Which Tune

[Dee]

Ok, so i'm sure this has been covered off a million times but i couldn't find what i needed and got confused reading to be honest

Need some advice from the pro's ...

New to VW and just purchased a roc
Looking for stage 1 tune to get a bit more up and gogo with no other supporting mods (at this stage)
Based in Adelaide - looks like we have an APR and Revo dealer here (if not more)
Does APR have the ability to enable/disable with no ECU traces by the service center?

Which is the best/reliable tune to go with?

[tigger73]

Unfortunately there's really not a lot of choice here in Adelaide. You want to go with someone that has the ability to update your tune to keep in line with your hardware mods.

No matter what anyone says, if you tune it you definitely have the potential to impact on your warranty (or what is left of it).

Suggest coming out to one of our cruises - next one is in a couple of weeks details/discussion here:

Adelaide: Monthly Coffee And Drive Meet - Announcement Thread

Adelaide: Monthly Coffee and Drive Meet - Discussion Thread

Plenty of people to talk to about tunes and tuner options without starting another tuner war on the forums

[Dee]

Thanks, ill try make an event.

I guess for me is that im not really that interested in this tune has 2 more kw than another tune etc. I mean APR stage 1 is 1.5k which seems to be the most popular and preferred reading the forums along with decent power gains... are there similar tunes that are cheaper delivering same reliable results ? Or is the apr best value for $

[tigger73]

APR is most common as they have the largest dealer network, established workshops doing the work and backed up by local support. So you do pay for that.

There are other options as you say Revo, Custom Code (Gavin) comes to Adelaide usually around the Tour Down Under (Gav can probably confirm this), Transporter (MRL Automotive) also does tunes - again local and he will come to you and can service cars also (usually South of the city) plus there is also options like Spectune (Tarmac Engineering) who will send out a port flashing device for you to load the tunes yourself. Each one has pros and cons and associated prices/levels of service.

If you're looking to save a few $ then APR does go on sale several times a year. Next sale is probably due around Easter if you want to wait.

Probably best off to talk to a couple of different tuners and see what they are offering/who you feel comfortable reprogramming the brains of your pride and joy and also what they are able to offer longer term in terms of support for hardware and potentially return to stock situation if you have something needed to be resolved under warranty.

[Dee]

Thanks mate appreciate your advice

[Guy_H]

Does APR have the ability to enable/disable with no ECU traces by the service center?

I will just answer this one for you - rest is covered.

Answer is YES

[gwk]

I will just answer this one for you - rest is covered.

Answer is YES

There's much conjecture on this issue, Guy.

A statement like that needs a bit more clarification.

Are you saying APR can custom flash the ECU rom then return it to stock without any trace?

Will you guarantee that?

What evidence have you got that this has been tested?

[parso_rex]

If your talking about the Scirocco with the med9 ECU then there will still be a trace if the original file has been replaced back on over the tuned file, when the stock one is rewritten the flash counter will then increment to 1.
If the tuned file is left on but with original settings selected then the counter can be made to appear to be zero. You can still detect the ECU has been modified very easily if you wanted to though by simply trying to read or write to the ECU as the seed key is different and it won't work but in reality nobody would bother unless you had somebody specifically educated to do it for denial of warranty purposes and that's highly unlikely. I know this counter thing first hand with my close relationship with two dealerships here, note that I'm only familiar with the MED9 ECU as far as counters go, no idea on the others as it really doesn't bother me or our customers

Bottom line is that most dealerships wouldn't even car about a mod like this anyway. This particular 2L motor is very strong internally so it would be very rare for it to fail , I've seen one Golf R big end failure and that was totally stock.

[donweather]

Bottom line is that most dealerships wouldn't even car about a mod like this anyway

Not sure that would be the case if you're making a warranty claim though.

[Transporter]

Not sure that would be the case if you're making a warranty claim though.

I think that parso_rex knows what he's talking about.
Many warranty claims have nothing to do with the tune, therefor can't be used as an excuse to refuse the warranty claim. Of course if you wrecked the engine or destroy the diff or transmission they could blame the tune.