So, for the first post in 11 months on my veryboring "build thread," I will talk about my "Stage .5" journey.
First, I've driven 27,000 miles in my 11.5 months of ownership. For 25000 of those miles I was on terrible Kumho All Seasons with no tread, and no mods besides a pedalbox. The car sucked, I really didn't enjoy driving it.
That said, I bought OZ Ultraleggeras in 18x8 ET35, wrapped in 225/45 Sumitomo UHP All Seasons last month, and boy oh boy did it make a difference. It rides so smooth and quiet on the highway, and even over inconsistencies in the road, while providing greatly improved grip (on stock power, I essentially cannot spin the tires if I try, which was NOT the case before I got the new wheels). 10/10 will never, ever drive a car with gravity cast wheels/OEM all seasons on it again.
It gets better. On tuesday, I had my full "Stage .5" suite installed on the car: Stage 1 034 Motorsport Engine/Trans mounts, 034 Motorsport aluminum dogbone insert, Roc-Euro pendulum mount, stainless steel brake lines, motul brake fluid, 034 Motorsport Res delete, CTS Turbo open element intake, and finally a dinan tuner.
The mount suite had the exact desired effect: virtually NO increase in NVH over stock, while eliminating slop and wheel hop. In fact, it's actually less NVH than stock, since the harshness of the engine rocking is eliminated.
One unintended, but welcome effect of the mount installation is that my car is so much more composed in turns and over uneven surfaces. before the mount installation, I honestly believed that my OEM suspension was in *dire* need of replacement @ 45K miles. It was just so harsh over bumps, while SO floaty/imprecise on the highway, and understeery in tight turns. All of that is gone, and I think I can eek another year or so out of the suspension before going with coils or a good comfort oriented Bilstein B8 + Emannuelle Design spring setup.
Resonator delete: OEM as fuck. should've been this way from the factory, with no "sound aktor" crap.
CTS Intake: I love the sound. I'm fully aware that it's not for power. I only paid $225 shipped on the forums for it so it's still a relatively inexpensive mod for the results.
Dinantronics piggyback: Power increase is minimal, but just enough to wake the stock programming up. Again, "should've come this way from the factory." Great value per dollar (I picked it up on the forums for $140 shipped)
Pedalbox (installed last September/October): Solves 75% of my complaints about the OEM ECU/TCU programming, however it still can't prevent upshifting the moment you take your foot off the throttle. I drive in manual mode most of the time anyway, so for the price the pedalbox is a VERY good value proposition (picked mine up for $150 on the forums)
Final notes/thoughts: This is the least efficient GTI I've owned, of 3. My first was a manual MK6, and my second was a manual MK7. Both got 25+ mpg around town, and the MK6 got 30-34mpg highway as long as I kept it between 65 and 75, the second I started going 80 it was more like 26/27mpg. My manual MK7 got 38-41 mpg @ 65, and 33-36mpg @ 80 mph.
My current, DSG MK7 gets pretty bad gas mileage. I get about 22/23 around town, but I rarely see over 30mpg on the highway, and I almost never go faster than 75mph. And this is on stock power, and I exclusively use 93. Yesterday I got 29 mpg going 65-70mph for an hour :\ I plan on owning this car longer than I've ever owned a car (I've had 4 cars in my 7 years of having a driver's license, and I plan on driving this GTI for at least 5 years), so my hope is that it remains reliable for the duration of my ownership. If I get to 4+ years of ownership with only one or two reliability issues, I will consider the bad gas mileage a drop in the bucket. If not... I will consider this car a shitty car.
That said, I love driving it now that I've gone "Stage .5." So much so that I now feel that I could actually own this car for another 4+ years and enjoy it enough to not get bored and want a new car. I'm looking forward to going Stage 1 ECU/TCU + suspension upgrades some time after 60K miles. Happy dubbin boys.
First, I've driven 27,000 miles in my 11.5 months of ownership. For 25000 of those miles I was on terrible Kumho All Seasons with no tread, and no mods besides a pedalbox. The car sucked, I really didn't enjoy driving it.
That said, I bought OZ Ultraleggeras in 18x8 ET35, wrapped in 225/45 Sumitomo UHP All Seasons last month, and boy oh boy did it make a difference. It rides so smooth and quiet on the highway, and even over inconsistencies in the road, while providing greatly improved grip (on stock power, I essentially cannot spin the tires if I try, which was NOT the case before I got the new wheels). 10/10 will never, ever drive a car with gravity cast wheels/OEM all seasons on it again.
It gets better. On tuesday, I had my full "Stage .5" suite installed on the car: Stage 1 034 Motorsport Engine/Trans mounts, 034 Motorsport aluminum dogbone insert, Roc-Euro pendulum mount, stainless steel brake lines, motul brake fluid, 034 Motorsport Res delete, CTS Turbo open element intake, and finally a dinan tuner.
The mount suite had the exact desired effect: virtually NO increase in NVH over stock, while eliminating slop and wheel hop. In fact, it's actually less NVH than stock, since the harshness of the engine rocking is eliminated.
One unintended, but welcome effect of the mount installation is that my car is so much more composed in turns and over uneven surfaces. before the mount installation, I honestly believed that my OEM suspension was in *dire* need of replacement @ 45K miles. It was just so harsh over bumps, while SO floaty/imprecise on the highway, and understeery in tight turns. All of that is gone, and I think I can eek another year or so out of the suspension before going with coils or a good comfort oriented Bilstein B8 + Emannuelle Design spring setup.
Resonator delete: OEM as fuck. should've been this way from the factory, with no "sound aktor" crap.
CTS Intake: I love the sound. I'm fully aware that it's not for power. I only paid $225 shipped on the forums for it so it's still a relatively inexpensive mod for the results.
Dinantronics piggyback: Power increase is minimal, but just enough to wake the stock programming up. Again, "should've come this way from the factory." Great value per dollar (I picked it up on the forums for $140 shipped)
Pedalbox (installed last September/October): Solves 75% of my complaints about the OEM ECU/TCU programming, however it still can't prevent upshifting the moment you take your foot off the throttle. I drive in manual mode most of the time anyway, so for the price the pedalbox is a VERY good value proposition (picked mine up for $150 on the forums)
Final notes/thoughts: This is the least efficient GTI I've owned, of 3. My first was a manual MK6, and my second was a manual MK7. Both got 25+ mpg around town, and the MK6 got 30-34mpg highway as long as I kept it between 65 and 75, the second I started going 80 it was more like 26/27mpg. My manual MK7 got 38-41 mpg @ 65, and 33-36mpg @ 80 mph.
My current, DSG MK7 gets pretty bad gas mileage. I get about 22/23 around town, but I rarely see over 30mpg on the highway, and I almost never go faster than 75mph. And this is on stock power, and I exclusively use 93. Yesterday I got 29 mpg going 65-70mph for an hour :\ I plan on owning this car longer than I've ever owned a car (I've had 4 cars in my 7 years of having a driver's license, and I plan on driving this GTI for at least 5 years), so my hope is that it remains reliable for the duration of my ownership. If I get to 4+ years of ownership with only one or two reliability issues, I will consider the bad gas mileage a drop in the bucket. If not... I will consider this car a shitty car.
That said, I love driving it now that I've gone "Stage .5." So much so that I now feel that I could actually own this car for another 4+ years and enjoy it enough to not get bored and want a new car. I'm looking forward to going Stage 1 ECU/TCU + suspension upgrades some time after 60K miles. Happy dubbin boys.
