ecu reprograming question

[lilcrash]

hey everyone, iev been doing a little bit of research into reprograming the ecu in my wifes beetel(1.8t), and i have noticed a pattern with high prices for a simple flash of the ecu. is there a reason that someone cant just do the reprograming themself? is there a program that enables you to make your own fuel/ignition/boost maps?

laterdays

[h100vw]

ecu flash software - Google Search

It'll be costly if you blow up your engine because you didn't know all the ins and outs.

Gavin

[lilcrash]

Im happy the pay for the software etc in just not happy to pay someone to push one button on a computer to put it on. like look at apr. They are clearly ripping people off. As if anyone in their right mind would pay $1100 for a dump pipe you can buy on eBay for $50 plus postage. That fact alone tells me not to pay them $1250 plus install for their software. Custom codes price is £380 so $500ish Aus that sounds reasonable.

[Lonewolf1983]

then get custom code?

APR put a lot of work into their tunes in R+D, and they are a business.
I agree they are expensive though in comparison to the competition.

[lilcrash]

yer i was leaning that way, but it doesnt end up being only $500 only its installed. h100vw said he can do it for just under $1000 and im guessing he does custom code from his sig. im going to try to 6 hour apr test drive and see if its a noticeable diffrence. im curious as to how they get it to only work for 6 hours though.

[JustCruisn]

I'm not sure APR offer the test on Mk4 cars. Only Mk5+ as they have a more modern system.

[BL33SU]

inmotion tuning from US has tunes for $250

check vwvortex.. people have been using it without problems.. iv also previously had it but just wasnt aggresive enough like Giac

[Blitzen]

This question has been posed MANY times, myself included (about 2 years ago). The 'search' function is your friend here. I was bitter and twisted about it, but it comes down to R&D, market size and demand.
It's the same reason why we pay $220 for Asics Gel Kayono's (running shoes) here in Australia, but Americans only pay $130...
Just the way it is.... Hence why I'm moving to the USA....

[PeDiES]

I'm not sure APR offer the test on Mk4 cars. Only Mk5+ as they have a more modern system.

the beetle 1.8t's have the later ecu so they should be able too

[Jmac]

Speaking from experience here, how many tunes do you get now apart from a live tune that doesnt get loaded by a tune device, BDM flasher or laptop program??? all pretty much touch of a button, so if you dont want to pay for a touch of a button you will need to have it fully live tuned, which starts off with a touch of a button eeprom load up with plenty of " safety richness" then gets drawn back from here. Speaking from Superchips point of view , we are maybe not as dear as APR but we are not the cheapest either, someone has made a comment about R and D and its very true, i cant get one off tunes now from Superchips because they are doing so much R and D now especially with the new common rail stuff and with that trying to crack encryptions, so with all of that they wont simply give tunes away, and the same will go for APR etc. With tweaking software that is easily accessable then enter with caution, be at least armed with an AF meter, stuff goes pop easy, quickly and suprisingly quitetly sometimes.
Have fun
Jmac

[Manaz]

Happy to have discussion of various products in here - but if people start resorting to mindless mud-slinging at ANY product, I'll ****-can posts right-quick.

Discuss the products you like, ignore those you don't, and we're all going to be just fine.

[lilcrash]

just out of curiosity if any dealers are reading this, do you buy the products at a higher price because you live over here?

[Manaz]

just out of curiosity if any dealers are reading this, do you buy the products at a higher price because you live over here?

I doubt dealers are keen on discussing the back-end commercial aspects of their product offerings here.

Higher pricing in one market over another can occur for many reasons other than just geographical location - size of market (and unique aspects to the local market vs larger international markets), demand vs supply, economic stability/strength of the market, fluctuations in currency strength (and whether the buy price has been locked in the local or foreign currency for a period) etc. If you're not happy with the price of a product, nobody is forcing you to pay, you're free to go elsewhere. And if you want a product but think it's expensive, I guess it comes down to how much you want that product whether you take it or a potentially cheaper alternative.

[lilcrash]

I don't expect numbers just a simple yes or no would be sufficient. I personally would disregard my previous outburst if I knew that the dealers were getting a worse price then an identical supplier in a different country. Our dollar is going to stay above Americas for quite a while I imagine so provided the American suppliers are willing to ship and it's in their best interest to ship to us if they want to make sales, I'm happy to wait a week or 2 for a product that's less then half the price.

[brad]

I'd happily do a tune myself if I had access to a wideband o2 sensor, dyno & a truckload of time to experiment. But I have none of that & was happy to pay ~$666 to import a Bluefin device & "push a button".

Sometimes you just have to shell out the money & enjoy the experience.