Tigger73's 125TSI Tiguan Build Thread

[tigger73]

I was thinking the other day what were my most favourite mods. If I had a clean sheet what would I do if I was going to do it again and/or only had a limited budget.

So here's my top 3 Tig mods:

1. DSG tune - for how driveable it makes the car day to day
2. VAR Cat Back Exhaust + resonator - sound is awesome/addictive though definitely needs the resonator
3. ECU tune - the extra power is definitely worth it

Of course I like a lot of my other mods too, but if I was only going to do three things to my car this would be it... but then you'd also want the springs, 19" wheels, sway bars, ALK, 3" Down Pipe, CAI, S3 intercooler, head unit upgrade, RVC and AutoPolar/mirror dipping

Some of the cheaper cosmetic upgrades are also pretty good value:

• chrome window buttons - just adds that bit extra class
• door warning lights - why VWA deleted these I don't know
• interior LED upgrade - way better than standard bulbs
• can of plasti-dip to colour code the exterior plastics (for a deep black car at least)

And the other thing I've got done recently was a professional polish/paint correction of the exterior to get rid of all those swirls and light scratches and bring the paint back to showroom finish.

[Ramee]

I was thinking the other day what were my most favourite mods. If I had a clean sheet what would I do if I was going to do it again and/or only had a limited budget.

So here's my top 3 Tig mods:

1. DSG tune - for how driveable it makes the car day to day
2. VAR Cat Back Exhaust + resonator - sound is awesome/addictive though definitely needs the resonator
3. ECU tune - the extra power is definitely worth it

Nice priority list! I never thought DSG tune is that much important. So based on this list I have to add two more things to make it better. How about having a separate thread to post our top three favourite Tig mods!!

[AdamD]

I wonder whether the DSG tune makes more of a difference on the Tig. Perhaps from the factory it has a lazier default shift pattern than the GTI's DQ250. I don't even have a sprintbooster, and yet I don't have any trouble getting my DSG to shift down a gear or two with a gentle prod when needed. When I drove your Tig Damien, I remember being surprised that the difference in shift patterns was less aggressive than I was expecting. Hmm.

[tigger73]

I wonder whether the DSG tune makes more of a difference on the Tig. Perhaps from the factory it has a lazier default shift pattern than the GTI's DQ250. I don't even have a sprintbooster, and yet I don't have any trouble getting my DSG to shift down a gear or two with a gentle prod when needed.

With the stock DSG shift pattern the Tig is geared/programmed towards providing best fuel economy in "D" mode. So upshifting doesn't happen straight away - even when you give it a boot there's a decent hesitation. Likely the programming for the GTI is a little more sporty in "D" than the Tig.

Do you have issues with the DQ250 in the GTI not dropping back into 1st once you're moving? This was my major gripe with the DSG in the Tig is that it short shifts into 2nd gear and then if you have to slow for an intersection/roundabout you have a 1600kg car stuck in a high gear.... and it takes forever to get moving. I imagine it's not quite so bad in the GTI as it's a lighter car.

When I drove your Tig Damien, I remember being surprised that the difference in shift patterns was less aggressive than I was expecting. Hmm.

Are you talking about the difference between "D" and "S" mode? With the DSG tune the two are closer to each other - "D" is more sporty and "S" is less aggressive, though still holds gear too long for city driving unless you're quite light on the accelerator.

If you want aggressive shifting then drive in "S" with the sprint booster in "Race"!!!

I think everyone complains about "S" that it's only really suitable for situations where you know you're going to need to get moving in a bit of a hurry - roundabouts, pulling out into moving traffic, traffic lights GP, etc. It's not really suited to day-to-day driving at all.

[AdamD]

With the stock DSG shift pattern the Tig is geared/programmed towards providing best fuel economy in "D" mode. So upshifting doesn't happen straight away - even when you give it a boot there's a decent hesitation. Likely the programming for the GTI is a little more sporty in "D" than the Tig.

The Golf does do this too - it's into 6th at around 60km/h usually - although mine does hold on to a higher gear from time to time if I've used a bit of throttle when accelerating. But it'll definitely drop into top within a few seconds of not accelerating.

Do you have issues with the DQ250 in the GTI not dropping back into 1st once you're moving? This was my major gripe with the DSG in the Tig is that it short shifts into 2nd gear and then if you have to slow for an intersection/roundabout you have a 1600kg car stuck in a high gear.... and it takes forever to get moving. I imagine it's not quite so bad in the GTI as it's a lighter car.

Yep, mine does this too; it will drop to 1st if I apply near-full throttle in second at < ~40km/h (wish it didn't, dammit), or if the road speed drops to about 2km/h - ie almost a stop. Under creep conditions it upshifts from 1st to 2nd at about 7km/h. The stay-in-2nd normally only annoys me if I am accelerating from near standstill up a hill and I know the clutch is slipping; I don't feel any shudder or other vibration, but the mechanical sympathist in me hates it.

Having said the above, my GTI has oodles of low-down torque, so it never feels like it's struggling to pull away or accelerate hard, even from near-standstill in second gear. There may be a second or so of docile behaviour, but this is almost welcome as the GTI driver needs to be patient and prudent with the throttle, or silly wheelspin will ensue pretty rapidly.

Are you talking about the difference between "D" and "S" mode? With the DSG tune the two are closer to each other - "D" is more sporty and "S" is less aggressive, though still holds gear too long for city driving unless you're quite light on the accelerator.

The only time I ever use S mode is if I'm really attacking a series of twisties and don't want to concentrate on shifting manually for whatever reason. Otherwise, it's just stupidly manic. It really is a track tune in terms of shift pattern, and is utterly pointless for road driving for 95% of drivers, 95% of the time, IMO.

I was expecting your DSG tune to be more eager (read: racey) to kick down a gear or two if you just breathed on the throttle, but otherwise would choose a sensible gear for the road speed - ie how a performance enthusiast would want D mode to operate. I didn't notice as much of a difference to mine in this respect as I'd expected - which both makes it a more liveable proposition in my estimation, and also potentially less of a value improvement for those who really want a big change from the VW programming.

[tigger73]

Yep, mine does this too; it will drop to 1st if I apply near-full throttle in second at < ~40km/h (wish it didn't, dammit), or if the road speed drops to about 2km/h - ie almost a stop. Under creep conditions it upshifts from 1st to 2nd at about 7km/h. The stay-in-2nd normally only annoys me if I am accelerating from near standstill up a hill and I know the clutch is slipping; I don't feel any shudder or other vibration, but the mechanical sympathist in me hates it.

Having said the above, my GTI has oodles of low-down torque, so it never feels like it's struggling to pull away or accelerate hard, even from near-standstill in second gear. There may be a second or so of docile behaviour, but this is almost welcome as the GTI driver needs to be patient and prudent with the throttle, or silly wheelspin will ensue pretty rapidly.

You may think it's a pain when the DSG in your GTI shifts back into first but the problem in the Tig is that it doesn't. When you slow down (but not stop) and then want to get moving reasonably quickly the DSG will not shift back into 1st gear no matter how hard you press on the gas.

I've had the experience in the early days of Tig ownership where I've come up to an intersection and will still be rolling, turn into moving traffic and put the foot on the gas to accelerate up to speed and then be caught in 2nd gear with the engine doing 1,200RPM and going nowhere. Natural reaction when you see someone coming up rapidly behind in your rear vision mirror is to put your foot on the gas harder, but at 1,200RPM it really has little to no effect. Then after the guy behind you has braked and flashed you for pulling out and going slow the turbo finally spools up and you're off like a rabbit

Paddle shifters would help as it enables you to manually select the right gear, but the Tig doesn't come with these as standard The other option which a lot of people who have experienced something like this is to shift into "S" to navigate these situations where you need to ensure you have power on tap when you need it.

The problem is you have a 1,600kg car and at low RPM it is very sluggish. When you're used to decent levels of power and then having nothing, you can put yourself into a compromised position on the road. Just don't pull out in front of a road train.....

The only time I ever use S mode is if I'm really attacking a series of twisties and don't want to concentrate on shifting manually for whatever reason. Otherwise, it's just stupidly manic. It really is a track tune in terms of shift pattern, and is utterly pointless for road driving for 95% of drivers, 95% of the time, IMO.

Agree with S mode. I find that on the odd occasion when I do use it, I find myself manually upshifting when it hangs onto a gear too long and then get caught having to manually shift until there's enough time for it to revert back to "S" mode. Or I give up and put it back into "D"

I was expecting your DSG tune to be more eager (read: racey) to kick down a gear or two if you just breathed on the throttle, but otherwise would choose a sensible gear for the road speed - ie how a performance enthusiast would want D mode to operate. I didn't notice as much of a difference to mine in this respect as I'd expected - which both makes it a more liveable proposition in my estimation, and also potentially less of a value improvement for those who really want a big change from the VW programming.

The reason I think the DSG tune is almost an essential mod for me is that "D" mode is just about perfect for 99% of my driving. It's not racey but if you do give it a bit of throttle it will respond by dropping down a couple of cogs. It will drop you back into 1st gear if you need it to (low speed and putting the boot in) and it makes the car really easy to drive on a day-to-day basis.

When I first got the car I would drive in "S" and hit cruise control as soon as I was up to speed. This would cause the DSG to shift fairly quickly through the gears and not sit around revving at 3,500RPM in 2nd gear for 5 seconds until it realised you actually wanted to be in a higher gear.

After a while I installed a flappy paddle steering wheel and used to run in manual mode most of the time.

Once I've had the DSG tune, I pretty much just put it in "D" and drive. Now the only times that I use "M" or "S" is when I want to have a bit more of an interactive driving experience

So the reason the DSG tune is so good is because you don't really notice it is there. Before you had to fight against the gearbox and use work-arounds to select the "right" gear whereas now I never find it is a problem. The only DSG issues I have now are related to when you need to shift 2 cogs and it's slow. But this is related to shifting to another gear on the same side of the gearbox and not anything else.

The major difference between "D" and either "S" or "M" is that the DSG shifts the gears faster in S and M mode and you get better farts

[scottics]

When i purchase a Flappy Paddle MFSW from link you provided (About $1100) Aussie, Is it a straight swap as you suggest or are there other changes required in regards to electronic settings (Vagcom ??) to make it work. Is it ok to import stuff over $1000, do i have to pay GST or other duties?

Regards

Scott

[tigger73]

When i purchase a Flappy Paddle MFSW from link you provided (About $1100) Aussie, Is it a straight swap as you suggest or are there other changes required in regards to electronic settings (Vagcom ??) to make it work. Is it ok to import stuff over $1000, do i have to pay GST or other duties?

Regards

Scott

You may want to shop around to see if you can source it any cheaper. I know the carsystems.pl stuff is good but also on the expensive side. A couple of years ago when I got my steering wheel they were not so widely available and you had to get what you could when it came up (usually on ebay).

There's one that doesn't look too bad here: VW Jetta Golf Beetle GTI Gli CC New Desing MFSW MK5 MK6 | eBay But seller doesn't have the 100% best feedback. Though for the price it may be worth taking the punt.

Otherwise for (just) under $1,000 there is this one: VW Golf EOS Scirocco Passat Touran T5 Sport MFSW Steering Wheel with DSG Paddles | eBay

Anything over $1,000 (excluding freight cost) you'll have to pay GST/import duties. So if you can keep your shipments under that it's generally a good thing.

To get the paddle shifters to work you will need VCDS to enable them. All the other buttons will work out of the box as they are effectively the same thing as you already have installed. So you can install the wheel and drive around as normal until you get the paddle shifters "enabled". Also if you're getting a flat bottom wheel you'll also need a new airbag as most likely the one in your Tiguan is a different shape (at least it was for me). If you can buy the airbag and steering wheel as a set as it will mean a whole lot less stuffing around.

[tigger73]

Preparing for today's jobs:




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[Ozrodent]

It's all in the prep, good luck with it