APR ECU Upgrade MK6 Golf - Customer perspective

[Guy_H]

We will be putting a full RSC on our new GTI in January when we gget back, you are welcome to check it out then (been busy, so its been sitting in a box).

[RosscoMK3]

Hi Guy( and guys/girls),
I recently aquired a 118tsi 2010 (manual) with sportspack, and have been doing a bit of research into the APR stage one ECU upgrade. I've still got some warranty left on the car and don't really want to do anything for a few months until it's been through it's paces.
Just in case....

I have a few questions you might be able to help me with.
1. Do you still need to physically chip the car or is it just a reflash?
2. Is it possible for me to check if the previous owner did this and performed a lockout before selling? He's hardly going to tell me if he did.
3. The APR dyno graph from the website. What am I looking at? Please excuse my ignorance in this area but I'm really not familiar with workshop diagnostics.
In regards to the APR dyno graph, would I be right in saying that the graph shows a peak output of 270nm while in stock tune and 317nm with the APR map? Is this at the engine or the wheels? ( Again excuse my ignorance but no gear listed and the high figures suggest the engine).

Thanks for your time.

[bugsalanko]

Hi Guy( and guys/girls),
I recently aquired a 118tsi 2010 (manual) with sportspack, and have been doing a bit of research into the APR stage one ECU upgrade. I've still got some warranty left on the car and don't really want to do anything for a few months until it's been through it's paces.
Just in case....

I have a few questions you might be able to help me with.
1. Do you still need to physically chip the car or is it just a reflash?
2. Is it possible for me to check if the previous owner did this and performed a lockout before selling? He's hardly going to tell me if he did.
3. The APR dyno graph from the website. What am I looking at? Please excuse my ignorance in this area but I'm really not familiar with workshop diagnostics.
In regards to the APR dyno graph, would I be right in saying that the graph shows a peak output of 270nm while in stock tune and 317nm with the APR map? Is this at the engine or the wheels? ( Again excuse my ignorance but no gear listed and the high figures suggest the engine).

Thanks for your time.

1. I havent heard of any of the 118's needing a physical chip has all been via cable.

2. No idea. But Guy_H on here would be the person to ask.

3. The graph shows the APR stage 1 tune Vs the stock tune and then on the bottom right hang side lists the improvements in torque and HP. And all the figures are at the flywheel I'm fairly certain. From memory on somebody who had dyno'd the figures ATW was around 107KW.

And in terms of checking anything in that warranty period, I would definently make sure that you don't have the supercharger clutch squeak occurring. It would be expensive to rectify outisde of the warranty period.

Hope that helps.

[RosscoMK3]

Thanks for that.
I'll wait for Guys response on #2 and will do a search on supercharger clutch squeak.
I've been giving it a good go lately and have to say I'm impressed for the money spent. I had the offer of a 1 year old MPS luxury edition for 2k more and walked after driving it. Too unrefined compared to the VW.

[Dan_3MPS]

If you gave Guy_H the VIN he would be able to tell you if it had already been flashed with an APR tune.

[Guy_H]

1: reflash!
2: visit your local APR dealer, once connected to the server it will tell if the car has ever had APR software on board.

Let us know if there is anything else you need - the rest seems to have been answered above

[RosscoMK3]

Thanks Guy ( and Dan_3MPS).
I'll be dropping past an APR dealer soon to have a chat.
In the meantime maybe you could explain something in relation to the APR graph on the website? The HP figures are pretty normal to my inexperienced eye, but it's the torque figures that have me intersted.
I really found the car to behave just like the stock(TQ) graph readout, and if you asked me to draw how it felt during acceleration, the stock(TQ) graph pretty much sums it up. Still very agile if played right but lacking in my opinion.
My question is what does the APR do differently in the lower half of the rev range? Is the SC run for longer or is it just fuel etc?

Thanks
Ross.

[Guy_H]

Fuel & timing is adjustable as well as SC boost bleed, so a fair bit that can happen down low in the rev range.

Glad you like how it drives!

[RosscoMK3]

Thanks Guy.
These engines have so many different systems in place, it's hard to keep up sometimes.
It's all just a matter of warranty now. I'll drive the car for a bit to shake out any bugs and then book in to a local APR installer.

Thanks for your time.

[Brendan_A]

Thanks Guy.
These engines have so many different systems in place, it's hard to keep up sometimes.
It's all just a matter of warranty now. I'll drive the car for a bit to shake out any bugs and then book in to a local APR installer.

Thanks for your time.

Your car is a 2010 right? It has had plenty of time to shake out any bugs. Just do it! You won't regret it. Had my tuned at 4k