Topping out at Stage 2+?

[mmmRacer]

Thanks for the info. I'm going to have to invest in a vag-com sooner or later.

[jimmedy]

Oh, Polo & Fabia don't get an ESC on/off button on centre console behind the shifter? That's a pain.

Granted I've had mine off for all of several minutes in 18 months of driving, but it's there!

[mmmRacer]

The Fabia does have a ESC on/off button.

[The_Hawk]

I put the GFB DV+ in this morning along with the Forge intake. In the very short drive it appear to hold boost a little better and it appears to have a little flutter now?? The sound is a little different too. I've only driven for about 5 minutes so will see how it all goes.

[Youtube]Y9JJmVbcZ7A[/youtube]

[jimmedy]

Fitting a CAI and a DV at the same time it's going to be hard to pin down which is responsible for the sound change!
My VWR intake certainly changed how mine sounds.

My big install day has finally arrived tomorrow morning, I'll be rolling up to CVWC as the shutters open and leaving my baby with them for the whole day. FMIC, full Milltek, front and rear sways, coilovers, DV+ and the LCA bushings.

Can't wait to see how it feels when I drive it out of there in the afternoon!

Then I've got an alignment booked first thing Tues

[spare]

Man, what a list! It's going to be like Christmas for you jimmedy.

Will probably take a few days for the ECU to learn and adjust to the new goods hey? (Intercooler, Exhaust)

[The_Hawk]

Fitting a CAI and a DV at the same time it's going to be hard to pin down which is responsible for the sound change!

I've had the intake for a long while, I tend to take it off when it bothers me then put it back in place when I feel the need for some more noise It should add a few hp, but the trade off is noise.

For reference, all running stage 1:

Stock Airbox Sounds:
[youtube]l7G4WZ4us9U[/youtube]

Intake Only:
[youtube]ubGSbysyQnQ[/youtube]

When I get a chance I'll switch the tune off and take a new video with the CAI + DV+ with the stock tune to see how much difference that makes. Given it ups the boost AND how early it kicks in I think it will be a bit. There is a thread over here with a Jetta 118TSI with a stock tune + APR CAI which is much much quieter than mine, check it out for comparison:

http://www.vwwatercooled.com/forums/f155/air-intake-question-107904.html

[spare]

Wow, that's sounds so different.

So are you saying the Forge intake sound gets to you after a while? I reckon it sounds great.

Is the hp/response noticeable at all with the forge, or is it purely sound? I guess a few hp extra would be virtually impossible to notice.

My HP intake and exhaust get fitted Monday next week...

I should probably film some before videos this week.

[jimmedy]

*long post ahead, covers the good and bad of my Stage 2 experience so far*

Well holy hell, what a fun little machine I now own! I could scarcely wipe the smile off my face after finally just going for a 'spirited' shakedown drive tonight, if not for a tiny issue that arose in the last moments of the drive and a quick examination of the car on arriving home (more on that in a minute).

Fitment day began yesterday morning. At drop off, the guys at CVWC offered to take my car for the alignment for me so I wouldn't drive it 'wonky' and it could all be rolled into one bill. Sure I thought. I'd planned to be without it all day anyway and I couldn't give it the shakedown til after the alignment the next day, so no practical difference to me. Thought I'd have it back by about 9am this morning...

Anyway, fast forward to this afternoon, a few ETA's they'd given me had come and gone, then I had some commitments of my own and I finally got the car back @ about 4:45pm. Then an amusing practical problem arose - my little A1 had no chance in hell of fitting the 3 large boxes of bits that came *off* my car!

Very, very conveniently I had relos over for dinner waiting back at home, including my Dad with his trusty Commodore wagon.
Parked the A1 at home, zipped back with the Commodore before closing time, piled the spares on board. Family dinner followed.

Several distracted hours later I rolled out onto the dark Canberra roads and had my 20 minute grin-inducing jaunt around some of the new subdivisions with no houses and no traffic..... it was only as I was rolling back into the built up areas I was sitting at a red light and heard a rather scary noise. For the first few seconds I didn't realise it was even my car, thinking maybe the 4WD in the lane beside me. But just as I figured out it WAS me, the light went green and when I took my foot off the brake the noise stopped - otherwise I would have pulled over then and there.

I was curious to reproduce it and tried all sorts of throttle positions and braking down the final bit of road to my building and couldn't reproduce it. Pulling up to a stop for my security swipe thingy for my garage though, the noise came back, and with a vengeance! And this time it didn't stop when I released the brake. I rolled inside, into my space, stopped, handbrake, park. The noise continued all the while.

Ignition off quickly, now quite concerned, and I then got a very clear idea of the issue - the sound didn't stop immediately with the ignition but slowed....

Bonnet open and torch on, my first suspicion was confirmed - an insulated cable running between the new DP and the radiator fan was hitting the fan blades!!! It sits on a small metal bracket and it may actually be the very edge of the metal bracket touching and not the softer cable insulation.

No major damage done but there is visible evidence of contact on the fan blades - tiny markings in the same spot on each fan blade. Shouldn't affect fan performance if I get the bracket away from it and manage to secure it to something. Engine was way too hot to do anything with tonight. Clearances in that engine bay were tight enough before I went and added all this stuff!

Interesting that it survived some quite hard driving first. I guess the fans are only part time when you come back to low speeds and the air pressure from forward motion alone isn't enough to cool the heat soak... Anyway, I'll call the guys at 8am and get it adjusted.

More thorough inspection time.... Issue 2 turns out to be that the front tires are rubbing the guards. A moment of panic set in as I saw the discolouration of the rolled under portion of the front guards. In the light I thought momentarily they'd taken paint off to bare metal! But, thankfully (?) they've actually deposited rubber on top of the paint instead, which with a bit of a firm rub came off. Still, given time it will take off the paint and I need to resolve it. The ride height looks *amazing* but I might have to give back 15mm or so.

The final issue was a bit of a disappointment at bill payment time and not CVWC's fault....
I'll mention it here briefly but I'm also going to fire off an email to Guy_H echoing the below;

I got slugged $375 today for them to add the 'test pipe' file to my Stage 1 tune, to make it 'Stage 2'.
This was after being told time and again it would be free if I took the APR upgrade path; at least wherever possible.
Apparently I had to pay because my down pipe wasn't 'APR'.

The issue of course is that, with the exception of people finding a discontinued item in stock with one of the interstate dealers, the APR parts for our twin chargers are all officially discontinued!

I already had APR Stage 1, a VWR intake (sourced from HP/APR in Brisbane), and a HP DSG tune. Just a couple months old.
This week I added the full Milltek (HP/APR Brisbane), HP sways front and rear (HP/APR Brisbane).
I've spent about $7500 on APR/HP and Milltek - who they distribute.

That doesn't include the full day of labour, the coilovers and the intercooler which I sourced myself - again, no other choice for the twin charger.

I'm a bit pissed about this $375, I feel like it's milking the customer just a little *too* hard.
I say I don't blame CVWC because from what they said, when you grab the 'test pipe' file from the APR server you have the opportunity to enter in a serial number from an APR downpipe, which sets the price to 'free'. If you don't have a serial number to provide, then the 'Stage 2' tune comes at a price.

I'm annoyed for two reasons; firstly, there were never any strings attached to several conversations I've had myself and read 3rd hand about APR Stage 2. I've never read about anyone else paying for one.
But, even so, even if it's linked to an APR downpipe, they're discontinued for my engine and I had to pick something else.
I would have hoped picking a full Milltek and sourcing it through the same company might have qualified....

Anyway, that's my rant over for tonight. I'm going to try and address these minor issues tomorrow and report back with maybe some pics / vids and more detailed reviews on my various part selection. Short version though, it's incredible And the sound! Thank god I held out for resonated cat back, it has plenty of volume and crackle for a daily driver!!!! I'm still getting DSG 'farts' on upshift in WOT between 2nd and 4th, and the growl is amazing. So non-res might have gotten me in trouble!

[jimmedy]

Alright, another update and I'm very glad to say I'm 3 for 3 with the issues from yesterday all being solved!
All were handled with much professionalism and good will!

Increasingly nervous about my imminent road trip, I rang CVWC at 8:01am, explained the metal bracket fouling the fan and the tires fouling the front arches and they told me to come in around lunch time. I did just that, and while I went for a brief walk to the mall nearby, car was straight up on the hoist and an hour later we were good to go!

Bracket that crosses in front of the DP looks to now be out of the way with enough clearance that heat expansion shouldn't put it in harms way again.

Coilovers, we're only wound up about 15mm at the front, and you can hardly tell by eyeballing it - I had to measure. But I'm hoping it's enough.... I'll clean the guards tonight where there's some build up then tomorrow when I stop for fuel / snacks whatever on my way to Melb, I'll run a finger under the arch and see if the rubber is back. I couldn't hear it / feel it even yesterday, it was only the residue that gave it away. So fingers crossed I don't hit anything sharply enough while the wheels are orientated away from straight that's going to rip my front 1/4 panel off!

Finally, I fired off an email to Guy_H last night right after posting here, having a bit of a whinge at the Stage 2 'fee'. Ever the professional he wrote back to me this morning and Cc'd CVWC in saying there'd been some miscommunication and while there is a fee for 'Stage 2', the test pipes file should've been free. It's literally that simple.

It was down to the actual name of the file on the APR server. Because CVWC grabbed a file called 'Stage 2' when they applied my update, the APR software said there's a price attached to that. On the twincharger though, that file is redundantly sitting alongside the test pipes file, which is the one they should have grabbed.

The net result is the same when installed on the car, but one of them tells the operator to bill the customer, and one doesn't.

It becomes more relevant on some of the other engines where the Stage 2 map changes more parameters, so once Guy_H explained it all to me, I do get why APR do what they do.

Long story short, the $375 was refunded on the spot, which lets me breathe a little easier and enjoy a few extra beers this weekend

I've got a passenger riding with me to Melb and back so I'll deputise him as my photographer and grab some video maybe of the new exhaust crackle and the acceleration at WOT!

Big thanks to the CVWC team and Guy_H @ APR.

[spare]

Thanks for all the info Jimmedy!

I'll have to make sure I don't get charged for the Exhaust Test Pipe file on Monday when mine goes in.

How do you find the intake?

As mentioned, I purchased the HP one, but to be honest, the intake side of things (be it HP, VWR, or Forge etc) is the only part I'm a bit skeptical on... (admittedly, I haven't installed it yet)

Any other info, or feedback you can give us?

[jimmedy]

Got back from Melbourne yesterday arvo - just zipped straight up the Hume yesterday, cruise control on most of the way, so a fairly unexciting drive home.

My trip down through Kosciusko Park / The Alpine Way was pretty epic though with some bonus added drama.
Set off last Thursday and things were going great through Cooma / Jindabyne and into the National Park. Car felt fantastic and nimble.

Really let loose along The Alpine Way and gave all my new components quite a workout. Exhaust sounded amazing. Boost holds on basically forever now - I really think the DV+ was worth it. Cornering turn in was crazy responsive and it just held around corners and held and held....

Popped out of the National Park and just through Khancoban on the south side when my mate in the passenger seat and I had about 5-10 seconds of going 'can you smell rubber? I can smell rubber' before the car went into a violent wobble and I pulled over to discover my rear left tire had blown.

A few hours of drama followed - as an aside, I'm completely disgusted at Audi when I discovered that my 'socket' for tire changes was f'ing plastic. The plastic socket also fitted onto a flimsy metal rod and basically there were about 3 separate places where it could fail while trying to undo a wheel bolt, and all of them did. I didn't have a prayer of getting those bolts off.

A mate on the road behind me was able to zip back to Khancoban and borrow a socket with a good ratchet and long handle for leverage and eventually we got back on the road on the space saver. Tire was shagged - complete sidewall blowout. Big enough to fit my fingertip through.

I count myself lucky for many reasons - it could have happened up in the park away from mobile coverage and taken much longer to resolve. It could have also happened under throttle on a narrow bit of road, etc etc.

Still, I had to then drive on to Albury on the space saver, and get a yucky 'Nankang' fitted on the rear left. Turns out 225/35R18 is a pretty uncommon fitment in regional Victoria!

So my takeaway from this is that my suspension and sways are now so over-specced for my little micro car that it set my Continental's up as the new weak point in the equation :p

It is of course possible that I clipped something on the road. And, I was also running the pressure very high to be driving it that hard. But still, when I set out that morning, with various scenarios running through my mind of what could go wrong with all my newly installed mods, strangely I didn't contemplate I'd be blowing a tire!

On the way home yesterday I started to notice the exhaust note has really changed over the 1700km's I've put on it. It's deepened and settled. And dare I say... on cruise control at about 117kph... it bordered on a little droney in the cabin.. :\ It's fine on flat road, but I noticed yesterday between Tarcutta, Gundagai, Yass and on to Canberra there's a lot of long, gentle inclines and it caused the engine to just work hard enough to introduce a bit of drone to the cabin. The noise is fantastic when you're doing it on purpose through the mountains, but on cruise control for long stints... it was something I had hoped to avoid. Anyway... I'll have to wait an see if the exhaust has now settled into the way it will sound long term or if it still has some more to change.

I have to try and get 15 mins up at CVWC today so they can re-torque the sway bars, then off to Audi tomorrow for its 2nd service.
They can lecture me for how utterly I've voided my warranty. lol. And I can chew them out for the abysmal quality of their tire change kit - in different circumstances it really could have been inconvenient and or dangerous to be stuck on the side of the road unable to change the tire.

[HenryJr]

What pressure were your running on the tyres out of interest?

[Sydneykid]

Sidewall hole usually = hit something.
My first job with a new car is to put the jumper leads and the X brace in the boot.

Cheers
Gary

[jimmedy]

Sidewall hole usually = hit something.
My first job with a new car is to put the jumper leads and the X brace in the boot.

Yeah. There were bits of twig and the occasional chunk of rock on the road so it's very possible. And my reading over the last few days has found a lot of comments that Conti Sports are notorious for going full sidewall.

I was running them at 40psi, so they would have been a good few higher than that while I was really pushing it. I probably could have stood to let a few psi out before I hit the mountain roads.

Anyway, CVWC re-torqued and tightened everything underneath the car yesterday and it's in at Audi today for its 2nd service (and so that they can inevitably record my warranty as null and void as soon as they take one look at it, lol). I eyeballed the odo as I dropped it off. There better not be any joy riding.

On a related issue - 225/35R18 tyres are a huge PITA, just for reference. Very uncommon fitment. Often twice as much $ as a 225/40 in the exactly brand and model. Extra annoyingly, after searching through RTA website and PDF's on modification, 225/40 adds a bit too much diameter and while I'm sure I could adjust the suspension and drive them fine day to day, technically they'd be defectable and potentially void my insurance while I'm at it.

The Conti Sport 3's that came with the car were approaching the wear indicators anyway with only 25,000 on them, before the blow out. I know they're sporty rubber but 25,000 just doesn't seem like enough. So I thought I'd try Michelin Pilot Super Sports.

Of course, Michelin don't make a Super Sport in 225/35. Well - they do, they just don't sell it to Australia.
Tempe Tyres in Sydney mysteriously has some. When I rang my local Bob Jane a second time to ask whether they could source them or at least come down a bit in price their quote I'd gotten earlier for 245's he confirmed Michelin don't bring them in themselves so Tempe probably have a parallel import and they are likely several year old stock, try at my own risk.

Anyway 245/35 only adds 14mm diameter. Sneaking in 1mm under what's legal.... hopefully the Michelin PSS are all they're cracked up to be. Those will go on next Saturday.