Anyone had APR Chip > 3 yrs on Mk5 Golf?

[thezoneR32]

Not really relevant to this thread but....got the APR trial flash put in the R32 Friday. Can say that the difference whilst not mind bending is certainly noticeable. The car shunts more aggressively at around 2800-4000 than it used to and also pulls consistently all the way to redline. It also seems to rev more freely and smoother, at idle and during gear changes. It’s an expensive mod but really this is how it should have been, I think I will probably go for it.

[riceboy]

Had my GTI Golf APR chipped 1 1/2 years. Not sure if the DSG being jerky is related to the age of the car or the APR tune. If I had to choose, I'd probably do the same (APR) again. Wish I'd bought the manual!

[TomC]

Bump for this thread - would be interested to hear from those of you with apr tunes on you GTI who've been going for a long time. Any engine internal/gearbox/other hardware issues that have arisen from long term use?

Thinking about getting stg 1 done around the middle of the year.

[poyta]

Can't comment on the APR chip but I do have a BlueFin re-flash in my GT and have had it now for 2 years with no evident problems. I did immediately notice a fuel increase of about 0.5l/ 100kms - and it has remained at this level to this day so its got nothing to do with me pushing the car any harder. If you're concerned about warranty I'd recommend the BlueFin because you can easily revert back to factory specs and then back to tuned again so if you need to bring it in for service you can go back to factory spec. ALthough I've been assured by Bluefin that the dealer has no way of telling its been flashed anyway - I've had a number of services and warranty issues and they've never picked it up.

[noone]

Biggest issue with the APR is some other tunes pull bigger numbers on the rollers for less cash.

[thezoneR32]

Yeah Apr is expensive. I'm toying with the idea of getting the Custom Code VVT attack tune/miltek combo.

[Creniac]

My two c's worth..... my recently sold Jetta 118tsi was sold with both the 95 and 98 tune APR onboard. The Jetta also had the 7 DSG transmission, combined was an awesome package that I enjoyed driving HOWEVER! for you 7DSG owners I noticed the following during my time with the Jetta.

Stock mode: Sweet as

95 Tune mode: Mostly sweet..... odd slip around 3000rpm when cruising at 70km/h then putting foot down... revs would "float" 500rpm before locking in which pointed out minor slip to me.

98 Tune mode: Again mostly sweet..... but slip was worse and seemed to take longer to settle. Pull was always hard and slip not noticable if you were not looking at the tacho or listening out for engine tone.

We all know the 7DSG's in the 77TDI and 118TSI are rated by VW at 250NM... For me, I tended to leave it in 95 tune mostly to avoid slip.
I had one instance in the early days of the APR tune that after pulling out in front of oncoming traffic (accidentally) I hammered the right foot to the floor... the revs took off............. but the car did not, this was followed by the dreaded burning clutch smell! although this did only happen once.
I have now moved to a Tiguan with a manual gearbox for many reasons.... first being the need to tow a 5m alloy boat....... DSG was another reason I have moved.

[brimway]

I have done 13,000Ks since APR tune with zero problems. I have had unrelated warranty work done and the dealer was none the wiser due to APR lock feature. I certainly don't regret having had the tune done. Fuel consumption when stock was 8.96 l/100ks average over 5,000Ks and after APR is 9.35l/100ks over 13,000Ks, hardly worth a mention given the gains in terms of increased power and torque. No way would I go back

[DNA Tuning]

During development of our 118TSI tune, we did notice abit of clutch slip issues, so tuning a car with the 7DSG is a different ball game to the 6DSG in the Mk5.

This has been taken into account (hopefully by other tuners as well) and so our programs for the 7DSG do not ramp up the torque too quickly in the low to mid range. Instead, we smooth out the boost pressure increase, but hold the boost curve higher and longer than the stock program. We have not had a single problem since officially releasing our TSI tunes for the 7DSG models.

[TomC]

Thanks guys for the feedback. Didn't take long for the chip war to start hey! I'm not so much interested in a particular brand, just the impact of chip tunes (stg1) and mechanical problems in general.

Interesting to hear about the 7DSG slip issues. Fortunately I'm working with the 6DSG in my mk5 GTI so should be no problems there. But would still like to know any issues people have had; especially with engine internals and hardware. Maybe there aren't any, which would be sweet

[poyta]

I was told that If I had a 6DSG in my TDI that I would have to have a soft tune with the Bluefin as the 6DSG box is limited to about 400Nm , since I have the 6 speed manual I was able to get a harder tune with way over 400NM.
This DSG clutch slip issue is common, I've heard about it from a number of people - one of the many reasons I didn't want DSG. You also need to ask yourself if you really want the chip - to be honest the improvement isn't that incredible like some would have you believe - perhaps someone with a chipped version of your car could offer you a testdrive so you can see the difference for yourself, you may think the expense and the potential DSG issues in future are not worth it. For me it was only about $700 so I was happy to pay that sort of cash for a mild increase in power but when you're talking APR and a near $2000 bill I think the money could be better used elsewhere.

[Pappon]

Biggest issue with the APR is some other tunes pull bigger numbers on the rollers for less cash.

noone i'm keen to hear more? Giac? How much higher?

[noone]

TSI is not an area i know well, but Giac has been known to take a more aggressive approach with fewer frills. Dyno day threads can be helpful if people list their mods and post graphs. Does not tell the whole story, but cars are run on the same dyno.

All depends what you want, reliability, power or price. Obviously you will lean towards 2 poles more. There should be a few tunes available to you, look at vortex and other forums as well if you want to fully research.

[simple_man]

Not really relevant to this thread but....got the APR trial flash put in the R32 Friday. Can say that the difference whilst not mind bending is certainly noticeable. The car shunts more aggressively at around 2800-4000 than it used to and also pulls consistently all the way to redline. It also seems to rev more freely and smoother, at idle and during gear changes. It’s an expensive mod but really this is how it should have been, I think I will probably go for it.

I had APR on my AUDI 1.8 Turbo quattro. Very nice, smooth too. Do not know about fuel, as 10 km after trial tune install added boost presure killed my weak ignition coil Not APR issue, but tune expired before I managed to fix it
So, keep a spare ignition coil in the car if you plan on adding of some boost

With my R32 Turbo, I now have two spares sitting around
Byt the way my fuel consumption went from 11 to 14 round town. Not bad for a 250 to 400hp upgrade.

[warhead]

I had my GT 1.4 TSI tuned with APR Stage 1 about 6 months ago and I recently started noticing weird boost problems and power drops. Dyno day showed me on paper just what the difference was; 104KW vs 84KW stock & APR respectively.

Car's booked in at European Autotech in a couple of weeks for them to look at it. APR guys think it's a faulty DV or PCV ( which are fairly common in VW/Audi turbo engines ). Just a tad odd that the problem only manifests itself under the tune and not stock, or it's just less apparent on stock.