WadeRoberson
Ready to race!
- Location
- NA
- Car(s)
- NA
December 8, 2015: Took my new 2016 black DSG 4 door base GTI home from VW Dealer.
?, 2016: I resolved an obnoxious rattle coming from my center arm rest. Here’s the thread where I discovered the source of the rattle.
July 20, 2017 / 23,936mi: I got a 93 octane stage 1 APR ECU tune done. Just as reported by everyone else, the tune has completely transformed the car’s performance. Because the tune was on sale (10% off) at the time I received it, the total cost was $670.94 after taxes. Worth every penny.
August 1, 2017: I resolved another rattle by installing Tesa tape on the underside of the driver side window control unit. The rattle has been completely eliminated. Here’s the thread I discovered this fix.
August 5, 2017: I installed the “small” APR stage 1 badge. The small badge is the same height (25mm) as the GTI badge that comes on the vehicle where as the “large” badge is 30mm tall. I think it looks pretty good but YMMV.
August 10, 2017: I received my OBDeleven I purchased from DAP. I immediately programed in 3 things: ESC off, soundaktor off, and fob based window controls. Driving with ESC off is amazing. I knew the cars ESC was invasive, but now that it's totally gone I've realize just how invasive it really was. Turning ESC has made launching the car a far more enjoyable experience. When I first heard about the soundaktor my car came with from the factory I was pretty upset. The idea of making the car "sound faster" by essentially placing a speaker under the windshield is totally ridiculous and very ricery. Now that I've disabled it the car is less loud in the interior, but honestly sounds better as well as noticeably more natural... The ability to control the windows with the key fob is a bit of a party trick, but because it's the summer and I'm in Florida I've been using it quite a bit. The price I paid was $80 shipped. The OBDeleven works extremely well and is very very simple to use. The credit based system is pretty stupid, but really isn't that big of a deal in reality.
February 8, 2018: I used OBDEleven to turn starting vibration off. From my understanding this stops the vehicle from braking when wheel hop is detected. I did a 0 - 60 pull before and after doing this mod and the difference was extremely apparent. Because I'm currently running bald all seasons I'm not really able to take full advantage of this yet, but after I install my newly ordered wheels and tires (!!!) I will.
February 12, 2018: I removed the snow guard from the stock CAI. Once you have it out and in your hands its pretty unbelievable how thick and seemingly restrictive it is. I say seemingly because I don't have hard evidence that it actually is. I drove the car before and after doing this modification with placebo in mind. I obviously cannot say that I felt any power increase, however there absolutely was an improvement in throttle response. Not huge, but it was there. Definitely worth it since it takes 5 minutes to do and since it's not doing anything for me here in Florida anyways.
February 27, 2018: In preparation for the aggressively sized wheels and tires I have coming in the mail soon, I did the fender screw mod. I obviously don't rub now, and I may have never experienced rubbing with the new set up, but just to be safe I went ahead and did this. It was super simple... I just had to jack the car up a little on each side so I could get the t25 where it needed to be. The hardest part was pulling out the little plastic spacers under the screws. I attacked them with a flat head until they came out. All in all it probably took 10 minutes. If you get lucky and those plastic pieces come out easier then it could take under 5.
March 30, 2018 / 34,460mi: I had 245/40R18 Michelin Pilot Sport 4S tires mounted on 18x8.5+43 5x112 Konig Hypergrams (17.84 lbs each) and installed. Since what I was driving on before was bald stock all seasons the difference was, unsurprisingly, night and day. So much more traction. Car handles like a go-cart by comparison. The 245 tires on the 8.5in 43 offset wheels makes the fitment totally flush with the fenders, which is a nice touch. I got the matte grey Konig Hypergrams, they're darker than I expect which is definitely a good thing. Black car with dark grey wheels makes for a pretty good combo, much better than the stock wheels which look pretty bad imo. Good tires are super important guys (especially with high wtq and fwd), prioritize them.
To be continued…
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Here is a list of modifications I plan on doing in the future on google docs (in rough order):
https://docs.google.com/document/d/13-hWkI6prt2Lyb-oPRn6ruetDJRFgu7M_n3gKcAD0Bw/edit?usp=sharing
I will continue to update this thread each time I do a future modification or something eventful and relevant to the car occurs. Please leave feedback regarding the formatting/content of this post. Thank you!
?, 2016: I resolved an obnoxious rattle coming from my center arm rest. Here’s the thread where I discovered the source of the rattle.
July 20, 2017 / 23,936mi: I got a 93 octane stage 1 APR ECU tune done. Just as reported by everyone else, the tune has completely transformed the car’s performance. Because the tune was on sale (10% off) at the time I received it, the total cost was $670.94 after taxes. Worth every penny.
August 1, 2017: I resolved another rattle by installing Tesa tape on the underside of the driver side window control unit. The rattle has been completely eliminated. Here’s the thread I discovered this fix.
August 5, 2017: I installed the “small” APR stage 1 badge. The small badge is the same height (25mm) as the GTI badge that comes on the vehicle where as the “large” badge is 30mm tall. I think it looks pretty good but YMMV.
August 10, 2017: I received my OBDeleven I purchased from DAP. I immediately programed in 3 things: ESC off, soundaktor off, and fob based window controls. Driving with ESC off is amazing. I knew the cars ESC was invasive, but now that it's totally gone I've realize just how invasive it really was. Turning ESC has made launching the car a far more enjoyable experience. When I first heard about the soundaktor my car came with from the factory I was pretty upset. The idea of making the car "sound faster" by essentially placing a speaker under the windshield is totally ridiculous and very ricery. Now that I've disabled it the car is less loud in the interior, but honestly sounds better as well as noticeably more natural... The ability to control the windows with the key fob is a bit of a party trick, but because it's the summer and I'm in Florida I've been using it quite a bit. The price I paid was $80 shipped. The OBDeleven works extremely well and is very very simple to use. The credit based system is pretty stupid, but really isn't that big of a deal in reality.
February 8, 2018: I used OBDEleven to turn starting vibration off. From my understanding this stops the vehicle from braking when wheel hop is detected. I did a 0 - 60 pull before and after doing this mod and the difference was extremely apparent. Because I'm currently running bald all seasons I'm not really able to take full advantage of this yet, but after I install my newly ordered wheels and tires (!!!) I will.
February 12, 2018: I removed the snow guard from the stock CAI. Once you have it out and in your hands its pretty unbelievable how thick and seemingly restrictive it is. I say seemingly because I don't have hard evidence that it actually is. I drove the car before and after doing this modification with placebo in mind. I obviously cannot say that I felt any power increase, however there absolutely was an improvement in throttle response. Not huge, but it was there. Definitely worth it since it takes 5 minutes to do and since it's not doing anything for me here in Florida anyways.
February 27, 2018: In preparation for the aggressively sized wheels and tires I have coming in the mail soon, I did the fender screw mod. I obviously don't rub now, and I may have never experienced rubbing with the new set up, but just to be safe I went ahead and did this. It was super simple... I just had to jack the car up a little on each side so I could get the t25 where it needed to be. The hardest part was pulling out the little plastic spacers under the screws. I attacked them with a flat head until they came out. All in all it probably took 10 minutes. If you get lucky and those plastic pieces come out easier then it could take under 5.
March 30, 2018 / 34,460mi: I had 245/40R18 Michelin Pilot Sport 4S tires mounted on 18x8.5+43 5x112 Konig Hypergrams (17.84 lbs each) and installed. Since what I was driving on before was bald stock all seasons the difference was, unsurprisingly, night and day. So much more traction. Car handles like a go-cart by comparison. The 245 tires on the 8.5in 43 offset wheels makes the fitment totally flush with the fenders, which is a nice touch. I got the matte grey Konig Hypergrams, they're darker than I expect which is definitely a good thing. Black car with dark grey wheels makes for a pretty good combo, much better than the stock wheels which look pretty bad imo. Good tires are super important guys (especially with high wtq and fwd), prioritize them.
To be continued…
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Here is a list of modifications I plan on doing in the future on google docs (in rough order):
https://docs.google.com/document/d/13-hWkI6prt2Lyb-oPRn6ruetDJRFgu7M_n3gKcAD0Bw/edit?usp=sharing
I will continue to update this thread each time I do a future modification or something eventful and relevant to the car occurs. Please leave feedback regarding the formatting/content of this post. Thank you!
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