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Saint Louis

TCOne

Passed Driver's Ed
Location
USA
One of the last Cars and Coffee events of the year this Saturday morning at westport plaza!

EDIT: Followed by Volkstoberfest at Schlafly Bottleworks!
 
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GeeTeeEye1

New member
Location
STL
G'day all...

Hey all, just bought my '16 Tornado Red SE two nights ago.

Anyone have recommendations on a local reputable place for some modifications I plan on doing soon?

My goals are: Intake, Downpipe, Exhaust, Stage 2 tune, lowered, and tint.

I've heard that Reid Vann (?) does APR tunes? I've also seen some scathing reviews for them as well. I'd like to get some opinions, if they are out there.

I'll take any insight at all from you guys. Thanks again and I'm happy to be a part of the community.
 

Ricked_Em

Go Kart Champion
Location
STL
Other then tint they are all easy upgrades just needing hand tools. I am personally eurodyne and love it. I can flash right in my garage.

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GeeTeeEye1

New member
Location
STL
Other then tint they are all easy upgrades just needing hand tools. I am personally eurodyne and love it. I can flash right in my garage.

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I'm not very mechanically inclined. The most I've done in previous cars is an air filter and cat-back exhaust. I've never touched suspension nor have I gotten into a down pipe install. I thought those were complicated on the MK7? no?
 

Ricked_Em

Go Kart Champion
Location
STL
Downpipe is super easy believe it or not. Hour tops. For Springs I'd go to ecotech on Watson. Add a rear sway bar to your list. Best bang for the buck. If you're free November 5th a group of us guys are doing a back road cruise.

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GeeTeeEye1

New member
Location
STL
Downpipe is super easy believe it or not. Hour tops. For Springs I'd go to ecotech on Watson. Add a rear sway bar to your list. Best bang for the buck. If you're free November 5th a group of us guys are doing a back road cruise.

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Thanks for the encouragement and advice. I'll call ecotech later today. I'll have to check with the boss (wife) to see what, if anything, she has planned for us that weekend. ;)

Thanks again.
 

Ricked_Em

Go Kart Champion
Location
STL
Thanks for the encouragement and advice. I'll call ecotech later today. I'll have to check with the boss (wife) to see what, if anything, she has planned for us that weekend. ;)

Thanks again.
Search hatch alliance on Facebook and the group should pop up.

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N10S

Ready to race!
Location
St.Louis area
Hey all, just bought my '16 Tornado Red SE two nights ago.

Anyone have recommendations on a local reputable place for some modifications I plan on doing soon?

My goals are: Intake, Downpipe, Exhaust, Stage 2 tune, lowered, and tint.

I've heard that Reid Vann (?) does APR tunes? I've also seen some scathing reviews for them as well. I'd like to get some opinions, if they are out there.

I'll take any insight at all from you guys. Thanks again and I'm happy to be a part of the community.


Welcome and enjoy the new GTI! DSG or manual? My 2015 was a tornado red autobahn DSG and my 2016 PP Autobahn 6MT is night blue, and I miss the red as it looked great and was far easier to keep clean than the dark blue. I think the dark blue is a little lower profile with the cops though :).

I do all of my own mods and my experience with installing downpipes is that its easiest when the car is new with less miles and less time for the bolts to get corroded.

As far as tuning the car you purchased the car at the right time as there are more tuning solutions for this car than I have seen for most platforms. As far as APR and Reid Vann go back in the day they used to be a good option and I think they are still probably a great shop.

When I talked to Reid Vann a year or so ago about an APR tune for my 2015 the overall costs were pretty high as they charge for the APR tune plus they also add on a programming fee. At the time I researched some other licensed APR shops in other states, and not every shop adds that extra programming fee. Reid Vann has been an APR shop for years and to be honest I don't recall them charging that extra fee years ago. Maybe thats selective memory I don't know.

Of course if you need your car changed back to a stock map for a visit to the dealer and then back again you are going to pay a programming fee for that. During my discussion with them they were offering a programming insurance option where you paid a set fee up front (like around $ 150 iirc) and they would re-program for a limited set number of times. I think all told the cost was $850+.

There are a lot of tuning solutions out there now and some that you can install and manage yourself. The recent release of the COBB AP for our cars is the best example. I have owned several Subies and used the Cobb AP. All stage 1,2, and other OTS maps available were included at no additional cost. You have the ability to have the car custom tuned if desired. The real beauty of the AP though is that when I sold the cars, I divorced the AP from the cars and then sold the units for almost what I paid for them.

Alternatively you can pay Reid Vann to install a single program, additional dollars for the program and labor if you decide to update from Stage 1 to Stage 2, and when you get ready to sell or trade your car your investment in the APR tune and all of the labor costs are lost. I think APR has done some excellent things, but in comparison it is not a great value in my opinion. I haven't looked at them lately so maybe the competition has changed their product strategy.
 

AshinKushin

New member
Not a Gti or R but 17' MK7 TSI ...done a few odb11 modifications . Hoping to do a few more modifications soon. Any ideas?


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AshinKushin

New member
Back in the late 80's I purchased an 87 Grand National new off the lot. That was not my first performance or turbo car, but my first experience with ecu tuning a turbocharged car. Kenne Bell, Eastern Performance, and ATR were a few of those tuners back in the day. The tuning was based on a replacement chip with revised boost, timing & fueling. Other bolt- ons which improved exhaust flow, and improved intake breathing and fueling also added to the end result. Not that different than today really, just more simplified as the cars and the engine managent was far less complicated than today.

Other vehicles I have modified via ecu tune include my GMC Syclone, Mk 3 Gti (VR6 NA car but still chipped), 2 different S4 Audis (one Abt, one MTM -full ecu replacements), BMW MCoupe port tuned ecu using a Conforti Shark injector (also an NA car), a chip tuned turbo s beetle, a stage 2 337 I set up with Oberscheider chip ( sent ecu in for chip change-out), forge diverter, and full milltek turbo-back exhaust. That car was a real jewel. Several subarus including 2 WRX and 1 forester XT with mods ranging from a full stage 3 big turbo kit to full STi retrofit on the forester to a simple stage 1 Cobb tune on my 2011 WRX. Also did a "Works" tune and exhaust on my Evo VIII, and also fiddled around with an SAFC fuel management & Greddy Profec B boost control standalones on my evo as well, as they came from the factory running very rich.

I love VW's, and particularly GTI's, and this Mk7 is way under tuned allowing a lot of tuning head room. There is a lot of development and tuning in progress for this car. On a negative note there have also been plenty of reports of turbo failures which seem to be more prevalent with tuned cars. There is a lot of conjecture and discussion surrounding why these turbo failures are happening. Reports of these issues seem to be tapering off a bit and there are plenty of examples of people running a tune for many miles with no issues whatsoever.

At any rate I am waiting to see if someone will come up with a port tuning solution which puts me in control of programming my own car ( or restoring it to stock as needed). The Eurodyne solution looks good, but I don't personally like having to program my car via an Internet connection to someone's server. Just not a sound move from my perspective but I am paranoid when it comes to the possibility of bricking an ECU. I am not going to get anxious, and to be honest the stock car is fun to drive as-is so I am in no hurry really. Having said that I am sure a stage 2 tuned mk7 with milltek turbo back exhaust would be a blast to own & drive.

Jeff (also)
Jeff also

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TCOne

Passed Driver's Ed
Location
USA
Look here, this town ain't big enough for two night blue GTIs. J/k, hope to see you at a cars and coffe someday. Keep an eye out for a night blue 2 dr with bronze hypergrams.
 

95gto

Go Kart Newbie
Location
STL
New GTI owner, 2015 Night Blue Autobahn with DSG. Being a die hard manual trans guy I have to say I like the DSG. So far the only mods are some paddle extensions and a Neuspeed power module.

I have to replace the bumpers on my car so I will have some changes in that department soon.
 
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