240

If the power of the car has increased then you will definitely need to notify them, in fact as Al Mac says if any think has changed from manufacturers specification for that vehicle the insurance company needs to be notified...

K9cuddles

Yes.. its'a modification and should be declared! Price increase normally depend on the % of extra bhp your getting.

I was quoted £200 extra for 35 extra bhp with a specalist. Obvisouly there are some remaps on the market that you can turn on and off.. you figure it out, as there's not visual way of knowing the car has been remapped. Not that I condone this, but I know of people that have taken this risk.

taliwillow

Thanks for all of your replies.

We haven't yet had anything done to the car (we won't even be collecting the car until Saturday) so thought we would try to find out how much extra it will cost us before we do but yes it would be getting the ECU upgraded. It would up the bhp by about 35.

Just a thought, my husband seems to think my car goes rather fast for a 105bhp and when I first got it he wondered whether it may have been chipped. I have stated on my insurance that there are no modifications as I'm not aware of any but what if it has been chipped before I got it. Could there be the risk that I am not insured?

Thanks

Taliwillow

plane_boy2000

I think that there is no risk if you could prove that you did not know the car had been modified. Difficult to do though!

jobbingmusician

There is lots of discussion about this issue on https://www.thesmartclub.co.uk and https://www.smartmaniacs.co.uk

AFAIK received wisdom is that if you have an accident there is no way insurers, or anyone else, can tell that your car's been remapped...:whistle:

K9cuddles

plane_boy2000 wrote:

I think that there is no risk if you could prove that you did not know the car had been modified. Difficult to do though!

Yes I agree with this!!

ArchieB_2

New chips from somebody like superchips are clearly branded and it's easy for an engineer to have a quick look at the chip if they were to inspect the car. They would see it is not standard. As for reprogramming an existing chip I am not too sure.

For an engineer to inspect your car it would need to have been damaged and for an engineer to look at the ECU he would need to have a suspicion that it may have been modified. I imagine they will look at things like Subaru's and any performance diesel as a matter of course (I would). The only accurate answer would come from an engineer who works for an insurer.

Zetecauto

the only way anything will affect your insureance is if you have a claim and they inspect the car....

if you get your car chipped/mapped,they will never tell just by looking around the car/under the bonnet..

you can get bluefin which is a hand held plugin re-map job.. can plug it back in to set the standard car settings again..

Anything that is not standard fit out of the factory..you should tell your insureance company... as they can void any claim if its not the standard car..

each mod/change will be a 10% increase.. i have all of the below and pay for the 1st 4 @ 10% each..tints and lights no charge but told them (ford insure/norwich union)
this includes.
wheels
air filter
exhaust
lower suspension

possibly + 10% for these. depends on you ins company
window tints
all lights/indicators changed to smoked 1s
body kits..


always declare any changes/mods for the sake of 10%,,you could loose the price of the car if wrote off with mods,and they void the claim because of the mods..!!!

taliwillow

Hello all,

Have got a quote with and without the modifications. Without - £255 per year. With £440 per year. I think that works out almost a 75% increase! We think the next model up that is a 136 bhp would probably be cheaper on insurance (but more exoensive to buy etc).

Taliwillow