My Thoughts on Cobb EQT base maps vs Eurodyne

[GTIfan99]

Thanks for the review and everyone’s comments! It’s great to hear all input, positive and negative. I put a lot of time in refining my tunes and I always listen to customer’s input to drive further revisions.

The only thing I’ll add is that DSG tuning is very tough thing to get right and even harder to satisfy everyone’s preferences. There are a couple people who want the car to shift bellow 2000rpm, and unfortunately I can’t satisfy that desire. Shifting that low and allowing for any sort of sportiness generally contributes to gear hunting, reduces smoothness, and can induce harmful LSPI. These are little 2.0l engines... there’s just no good reason to lug them around at 1500rpm. My latest DSG tune strikes a great balance of fuel economy and all around driving feel. It seems to satisfy the vast majority of drivers, so I take that as a positive. For the few folks wanting to shift more like stock, I’d just recommend running the OEM+ Cobb OTS map.

Thanks

Ed,

Do you do remote Pro tunes? I'm prepping a 2019 GTI for track and I'm not interested in huge power, just safe power up top under track conditions, not beating up on the clutch, and getting rid of speed limiter.

 

[MyGolfMk7]

The only thing I’ll add is that DSG tuning is very tough thing to get right and even harder to satisfy everyone’s preferences. There are a couple people who want the car to shift bellow 2000rpm, and unfortunately I can’t satisfy that desire. Shifting that low and allowing for any sort of sportiness generally contributes to gear hunting, reduces smoothness, and can induce harmful LSPI. These are little 2.0l engines... there’s just no good reason to lug them around at 1500rpm. My latest DSG tune strikes a great balance of fuel economy and all around driving feel. It seems to satisfy the vast majority of drivers, so I take that as a positive. For the few folks wanting to shift more like stock, I’d just recommend running the OEM+ Cobb OTS map.

Thanks

I can see how DSG tuning would be hard to make everyone happy.

As one of the people who is interested in shifting around 2000 rpm, speaking for myself, that is not a complete thought. I like the shifting to be progressive, with added pedal input resulting in a shift occurring at higher engine speed. If I am on the pedal very lightly, 5-10%, shifting before 2000 rpm is what I'm looking for. If I'm giving it 15-20% then shifting at 2200-2300 is good. More pedal, higher engine speed for the shift, I'm not just looking to have the car shift by 2000 rpm regardless of pedal depression.

When I'm barely on the pedal, 5-10%, I'm not interested in sportiness. My experience with the APR and 034 TCU tunes is that they shift at lower engine speed with lower pedal input and I have not found them to gear hunt or shift roughly. When you say shifting like that can induce LSPI, is that like saying upping boost can induce detonation? Take it far enough and it can, but a competent tuner can avoid it? Or are you suggesting this is an existing risk with tunes that shift sooner, i.e Stock, APR, 034, Cobb OEM+ ?

The 034 and APR tunes don't lug the engine in my experience. Once sufficiently higher pedal input is made they will downshift.

 

[audio vicious]

I ordered the EQT DSG tune yesterday, really excited to try it out when it comes in. Definitely tired of the hunting and lugging in city traffic.

 

[jimlloyd40]

Ed,

Do you do remote Pro tunes? I'm prepping a 2019 GTI for track and I'm not interested in huge power, just safe power up top under track conditions, not beating up on the clutch, and getting rid of speed limiter.

EQT does remote dyno tuning. I think it's $450 plus what the place whose dyno you use charges.

 

[aaronc7]

That's what is great about the AP when it comes to DSG or trans tuning. Since it is such a personal preference kinda thing, the ability to run any tuner's tunes or even pay to dial one in to your desires is great. And the price for most tuner's DSG base tunes aren't too expensive so you can experiment a bit for not a lot of money. Since I paid for Eurodyne stuff I feel like I"m kinda stuck with it.... doesn't seem like a good choice to start spending $400 here and there to try other random DSG tunes and hope I like it more.

 

[Ed @ EQT]

Ed,

Do you do remote Pro tunes? I'm prepping a 2019 GTI for track and I'm not interested in huge power, just safe power up top under track conditions, not beating up on the clutch, and getting rid of speed limiter.

Yep I do a ton of them. They're available at www.eqtuning.com

Thanks
-- Ed

 

[Ed @ EQT]

I can see how DSG tuning would be hard to make everyone happy.

As one of the people who is interested in shifting around 2000 rpm, speaking for myself, that is not a complete thought. I like the shifting to be progressive, with added pedal input resulting in a shift occurring at higher engine speed. If I am on the pedal very lightly, 5-10%, shifting before 2000 rpm is what I'm looking for. If I'm giving it 15-20% then shifting at 2200-2300 is good. More pedal, higher engine speed for the shift, I'm not just looking to have the car shift by 2000 rpm regardless of pedal depression.

When I'm barely on the pedal, 5-10%, I'm not interested in sportiness. My experience with the APR and 034 TCU tunes is that they shift at lower engine speed with lower pedal input and I have not found them to gear hunt or shift roughly. When you say shifting like that can induce LSPI, is that like saying upping boost can induce detonation? Take it far enough and it can, but a competent tuner can avoid it? Or are you suggesting this is an existing risk with tunes that shift sooner, i.e Stock, APR, 034, Cobb OEM+ ?

The 034 and APR tunes don't lug the engine in my experience. Once sufficiently higher pedal input is made they will downshift.

My tunes shift very progressively with increased throttle input. But the lowest they'll shift in a GTI is around 2100-2200RPM at light throttle. That lands in the next gear around 1600RPM. I prefer not to go under 1500RPM for the reasons mentioned. When increasing throttle, there is always some delay before a downshift occurs and this can bring in quite a bit of boost putting a lot of load on the engine and turbo. Another issue with lowering the shift points too much is that you must also lower the off throttle downshift points. Again, here I prefer not to let the engine drop down to near idle while slowing down. Doing so can create a laggy and possibly dangerous situation if you need to accelerate before coming to a complete stop. I also tune the downshift points to offer the smoothest deceleration and transition possible. The big point is that there is really no good reason to go lower than this. Fuel economy would be the only consideration, but from testing there was no measurable change. FWIW, previous versions of my DSG tune had higher shift points and I adjusted things to the majority of customer reports. I still get a few that say its too low and a few that say its too high... That seems to be as good as I can achieve given the varied preferences.

Thanks
-- Ed

 

[Acadia18]

I still get a few that say its too low and a few that say its too high...

Honestly, it sounds like some people just want the transmission to be able to read their minds, and shift at different times in different situations.

There are a few features I would love that the TCU tunes offer (seeing the gear while in D/S, snappier shifts, etc...), but overall I'm happy with the shift points as they currently are. When I'm just cruising around town going to the grocery store, default D is fine. 5th gear by 35mph is fine. To me, even default S is too aggressive when I'm just putting around. S is good for when I'm driving more aggressive, or going on highway on-ramps and whatnot. Anything else than that, paddle shifters is fine. Worried spending $450+, which isn't a small amount, that I'd end up being unhappy with the way it drives after flashing and have just wasted my money.

 

[Diggs24]

The most important part to me is it being able to hold up to increased power.

 

[daconchslop]

The most important part to me is it being able to hold up to increased power.

And actually downshifting before building boost.

 

[audio vicious]

The most important part to me is it being able to hold up to increased power.

This is why I finally decided to do it. Anyone know how long it takes to get the DSG file from Ed?

 

[daconchslop]

This is why I finally decided to do it. Anyone know how long it takes to get the DSG file from Ed?

Following Thanksgiving and Black Friday, probably longer than the norm of 2-3 days. Ordered my DSG tune on the 25th. Still waiting to receive it, but no complaints. I won’t be able to drive it for a few weeks regardless.

 

[audio vicious]

Following Thanksgiving and Black Friday, probably longer than the norm of 2-3 days. Ordered my DSG tune on the 25th. Still waiting to receive it, but no complaints. I won’t be able to drive it for a few weeks regardless.

Yeah, I'm sure he's been busy. I ordered the DSG upgrade from Cobb early Monday and had it pretty quick, I then immediately ordered the EQT DSG tune. I haven't even used the Cobb DSG tune yet, just waiting on the EQT. When I ordered the ECU tune I think I got it later that same day, but it was in the middle of the summer so no busy season with sales.

Im sure he's busy, and you can't rush good work. I'm just antsy to try it!

 

[Ed @ EQT]

Yep. Very much behind right now. Our boost weather sale was crazy this year and we’re overwhelmed with orders. Working in clearing the backlog through this week.

 

[Jovian]

The most important part to me is it being able to hold up to increased power.

Yup this was my main reason for a DSG tune, the rest was all just extra. I have been extremely happy with the EQT DSG tune, the v2 upgrade was well worth it for me.