I’ll have more to write on this in the coming weeks / months but last week, I drove 2 hours south and changed the stock software on my 2 month old Volkswagen Golf R (2016). After many hardware changes were made, I was ready to take things to the next level and make some software changes. My car ships with 292 horsepower at the crank so we can assume 260-270 WHP on a stock Golf R. This yields around 4.6 second 0-60 times.
United Motorsport is very well respected among VW / Audi tuners and they just so happen to be the first guys that got passed my car’s ECU encryption. Their tune for MK7 Golf / GTI has been out for a while but the encryption was finicky and they do offer a return policy so I thought what the heck? A guy with the same tune that I have on stock tires did a 11.4 second quarter mile run so I was pretty stoked to get this on.
The downpipe I installed myself and EFI Express in Lee, NH loaded the software on my car along with a Dyno run. The steps haven’t been easy and honestly I’m still in this limbo process on the car’s performance. Here’s a history of events:
- October 8th-10th: Installed Downpipe myself from Bull-X. 3” DP w/ High-Flow Cat and didn’t throw any check engine light after install (a rare thing and a good sign)
- October 12th: Stage I Tune with low-torque file from United Motorsport. They didn’t have my dual-clutch gearbox in their system so I had to get their lowest output tune and was sent away. 3 hour drive and running a downpipe without the right file for it which isn’t advised.
- November 7th: I returned to EFI Express since UM built my DSG file needed for the transmission (TCU). I had a Stage II File + TCU (DSG) file installed. The Stage II file I went with supported the downpipe and was “high-torque”. The promised around 3 weeks to build my DSG file and they were right.
Before I proceed, after the Stage I install, I was getting some boost loss. Basically I’d be around 25 PSI and the boost would just give out to around 18 PSI then recover and keep climbing. Frustrating but running Stage I with a downpipe was probably my unique issue and no fault of their software. After the Stage II tune, the boost issue was resolved but now I have an issue where under heavy load, my car gives off a rumble strip sound from around where my transmission is located and I also loose power for a moment. United Motorsport thinks my hardware is at fault (of course they do and I’m not surprised) so now I have to take off everything I’ve done piece by piece followed by a run to find exactly what’s causing the issue. If nothing can be found, then I have footing to return to UM and formally complain or simply get a refund. It’s frustrating for sure.
You’ll see in the dyno chart below exactly where the power cuts and you can feel and hear this as the driver:
The power does recover but keeping the car under 4500 RPM is kind of crappy as a daily driver.
You can hear the power issues again in the video I shot:
Short story is I’m not yet happy with the tune but according to professionals, it’s all my fault so the saga is not over but I’ve stated here that I’d be doing a tune and didn’t want to go without updating all interested parties. The good news is, my car is putting out 350 wheel horsepower and 370 ft/lbs of torque. Impressive numbers for a little Volkswagen Golf. I should have everything resolved in time for the New Hampshire Drag-strip to open in April in which I’ll be putting Pilot Super Sport tires on and seeing what quarter mile times the car makes. 11.5 would be amazing.
Here are a few more photos:
I’ll be sure to post more information once I have this tuning mess behind me. I wish the tuner I’m with had a closer location.