Car completeled its Unitronic Tune - how to safely maintain it?

[Ghawkins]

Better rule of thumb is don't be DONE driving it until it gets up to 195-200 for about 10-20 minutes. Reason is going from cold to hot with any humidity whatsoever causes condensation. If you don't get the oil warm enough to evaporate the condensation is will dilute the oil and can lead to sludging. In really cold climates can freeze up in the PCV system...I don't think I need to go into why that's bad

Probably want to wait until coolant temps are up to the point where the t-stat is open(195) as the oil cooler is coolant cooled, which means it's trying to get the temp up. I usually wait until the temp readout is reading something.

Just a reminder that the coolant temp reaches normal way before the oil temp is where it needs to be for spirited driving...180 or so. At 50 deg. F this takes 6-8 miles. I just keep the oil temp monitor up all the time.

 

[Hoon]

Man, I haven’t bought spark plugs in 15 or 20 years probably. ?

My maintenance advice is not to park in bar parking lots. Or near another car that runs maybe. Saves body work.

You will for your MK7.

My stock plugs lasted 20k miles (18k tuned).

 

[The Fed]

Oil temp seems to start displaying at 122* F, so why does it wait until 122*? VW surely could have programmed it to start at ambient temperature.

Rant start: I never heard of needing to wait for anything in the car to "warm up" since the days of carburetors, and that was so you didn't dump too much raw fuel into the cylinders and past the rings to the oil pan. Tends to destroy main bearings. All I ever heard or read was to wait until the oil is circulating, which only takes seconds. You're probably getting at least 40 PSI from the oil pump, the same you get out of your home's water hose.

With modern fuel injection, your enrichment cycle is very short. My idle drops to normal by the time I pull out of my driveway (start car in garage, open garage door, back out of garage, wait until door closes). I'm sure I have full oil circulation by then, and the oil is performing at 5-weight. I need to drive about a mile to get to a main road, then I often give it about 1/2-3/4 throttle. The car pins you back in the seat so I'm getting a lot of torque, and stress. I never had an drivetrain problem from driving this way, and I've been driving turbo cars since 1991. I always had a turbo with an oil and water-cooled center bearing. We're not in the dark age of Chrysler any more.

Feel free to argue otherwise, but how many times have you heard a story where someone broke an engine from not warming up the car in the last 10 years, or even 20 or 30? And what about the clutch or clutch-pack? That's where I'd be worrying if I didn't have a HD clutch or DSG tune. Of course, if you're tuned you have no warranty, but if you need to drive like a pussy, don't tune, or buy something that's faster from the factory, like a Camaro or Mustang. When you play with fire, you sometimes get burned. Keep a first-aid kit (lots of money) handy.

 

[JerseyDrew77]

Oil temp seems to start displaying at 122* F, so why does it wait until 122*? VW surely could have programmed it to start at ambient temperature.

Rant start: I never heard of needing to wait for anything in the car to "warm up" since the days of carburetors, and that was so you didn't dump too much raw fuel into the cylinders and past the rings to the oil pan. Tends to destroy main bearings. All I ever heard or read was to wait until the oil is circulating, which only takes seconds. You're probably getting at least 40 PSI from the oil pump, the same you get out of your home's water hose.

With modern fuel injection, your enrichment cycle is very short. My idle drops to normal by the time I pull out of my driveway (start car in garage, open garage door, back out of garage, wait until door closes). I'm sure I have full oil circulation by then, and the oil is performing at 5-weight. I need to drive about a mile to get to a main road, then I often give it about 1/2-3/4 throttle. The car pins you back in the seat so I'm getting a lot of torque, and stress. I never had an drivetrain problem from driving this way, and I've been driving turbo cars since 1991. I always had a turbo with an oil and water-cooled center bearing. We're not in the dark age of Chrysler any more.

Feel free to argue otherwise, but how many times have you heard a story where someone broke an engine from not warming up the car in the last 10 years, or even 20 or 30? And what about the clutch or clutch-pack? That's where I'd be worrying if I didn't have a HD clutch or DSG tune. Of course, if you're tuned you have no warranty, but if you need to drive like a pussy, don't tune, or buy something that's faster from the factory, like a Camaro or Mustang. When you play with fire, you sometimes get burned. Keep a first-aid kit (lots of money) handy.

DILLY DILLY!

 

[Hoon]

Oil temp seems to start displaying at 122* F, so why does it wait until 122*? VW surely could have programmed it to start at ambient temperature.

Rant start: I never heard of needing to wait for anything in the car to "warm up" since the days of carburetors, and that was so you didn't dump too much raw fuel into the cylinders and past the rings to the oil pan. Tends to destroy main bearings. All I ever heard or read was to wait until the oil is circulating, which only takes seconds. You're probably getting at least 40 PSI from the oil pump, the same you get out of your home's water hose.

With modern fuel injection, your enrichment cycle is very short. My idle drops to normal by the time I pull out of my driveway (start car in garage, open garage door, back out of garage, wait until door closes). I'm sure I have full oil circulation by then, and the oil is performing at 5-weight. I need to drive about a mile to get to a main road, then I often give it about 1/2-3/4 throttle. The car pins you back in the seat so I'm getting a lot of torque, and stress. I never had an drivetrain problem from driving this way, and I've been driving turbo cars since 1991. I always had a turbo with an oil and water-cooled center bearing. We're not in the dark age of Chrysler any more.

Feel free to argue otherwise, but how many times have you heard a story where someone broke an engine from not warming up the car in the last 10 years, or even 20 or 30? And what about the clutch or clutch-pack? That's where I'd be worrying if I didn't have a HD clutch or DSG tune. Of course, if you're tuned you have no warranty, but if you need to drive like a pussy, don't tune, or buy something that's faster from the factory, like a Camaro or Mustang. When you play with fire, you sometimes get burned. Keep a first-aid kit (lots of money) handy.

Not beating on the car cold has nothing to do with fueling or oil circulation.

The tolerances of internal components (especially pistons and rings) are looser when cold. Forged pistons have to be especially loose when cold because they expand a lot more than a cast piston.

The idea is not to beat on the motor before the components reach their normal sizes. Spinning high rpm with components that are out of spec accelerates wear.

 

[SpaceGhost]

Still not hearing why the oil temp starts displaying at 122. There must be a reason. The only logical reason I can think of is vw is saying the car is in its normal operating range

 

[Cowzill00]

You will for your MK7.



My stock plugs lasted 20k miles (18k tuned).

Oh yeah. I’m coming off some long term diesel driving, so I’m trading fuel filter intervals (diesel) for spark plug changes it seems. The shorter than standard plug interval on a tune is good to know.

 

[Cowzill00]

The oil temp thing. The digital “gauge” starts reading at 122 just like an analog gauge starts reading at whatever the low end is, which isn’t always (ever?) 0. Me thinks anyway. You already know your oil is cold...when it’s cold.


To me it’s common sense on waiting for full warmup before flogging. Interesting post on not mattering above, and I don’t dispute that. But in my mind it’s still not worth the risk. I’m at full operating temp within 10 min or so on oil. But it is an interesting question as to what determines full operating temp: coolant or oil? And does it really matter?

 

[Tsi7]

You will for your MK7.

My stock plugs lasted 20k miles (18k tuned).

20K? What? I've never heard of that. My spark plugs have 32K and they're fine, i'd be worried if my car was going through spark plugs after 20k...

 

[Tsi7]

Oil temp seems to start displaying at 122* F, so why does it wait until 122*? VW surely could have programmed it to start at ambient temperature.

Rant start: I never heard of needing to wait for anything in the car to "warm up" since the days of carburetors, and that was so you didn't dump too much raw fuel into the cylinders and past the rings to the oil pan. Tends to destroy main bearings. All I ever heard or read was to wait until the oil is circulating, which only takes seconds. You're probably getting at least 40 PSI from the oil pump, the same you get out of your home's water hose.

With modern fuel injection, your enrichment cycle is very short. My idle drops to normal by the time I pull out of my driveway (start car in garage, open garage door, back out of garage, wait until door closes). I'm sure I have full oil circulation by then, and the oil is performing at 5-weight. I need to drive about a mile to get to a main road, then I often give it about 1/2-3/4 throttle. The car pins you back in the seat so I'm getting a lot of torque, and stress. I never had an drivetrain problem from driving this way, and I've been driving turbo cars since 1991. I always had a turbo with an oil and water-cooled center bearing. We're not in the dark age of Chrysler any more.

Feel free to argue otherwise, but how many times have you heard a story where someone broke an engine from not warming up the car in the last 10 years, or even 20 or 30? And what about the clutch or clutch-pack? That's where I'd be worrying if I didn't have a HD clutch or DSG tune. Of course, if you're tuned you have no warranty, but if you need to drive like a pussy, don't tune, or buy something that's faster from the factory, like a Camaro or Mustang. When you play with fire, you sometimes get burned. Keep a first-aid kit (lots of money) handy.

Well said

 

[buyingconstant7]

Still not hearing why the oil temp starts displaying at 122. There must be a reason. The only logical reason I can think of is vw is saying the car is in its normal operating range

That's what was explained to me, when it reads the "--" figure it is not safe to drive hard, but once it starts reading, you can drive hard or however you please.

 

[Hoon]

20K? What? I've never heard of that. My spark plugs have 32K and they're fine, i'd be worried if my car was going through spark plugs after 20k...

Many members go through plugs every 15-20k, regardless of plug type.

It's normal with a tuned car that's driven hard.

 

[Tsi7]

Many members go through plugs every 15-20k, regardless of plug type.

It's normal with a tuned car that's driven hard.

I was referring to stock, which is what I assumed you meant when you said 20k followed by 18k tuned...

 

[Hoon]

I was referring to stock, which is what I assumed you meant when you said 20k followed by 18k tuned...

No, I tuned the car at 2k miles.

Plugs made it to 20k total (2k stock and 18k tuned )before issues.

Stock should be fine for the 60k interval

 

[Tsi7]

No, I tuned the car at 2k miles.

Plugs made it to 20k total (2k stock and 18k tuned )before issues.

Stock should be fine for the 60k interval

Ok that makes alot more sense now, thanks for clarifying