Bluefin and Aussie dollar.

[Graybags]

Petrol or Diesel? 2l petrol can get down to 6.5 on a trip back from Daylesford on the weekend. Around town about 8-9s driving normaly. Do it!

[Transporter]

Hi Guys,

With the Bluefin chip how have you guys found the fuel economy?
I dont want to upgrade and then the car just eats up the fuel?
Plus does it come with a few maps oronly one?

If you're after fuel economy don't do it. Engine produces power from the burned fuel, to get more power, remap will change the boost and more boost means more fuel is used. Simple like that. Just look at official consumption figures in Octavia 118 TSI and 147TSI RS.

[Ocy_RS_TDi_Kombi]

Transporter is spot on. In my normal day to day driving I'm using approx 5% more with the Bluefin. But I find if I give the car heaps it's fuel economy drops lots - but its such fun! I haven't gone on a long highway run with Bluefin yet so I cannot comment on the highway - from the small trips done though, it looks like it'll be the same.

When I mentioned this to Bluefin/Superchips they sent me another tune which was so detuned I may as well kept the standard tune (they quote 10% fuel economy savings with Bluefin/Superchips and turbo diesels)

As Graybags mentioned just do it cause the car is so much better!

Cheers

[spellbound]

I have now had nearly 2 months of APR stage 1 upgrade and i have noticed no change in consumption , low 8l/100k city commuting has not changed .

Gear changes are now minimal , with more time in 5th , which may account for lack of consumption change .

Best bit is the RS now feels so much more responsive , smoother driving , personally i would take any upgrade .

[CanberravRS]

I think for anyone wanting to have safe, reliable and warranted motoring, any after market upgrade is just a waste of money. If you want additional performance and a shorter engine life, then its likely that a power up will be for you.
Just remember that VAG spends millions on making the ECU maps variable and flexible for extreme weather conditions world wide, and consider the entire client base when the techs go to work on a ECU map. Yes you might get 15-20% more power, but i cannot see from the maps i have examined (being an IT Geek who was a mechanical engineer i do this stuff) how any of them are anything more than a power up.
Yes some claim they have optimised cruising mixtures for better economy, but from my interpretation of the maps, they are too lean and will cause long term damage to the motor. VAG don't muck around, I've looked at and examined Subaru/BMW/GM and VAG maps and well VAG do it damm well.

By all means, if you want more power go for it.. If you want to blat your warranty on the entire car.. go for it..
If its out of warranty go for it.. if you want more power.

I'm always keen to see how reliable the power up companies are, and well over nearly 20 years of modifying/racing/rallying and now enjoying warranted new quality cars.. it all seems to be a wank factor. The little benefit never pays off when you consider the outlay and long term cost on additional tyre wear/brake wear, well hell the whole drive line gets stressed beyond its warranted design capabilities.

Its why they cannot offer a decent warranty as its likely to wear a part faster than its designed to.

Just be careful.. if you cant afford to have the car repaired out of warranty, then don't do it. Its common sense.
If you can afford to repair out of warranty, then go for it and enjoy the power.

But honestly, if you want a better faster car, then buy a factory one that can do what you want, and its likely to be designed to do what you want and under warranty.

[Graybags]

Sorry mate thats the biggest load of crap I hope I don't have to read again today. Have you driven a petrol vrs with and with out bluefin?
He was asking opinions about fuel economy and the only people that can comment are people with it installed on their cars. When did all this Bluefin bashing come into it?

[Transporter]

Sorry mate thats the biggest load of crap I hope I don't have to read again today. Have you driven a petrol vrs with and with out bluefin?
He was asking opinions about fuel economy and the only people that can comment are people with it installed on their cars. When did all this Bluefin bashing come into it?

Hold your horses, mate!

I don't see any Bluefin bashing here, he merely pointed out that increasing power also decreases engine's life and that's a simple fact. You don't need to be Einstein to figure it out. The 147TSI engine when fitted to different models in Audi and VW has a lot of internal changes to maintain the reliability and longevity, like stronger con rods, different pistons and much more. (I'm to lazy to google the page with the engines listed, but I'm sure it's there somewhere)

To comfort people who tuned up, your engine most likely will not blow up, fail or die anytime soon, but don't expect the same max. life and reliability from the engine like from the standard car.

I hope we don't have to close this thread or start deleting posts.

[K1W1]

I think it's rather naive to assume that an engine from a manufacturer is always in the optimum state of tune for that engine. More often than not the power delivery of engines is artificially adjusted to suit the manufacturers perceived requirements for the market or some other constraint. To simply state that things like Bluefin tunes will decrease engine life or to infer that they will cause engine failure is also wrong. Minor upgrades from tuning maps are unlikely to stress engines anywhere near their operating limits and will in most likelihood have no discernible effect on how long a properly maintained engine will last.
I'm not a fan of tune kits like Bluefin, I can't see the point for me but if other people want to fit them then I can't see any reason not to.

[Transporter]

I think it's rather naive to assume that an engine from a manufacturer is always in the optimum state of tune for that engine. More often than not the power delivery of engines is artificially adjusted to suit the manufacturers perceived requirements for the market or some other constraint. To simply state that things like Bluefin tunes will decrease engine life or to infer that they will cause engine failure is also wrong. Minor upgrades from tuning maps are unlikely to stress engines anywhere near their operating limits and will in most likelihood have no discernible effect on how long a properly maintained engine will last.
I'm not a fan of tune kits like Bluefin, I can't see the point for me but if other people want to fit them then I can't see any reason not to.

Nobody is naive, I just don't see the turbochrger to last the anywhere near the same distance on tunes that many people in here have.
What do you call a minor upgrades? I hope you don't a mean minor upgrade going from 147kW to something like 190kW. Because it's not.
Otherwise anything within 5 -10 kW is perhaps a minor upgrade.

But hey, it is everyones choice and after all some tuning company even offer some warranty on the drive train just in case.

[dazag]

ahhh you're all taking the fun out of "playing" with the car with your "modify, but expect your car to go bang" scepticism.
Yes if I could afford the ultimate family wagon that wouldn't need tweaking then a shiny new Audi RS6 Avant would be parked in my shed (something about a turbo'd V10 punching big KW & torque figures makes me drool ).
But if people are sensible about their modifications & do the research ( and that involves - if I fit this component what else will it effect type research ) and stick to good maintenance practices then i dont see the issue.
I know I'm doing a fair amount of research and getting some good tips on where to research through the VWwatercooled forums - especially the diesel section. My Occy RS TDI will have been well researched by the time i start fitting gear up to it..........

[brad]

bluefin - 30,000km - 5% fuel economy hit for my driving style plus you are chained to 98ron rather than having a 95ron fallback.

If you are giving it heaps consistently then maybe you should have bought a more sporting variant. If, like me, you only use the power occasionally, then wear & tear probably isn't an issue. If the engine lasts 10% less than the design life then I can live with that as I haven't owned a vehicle beyond 200,000km in years.

As for "the engineers at the manufacturers know best". I disagree. You only have to look at the tune that V8 Holdens come out with - very conservative & designed for the worst case scenario (high temps, crap fuel, towing horsefloats). Manufacturers tunes are quite generic IMO.

A tune probably isn't for everyone but most people that try them wouldn't go back.

[Antiplastix]

Seems about right, since fitting the "bluefin superchip" my average consuption has gone from 8.6 l/ 100 to 9.2 l/ 100. A couple of times I have had to use 95 ron and it hasnt seemed to make any differance, but for the sake of saving $3 a tank full I ll stick with the 98.

[GTR27]

Have mine done now.....seems pretty good bang for buck. Car seems a lot peppier now. Part throttle is the biggest difference - seems to get good boost even on low throttle. 2nd/3rd now feels quick. Bit smoother overall too! As mentioned fuel economy has gone down slightly, however im not sure if thats because of the tune, or because i'm driving it harder now LOL

[spellbound]

Have mine done now.....seems pretty good bang for buck. Car seems a lot peppier now. Part throttle is the biggest difference - seems to get good boost even on low throttle. 2nd/3rd now feels quick. Bit smoother overall too! As mentioned fuel economy has gone down slightly, however im not sure if thats because of the tune, or because i'm driving it harder now LOL

Good stuff mate hope your enjoying the extra grunt , dont fret over consumption mine was like that up a bit for the very same reason , now with a more relaxed commute its as always about 8.4l/100 in the city , and thats probably less gear changes helping , and now using 5th a lot more .

Get it out on a lonely B road , thats when the wow factor comes in , no wonder they rave about the GTI motor being one of the best 2 litre engines in the world .

[chorrylan]

In my MK6 Golf GTI I averaged 8.6l/100km for the first 4000km
And have averaged 8.7l/100km for the subsequent 4000km with bluefin stage1.

I'm actually rather amazed that the average is so similar as the exra powr and torque is really evident and I have to admit it's been pushed a bit but also some relatively long boring trips and the instantaneous consumption during any form of acceleration is up quite a bit though I try to avoid that display in the MFD oh and... it's way more fun to drive best $620 investment I ever made.