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APR TCU tune...worth it?

deanmarr

Ready to race!
Going to get their ECU stage 1 upgrade and wondering if I should also do the TCU tune, what do most people here do? Car will see the road track. Spend the money or not worth it until stage 2 or higher? Thanks
Yes it's worth it. Prior to the DSG tune the car was out of sync. The DSG tune fixed that.
 

biglilsteve

Ready to race!
And the biggest improvement after the TCU tune was how it responds now to throttle input - it stays in the same lower gear for an extended time when giving it juice, whereas before it would force an upshift WHILE getting on it (that probably annoyed me the most, felt like I surrendered all the new power over to the stock DSG MasterLord, haha).

Yes! I haven't gotten tuned yet but this annoys the heck out of me about the stock software. It races to high gears while getting on the power.

Sent from my ONEPLUS A3000 using Tapatalk
 

peppy2

Ready to race!
Location
east coast
my plan is stage 1 only. I will never go stage 2

LOL.. I said the same thing..:D

APR TCU tune is worth it. IMO, If you're going to do something, do it right. If you dont want to pay full price, wait until their software sale comes up and they have their tax return sale on other parts too;)
 

alnation1

Passed Driver's Ed
Location
Monroe NY
I have a 2018 GTI SE DSG and have both the APR Stage 1 ECU and TCU tunes. I like the TCU tune for the most part (power wise) but there are also some things I don't like. Of course we all know there are the drive choices on the touch screen (ECO, NORMAL, SPORT) and also two separate automatic drive "modes" (Reg Drive and Sport Drive). I have found that the Reg Drive is pretty much worthless with the TCU tune in my opinion and this was also the opinion of the technician who installed the APR tunes and test drove the car after installation! In Reg Drive mode the thing will shift into 6th at like 40MPH, 5th at 30-35, 4th at 25-30! This didn't really bother me that much as I was never going to be out of Sport Drive at all unless I forget to put that in place before I go (and I always keep in in the SPORT choice on the touchscreen). BUT, the Sport Drive shifts also give me some issues as I have found that during daily driving conditions it will shift from 3rd to 4th at 38 MPH and 4th to 5th at around 54/55 MPH. Also sometimes at these speeds the tranny seems to not know what gear it wants to be in and goes back and forth causing a "jerky" motion/feeling. It also does this sometimes between 2nd and 3rd. Of course all of that goes away if you use the Manual Drive and shift yourself from either the paddles of the gear lever. Anyone else have these issues? I wish you could program it that in SPORT Drive it would go into 4th around 42-44 MPH and into 5th at around 58-60 MPH!
 

PLF8593

Drag Race Newbie
Location
Philly
Car(s)
19 Alltrack 6MT
I have a 2018 GTI SE DSG and have both the APR Stage 1 ECU and TCU tunes. I like the TCU tune for the most part (power wise) but there are also some things I don't like. Of course we all know there are the drive choices on the touch screen (ECO, NORMAL, SPORT) and also two separate automatic drive "modes" (Reg Drive and Sport Drive). I have found that the Reg Drive is pretty much worthless with the TCU tune in my opinion and this was also the opinion of the technician who installed the APR tunes and test drove the car after installation! In Reg Drive mode the thing will shift into 6th at like 40MPH, 5th at 30-35, 4th at 25-30! This didn't really bother me that much as I was never going to be out of Sport Drive at all unless I forget to put that in place before I go (and I always keep in in the SPORT choice on the touchscreen). BUT, the Sport Drive shifts also give me some issues as I have found that during daily driving conditions it will shift from 3rd to 4th at 38 MPH and 4th to 5th at around 54/55 MPH. Also sometimes at these speeds the tranny seems to not know what gear it wants to be in and goes back and forth causing a "jerky" motion/feeling. It also does this sometimes between 2nd and 3rd. Of course all of that goes away if you use the Manual Drive and shift yourself from either the paddles of the gear lever. Anyone else have these issues? I wish you could program it that in SPORT Drive it would go into 4th around 42-44 MPH and into 5th at around 58-60 MPH!

I know you just spent the money on this so you don't wanna spend more, but you can get a custom TCU tune if you'd like. The other day someone left a glowing review of an E-tuner that's new to the MK7 scene, but it seems that he's gonna be in high demand since his price for a CUSTOM TCU tune is less than an APR or Unitronic CANNED tune, and he can personalize your tune to your desires.
 

rustywoodstone

Passed Driver's Ed
Location
NNJ
you can get a custom TCU tune if you'd like. The other day someone left a glowing review of an E-tuner that's new to the MK7 scene, but it seems that he's gonna be in high demand since his price for a CUSTOM TCU tune is less than an APR or Unitronic CANNED tune, and he can personalize your tune to your desires.

Well this post makes me more lost...I'm looking for a shop to tune my car now with both an ECU and TCU tune. I called ones shop that sold Uni and UM. I was interested in Uni. The guy only wanted to sell me UM because he said it's the best for our platform. Didn't even want to talk about Uni. I call another shop today. RSW. They only wanted to sell me APR and didn't really even seem to think UM was an option for my car?
Is there any consensus on which CANNED TCU tunes are the best?
 

KASPER1

Go Kart Champion
Location
AMONGST U
Well this post makes me more lost...I'm looking for a shop to tune my car now with both an ECU and TCU tune. I called ones shop that sold Uni and UM. I was interested in Uni. The guy only wanted to sell me UM because he said it's the best for our platform. Didn't even want to talk about Uni. I call another shop today. RSW. They only wanted to sell me APR and didn't really even seem to think UM was an option for my car?
Is there any consensus on which CANNED TCU tunes are the best?

The best “canned” tcu tune apr vs UM is UM. Truth is probably anybody’s tcu tune is better than apr’s tcu tune. While they all probably do the same thing, internally speaking, it seems just about everybody’s tcu tune is more “finished” than aprs. At least that seems to be the consensus reading through multiple threads which also mirrors my personal opinion when I compared apr vs UM personally. I drove R’s with eaches tcu tune and after driving both (apr and UM) I wouldn’t even consider apr’s tcu tune, as a matter a fact after driving those, if I couldn’t have purchased UM’s tcu tune for some reason, I’d have picked another companies tcu tune who I’d never driven over the apr tcu tuning, personally, although in fairness that was over a year ago, but I’d bet apr tcu tune isn’t much different, if at all.
 

virpacalis

Go Kart Newbie
Location
near Philly
Car(s)
'17 R DSG
My two cents: When I'm out of warranty, I'll spring for a bigger intercooler and high torque ECU and DSG tunes -- IMO a nifty bang-for-the-buck value. (Hopefully Cobb will have something for the DSG to go with their Protune.) In the mean time, the stock R is still a great daily driver.
 

PLF8593

Drag Race Newbie
Location
Philly
Car(s)
19 Alltrack 6MT
Well this post makes me more lost...I'm looking for a shop to tune my car now with both an ECU and TCU tune. I called ones shop that sold Uni and UM. I was interested in Uni. The guy only wanted to sell me UM because he said it's the best for our platform. Didn't even want to talk about Uni. I call another shop today. RSW. They only wanted to sell me APR and didn't really even seem to think UM was an option for my car?
Is there any consensus on which CANNED TCU tunes are the best?

UM is best. Then Uni. And APR is the worst on the market. It's basically OEM with some higher clamping force and faster shifts. Doesn't alleviate the main issue, which is shifting too early.
 

Faceman

Autocross Newbie
Location
Long Island
Car(s)
'17 GSW 4Mo
And APR is the worst on the market. It's basically OEM with some higher clamping force and faster shifts. Doesn't alleviate the main issue, which is shifting too early.
This is not true whatsoever.
 

PLF8593

Drag Race Newbie
Location
Philly
Car(s)
19 Alltrack 6MT
This is not true whatsoever.

Maybe on throttle it's not like OEM, but from what hear it hunts on inclines at partial throttle and on flat ground with light throttle it will still shift to 5th at 35 and 6th at 45, which is the same thing OEM does
 

tsigeoff

Passed Driver's Ed
Location
South Jersey
I've heard great things about TVS tuning from across the pond. The only dealer in this area is pagparts in deer park, NY. Maybe reach out to them
 

rustywoodstone

Passed Driver's Ed
Location
NNJ
The best “canned” tcu tune apr vs UM is UM. Truth is probably anybody’s tcu tune is better than apr’s tcu tune.

Thank you KASPER!! This is the feed back I really wanted to read this to validate my research as well. I was really bummed when I started calling around to shops and they would automatically try and sell me a different tune right off the bat...
 

gaveup1

Passed Driver's Ed
Location
South Florida
UM is best. Then Uni. And APR is the worst on the market. It's basically OEM with some higher clamping force and faster shifts. Doesn't alleviate the main issue, which is shifting too early.

Have you not heard of Eurodyne?

It's hardly fair to call the APR TCU the worst, without giving respect to the actual worst TCU tune.
 

Faceman

Autocross Newbie
Location
Long Island
Car(s)
'17 GSW 4Mo
Maybe on throttle it's not like OEM, but from what hear it hunts on inclines at partial throttle and on flat ground with light throttle it will still shift to 5th at 35 and 6th at 45, which is the same thing OEM does
Your figures are off by about 10mph.
 
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