allclownsareevi

Yeah I have to hold my hands up here and admit I worded that rather poorly ... long day and I had gotten myself into the mindset of a garage will run it on a dyno in order to allow them to log it. Sorry. Just wanted to point out you were entirely right in what you said. Not all tuning boxes just work to just overfuel though. A lot do, most in fact, but some have genuine microprocessors on-board which will feed the ECU altered readings. The Dragon I had was one of the final generations. The reason I went for a remap was time constraints really and the fact that I managed to find a box that was in very good order and for little money. The performance it gave was instantly noticeable, but I have to a admit it was a little uncultured in that it ramped up the power significantly at after a certain rev range ... which was fun and would appeal to boy-racers. The remap was a little more progressive and smoothed out the power across a broader range. My re-remap went further still.

I had a Dragon tuning box on mine for around 3 years. Awesome bit of kit. I've since had a remap done, and then subsequently wrote my own map for it myself. The Dragon box was a genuine programmed product and not a cheap thing from eBay. It gave higher BHP figures than the remaps, with no problems at all. True I could push my remap to higher and higher figures, but if you wanted a race car you shouldn't have bought a Superb. It'll never be a drivers car. Mine currently runs around 175bhp. I'd not want to push it past 180 to be fair and I don't tend to drive it hard anyhow. You'll be told that tuning boxes are never as good as a remap, but the truth is a good tuning box is an off-the-shelf product, much like a lot of off-the-shelf remaps. They're both designed to work with that particular engine, as opposed to that individual car. Honestly unless the remap is done on a rolling road, then a map is written, then another rolling road, then tweaking the map, then another rolling road .... well theoretically there's little difference between the two products and that type of comprehensive remap costs a lot more. I got the tuning box, used it for a few years, then sold it for the same price as I got it for. If you're reasonably handy with a computer you can try Blacksmoke and take an off-the-shelf remap yourself. I hear they're actually quite good and give you around 90% of the performance that a custom remap would achieve, at around 10% of the cost.

Have a look at the base of front doors. The seal under the door cards can perish and allow water to pool inside the door and trickle in when raining. Typically it's towards the front of the door, near the hinge end. Solution is to remove door card and re-seal with silicone on .... wait for it .... all four doors. Can't help thinking if VW had done a proper job and used better sealant this wouldn't be an issue.

Agreed. Taste it. If it's sweet, it's coolant (assuming you have antifreeze in it), if it's just plain water it's condensation from the AC .... or rainwater from that puddle with the dead rat in it.

Drop the guy a PM. Perhaps it'll notifiy him by email and he'll drop by to help you out.

Rajsta, only just seen this post. Doubt it will be of much help, but check your PM.

I'm usually a bit sad to see a car go once sold. It didn't help when I sold my RX7. The guy that bought it promised to look after it and treat it with the same care I had shown it .... then left two 100ft streaks of rubber on the tarmac as he left. Awesome car that thing. Truly awesome. Anyhow, back on topic .... Well Simon everything has it's time buddy, and it probably was the right time to let someone else have the joy of the Superb. Now, be honest, it's not really the car you're going to miss but rather this lovely, welcoming forum, right? :rofl:

Ashamed to say it, but I'd probably have opted for the same choice. .... well until my OCD kicked in and shamed me into it. It's not the work involved, just the potential for damage when doing it.

Easy enough to check for vaccuum leaks. Run the engine at idle and grab yourself a can of WD40 or Carb Cleaner. Spray a mist of it anywhere you think a vaccuum leak may be and listening for the engine note changing in pitch/revs. No change, probably no vaccuum leak. Not sure why a vaccuum leak would only present itself after a few hours driving though. Worth a shot before you start throwing money at it. edit: Oh heck, here to explain better.

... it's nice when little kids don't burst into tears wondering what that thunderous noise is though.

You and me both. I went from a really smooth 3.0 V6, to something that genuinely sounds like a Series III Land Rover.

I know this is probably an overly simplistic answer but given that the issue seems to be when the car is run hot, and disappears when cold again, are you certain temp sensors and MAF sensors are sending back solid signals? Do you happen to know somebody else with the same engine you can swap sensors and test? I'd be surprised if it were the ECU suffering corrupted code.

Was thinking of the smoke test on diesels. They run the revs around 2500-3000rpm. Doesn't sound like it would affect your launch control settings given they only kick in at 4000rpm though. I was going to activate it on my car just to see what it did, but I'm highly unlikey to use it. If we're honest, I drive a huge, ugly, oil-burning Skoda .... my days of counting 0-60 times from the lights are probably behind me. Speaking of cars nice Audi btw.

+1 for Dark_Hero's answer. They are surface mounted LEDs. The link he provided to CrazyLEDs is meant to be a reliable source too. Do a search for "LED conversion" or "LED dash conversion" either on here, Google or YouTube and you'll come across a fair bit of info on how to do it. If you get stuck finding precise info, you may want to add the word "Passat" to your search. You have to be really careful when removing the dash cluster, especially when removing dials and replacing them. Also remove battery before you even think of removing the cluster and DO NOT reconnect it until the cluster is rebuilt and reinstalled .... it can lead to immobiliser issues. to get you started. This guy has a short video series showing most of what needs to be done. Check out his other videos to see more.If you have a reasonable soldering iron and your comfortable using it I'd say have a go yourself. If not though, get an auto electrician to do it ... and if/when you order new LEDs, you may want to order a full set plus some extras. They're really cheap and if you're changing one, I'd say change them all at the same time. It'll stop one LED being brighter than the rest and given the amount of work involved to get the cluster out and dissembled you may as well. Let us know how you get on.

Really? I take it you disable it come MoT time? Wondering how your clutch is holding up too, assuming it's stock?