Is bench tuning a must now for 2012 2.0TSI Tiguan? - APR Stage 1 Tuning

[MGV]

I haven't seen it go below 8.6 (standard or otherwise) on the MDF... BTW, my numbers in previous posts were derived from the km travelled vs amount refuelled. I find that to be more accurate than the MDF.

When ever I start the car, it starts at 36L/100 and drops to about 15L, then 10L on the highway.

Love to hear what numbers others are getting.

Kelly, i'll go out on a limb & diagnose your claimed excessive fuel consumption on the fact that you live in Syd... That place is a nightmare to drive around in! But just as an experiment, what figures are coming up on your 'current consumption' display, if, say, you can set cruise control to 80, top gear & flat road?

As for the figures others are getting, well, i have stage 1 with a high flow panel filter in the airbox, just did a 600km round trip up to the snowfields & back covering 100 & 110kph freeway & a spirited hill-climb with about 20km's of 25 & 35 hairpins & averaged 7.4 l/100.

[kaotickelly]

Thanks for the suggestion MGV, I'll give it a go on the weekend.

Damit, I don't remember the numbers before the tune.

[z1000]

When ever I start the car, it starts at 36L/100 and drops to about 15L, then 10L on the highway.

Love to hear what numbers others are getting.

Been running the stage 1 tune for a week or two now, 800km later, averaging 14L/100km in the city (start and stop traffic in inner Sydney), highway 7.5L/100km at mostly 110km/hr, spirited driving in the country 15L/100km.

I'd not say the fuel consumption is significantly better or worse than before, but abundant torque makes the driving a little bit more pleasurable.

[mutare 23]

Been running the stage 1 tune for a week or two now, 800km later, averaging 14L/100km in the city (start and stop traffic in inner Sydney), highway 7.5L/100km at mostly 110km/hr, spirited driving in the country 15L/100km.

I'd not say the fuel consumption is significantly better or worse than before, but abundant torque makes the driving a little bit more pleasurable.

'A little more pleasurable'. I hope that is an understatement. 'Spirited' driving is a joy and then some

Cheers

[z1000]

'A little more pleasurable'. I hope that is an understatement. 'Spirited' driving is a joy and then some

Cheers

I say a "little" because the tune does highlight Tiguan's shortcoming in handling and braking departments.

Or perhaps "little" is the overall impression I get after a fairly lengthy comparative drive with a Golf R.

Don't get me wrong, a tuned Tigaun is an awesome performance SUV for the price, it may match/beat power/torque of a stock Golf R on paper, but it is after all a fat hot hatch on stilts.

[Guy_H]

Some of the chips these days have a link removed on the board so that they can't be written (pull-up resistor on write enable pin). If that is the case, there is no option other than to remove the ECU board and solder the link back on before you can program it. I beleive this is the case with a lot of the newer Tiguans and the reason why you can never program via the OBD port without first pulling the ECU out and resoldering the link back on.

Depending what your tuner does they may remove the link or leave it on. If the link is left on you may be able to program over the OBD port afterwards and hence not require to pull the ECU out a second time.

Having said that flashing the ECU on the bench may actually be safer than flashing in the car as there are no other devices to talk to the ECU in the middle of programming. The last thing you want is a door being opened to cause an interrupt in the middle of writing to the ECU as this has the potential to corrupt what is being written.

Obviously there are issues with handling the electronics as you don't want any static discharges stuffing things up either, but as long as the right precautions are taken you should be OK.

One week sounds like a long time, but probably they're being on the safe side to make sure the file is back ready for download.

No solder link required, it can be OBD unlocked after "bench flashing" if the tuner has the power to do so (or chooses to do it).

[kaotickelly]

Been running the stage 1 tune for a week or two now, 800km later, averaging 14L/100km in the city (start and stop traffic in inner Sydney), highway 7.5L/100km at mostly 110km/hr, spirited driving in the country 15L/100km.

I'd not say the fuel consumption is significantly better or worse than before, but abundant torque makes the driving a little bit more pleasurable.

Thanks z1000.

MGV, I had a look at current consumption while cruising at 80 and 100. At 80 it's hovering around 4-6 L/100 and about 7-8L/100 for 100. I guess that's pretty much the quoted mileage.

I did notice that in Stage 1 the rev goes past 2k rpm before upshift when the same amount of pedal pressure is applied compared to standard. Guess that's the effect of the additional boost?

With Stage 1 on, I tend to want to use the 3-4k rpm range a lot more, hehe.