Remap and Insurance

Correct. In the event of a serious claim.the insurer will.do everything in their power to deny a claim checking things like engine numbers, annual.mileage, occupation, and any modifications including new radio, non standard map on ECU, any data logs in ECU such as speed at time of accident, were seat belts in use at time of accident etc. They can check things like was a mobile phone being used around the time the accident occurred. Many cars log location and location history, in addition to speed.

That said if you wanted to declare there is probably specialist insurers that will quote high, however you are flagged as "boy racer" will crash from a risk point of view. Some insurers may only quote third party.

Many really heavily modified cars are track use only, others are on classic policies and occasional low mileage usage but it can still end up being specialist weird insurers.

Lots of very slightly modified cars are technically not insured, such as window tints, aftermarket radios, aftermarket wheels etc. Some insurers have no issues once notified, others don't touch "modified from factory spec" cars.

The only way they’d know about the phone (and I’m skeptical that they would even do that) is if it was connected

A friend of mine had a GT-R at one stage and had some work done on it, I know it had an engine rebuild but not sure what else. No insurance company would touch it on the grounds of it being “modified”. He had to get an engineers report done by a professional motor assessor in order to get it insured.

Rubbish .. You have a serious accident and your insurance will do all it can to avoid a payout. so it's okay if you mow down a few pedestrians "no big deal" wow just wow.

Often if car is heavily modified such as aftermarket wheels or new aftermarket shocks then insurers need an engineer's report to ensure car is road safe. I got one recently for engine swap and upgrade and new wheels etc. It cost about 200 euro, and was straight forward enough, car is totally legal with new engine vin on paperwork. Insurance was difficult to get but not expensive.

In terms of remap there are loads of reports of people blowing their engine within a month due to "a bad map". Sometimes the map is wrong for the car and causes issues straight away, in most other cases I suspect is the extra power causes extra strain and often the car is old anyway and driven by a boy racer, so the chances of a failure go up massively, particularly if you drive like a lunatic before the engine has warned up, and if you have not upgraded things like the air filter, new timing belt, new water pump, the engine can easily struggle and fail. Certain engines are more suitable for remap as they can handle the extra power easily, other engines can't handle more power without failing much earlier.

Wouldn't be one bit worried personally, we've dealt with a lot of insurance jobs in the garage and never have I seen an insurance assessor plug a car in to check what's on the ecu. The insurance company wouldn't have a clue if it was mapped or not. Each to their own but I'd say nothing

In a lot of theft cases they ask for both keys, if the have the car they can query it to see if key was present. Modern cars have more and more info easily available. In cases where the car breaks to cause an accident the brand of car are very worried about manufacturer liability and they can pull all data. The whole "unintended acceleration" cases the manufacturers usually prove it was driver error and not a car fault.

It is ridiculous to suggest that changing the radio counts as a modification that will invalidate your insurance.

Bull a reader can not tell you how much bhp was gained in a remap lol!

I've had insurance pay out for cars fitted with coilovers and exhaust systems undeclared no hassle from insurance company!

If your car looks 'stock' .. I wouldn't worry about any software upgrades.

Never mind what other posters say.

Insurance asserers are usually retired gardai in their 60's +, with no technology ability (or interest) in discovering any SW mods.

They get paid a small amount to check for physical damage.

Some people on here watch a little too much CSI , and don't realize how the real world actually is.

Some interesting comments in this clip about the possibility of Garda investigators examining a vehicle after a crash

Also interesting to note that the usual Boards.ie policy of not permitting posts that advocate illegal action doesn’t seem to apply in Motors forum.

It's not illegal to remap a car!

Under what law?

Are yez seriously suggesting that you get to lie on your insurance proposal form and still have the insurance company on hook to pay for your messes?

Go back and read the Act quoted above about answering questions honestly - S.8 of the Consumer Insurance Contract Act (CICA) 2019.

Was reading this and just wanted to give my own thought

Before people jump down my throat, call me boy racer or whatever, I’ve the below car NCT’d, tax’d and insurance paid. Not looking for a lecture and just wanted to make a point.

Full licence 6 months, have a Bora, it’s mapped to 190bhp with smoke…straight piped..lowered…tinted etc

Not declared like every other young lad but if anything ever happens it I won’t go claiming and will just lie to the loss of it…just thought this point was worth putting it across

Obtaining insurance by deception is fraud and opens you up to prosecution. I would never non-disclose any matter to insurers, because of the world of pain it brings. In my 43 years in the industry, I have seen numerous cases where modifications have caused cover problems and refusal of indemnity. However, I've never come across one for re-mapping