Pedal Boxes on B7 tfsi's, are they really any good?

[Charlie Farley]

Well that's the question , are pedal boxes really all they are cracked upto be.
Well i'll let you have my input tomorrow as I've ordered one today for the old bus. I've been toying with the idea for quite some time but have allways decided against one , maybe the wording "pedal Box" has allways been a bit naff , sounding like something for a bumper car...lol.
The Old bus is around the 270bhp mark at present and hoping to increase it shortly with an uprated turbo etc but until then I wanted to give a "PB" a try , see what all the fuss is about .
Obviously it wont change the power or torque but might just add something extra into the mix.
having trawled through a lot of reviews it seems to be a mixed bag of guys that love them and other that hate them, so pretty well normal then .
I've opted for the version with app control aswell as it seems a bit more tunable, but we'll see.
Anyway , it will be here tomorrow and i'll get it fitted and try it out, I will report back with my finding .
I'm hoping that adding it into the mix with the cars current map it may be interesting to say the least.

Went with this unit.

worse case if its not really much different i'll just sell it on.

cheers
rob

 

[DieselJake]

Made my car feel faster, just put it in the max setting and left it to be honest, prevents pussy footing the fun pedal, only really touched it again to check it was on as it feels normal relatively quickly.

 

[Gazwould]

It is faster !

Rob are you experiencing drive by wire throttle delay ?

 

[Charlie Farley]

Well reporting in chaps after my postman left me this today.

So to your question Gaz , not sure if i was suffering any delay to be honest as the old bus really flies anyway and if there had been i'd have probably adjusted my driving and right foot to suit by now, but as you say it does make it faster..

So got it all fitted , nice 10 min job , set it up and been out for a test drive and what can i say other than brilliant.....

I really would not have thought the improvement would be so noticible , and more to the point enjoyable, grin factor to the max.

On the TFSI it seems to be a great bit of kit, i'd expect the results to be just as good on the diesel too.

So then from initial play...I mean testing it would seem the stock setting is the same , well it should be ..lol.
City mode: doesn't seem much different to stock but i'll need to "test" more to see .
Sport Mode: well this is when things start to get a bit more interesting and the grin factor starts to take hold and right foot is more active..
Sport Mode +: now we're talking get up and go, and this mode is the most noticibly improved , the old bus is down the road like a scalded cat on some sort of drug..lol, totally bonkers but maximum grin factor now..

So still some more tuning to do with the fine adjustment mode , may well leave it in sport mode but with a bit of fine tuning to get a good compromise of sport with extra umph without going to sport mode+ , leave that mode for special occasions.

Just need to setup the app mode on my phone and the jobs done.

In summary then, are they worth it, most certainly yes.
Would I recommend one , yes.

What should be kept in mind is weather you have a standard map or remapped car.
My old bus is remapped so the effect is probably more obvious but even on a standard map ecu I can see the improvements being very noticible .

I'll update over the next few weeks to ensure nothing untowards happens or oddities occur.

 

[Gazwould]

Alot say it's an even bigger difference than a tuning box or remap .

 

[Charlie Farley]

Alot say it's an even bigger difference than a tuning box or remap .

To be really honest Gaz that does not surprise me at all, the difference is like night and day on my old bus, almost makes me question weather I need to start uprating the turbo etc to get more bhp as she really flies now .
I suppose BHP gains are allways worth while , i'll just have to turn down the box a few clicks ..lol, or not

 

[DieselJake]

Liked mine but certainly wouldn't recommend one over a map, realistically it's just something to get after exploring all other options, after a couple days just forget it's there and use less throttle.

 

[Charlie Farley]

Agreed it doesn't replace a good remap and its not really designed too , but for my old bus it has for a better word enhanced the remap I had done a while back.
Just brings the throttle to life that little bit more, throws some extra zing into the mix.
So i'd say it is more of an enhancement really , but, if a remap is not an option or not desired it does go someway to scratching an itch aswell.

still worth it though in my opinion.

 

[Gazwould]

It's individual depending on how much throttle delay there is .

You're on Sport because you don't have much delay , 0.5+ second delay most set to highest setting and leave it there.

 

[Charlie Farley]

I suppose one advantage of using a mode which is better than stock but not full-on would be that when the mode was changed the change would be a noticible increase, otherwise going around full on 24/7 it would become a bit ordinary again.
Sometimes a lot to be said for having a little bit left to play around with if you get my drift.

 

[Ricky Burrows]

One question with this as I've never bothered to look into pedal boxes is why do you need all these modes? If its for throttle response wouldn't you want it in sport+ all the time to get the experience you have paid for or is there a down side to that?

Only asking as I'm surprised how much you say its changed the drive Rob so i may well get one but i don't get why you need all the settings?

Would love to know a bit more about them from someone with the same car as me instead of the google reviews

 

[Charlie Farley]

I'll give you a full review tomorrow Ricky after I've had a drive out in the morning.
I have been very sceptical on them to be honest, but having fitted one today it has really opened my eyes to them and the improved throttle response they provide.
If it wasn't much difference i'd just send it back or sell it on but it does make a noticible difference, it will change your car for the better Ricky.

 

[Ricky Burrows]

I'll give you a full review tomorrow Ricky after I've had a drive out in the morning.
I have been very sceptical on them to be honest, but having fitted one today it has really opened my eyes to them and the improved throttle response they provide.
If it wasn't much difference i'd just send it back or sell it on but it does make a noticible difference, it will change your car for the better Ricky.

I have noticed throttle response isn't great on this car coming from the accord type r that was very responsive and a diesel with a mapped gearbox this isn't even close to being on par but as times went on I've just got used to it and feels normal now so its good knowing we all have an option to improve the responsiveness and by the sounds of it its going on my very long shopping list lol.

 

[Charlie Farley]

Just been out for a while and experimented with different settings and it's a thumbs up from me .
Sport mode is good and with a fine tune in the + direction is ideal for some nippy driving and around town, sport mode + can be a tad lively in full on mode , better for clear faster open roads, on country twisty section the more instantaneous throttle response can be too much in switch back bends, it's great but requires concentration more than stock mode.
I've found at this early stage that using stock mode for normal usage is good , then switch up a few modes when needed, that way you don't get used to the increase and its allways nice to get that extra zing.
On my remapped ecu it is great and the differences are very noticible and worth the box, on standard maps it will be good but probably not as good as when combined with a remap.

 

[Sygh2k]

do you have a custom remap or a generic one, like apr/revo and such?

 

[Charlie Farley]

Custom map.

 

[Ricky Burrows]

do you have a custom remap or a generic one, like apr/revo and such?

I also thought revo was generic but i spoke to the technician at revo and they fine tune them on the road as they don't have a dyno so i wouldn't call it a generic map

 

[Sygh2k]

I also thought revo was generic but i spoke to the technician at revo and they fine tune them on the road as they don't have a dyno so i wouldn't call it a generic map

Generic is probably the wrong term, just meant whether its custom or branded/out the box i guess. As a custom map will cater more to your specific setup than out the box and so the pedal box will have differing effects depending on the type of mapping done.

If there are others with the pedalbox it would be good to know what mapping they have if any and if they have similar results as young rob

I have revo 2+, with plenty other mods so would be interested to see if there was any benefit if any

 

[Charlie Farley]

What I will say is this, before I ordered it I had a chat with the guys and mentioned that mine was not a standard oem ecu map , wasn't really an issue but the end result may differ from that of a standard map, as the boxes are configured to the factory setup so using it with a custom remap maywell have differing results , maybe some erratic issues but they could reprogramme it if needbe.

The device can also work against you in some ways too, if your car is not really running well or has engine performance issues this box will just make them more obvious as it will magnify certain functions so keep that in mind.
Luckliy thus far I seem to be problem free and the results are very impressive based around a throttle enhancement device.
If my old bus was a 2wd variant I could see me having a few close encounters on roundabouts etc on sport mode + ..lol, luckily quattro keeps things under control , well lets just say controlled excitement.

Anyway, it's not designed to be a replacement for an ecu remap nor a means of gain extra BHP or torque but it does a very good job of making one grin from side to side and lets face it chaps, its the excitement that really matters and how a car makes you feel when driving.
For £200 you get a lot of bang for buck.