Mark 7 GTI turbo problems

[spellbound]

Thanks mate! I'm thoroughly enjoying the car and yeah the forums where I read about the early turbo failures seem to be from the US...

I've got a stage 1 racingline tune on the car (along with the r600 intake/silicon tube, 90o high flow inlet and turbo muffler delete + npc heavy duty clutch) - the car feels ridiculously quick (I think this stage 1 ups the power to the 220-230kw vicinity) and traction kicks in if I press it in 1st or 2nd, is this considered a reliable setup or do stage 1 tunes affect the reliability of the car considerably?

I've come from years of driving NA and the whole notion of being able to up the power from 162kw to 220-230kw with a simple tune is beyond belief for me haha!

Yep the tune is good fun , did it to a mk5 , mk6 GTI and a Skoda RS never had any issues with APR or any turbo's .
German Auto tied to talk me into doing the Clubsport , but in stock its plenty for an old geeza .
Enjoy the tune and dont worry .

[Lucas_R]

is this considered a reliable setup or do stage 1 tunes affect the reliability of the car considerably?

I've come from years of driving NA and the whole notion of being able to up the power from 162kw to 220-230kw with a simple tune is beyond belief for me haha!

With turbocharged cars there is always untapped power that the manufacturer has left "hidden" as such to account for many reasons, such as:

• Using power figures to place car #1 vs car #2 in its lineup (eg GTI will always be advertised as a lower power option than the Golf R as standard cars in VW's lineup).
• Leaving untapped power so that in a year or two's time, they can offer an updated model with an extra 10-15kw to match new rivals
• Allowing for people who dont service the vehicle regurarly and who dont run 98 octane fuels, so that the vehicle remains essentially foolproof.

This leaves the aftermarket tuning companies with an opportunity to push the engine some more and release some of this hidden power, all while making sure they don't push things too far where they are adversely affecting reliability. Stage 1 and 2 tunes are generally considered extremely safe.