ECU -- Stage 1 Enquiry

**MK5matty** · 26-06-2011, 04:44 AM

Post has served its purpose, Thank you for feedback..

PS : I think I might want to get to know you now Gav

**schoona** · 26-06-2011, 09:21 AM

Alrighty.

From my experience the most important thing you need to conider is the after sales service.
GIAC will be 1000 because you dont need the controller.
Flashing back to stock becasue of warranty, there are counters that can be checked, regardless if your car feels standard or not.
Driveability, the whole point of doing this is for horsepower, the GIAC tunes seem to provide the most impressive gains.
They are all pretty safe tunes, they are generic files. It's not like tuning a GTR for 800HP on pump fuel and it being a bit "on edge"!
The DSG will handle it fine, thoguh spirited driving and trackwork would see benefgits from the DSG flashes.

My proper APR vs GIAC comparison was Stage 2+ S3's. The GIAC car was much punchier.
In regards to GTI's, the APR car had more mods, but the "Stage 1" GIAC car also felt more impressive.

Honestly, search would have covered it, because every post will tell you to see who services you the best after the fact and who you can go to and get confidence from when speaking with them.

**h100vw** · 26-06-2011, 09:38 AM

1 Don't take it to VW for servicing. No need to switch tunes then. Warranty issues would come about if the broken part may be down to the fact the ECU is chipped. Drivetrain and gearbox could be in that bracket.
2 Never heard of anyone complaining about jerky power delivery unless there was an underlying issue, coilpacks or sparkplugs maybe.
3 It won't causes problems but looking at the website, it's a pipe with a filter on the end. Certainly far from being the best intake I have seen. I'd be concerned that it would reduce power by ingesting warm air from under the bonnet.
4 Stop your mum from driving it, either that or she'll have to learn to be lighter on the throttle. You'd frighten the living daylights out of her, if you wound up a chipped GTI with her in the car. (My wife drives our phase 1 8L S3 everyday without any problems)

If it gets flashed by the VW dealer, tuners reinstall the tune for free but some charge for their time.

In my opinion you can't buy an unsafe tune from a major tuner. If cars were falling over because of software issues, it would be all over the internet. A tune from APR, GIAC etc is no more likely cause a failure over any other. You can't predict hardware failures though.

DSG will be ok but at 56k it needs servicing, make sure it gets done at the next service.

Gavin

**Blitzen** · 26-06-2011, 10:20 AM

I'm sorry, but EVERYTHING the OP asked has been covered in this section, and various individual car sections before... Despite the impressive, but long winded disclaimer, the 'Search' function should have been utilized a bit better...

**MK5matty** · 26-06-2011, 12:20 PM

Originally Posted by h100vw

1 Don't take it to VW for servicing. No need to switch tunes then. Warranty issues would come about if the broken part may be down to the fact the ECU is chipped. Drivetrain and gearbox could be in that bracket.
2 Never heard of anyone complaining about jerky power delivery unless there was an underlying issue, coilpacks or sparkplugs maybe.
3 It won't causes problems but looking at the website, it's a pipe with a filter on the end. Certainly far from being the best intake I have seen. I'd be concerned that it would reduce power by ingesting warm air from under the bonnet.
4 Stop your mum from driving it, either that or she'll have to learn to be lighter on the throttle. You'd frighten the living daylights out of her, if you wound up a chipped GTI with her in the car. (My wife drives our phase 1 8L S3 everyday without any problems)

If it gets flashed by the VW dealer, tuners reinstall the tune for free but some charge for their time.

In my opinion you can't buy an unsafe tune from a major tuner. If cars were falling over because of software issues, it would be all over the internet. A tune from APR, GIAC etc is no more likely cause a failure over any other. You can't predict hardware failures though.

DSG will be ok but at 56k it needs servicing, make sure it gets done at the next service.

Gavin

Thank you for all your feedback

Greatly appreciated.

**h100vw** · 26-06-2011, 12:45 PM

No worries.

**ForceFed** · 26-06-2011, 01:13 PM

You could also go for a CustomCode tune from Gavin. He is a great guy to deal with and I'm sure his pricing would be very competitive also. Just a suggestion.