Ok, the forum may not need yet another remap review but Ive taken the time to write this one because there is precious little out there about the facelift cars fitted with the new MED17 ECUs and the remaps available for them. Hopefully its a useful read for some.
I took delivery of the new 2.0T Quattro S-Tronic a few months ago and had already made up my mind about a remap based on the abundant information from VW and Audi forums (particularly this one). I had originally intended to plump for the S3, but because the car was a joint purchase between myself and my DSG loving girlfriend, I had to compromise - go for the 2.0T DSG and hope to improve the performance. I should add that, at the time, my Audi dealer informed that there was no way the S3 was coming out with a DSG box . This guy really knew his stuff - also informing me that the engines were identical to the outgoing models and that its purely a cosmetic change for 2009...
I quickly found out that this wasnt the case after excitedly unwrapping my newly purchased Bluefin, plugging it in and watching in disappointment as error codes flashed up on its little digital screen instead of the remap successfully applied message I was expecting. A phone call to Superchips revealed that I would need to bring the car to them to get it sorted while they updated the Bluefin product to work with the new cars. A 2 hour drive to Buckingham and 2 hours in the workshop only yielded an apologetic Jamie who conceded that they clearly hadnt mastered the new ECU in these cars yet.
With that, I hit google and the forums and began searching for info about these new cars and trying to find someone who had actually remapped them successfully. The usual names came up and I was initially tempted by Revo, but put off by the lack of knowledge of the dealers combined with the comparatively high price for a generic mapping. Luckily I came across a detailed post from the guys at Vagcheck expressly detailing their solution for the MED17 ECU and posting some impressive bhp figures too. Some reassuringly technical email exchanges with Morgan convinced me that he knew what he was talking about and the challenges with the new chain drive engines - I booked myself in...
This should be the point where I start talking about how smoothly things went from now on but unfortunately they didnt. My car refused to respond to the new maps and displayed the same behaviour that Superchips found with a failing security checksum preventing the car from starting more than once . Fortunately, Morgan and his code developer refused to give in and I was sent on my way; assured that their experience and some R&D time would get us somewhere with this particularly stubborn car. Well, it did, and last week I spent a morning with Vagcheck successfully applying the Stage 1 and Stage 2 remaps.
Stage 1.
Stage 1 was initially put on the car to test that Vagchecks work had paid off and for me to initially experience the more subtle and economically focussed version of the software, which only increased stock by 20% or so to ~245bhp(!). I cant comment too much on this version as I only went out for a short data logging run with Morgan, but it was an obvious improvement which gave the car a nice positive edge over stock. Its definitely something I would be more than happy with but its hard to gush too much about this version as Ive been driving stage 2 since then...
Stage 2
Ill admit that another factor of contacting Vagcheck was the mention that ~262bhp was achievable from an OBD port remap. Most tuners offer 240-250 so I was pretty excited by the prospect, if a little sceptical if Im honest. So, on went the stage 2 software and off we went with Morgan sitting beside me with his laptop logging whats happening, which as it turned out, was a good thing. The gear changes seemed initially rough at low speed and the first time I gave it full throttle the car started to misfire . However, I knew that this is the rub when you are having custom remap enabling higher than average gains and hoped it could be fixed by looking at the logs from my particular vehicle.
In about 10 mins of analysing the log data, Vagchecks developer had identified an issue with the ignition timing and a new tailored file was uploaded and off we went. The results are nothing short of astonishing. Ive never had a remap before but the power gains seemed immense to me and my drivers seat was shoving into my back continually once the turbo spooled up, giving a little extra hit each time the DSG flicked to the next gear. This was all starting to be very worth the hassle.
Morgan recorded an air mass reading suggesting ~270bhp which you would confidently say made the 262bhp claim a realistic ball park. It certainly feels like it, and the power is there continually right up to, and past, speeds that are going to get you in serious trouble. I could wax lyrical about the confident overtaking and big smiles, but thats kinda obvious with those sorts of figures. Delivery is impressively smooth and predictable (well, predictable once youve got over the initial shock and are used to it!).
What about everyday driving? Well, two things I dont like in the stock car are that when in Drive mode, the DSG box tends to change up at very low revs making the car feel a little laboured at times. The other issue is that Sport mode always tends to hang on to the gears a little too long so you end up screaming the engine when you really dont want to. Theres no happy medium for me. The map gives higher low down torque so Sport mode now seems to change up a little earlier while the engine is making more of a nice new growl rather than the scream, and you obviously have more usable power at those revs too. Predictably, D mode now also changes up at lower revs which perhaps exacerbates the original problem with it being a little bogged down, but its fine for sedate driving and makes it easier to keep the fuel bills down too. I certainly prefer it as I rarely need to use the paddles to force an up-change when in sport mode and the engine-revs and noise are a little reduced for my normal motorway speeds in D mode.
I hope this has been interesting for anyone looking to remap one of the new cars and anyone thinking about using Vagcheck. I really dont think of the car as a compromise anymore and Im loving the performance gains. Its pretty unusual to find your expectations exceeded these day too. They arent the biggest name but I doubt I would have found better technical ability, professionalism and dedication elsewhere and they seem to have an exceptional product here too. I know Morgan and Wak are better known for their work with TTs and anyone with a new 2.0T engine model should definitely give them a call as this Stage 2 on that car would be awesome.
I took delivery of the new 2.0T Quattro S-Tronic a few months ago and had already made up my mind about a remap based on the abundant information from VW and Audi forums (particularly this one). I had originally intended to plump for the S3, but because the car was a joint purchase between myself and my DSG loving girlfriend, I had to compromise - go for the 2.0T DSG and hope to improve the performance. I should add that, at the time, my Audi dealer informed that there was no way the S3 was coming out with a DSG box . This guy really knew his stuff - also informing me that the engines were identical to the outgoing models and that its purely a cosmetic change for 2009...
I quickly found out that this wasnt the case after excitedly unwrapping my newly purchased Bluefin, plugging it in and watching in disappointment as error codes flashed up on its little digital screen instead of the remap successfully applied message I was expecting. A phone call to Superchips revealed that I would need to bring the car to them to get it sorted while they updated the Bluefin product to work with the new cars. A 2 hour drive to Buckingham and 2 hours in the workshop only yielded an apologetic Jamie who conceded that they clearly hadnt mastered the new ECU in these cars yet.
With that, I hit google and the forums and began searching for info about these new cars and trying to find someone who had actually remapped them successfully. The usual names came up and I was initially tempted by Revo, but put off by the lack of knowledge of the dealers combined with the comparatively high price for a generic mapping. Luckily I came across a detailed post from the guys at Vagcheck expressly detailing their solution for the MED17 ECU and posting some impressive bhp figures too. Some reassuringly technical email exchanges with Morgan convinced me that he knew what he was talking about and the challenges with the new chain drive engines - I booked myself in...
This should be the point where I start talking about how smoothly things went from now on but unfortunately they didnt. My car refused to respond to the new maps and displayed the same behaviour that Superchips found with a failing security checksum preventing the car from starting more than once . Fortunately, Morgan and his code developer refused to give in and I was sent on my way; assured that their experience and some R&D time would get us somewhere with this particularly stubborn car. Well, it did, and last week I spent a morning with Vagcheck successfully applying the Stage 1 and Stage 2 remaps.
Stage 1.
Stage 1 was initially put on the car to test that Vagchecks work had paid off and for me to initially experience the more subtle and economically focussed version of the software, which only increased stock by 20% or so to ~245bhp(!). I cant comment too much on this version as I only went out for a short data logging run with Morgan, but it was an obvious improvement which gave the car a nice positive edge over stock. Its definitely something I would be more than happy with but its hard to gush too much about this version as Ive been driving stage 2 since then...
Stage 2
Ill admit that another factor of contacting Vagcheck was the mention that ~262bhp was achievable from an OBD port remap. Most tuners offer 240-250 so I was pretty excited by the prospect, if a little sceptical if Im honest. So, on went the stage 2 software and off we went with Morgan sitting beside me with his laptop logging whats happening, which as it turned out, was a good thing. The gear changes seemed initially rough at low speed and the first time I gave it full throttle the car started to misfire . However, I knew that this is the rub when you are having custom remap enabling higher than average gains and hoped it could be fixed by looking at the logs from my particular vehicle.
In about 10 mins of analysing the log data, Vagchecks developer had identified an issue with the ignition timing and a new tailored file was uploaded and off we went. The results are nothing short of astonishing. Ive never had a remap before but the power gains seemed immense to me and my drivers seat was shoving into my back continually once the turbo spooled up, giving a little extra hit each time the DSG flicked to the next gear. This was all starting to be very worth the hassle.
Morgan recorded an air mass reading suggesting ~270bhp which you would confidently say made the 262bhp claim a realistic ball park. It certainly feels like it, and the power is there continually right up to, and past, speeds that are going to get you in serious trouble. I could wax lyrical about the confident overtaking and big smiles, but thats kinda obvious with those sorts of figures. Delivery is impressively smooth and predictable (well, predictable once youve got over the initial shock and are used to it!).
What about everyday driving? Well, two things I dont like in the stock car are that when in Drive mode, the DSG box tends to change up at very low revs making the car feel a little laboured at times. The other issue is that Sport mode always tends to hang on to the gears a little too long so you end up screaming the engine when you really dont want to. Theres no happy medium for me. The map gives higher low down torque so Sport mode now seems to change up a little earlier while the engine is making more of a nice new growl rather than the scream, and you obviously have more usable power at those revs too. Predictably, D mode now also changes up at lower revs which perhaps exacerbates the original problem with it being a little bogged down, but its fine for sedate driving and makes it easier to keep the fuel bills down too. I certainly prefer it as I rarely need to use the paddles to force an up-change when in sport mode and the engine-revs and noise are a little reduced for my normal motorway speeds in D mode.
I hope this has been interesting for anyone looking to remap one of the new cars and anyone thinking about using Vagcheck. I really dont think of the car as a compromise anymore and Im loving the performance gains. Its pretty unusual to find your expectations exceeded these day too. They arent the biggest name but I doubt I would have found better technical ability, professionalism and dedication elsewhere and they seem to have an exceptional product here too. I know Morgan and Wak are better known for their work with TTs and anyone with a new 2.0T engine model should definitely give them a call as this Stage 2 on that car would be awesome.