ECU Upgrade

[jfi2ee]

Hey

Has anyone done an ECU upgrade on their VRS - is it worth the money and is there a dramatic increase in performance/power?

Who did you use to upgrade? I'm looking at APR

APR - High Performance Development for Audi, VW and Porsche Vehicles.

[Dzl_Dubba]

I assume your car is a Mk2 RS? Well only you can truly decide whether its worth the money. I got my Mk3 RS tuned and I think its well worth the money (went with GIAC). Not going to get more bang for your buck. There are plenty of companies out there APR, GIAC, Revo, Spectune, Viezu, Bluefin and more. APR is on the higher end price wise in available tunes but its a solid product. APR offers a money back guarantee so give it a go and see for yourself!

[jfi2ee]

I assume your car is a Mk2 RS? Well only you can truly decide whether its worth the money. I got my Mk3 RS tuned and I think its well worth the money (went with GIAC). Not going to get more bang for your buck. There are plenty of companies out there APR, GIAC, Revo, Spectune, Viezu, Bluefin and more. APR is on the higher end price wise in available tunes but its a solid product. APR offers a money back guarantee so give it a go and see for yourself!

I've got a 5e vrs, got quoted $1650 for the APR

[Dzl_Dubba]

I've got a 5e vrs, got quoted $1650 for the APR

You linked for the mk2 Like I said it is on the higher end but still a solid product. I'm happy with Giac and it only cost me 1000 bucks. Revo is also available for the new RS too. Try their money back guarantee and see for yourself! The car pulls very hard and there's so much torque available that you can easily reach silly speeds. I don't find the tune very aggressive and it drives very much like stock. I plan on putting it on a dyno in the near future to see whats what.

[jfi2ee]

You linked for the mk2 Like I said it is on the higher end but still a solid product. I'm happy with Giac and it only cost me 1000 bucks. Revo is also available for the new RS too. Try their money back guarantee and see for yourself! The car pulls very hard and there's so much torque available that you can easily reach silly speeds. I don't find the tune very aggressive and it drives very much like stock. I plan on putting it on a dyno in the near future to see whats what.

Lol my bad, dumb question but does an ECU upgrade void any part of skoda's manufacturer warranty? Also what would you recommend for the best amount of increased power while maintaining a comfortable drive?

Thanks

[Dzl_Dubba]

Lol my bad, dumb question but does an ECU upgrade void any part of skoda's manufacturer warranty? Also what would you recommend for the best amount of increased power while maintaining a comfortable drive?

Thanks

Skoda techs can detect any changes to the ECU. That is a fact. It is up to the dealer to honour or void any warranty work. They still get paid either way! ECU tune and down pipe will return the greatest gains. I myself plan on fitting upgraded lower control arms and an anti lift kit to minimise wheelspin and axle tramp.

I'm still a novice to tuning myself though the right foot can play a big part of maintaining a comfortable drive. Even a stock RS will drive poorly if you just mash the loud pedal. A good set of tyres will also help.

[donweather]

A good set of tyres will also help.

After a tune, supaloy LCAs and a dog bone insert, I found a new set or rims and tyres made the biggest difference out of all of them when it came to eliminating wheel hop for me. I couldn't believe the difference with the new rims and tyres. It was like night and day. So my recommendation would be to start with the new rims and tyres first and then if you're still getting wheel hop then look at other mods to reduce this.

[Transporter]

Skoda techs can detect any changes to the ECU. That is a fact. It is up to the dealer to honour or void any warranty work. They still get paid either way! ECU tune and down pipe will return the greatest gains. I myself plan on fitting upgraded lower control arms and an anti lift kit to minimise wheelspin and axle tramp.

I'm still a novice to tuning myself though the right foot can play a big part of maintaining a comfortable drive. Even a stock RS will drive poorly if you just mash the loud pedal. A good set of tyres will also help.

It's worth to mention that the Skoda can't void whole warranty just because you have tuned your car. Only in some failures the warranty could be affected and it's also worth to mention that it's a very rare and usually the tuned cars are very reliable as the stage1 tunes don't take much of the life away from the drivetrain either when the common sense is used.

[dArK5HaD0w]

ur pretty safe with a stg 1 tune.
it will also give u the biggest increase in power & torque, compared to any other single mod/upgrade.

i've done the apr ecu tune, dsg tune, exhaust and lowered suspension.
everything else is std.
car is so much more fun to drive. off the mark (best is 5.9 sec to a 100), through windy roads, normal driving, being a family car

have had no mechanical/electrical/structural issues with the car.....touchwood....thus far.

i don't know what's on offer for the mk3 yet, but i'm sure they'll soon be available if they aren't already.

[GeeMatt]

it will also give u the biggest increase in power & torque, compared to any other single mod/upgrade.

i've done the apr ecu tune, dsg tune, exhaust and lowered suspension.
everything else is std.
car is so much more fun to drive. off the mark (best is 5.9 sec to a 100), through windy roads, normal driving, being a family car

+1 for this. I have had the same experience with other marques.
It's in my medium plans. Once I get hold of the Unicorn.

[Martin]

I've done lots of mods to my VRS
With the next car the only thing I will do is an ECU tune and wheels (maybe shocks depending on the car).

The APR stage 1 was a nice boost,
and mostly certainly the best value for money modification you can do,
the mid range was good but it ran out of breath at high RPM (over 5,000rpm was worse than stock).
At the time I though "that's made it more peppy", drove home and parked the car in the driveway.

The stage 2 tune with a new down pipe and high flow cat was a significant step forward.
This provided yet more low and middle range and cleaned up the top end.
The engine pulls better from as low as ~1200rpm
When you reach ~2600rpm it's game on, pulling hard all the way to red line, simply awesome performance.
Picked the car up at 5pm, it was a real eye opener, decided to go for a drive, arrived home 3 hours later.
Open road overtaking is now effortless - it's very reassuring.
You can't use all this power from a standing start, you need to get her rolling and learn how much throttle to use.

Personally, having been through this experience,
I would just go directly to stage two, the result is far better and still exceptional value/benefit/outcome.

FYI - Stage2 took 40km off my tank range during the daily commute.
On Stage1 I was doing ~580km per tank, stage 2 reduced that to 540km.
However, on the open road (family trip, not gunning it), I can do 680km on a tank, easy.
(My Stage2 VRS uses less petrol than my wife's automatic Mazda3 SP23)

I must say, the SuperPro control arms and anti lift kit would be the second best modification
It eliminated axle tramp on hard starts, significant improvement in tracking and high speed stability.
I chose to use the adjustment to give the most negative camber - this made a significant improvement to turn in response
So much so that I can comfortably trail brake and turn deep into a corner, safely and controlled, it's very impressive.
I've done ~40k like this and only have a very slight increase in wear on the inner edge of my front tyres.
I'm planning to change the adjustment, get the front back to stock camber and go for max castor.
I want the front wheels more vertical to aid getting the power down off the mark - you use that much more often.
(Anyway, more castor will give more camber when the steering wheel is turned)

The third modification I absolutely love is the front BBK (big brake kit)
This is clearly outside the "cost/benefit effective" zone,
but once you've had a BBK everything else feels unsafe and crappy.
Yes I know you probably think the brake peddle feels over powered around town.
At low to medium speeds the stock setup was good for sure.
Once you start using the extra performance of an ECU tune you find out that the stock brakes can leave you wanting more (especially in the Octavia due to ~100kg more weight than the Golf GTI and more again in the wagon)
Never the less, my choice of BBK was clearly excessive but it puts a smile on my face every day
These are 6 piston calipers, 358mm two piece rotors, they are 1.4kg lighter per side than the original brakes!





Here is my VRS with the high pitched turbo scream at Marulan
(The scream went away when I upgraded the inter cooler)

[jfi2ee]

I've done lots of mods to my VRS
With the next car the only thing I will do is an ECU tune and wheels (maybe shocks depending on the car).

The APR stage 1 was a nice boost,
and mostly certainly the best value for money modification you can do,
the mid range was good but it ran out of breath at high RPM (over 5,000rpm was worse than stock).
At the time I though "that's made it more peppy", drove home and parked the car in the driveway.

The stage 2 tune with a new down pipe and high flow cat was a significant step forward.
This provided yet more low and middle range and cleaned up the top end.
The engine pulls better from as low as ~1200rpm
When you reach ~2600rpm it's game on, pulling hard all the way to red line, simply awesome performance.
Picked the car up at 5pm, it was a real eye opener, decided to go for a drive, arrived home 3 hours later.
Open road overtaking is now effortless - it's very reassuring.
You can't use all this power from a standing start, you need to get her rolling and learn how much throttle to use.

Personally, having been through this experience,
I would just go directly to stage two, the result is far better and still exceptional value/benefit/outcome.

FYI - Stage2 took 40km off my tank range during the daily commute.
On Stage1 I was doing ~580km per tank, stage 2 reduced that to 540km.
However, on the open road (family trip, not gunning it), I can do 680km on a tank, easy.
(My Stage2 VRS uses less petrol than my wife's automatic Mazda3 SP23)

Thanks for the info, I'm leaning towards the apr ECU stage 1 upgrade for now

Will see how it goes and then decided whether to continue. Is it worthwhile a dsg ECU upgrade or does the gearbox handle the extra torque well?

[Dzl_Dubba]

Thanks for the info, I'm leaning towards the apr ECU stage 1 upgrade for now

Will see how it goes and then decided whether to continue. Is it worthwhile a dsg ECU upgrade or does the gearbox handle the extra torque well?

I believe DSG tune isn't out just yet for Mk3 RS/Mk7 GTI, though i could be wrong. DSG tune is well worth it as the shift points are changed in D and S as well as quicker shifts. The gearbox shouldn't have issues with the extra torque as plenty of folks have tuned cars without complaint, though i wouldn't be doing LC every day.

[Martin]

My standard box is un-flustered by the extra power and torque.
The DSG tune is not needed and is not highly beneficial

I seriously doubt the faster changes claim.
VW have always advertised predicted changes at 8ms,
you won't notice or benefit from faster changes
(and I don't believe unexpected changes will be any faster).

The biggest claim to fame is more clutch clamping pressure.
The manual mode is a real real manual, if you stop in 6th it won't change to 1st for you.

If you were putting a LSD into the gearbox you would get the DSG tune.
If you were preparing a AWD R as a track car you would get the DSG tune.

The stock DSG programming is not perfect - but it's not hard to manage it when it's wrong

[jfi2ee]

Can any give their thoughts on the bluefin upgrade?

Seems too be half the price of the apr option