CSB69: Acadia And Friends Post Nothing But Nonsense. Do Not Come Here For Actual Content.

[Acadia18]

Man, where to begin, where to begin...

The brake project ballooned in cost. To over $1,300 (and more, but we'll get to that)...

And to be fair, over $100 of that is things like brake fluid and the power bleeder, over $200 is rear pads\rotors which were unnecessary, and I had to get snazzy drilled and slotted rotors. So while the project could definitely be done for $700 or so, I kinda went big.

A chunk of the stuff came from CariD. Which has been a horrible experience, and I'll probably never order from them again. I think it's mostly because their business model is being a middle man between consumers and manufacturers. Instead of brake fluid, they sent me window crank handles and a set of running boards for my new 1971 Beetle project car...

No big deal, I'll contact them and they'll make it right.

Wrong.

So I have to send the stuff back. Before I can do that, I have to wait 3 - 5 days for an RMA label. Then wait 3 - 5 days for them to process it, then within 3 - 5 days later, they'll send me the right stuff.

Let's take a look at that. First, with consumer protection laws, I have no obligation to send the stuff back, and they legally have to refund me.

Receiving the Wrong Item​

If the unordered item was an incorrect fulfillment of an order the customer did place, you are legally required to send the correct item or refund the customer's money in full -- including shipping costs. You can ask the customer to return the item, but he has no legal obligation to do so.

I'm a reasonable guy though, and have no problem sending it back. Shit happens. I get it. But after almost a week, I still haven't gotten an RMA label to return the shit. It's just sitting in my garage.

Moving on from that. Got all the stuff in, started painting the calipers. Now, I have this philosophy that I've never been happy with the results of anything I've painted (asides from walls). It just doesn't look good.

Calipers were no exception. Came out looking like dogshit. They were going ok, until a brush bristle got stuck in the paint. Fucked it up trying to get it out, fucked it up even more trying to then fix it. Looks like it's got herpes....

I say fuck it and start being dramatic. List them up in the classifieds since I don't want to look at them. Figure I can sell the calipers and lines, maybe loose $200, return the other stuff, loose another $50 in return shipping. Keep the fluid and bleeder since I should flush my lines anyway.

Calm down, decide I'll look into maybe getting them powder coated. Bring them to place #1, a strictly powder coating place. Ocean State Powder Coating. They quote me $400 to strip them and powder coat them, and I have to disassemble them completely. Was about twice what I was expecting. Nope.

Stop by place #2, which is a car oriented place. 1170 Designs. Cool place, cool people. They have a huge storefront with every single car care product under the sun. This is just one small section

Their garage in the back is immaculate enough to look like it should be a YouTube channel...

Anyway, they quote me $300, they'll handle disassembly and reassembly. So they have my calipers now, and should start on that next week. Bringing this brake project to now over $1,600... Fuck my shit up.

 

[Acadia18]

In the middle of all this, I did install my Powerflex hybrid puck. Well worth the $70, a little added harshness in reverse and speeds < 5mph, but not bad at all...

 

[Acadia18]

Next up, was state inspection time. Another huge pain in the ass.

Now, I wasn't an RI inspection expert, so I don't know all the details of what's needed and not. But I know a guy who knows a guy who knows a guy, who will look the other way as much as he can for a couple hundred bucks. Which I don't mind paying, because I have a modified car with tinted windows that is not allowed in RI.

So I swing by, he checks out the car. Have too many emissions monitors in a not ready status. Which isn't allowed, because RI has to do an OBD2 diagnostic. Ok, leave. Have to put my stock downpipe on.

Put that on, but because my MAP downpipe and AWE exhaust are modified to be 3" straight through, my stock downpipe won't connect to the AWE exhaust. So that has to come off. Take off the entire turbo back exhaust, put the full OEM one back on. Flash to Cobb's simulated stock stage 0 map, and go out for about a 100 mile spin at night to reset monitors. By the time I'm done, they're all ready. Perfect.

Go back two days later, and start the inspection. Apparently in RI, what happens it they have to take actual pictures of the car to upload to state servers, which they're getting a bit stricter on monitoring. He didn't currently have anything at the shop similar enough he could use to take pictures of the windows (due to the tint), so the best he can do is strip the tint off 1 window. Fine, I just want it done. So they do that, get my sticker. But like... what did I pay $200? had to swap my full exhaust, have tint stripped off 1 window, that I now have to take a day to drop off my car and pay to be redone (getting done tomorrow)... Just a hassle.

On a positive not, getting to be a pro at swapping my exhaust. Less than an hour this morning to take off the full OEM turboback exhaust and put my MAP & AWE exhaust back on. Flashed back my EQT Stage 2.

Good for another 2 years now at least...

 

[Acadia18]

That license plate needs some love...

@PowerDemon this ones for you...

Spent the $32.50 and got a fresh set of plates. You were about the 4th person to comment on them, so it was time lol.

 

[Escape Hatch]

Next up, was state inspection time. Another huge pain in the ass.

Now, I wasn't an RI inspection expert, so I don't know all the details of what's needed and not. But I know a guy who knows a guy who knows a guy, who will look the other way as much as he can for a couple hundred bucks. Which I don't mind paying, because I have a modified car with tinted windows that is not allowed in RI.

So I swing by, he checks out the car. Have too many emissions monitors in a not ready status. Which isn't allowed, because RI has to do an OBD2 diagnostic. Ok, leave. Have to put my stock downpipe on.

Put that on, but because my MAP downpipe and AWE exhaust are modified to be 3" straight through, my stock downpipe won't connect to the AWE exhaust. So that has to come off. Take off the entire turbo back exhaust, put the full OEM one back on. Flash to Cobb's simulated stock stage 0 map, and go out for about a 100 mile spin at night to reset monitors. By the time I'm done, they're all ready. Perfect.

Go back two days later, and start the inspection. Apparently in RI, what happens it they have to take actual pictures of the car to upload to state servers, which they're getting a bit stricter on monitoring. He didn't currently have anything at the shop similar enough he could use to take pictures of the windows (due to the tint), so the best he can do is strip the tint off 1 window. Fine, I just want it done. So they do that, get my sticker. But like... what did I pay $200? had to swap my full exhaust, have tint stripped off 1 window, that I now have to take a day to drop off my car and pay to be redone (getting done tomorrow)... Just a hassle.

On a positive not, getting to be a pro at swapping my exhaust. Less than an hour this morning to take off the full OEM turboback exhaust and put my MAP & AWE exhaust back on. Flashed back my EQT Stage 2.

Good for another 2 years now at least...

In NC every year is state safety inspection, includes tint, as well as OBD check. I have an O2 spacer on my DP so reset the CEL, drive for a little bit and am fine. The tint they look the other way, no issues.

Weirdest thing this year, I get the notice tags due but it says on the bill "Inspection Not Needed." I paid that quick and got my sticker with no inspections conpleted, winning!

 

[Acadia18]

Let's see, summertime update...

Fuck pollen.

Yeah.

Fuck pollen.

Can't keep this shit clean even washing it every couple of days.

Got the calipers back at the end of may. Looked fantastic, like they came this way from the factory.

Did a test fit, and...

Womp womp, won't clear 18x8.5 et35 wheels. Have to add some spacers.

Ordered up some 3mm/5mm spacers. While waiting for them to come in, had a buddy cut me some 'GTI' decals out of high temp Oracal 751 vinyl. Gotta keep it OEM-like.

Got the spacers in and did test fit #2. They cleared with the 3mm spacers with like 1mm of space, so went with the 5mm for safety.

Install was pretty easy and straight forward. Only took about 30 mins per side. Side 1 done.

Get both sides done, bleed them a bit, and get everything buttoned up. Go for a quick test drive, and it doesn't feel right. Stops, but pedal is very soft. And a continuous sinking, until it goes to the floor. FML. Pull back into the garage, and the passenger wheel & wheel well is covered in fluid. Pop the wheel off, and hoped it was just a loose bleeder valve or crossover, but nope. Had my wife sit in the car and press the pedal, and it is just leaking a stream of fluid out the pistons. Teardown pic, you can see the pistons covered in fluid.

Wasn't hard to find the culprit. Two of the seals got clipped somehow, and were letting them leak the fluid.

Oh, and in the mean time, my power bleeder dumped about 1L of brake fluid on my garage floor while I wasn't paying attention.

 

[Acadia18]

So, $70 for two Centric rebuild kits shipped overnight from Summit Racing, ordered on a Sunday night and those came in today. Was basically $70 for 2 o-rings. But have plenty of extras.

Rebuilt the caliper on my lunch break, put it back on, bled it, and went for a drive. Much better. Pedal feels great, and no leaking fluid. And of course, looks amazing.

Super happy with the results, both performance and looks. But given how much the project ballooned in cost, just a touch over $1,600, I can't say I'd do it again if I had the choice lol. But, YOLO.

 

[Acadia18]

Damn man. That pollen is out of hand.

Dude, that's about 2 days of buildup, or an afternoon of leaving my windows open. It's bad.

(Using this post to update things to try and keep the thread in order)
Summer ended up being pretty quiet.

July 2021

My existing wheels only cleared the Macan calipers, so ended up getting a set of Neuspeed RSE10's in Satin Black.

They clear no issue. No place had 18x8.5 in stock, so just went with 18x8. Which worked out a bit, a friend had a set of 215/40 DWS06's with about 1k miles on them he gave me. So those matched up perfectly with the 18x8 Neuspeeds.

August 2021

Time for my bi-annual oil change! Nothing exciting, but preventative maintenance is best maintenance!

Then disaster strikes!

A few days before I'm supposed to take my car on a 1k mile round trip road trip to a friends wedding, I notice I can feel my brake pedal slowly sinking to the floor when applying pressure.

Shit. That means a caliper is leaking fluid.

Sure enough, take them off and can see that right away.

Luckily, I have enough seals and boots from when the powder coater nicked a seal, I can get it rebuilt in the same afternoon. Get everything buttoned up, and no more leaking fluid!

There was then about a 6 week lull from the second half of August and September. It was during that time though, that I made the concrete decision that I was going to get a Vortex, along with the upgraded HPFP internals and custom tune during EQT's Boost Weather sale.

October 2021

In preparation for the planned turbo upgrade, I grabbed the Autotech HPFP internals, and an adjusted EQT Stage 2 tune to properly utilize that. What a bitch to install! It took like 2 hours of struggling but finally got it.

Now, patience isn't my strong suit. Once that was done (first few days of Oct), I couldn't wait for the boost weather sale. EQT had a lead time on their turbos, but BMP had one Vortex with a calibrated wastegate in stock and ready to ship, sooo....

Boom.

Now, here's where my impatience really boned myself. I didn't realize starting a custom tune with EQT took 2 - 4 weeks to receive the base map. And of course I couldn't install the Vortex without a proper file for it. So while I'm waiting for the EQT custom tuning to start, I decided to purchase a custom tune from Sneeky and give that a go as well. Justified it to myself as I'll be able to do a proper comparison between the two, and provide that to the community.

So I start on the install on 10/23. 4 -5 hours later, the IS20 is out.... Some challenges along the way, some lessons learned, but overall, not too bad. I should mention at this time as well, that my install buddy had something come up, so I'm doing this completely by myself. A second set of hands definitely would have helped.

Annnnd it's in!

It is MUCH easier going in than it was coming out.

At 60,938 miles, my car has the Vortex put on. Now to start the tuning process...

 

[Keehs360]

Dude, that's about 2 days of buildup, or an afternoon of leaving my windows open. It's bad.

Deleted my last post so both of your updates were back to back

a couple folks have posted pollen pics. I’m glad I don’t have to put up with that here. It’s basically plant sperm. All over the car. That’s crazy.

edit. Brakes look outstanding!

 

[jimlloyd40]

Deleted my last post so both of your updates were back to back

a couple folks have posted pollen pics. I’m glad I don’t have to put up with that here. It’s basically plant sperm. All over the car. That’s crazy.

edit. Brakes look outstanding!

No way I'm touching a pollinating plant ever again.

 

[Keehs360]

No way I'm touching a pollinating plant ever again. Without Mayo

FTFY

 

[Acadia18]

Custom tuning log:

EQT:
10/13/21 - Order placed for custom e-tune
10/26/21 - Received base map
10/27/21 - Sent requested log of 3rd gear pull
11/03/21 - Received first revision from Nick
11/03/21 - Sent requested log of 3rd gear pull
11/04/21 - Received second revision from Nick
11/06/21 - Sent requested log of 3rd gear pull
11/08/21 - Received third revision from Nick
11/08/21 - Sent requested log of 3rd gear pull
11/12/21 - Sent email to Nick informing him of the LPFP & Sensors coming, asked how to proceed
11/15/21 - Received fourth revision from Nick. I'd assume he worked on this before seeing my message about the LPFP\Sensors. This was a request for 2,000rpm in 2nd through as fast as I'm willing to go in 4th, so I imagine tuning is coming to an end. Followed up with asking if he still wanted that log with the news of the LPFP\Sensors.
11/16/21 - Received fourth revision from Nick adjusted for LPFP & sensors
11/17/21 - Sent requested log of 2nd through 4th gear pull, and an additional log of 3rd gear pull
11/23/21 - Received message from Nick last logs had too much knock
11/27/21 - Sent over new logs. Log 1 & log 2.


I get that they're probably the most popular independent tuner for the MQB platform. I get that they can have varying lead times. But you get conflicting information depending on where you look. Their FAQ's say "Custom tunes 1-2 weeks until your first starter map and 1-2 revisions a week thereafter". The purchase page says "**Approximate lead time: 3-4 weeks**". You can find different info on their Facebook. Would it really be that difficult after someone forks over $500 - $1,500 (depending on options) for a custom tune to just take 2 minutes and fire off an email saying "Hey, we got your order. It's in a queue, we anticipate being able to start around blank. Feel free to reach out to us if you have any questions in the meantime". Just something personal acknowledging things asides from the automatic Shopify email.

Since it looked like the tuning with EQT was going to be delayed a little bit, I decided to give Sneeky a try in the interim. Figured it'd be good to be able to have a direct comparison between the tuning process, and end results, using the same hardware, and being able to offer that insight to the community.

Sneeky:
10/20/21 - Order placed for custom e-tune
10/21/21 - Received welcome email from Sneeky, requesting additional information to get started
10/21/21 - Responded
10/24/21 - Received the base map
10/25/21 - Sent requested log of 3rd gear pull
10/27/21 - Got follow-up question from Sneeky, responded to him 30mins later
10/28/21 - Provided 2x additional logs to Sneeky, same base map. Log 1 & Log 2
11/01/21 - Received first revision from Sneeky
(I was an idiot and didn't realize he sent me a new revision on 11/1, hence the 10 day delay here)
11/11/21 - Sent new logs, log 1 & log 2.
11/12/21 - Sent email to Sneeky informing him of the LPFP & Sensors coming, asked how to proceed
11/16/21 - Received send revision from Sneeky, adjusted for LPFP & sensors
11/17/21 - Sent new logs, log 1 & log 2
11/21/21 - Received third revision from Sneeky
11/21/21 - Send new logs
11/23/21 - Received forth revision from Sneeky


The plan is to keep this updated, that way I have a log for when both are finished to be able to compare everything between the two. I had mentioned in another thread, I expect the process to be better with Sneeky (due to being smaller), but the end result to be better with EQT (it is their hardware after all). But we'll see.

 

[Escape Hatch]

What fueling and fueling mods are you running the Vortex with? I am really curious with the ends result as well as draggy runs back to back on the same stretch of road on the different finished tunes.

 

[Rare Ara S3]

I need to go through and update for the last 4 months, but wanted to start logging my tuning experiences with both EQT and Sneeky, and keeping a timeline of that.

EQT:
10/13/21 - Order placed for custom e-tune
...and that's it, so far. Complete radio silence for (as of now) 13 days.
Well I'll be damned.

4 minutes after making this post, I get this:

View attachment 229027
I still stand by the bit below though.

I get that they're probably the most popular independent tuner for the MQB platform. I get that they can have varying lead times. But you get conflicting information depending on where you look. Their FAQ's say "Custom tunes 1-2 weeks until your first starter map and 1-2 revisions a week thereafter". The purchase page says "**Approximate lead time: 3-4 weeks**". You can find different info on their Facebook. Would it really be that difficult after someone forks over $500 - $1,500 (depending on options) for a custom tune to just take 2 minutes and fire off an email saying "Hey, we got your order. It's in a queue, we anticipate being able to start around blank. Feel free to reach out to us if you have any questions in the meantime". Just something personal acknowledging things asides from the automatic Shopify email.

Since it looked like the tuning with EQT was going to be delayed a little bit, I decided to give Sneeky a try in the interim. Figured it'd be good to be able to have a direct comparison between the tuning process, and end results, using the same hardware, and being able to offer that insight to the community.

Sneeky:
10/20/21 - Fired off an email asking a question
10/20/21 - 4 minutes later got a response
10/20/21 - Order placed for custom e-tune
10/21/21 - Received welcome email from Sneeky, requesting additional information to get started
10/21/21 - Responded
10/24/21 - Received the base map
10/25/21 - Sent first log over

The plan is to keep this updated, that way I have a log for when both are finished to be able to compare everything between the two. I had mentioned in another thread, I expect the process to be better with Sneeky (due to being smaller), but the end result to be better with EQT (it is their hardware after all). But we'll see.

I like this plan and the transparency of it all. My only complaint with EQT would be the one week for revisions but I knew that going in and I understand they’re busy. I also know they probably work long hours as I’ve received revisions that would be 3am PST. And typically it’s been 7 days for the reply or revision. If I was going to do it all again I’d probably pay for a live session and the dyno time.

 

[El_bigote_AJ]

I also know they probably work long hours as I’ve received revisions that would be 3am PST.

IMO… that’s one of those common cases it seems with the current “work from home” world we are in, the real question is - is it really long hours or bursts of short hours- that come off as “long” hours , lol.