Topping out at Stage 2+?

[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.

[spare]

So my Stage 2 was all put in a few days back, as well as H&R Coilovers as well.


I dropped the car in first thing Monday morning, and was hoping to pick it up in the afternoon, but the workshop ran into a slight delay with the HP exhaust. Basically, the HP APR exhaust was designed and constructed a few years back before Polo GTI had the option for Factory HID's, and so with cars that have the HID's there's a small bracket that must be fabricated for the exhaust install so that it doesn't affect the HID leveler's or something.


Anyway picked it up Tuesday morning, the sound (right now at least) is perfect. Deeper on idle and day to day driving but not overboard and screaming after market. When you put your foot down though, (and combined with the HP intake) the sound is just awesomely addictive.
Overally very happy with it.


Power wise, haven't had too much of a chance to play with it as I've most been driving in peak traffic or low speed limit roads. Beside the software for the new exhaust files, it will probably take the ECU a few days to adapt to the new intake anyway.


Coilovers are great. I got them from Frank at Orange Tuning. Price is obviously much (much) better than local, however if ordering from Frank just be aware that he uses DHL Global Mail. Not to be confused with the yellow DHL Express vans you see everywhere, DHL Global Mail is basically the slowest, least accountable way of delivering mail available.


The package took exactly 2 MONTHS to arrive! Not only that, but despite having "tracking", the status never actually updates from it being departed, and calling DHL themselves is no good either. They offer to setup an investigation, but even that takes 4-6 weeks they say. From waht I've read I believe they send half the stuff by boat now which is why it takes so long.


Besides that the ride is good, not as brutal as I thought it would be. Need to ge the front re-adjsuted a touch to go a bit lower.


Will post pics soon but overall big week for teh little Polo. Very happy!

[Sydneykid]

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.

Are you referring to RMS VSI 09 Rev 4? If so you need to be careful about the diameter of an non OE wheel and tyre versus an OE wheel with a non OE tyre. Quote "The tyre and rim industry sets standards for the correct combinations of wheels and tyres", hence you have a strong case as long as the tyre and rim industry standard says that the tyre size that you select is appropriate. Considering the other mods on your car I'm surprised that voiding insurance is a consideration at all.

FYI, 245/35/18 are a popular size, so I seriously doubt that "they are likely several year old stock". There are many tell tale signs of a tyre's age, labels, smell, mould release oil presence, overall appearance and most of all the serial Tyre Identification Number on the tyre (the last four digits of the serial TIN indicate the week and year that the tyre was made). I have used parallel import tyres on my cars for over 20 years, never had a problem.

I think you'll like the Michelins, easily my favourite road tyre.


Cheers
Gary

[jimmedy]

Are you referring to RMS VSI 09 Rev 4? If so you need to be careful about the diameter of an non OE wheel and tyre versus an OE wheel with a non OE tyre. Quote "The tyre and rim industry sets standards for the correct combinations of wheels and tyres", hence you have a strong case as long as the tyre and rim industry standard says that the tyre size that you select is appropriate. Considering the other mods on your car I'm surprised that voiding insurance is a consideration at all.

FYI, 245/35/18 are a popular size, so I seriously doubt that "they are likely several year old stock". There are many tell tale signs of a tyre's age, labels, smell, mould release oil presence, overall appearance and most of all the serial Tyre Identification Number on the tyre (the last four digits of the serial TIN indicate the week and year that the tyre was made). I have used parallel import tyres on my cars for over 20 years, never had a problem.

I think you'll like the Michelins, easily my favourite road tyre.

I had to go and double check, but no, I was referring to the NCOP VSB - https://infrastructure.gov.au/roads/..._2011%20v3.pdf
There’s material that certainly appears in both through. I’m in the ACT and I couldn’t find an ACT equivalent of the NSW one you linked, so I figured a National one was the next best thing.

My wheels are the same diameter as OE, just half an inch wider (Audi ‘Rotors’ were 18x7.5, Momo ‘Europes’ are 18x8. OE Conti tyres went straight onto the new wheels after < 1000k’s.

My last post might have been a bit confusing on my part –

OE tyres (Conti Sport 3’s) are 225/35 – that turns out to be an annoying and expensive fitment.
225/40 are near enough to half the price brand for brand, but sidewall height / total wheel diameter will be in breach of the regs.
245/35 are only 7mm higher in the sidewall than OE, for a diameter increase of 14mm, sneaking in 1mm under regs. Despite your comment about popular size, I’ll concede 245/35 might be *more* common than 225/35 but still not super common and so there’s not much difference on price.

At the end of the day, whether the 225 Michelins from Tempe would have been fine or not, after $80 to ship them to Canberra and then paying for a fit and balance, the price was near as makes no difference to what Bob Jane quoted for the 245mm Michelins fitted and balanced, and you also don’t get the local bloke offside the way you would turning up with your own tyres.

FWIW – my car is still totally insured! I’ve made sure everything I’ve done is covered under the minor modifcations that don’t require engineering certificates.
GIO Platinum doesn’t require you to list modifications and really only rules out adding turbos and superchargers. Conveniently my engine started out with both of those, heh heh, so I just have to make sure I’ve picked an agreed value I’m comfortable with :p

Voiding warranty is one thing, driving around uninsured is another entirely!

Things have been a bit hectic since the Melbourne trip, but once I've got the new rubber on this weekend I'll go park somewhere scenic and actually take a few pics of my ride.

[jimmedy]

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

They were running about 40psi at ambient. Which is fine for my daily drive but possibly a bit ambitious for a hard drive on a winding mountain road....

[Sydneykid]

OE tyres (Conti Sport 3’s) are 225/35 – that turns out to be an annoying and expensive fitment.
225/40 are near enough to half the price brand for brand, but sidewall height / total wheel diameter will be in breach of the regs.
245/35 are only 7mm higher in the sidewall than OE, for a diameter increase of 14mm, sneaking in 1mm under regs. Despite your comment about popular size, I’ll concede 245/35 might be *more* common than 225/35 but still not super common and so there’s not much difference on price.

Briefly;
The price comment was in regards to the 225/40.

In regards to overall diameter, the relevant section; 4.2.4 Overall Nominal Diameter
The overall diameter of any tyre fitted to a passenger car or passenger car derivative must not be more than 15mm larger or 26mm smaller than that of any tyre designated by the vehicle manufacturer for that model.

The 15 mm nominal increase is not relative to the OE tyre that your particular car came with, but any tyre fitted to that model as OE. So it may pay to check what sized tyre (and their diameter) are fitted to all A1 models.

That reg always makes me laugh, new tyres have 8-9 mm of tread depth, 1.5 mm is considered the minimum acceptable, so replacing a just legal tyre with a brand new one could increase the diameter by 15 mm. Even more speedo error built in, as the tyre wears.

I'll admit that I'm a bit sensitive when it comes to "Australia Tax" charging retailers, they lie through their teeth to steer buyers away from totally acceptable parallel imports. The "several year old stock" warning is a pretty poor attempt, hoping that the buyer doesn't know about serial TIN's on tyres.


Cheers
Gary