APR ECU Upgrade MK6 Golf - Customer perspective

[Guy_H]

Sorry, just trying to read back through the thread.

There are ~ 18 sensors that feed back to the ECU & have a bearing on what comes out the other end, so if the car is actually down on power (actual - not feel), then it needs to be properly diagnosed.

Obviously the only data we can work off is logs & a dyno graph (logs that match the dyno), this would need to be ideally run one day in stock, then the next day in 98 ron mode - that would show what is happening & some data so temperatures & conditions can be compared.

The switching is still there, so is the programming is intact.

FYI, on our records, we have in excess of 30 cars which have had the VW update, and I have had no reports of anyone getting "stock like power or feel" after getting the new APR flash incorporating the VW update.

Can not find any reports on the net either (let me know if there is?)

[Brian]

Possibly. I find the car behaves best when I start the car after previously being on a spirited drive. Between weekends it's pretty docile.

Agree with Ryan - after a few days of chugging around in "D", the car feels really "doughy". So I'll flick it into manual for a day and give it a bit of stick up and down the gears. Then when I go back to "D" it seems to have regained that spirit that made me buy the car in the first place.
Having saved my pennies for the APR upgrade, now I feel a bit reticent after reading your woes. Maybe I should look to another tune?
Won't be spending my bucks till APR come up with an answer, though.
Any feed back on this issue please Guy_H?

[Ryan_R]

Possibly. I find the car behaves best when I start the car after previously being on a spirited drive. Between weekends it's pretty docile.

[logger]

I would definitely disconnect battery overnight and see if the car looses its fuel trims etc.

Maybe, but I should not have to do anything like this. It should just work.

I had another suggestion... see if your APR installer will put 2xAPR stage 1 tunes into the car.
Eg have ZERO stock mode. That way if you have some sort of auto switching problem. The car will still flick into an APR tune instead of going to a stock tune.

Dunno if they can do that. May be worth a try - but I think that Stock is always there regardless. ie the tune is like a supplement to stock. The ECU gets 90% of the info from the underlying stock even with the tune active. The tune just adds specific areas of the envelope. Or to put it another way, the switching looks like two programs but is really just one big one with a supplement you activate for specific areas.

That's weird. With no tuning, in normal drive mode, and with ESP turned on I still get wheelspin if I'm not careful with how much throttle I give it when a Mazda 3 is next to me at the lights. That said - there are some days when my car is more responsive and some days when I have to push harder on the pedal still. It's a bit of a mystery. Hope you get it sorted out.

Sorry, I should have said I only test on a specific bit of track that is dead flat, dry course grippy bitumen. If I was to do it at the lights in Melb I will nearly always get wheelspin, ESP light or both in stock.

I am thinking it is some sort of short term adaptation issue. I took the car back out 2 hours later, drove it briskly and after several minutes it was pulling fine again. Axle tramp, wheel spin etc. This got me thinking, when I was down on power earlier in the day - I has just been driving around for 20 minutes trying to hear the supercharger rumble. Low revs, bogging it down in tall gears intentionally and giving it full throttle, briefly and backing off. Perhaps it adapts to this regime and limits torque. So when I subsequently dropped into into Sports mode, came to a halt and did a 0-100 WOT with Traction Contol off, it was still limiting torque. So it performed like a dog.

Could this be the case do you think?

[Ryan_R]

Normally with stage 1 you can sit stationary on a dry sealed road. In S mode peg it to the floor and if traction cont is ON you get a load of light activity indicating torque reduction to prevent spin. With Traction control OFF you either get marked axle tramp or wheel spin depending on the surface. But today none of the above - just a leisurely launch resulting in a 8.4sec 0-100.

That's weird. With no tuning, in normal drive mode, and with ESP turned on I still get wheelspin if I'm not careful with how much throttle I give it when a Mazda 3 is next to me at the lights. That said - there are some days when my car is more responsive and some days when I have to push harder on the pedal still. It's a bit of a mystery. Hope you get it sorted out.

[POLARBEAR666]

I had another suggestion... see if your APR installer will put 2xAPR stage 1 tunes into the car.

Eg have ZERO stock mode. That way if you have some sort of auto switching problem. The car will still flick into an APR tune instead of going to a stock tune.

[POLARBEAR666]

I would definitely disconnect battery overnight and see if the car looses its fuel trims etc. the gearbox is definitely very smart at adapting and I imagine the engine ECU is also. The gearbox ECU can adapt to my 50% throttle boost somewhat so that it makes it drive similar to normal except only 50% throttle travel. It has adapted so that even though it is getting double the signal it drives smooth instead of revving hard as it did initially. So I just give it a floor and it pops out of that adapted mode and back into the hard revving mode. That gives you some indication of the adaptation abilities. It will just work super hard to get back to factory unless you bitch slap it with a massive signal difference that outstrips its adaptation ability.

[logger]

No mate. Don't have the lockout. In any case I think, if I were able to check the switching it would probably still says that 98Ron was selected. Just that the car is not performing like it is selected. Unfortunately with the APR switching there is no way to see what program is selected, without actually selecting a program. So if I go to my car now I can switch to prog1 or prog2 and it will respond to indicate it is in the applicable prog by flashing 1 or 2 lights. But there is no way to see what prog it is in without first initiating a switch. Only way I know it is in prog2 or 98rom because there is zero change I have switched it.

Until today I was kidding myself that I had just put some bad batches of fuel through it. It had seemingly come good after co incidentally changing from Shell98 to BP98. But today it has its third tank of BP98 in a row and out of the blue it is not pulling hard any more.

Normally with stage 1 you can sit stationary on a dry sealed road. In S mode peg it to the floor and if traction cont is ON you get a load of light activity indicating torque reduction to prevent spin. With Traction control OFF you either get marked axle tramp or wheel spin depending on the surface. But today none of the above - just a leisurely launch resulting in a 8.4sec 0-100.

Car has done at least 500km in stage1 98Ron tune since last switched over a week ago. I wonder if some form of adaptation cycle is hobbling things for me?

Maybe I have just worn it out.

[POLARBEAR666]

Logger do u have the APR lockout?

Eg. lock the program to the APR tune and then maybe the computer can't just flick itself back to stock tune without the code?

Is this an idea that would work, so that next time u feel tune is working make sure the lockout is on???

[logger]

Saga continues... Not working again. Bggr it.... Have not touched anything in the switching either

[BunsenBurna]

Anyway main thing is it is fixed again and I am happy again.

logger this is very pleasing to read. I have enthusiastically followed your APR tune story and was quite distressed to learn of your woes. Very interested to find out what the hell was preventing the tune working...

118tsi due 20 October!

[elisiX]

Glad to hear its all working again - i'd still be wanting to know what the hell went wrong though.

[logger]

Yeah probably got my terminology wrong wrt the shell stuff I have been using as it was definitely their 98ron brew. VPower it must have been.
Fingers crossed it stays how it is now and does not go on strike again.

Sent from my Nexus One

[Ryan_R]

Good to hear. I've occasionally noticed that changing fuel brands spruces up the performance a bit, perhaps each fuel has a slightly different effect. I continuously use Shell VPpower since I pretty much never come across any other brand of station in my travels.

Back on topic - hopefully it doesn't, erm, *miraculously* go back the way it was again.

[logger]

My APR Stage 1 got its mojo back.
Set off on a 200km drive to MELB early this morning, heading to Volkspower to look at my ECU tune that was not working. ON the way I noticed it was miraculously working again. Climbing all the long hills nicely in 7th gear which it had ot done for months. As it was 0600 in the middle of nowhere I did a quick 0-100 run with VCDs and it did a 6.9 sec run straight up!! Equal to the best time I have ever got last year and the Axle tramp felt like it was going to chuck the engine out of the car. Way way more tramp than I'd seen when I tested a few days ago. So it is definitely working again. Hooray. So I didn't even end up going to Volkspower because all was good again.

It seems that sometimes, even though the correct program is activated by way of the cruise control and the correct sequence is flashed back at you it may not actually function properly. Even after several thousand kms. So good idea to get it working and not to switch programs I suppose.

A Long bow I know, but two days ago I filled up with a tank of BP optimax 98, when for the past few months I have been using Shell Ultimate 98. Unlikely all the shell fuel is crud though over a period of 3 months. But maybe something in what you said thezoneR32.

Anyway main thing is it is fixed again and I am happy again.