APR Polo GTI - This months Motor mag (JUN)

[way]

Sways don't really change your stiffness other than when a wheel might drop into a bump etc. And yes, can confirm that the GTI is pretty damn stiff stock and I love it!

Frustrating thing is, the finance minister's recent cars are all very high performance cars that makes a Polo GTI feel like a slow car, and they all have pretty firm ride. And one of them definitely have STIFF suspension that makes the Polo feel plush. Yet because this car is mainly for her to drive in narrow inner city, she feels that these streets have poorer road surface. She's right though.

[way]

Hi Guy,

Intent to bring the car to Dean tomorrow for the ECU reflash. Hopefully he will be available. Called up today and spoke to someone else, and he said should be ok but to call again in the morning as Dean is back then. Fingers crossed as I have been dying to do this but the missus keeps taking the Polo as she loves using it!

[Gambit]

How's the reflash?

[way]

How's the reflash?

Unfortunately we will have to go back tomorrow as Dean said it would take 3 hours due to the need to remove ECU. This is a real surprise to me as on the MkV Golf, he just plugged in the cord, takes 17 mins to upload/download and off we go.

[gavs]

Ah, so it's a full ecu tweak, not a "flash" tune...

[Corey_R]

Nope. It is a flash. Just can't be flashed through the ODB port on some cars due to encryption or whatever. They refer to it as "a bench flash".

It would also mean hand-held flash devices wouldn't work on that particular car.

[Frostee]

Nope. It is a flash. Just can't be flashed through the ODB port on some cars due to encryption or whatever. They refer to it as "a bench flash".

It would also mean hand-held flash devices wouldn't work on that particular car.

By "Bench Flash" does this mean that the ECU needs to be removed from the car? If that's the case how much effort is involved in removing and replacing the unit? Is the removal of the unit necessary to get the appropriate access to the data port or is it more complicated than this?

[Corey_R]

Your first two questions are already answered by the post above.

Unfortunately we will have to go back tomorrow as Dean said it would take 3 hours due to the need to remove ECU. This is a real surprise to me as on the MkV Golf, he just plugged in the cord, takes 17 mins to upload/download and off we go.

I believe the reason to remove the ECU is due to encryption between the ECU and the ODB port where they'd normally flash the ECU from. For more technical details beyond that, I'd have to defer to APR or one of the other experienced tuners.

[Guy_H]

Good thing on the Polo is the ECU is very easy to remove - not even any screws holding it in. We just always take the time in opening the ECU, its a delicate process & shouldn't be rushed.

Wayne, Glad its all going well!

[gavs]

Hi Tsuku,

While not affiliated with any specific tuning company, I have been working with a european based tuner recently on exactly the same ECU as yours in my GTI.

This is often refered to as the Bosch name (who make the ECU) as the Bosch Motronic MED 17.5 ecu. Simple anser to your question? Yes, you can indeed flash these cars via the OBD port as some tuners have found out. The more basic, traditonal, hand-held flashing devices do not seem to work with this MED 17.5 ECU, yet they would work on the supposedly "un-tunable" MED17.

It all depends on your tuner