APR Tune on 2015 Golf R -Stg2

[Taotao]

Alright, so this post is meant to be *informative* and i'm reporting from personal experience here, and posting facts.

After doing a ton of research on tuning options for the new Golf R, I finally pulled the trigger on the APR stg 1, and then once i upgraded some hardware, i went with Stg2. I was familiar with the related concerns i'd seen in assorted posts across the interwebs, related to turbo-failures, the associated serial numbers of the blown-unit-runs, etc... and ideally, i wanted a Unitronic tune, but they didn't have a local dealer to support me up here. I didn't want to have to drive 4hrs to a dealer to 'flash back to stock', should an issue arise, so reluctantly, i went with APR.

I'm also aware of the need mentioned by some engineers in the field, concerning the use of a Stg2 tune, and a DP, related to solenoid wastegate issues and the associated programming of said hardware. So Stg2 i went.

Car has 12,500mi, is a 2015, and has been burning around a qt of oil every 700mi or so, and has a strange flat-spot at between .24-.80% throttle, when rolling on, between 3250 and 3750rpm.

I took the car back to my local APR dealer, and spoke of the issue with them, after sending an email directly to APR, articulating the issue to them, to which i received a short email, stating that they couldn't talk to me, but that i had to go through my dealer (in a nutshell).

So the dealer then replied first, to my email, in which i articulate again my concerns with the car, and they forwarded my correspondence to APR.
APR advised the dealer to get the car in, log what was happening, and they would then see what the deal was.

After several hours of driving about with a tech in the car with me, to replicate the issues... we then sent the log-files to APR, and they replied with 'oh, that's a known issue, we're releasing an update with which you can flash to, to rectify the problem'.

So back i went several days later, for the re-flash, and the problem should've been solved. While in for the 're-flash' the APR server apparently crashed, and i was stranded at the dealer for 4 hours, while they attempted to reach APR's customer service, who apparently wasn't returning their VM's or answering their phone... For HOURS?

Once reached, they said they didn't know what was happening, but that this was supposed to be 'just a simple flash update'.

4hrs later, the 'update was finally installed, and away i went, in the hopes of the flat-spots being sorted, and no more boost-dumping under throttle.

No further than about 4 blocks from the dealer, i noticed that the issue was even worse now... But lacking more time to return the car to them and to sort a ride home, i opted to just go home. No CEL's at that time, so i figured i'd make it through the holiday.

Now several days-on, i have a CEL, and a few other lights on, on the dashboard, and i'm sort of dreading taking the car back to deal with whatever the issue related to this tune could be. Still have the strange boost-dump under power, without any apparent explanation from APR, other than 'it's a known issue'...

Happy to report findings as they occur here, in case anyone else is having similar issues.

My current take-away is that i'm less-than-impressed with APR's customer service, and i'm ready to flash back to stock and would like my money back, from an apparently poorly-supported product, that's seemingly not ready to be on the market.

 

[ginch]

Sorry to ask as it really doesn't have much to do with your APR tune however the fact your car uses a quart of oil every 700 miles seems crazy. Has this just happened since being tuned or has it always used oil?

 

[Taotao]

Sorry to ask as it really doesn't have much to do with your APR tune however the fact your car uses a quart of oil every 700 miles seems crazy. Has this just happened since being tuned or has it always used oil?

lol, yes, it sounds a little crazy. It's a little peculiar... certainly not anything i've experienced to-date with any other vehicles i've ever owned.
It seems to not have mattered, whether tuned, or prior... And sometimes it burns more, and sometimes not.

I haven't ascertained yet, if there's a variable i can control (driving habit, warm-up time, etc) to influence the burn-rate, so i just monitor it.

 

[Killswitch24]

Screw all the tuning... I would get the oil consumption fixed. No software tuning in the world will eliminate burning oil. Audi even tried it with the B8 A4 and it was only a band-aid. Good Luck!

 

[Golf R1]

Oil burn rate may or may not be related to the tune. I'd flash back to stock and take it in. Sounds like you're uncertain if the burn rate is correlated to either a tune (1 or 2) or bolt on mod. Did it burn oil before any of these mods? I'm waiting on my R currently and drive an Evo X Mr (fully stock). I don't need to add oil between changes and drive plenty spirited (22k miles in). I'd be curious to hear if others are burning oil (stock or tuned) in their 2015/16 R. Seems to me it has to be related to a hardware or software mod you've done; regardless your experience with APR customer service is alarming. I wouldn't cloud the problem solve process with a poor service bias though, have to remain open to the idea this may not have anything to do with your tune. The group will surely chime in with oil burn experiences which should help you identify the problem. Good luck, curious to know what's causing this.

 

[Aussie R]

I'd get that oil consumption checked, not normal from what i've seen and read.

Regarding the Stage 2 tune, sounds like APR rushed release in USA. There has obviously been some issues regarding stage 2. In Aust and Europe I've heard and seen dyno showing losses over stage 1 on beta files. I believe only now tune might be finally ready for release.

Maybe once APR relase their DP then they will have to have a good stage 2 tune to match so they can seel their DP. I'm sure there is good torque gains improvement for stage 2 in USA as ROW latest getting over 420lbs so good 35lbs more than US tune.

 

[Taotao]

Many thanks for your insights, gents...

I agree about the oil consumption. It seems there's little rhyme/reason to the consumption, and it's not necessarily related to either hardware or software changes. Car has intake/DP, and APR Stg2, and was burning before the changes as well. Again, I can't pinpoint a cause, as it's not high-rpm-dependent nor steady-state cruising related, it wouldn't seem.

Flashing back to stock and taking it in seems a good idea.

Concerning the CEL that i received yesterday, after pulling codes, it was O2 sensor related, which was strange, as the 'update' to the Stg2 file from APR, that we installed about a week ago, was supposed to cure the car of 'surging' and 'boost-dumping' between 3-4k/rpm. The opposite happened, with the update, and then got the CEL related to the O2 sensor/DP combo.

Stg2 was supposed to account for a DP, so this seems a little strange, especially in light of the first version of the flash, not having this issue.

It would seem that perhaps something was left out of the update?

No comment yet from APR, but I'll update here if i learn more.

 

[notavr1]

pretty sure apr took a long vacation. but like everyone else said i'd get the oil thing sorted out before anything.

 

[Baldilocks73]

Did you ever have an 02 spacer installed? That can often give you CEL's if you're on Stage 2.

 

[The Messiah]

My wife had a MKV GTi which she bought new in '08. We sold it in April last year with 105k mi on the clock. We drove it without oil for long periods (the low oil warning would go on when I enter highway onramps at high speed and then I'd forget about it later). I noticed this the first time early in 2011. She never added oil and just had it changed every 5k miles or so. The only issue we had with the car was carbon buildup on the valves. Other than that it ran flawlessly for 7 years and over 105k miles. And often without oil. The shop we had it serviced at said it was a known issue with those models. Maybe we were lucky, but that would be an insane amount of luck. Or the oil gauge was faulty. But that car was one of the most dependable cars I've ever seen. Especially considering.

I have a '15 MVII GTi now and after 11k miles I have not noticed any oil being used (I changed it at 1k, 5k and 10k miles and will at every 5k mi intervals now).

 

[sean@apr1]

4hrs later, the 'update was finally installed, and away i went, in the hopes of the flat-spots being sorted, and no more boost-dumping under throttle.

No further than about 4 blocks from the dealer, i noticed that the issue was even worse now... But lacking more time to return the car to them and to sort a ride home, i opted to just go home. No CEL's at that time, so i figured i'd make it through the holiday.

Now several days-on, i have a CEL, and a few other lights on, on the dashboard, and i'm sort of dreading taking the car back to deal with whatever the issue related to this tune could be. Still have the strange boost-dump under power, without any apparent explanation from APR, other than 'it's a known issue'...

Happy to report findings as they occur here, in case anyone else is having similar issues.

First off, I'm sorry you're having trouble.

You must have been in the dealer last week. We had trouble with the internet at our office. Unfortunately, that means that our flashing server was down and so were our phones/email.

In general, vehicle tuning is not an exact science. We do our best to test for anything and everything we can think of, but there's sometimes variables outside our control. Different climates, variations in the cars or sometimes problems with the car itself can all contribute to things not working as they should. That's why we always involve a dealer and why we work things out from log files.

I understand the desire to open the box, turn it on and have perfect results. That's what we always aim for, but sometimes things just don't work out that way.

Please give your dealer a call, let's see first of all what's causing the lights and then we can dig further into your specific issue.

You shouldn't have to wait 4 hours again.. we beat up the fiber company pretty hard.

 

[OBP]

In general, vehicle tuning is not an exact science. We do our best to test for anything and everything we can think of, but there's sometimes variables outside our control. Different climates, variations in the cars or sometimes problems with the car itself can all contribute to things not working as they should. That's why we always involve a dealer and why we work things out from log files.

Isn't this reason enough to offer custom tunes instead of the one size fits all approach? why can't APR have select outlets that allows them to custom build a tune using your software?

 

[greggles]

e had trouble with the internet at our office. Unfortunately, that means that our flashing server was down and so were our phones/email.

Talk to your IT guys about hosting the flash server offsite (amazon has flexible and inexpensive hosting options), which would help eliminate an office internet outage from effecting the entire fleet of APR dealers!

 

[notavr1]

Isn't this reason enough to offer custom tunes instead of the one size fits all approach? why can't APR have select outlets that allows them to custom build a tune using your software?

easier said than done with new vw ecus.

 

[Stage2Sasquatch]

Isn't this reason enough to offer custom tunes instead of the one size fits all approach? why can't APR have select outlets that allows them to custom build a tune using your software?

A company called Driver Motorsport explains it better than I could:

"The ECUs found in these vehicles are in a completely different class in comparison to the Subaru / Mitsubishi tuner cars that require software changes after basic hardware upgrades. The Volkswagen / Audi Vehicles come from the factory with high end equipment and sensors (ex: Bosch wideband O2 sensors) with an impressive ECU to run it all. Majority of these cars can still run fine with half of it’s sensors unplugged (Don’t actually do this )."

Basically VW/Audi ECU's are so sophisticated that it will adapt on it's own to fit several mods where as other ECU's need to be fine tuned for every single mod you have (See Subie and DSM). Because of this a "Out of the box" tune gets 95% of the benefit of a custom tune. This is different from a less sophisticated ECU's like the Subaru's where you will gain a TON from going to a protune.