Undecided on which tune makes sense for me

[Dubguy1]

I know this topic has been best to death, but I’m curious if anyone could give me advice as to what option sounds best for me. I have a 2016 R with 10k on the clock. The only mods I have are the x34 intake and AWE Switchpath exhaust. I do not track my car and do not plan to, I’m just a nerdy accountant who burns off steam by ripping hard on cars. ??* Anyways, the closest tuner to me is APR, which is 1.5 hours away. The next closest is a shop that carries APR, Uni and UM, but they’re about 3 hours away. I always ran APR on my card and went all APR for paste but as you can see on this one it’s not the case. Alternatively I can go JB4. I spoke with the shop that carries all three and they said Uni really hasn’t done it for them. They recommended APR or UM.

My main concerns are as follows:

1) I’ve heard of some turbos blowing. I tried to figure out my revision but need to get a new mirror to see if I’m in the clear.
2) With the flash tunes if something does go wrong hoe would I get it flashed back to stock when the dealers are so far away?
3) Lastly, with JB4 I wouldn’t be running a TCU tune.

What do you guys think? I know I’m over thinking it but would like to jump on something as a post ‘busy season’ gift to myself. Any input would be much appreciated!

 

[KASPER1]

I’m a fan of UM over apr mainly because of their tcu tune, it’s just plain better than apr’s tcu tune. The ecu tunes seem very comparable although you can have more boost dialed in it seems with UM. As for if something goes wrong, you’re more than likely screwed already as flashing back to stock probably won’t help. I say probably because most have been screwed by their dealers although I personally know a guy who had a failure did flash back to stock and did get warrantied but it seems, according to the forums that’s the exception not the rule. The guys that run jb1/4s like em, it just personally wasn’t for me, I’m not a fan of signal modifiers and made peace with the “pay to play” worst case senario.

Good luck on your decision, just keep in mind that all sorts of different turbo revisions have had failures, there is no revision that actually puts you in the clear.

You could also do apr’s plus tuning which supplements the oem drivetrain warranty with a aftermarket drivetrain warranty and a less aggressive tune.

 

[ecsta]

It sounds like you're a perfect candidate for APR+ (their lower power tune that come with a powertrain warranty).

 

[Dubguy1]

I agree with both of you. Part of me doesn’t want to deal with APR though. Back in the day they were great, but I hear/read sketchy things about them after a few sales, etc.

 

[George Ab]

Eurodyne; flash at home, flash it back to stock if you want. I am a happy customer for 3.5 years and 40,000 miles.

 

[Cameron1292]

Cobb for sure. Flash yourself. Run a multitude of tunes from different companies. There dropping a dsg tune soon as well. You can flash back to stock. Then you still have the accessport you can sell for whatever reason for close to what you paid.

Sent from my ONEPLUS 5T using Tapatalk

 

[Dubguy1]

Anyone have experience with JB4?

 

[BronxBomber]

I say Cobb or Eurodyne.

 

[iTsLiKeAnEgG]

I'm running the Eurodyne ECU/TCU tune and have been happy with it. Flash at home between stock, stage 1, stage 2, adjustable map, etc. Power delivery looks nice and smooth on the dyno.

 

[oddspyke]

1. It's unlikely you'll have an issue with a 2016, but there's always the possibility. The more aggressive the tune, the higher the chances. You may want something mild like APR+ as someone already suggested.

2. If you have warranty concerns, the distance to the dealer won't help or hurt unless you're getting the APR+ warranty, in which case you will likely need to go to that dealer for repairs. I won't turn this into another warranty thread, but best practice is to just assume your warranty is gone if you flash tune (even if there are anecdotes to the contrary, you shouldn't bank on it).

3. I have a manual, I can't comment on TCU tunes, so I'll leave that to the guys with first hand experience.

We can provide better advice if you let us know more about what you're looking for. Just a little power bump? The fastest car around? Are you going to mod more after the warranty is up? How price sensitive are you? All important factors that change what people will recommend.

 

[Dubguy1]

1. It's unlikely you'll have an issue with a 2016, but there's always the possibility. The more aggressive the tune, the higher the chances. You may want something mild like APR+ as someone already suggested.

2. If you have warranty concerns, the distance to the dealer won't help or hurt unless you're getting the APR+ warranty, in which case you will likely need to go to that dealer for repairs. I won't turn this into another warranty thread, but best practice is to just assume your warranty is gone if you flash tune (even if there are anecdotes to the contrary, you shouldn't bank on it).

3. I have a manual, I can't comment on TCU tunes, so I'll leave that to the guys with first hand experience.

We can provide better advice if you let us know more about what you're looking for. Just a little power bump? The fastest car around? Are you going to mod more after the warranty is up? How price sensitive are you? All important factors that change what people will recommend.

Thanks! I typically tune to stage two with full exhaust, intake, etc just for the fun of it. Don’t plan on going beyond that and am not interested in logging or tweaking tunes. I don’t really care about cost.

I’m very mechanically inclined but something about messing with the wiring harness and fooling the computer worries me. My past MK5 GLI was tuned at 45k and then my MK6 was tuned at 500 miles. Those weren’t $40k+ cars though so I didn’t really care.

 

[Luchos]

I’m a fan of UM over apr mainly because of their tcu tune, it’s just plain better than apr’s tcu tune. The ecu tunes seem very comparable although you can have more boost dialed in it seems with UM. As for if something goes wrong, you’re more than likely screwed already as flashing back to stock probably won’t help. I say probably because most have been screwed by their dealers although I personally know a guy who had a failure did flash back to stock and did get warrantied but it seems, according to the forums that’s the exception not the rule. The guys that run jb1/4s like em, it just personally wasn’t for me, I’m not a fan of signal modifiers and made peace with the “pay to play” worst case senario.

Good luck on your decision, just keep in mind that all sorts of different turbo revisions have had failures, there is no revision that actually puts you in the clear.

You could also do apr’s plus tuning which supplements the oem drivetrain warranty with a aftermarket drivetrain warranty and a less aggressive tune.

APR stole UM's TCU tune, what makes UM tune better is Jeff is constantly working on it and releasing revised files.

 

[Jose_Gti]

APR stole UM's TCU tune

Really? I didn't know that. When did that happened?

 

[Dubguy1]

APR stole UM's TCU tune, what makes UM tune better is Jeff is constantly working on it and releasing revised files.

Yeah I read about that. There are some funny memes on it. I’d say for flash tunes I’m down to UM or Uni or JB4 for piggyback. That’s where I’ve been all along.

 

[THEREALVRT]

Thanks! I typically tune to stage two with full exhaust, intake, etc just for the fun of it. Don’t plan on going beyond that and am not interested in logging or tweaking tunes. I don’t really care about cost.

I’m very mechanically inclined but something about messing with the wiring harness and fooling the computer worries me. My past MK5 GLI was tuned at 45k and then my MK6 was tuned at 500 miles. Those weren’t $40k+ cars though so I didn’t really care.

get a eurodyne maestro if you are even thinking ofgoing past stage 1. why? Simple. buy it and flash the stg1 file then if you go stg2 just flash the stg2 file, no additional charges. wanna go past that too? no problem. big turbo and mpi base files are on thier way as is 4 bar and mpi control.
it grows with your mods at no additional charge