Decided a bit back to get a stage 1 remap from APR and today was the day. Steve Cresswell from C&R Enterprises was going to take it down to APR UK HQ in Milton Keynes as his workshop hadn't done the 1.4TSI yet and Evan down in Milton Keynes thought it would be good training to see it done.

There has however been a bit of a problem. It appears that the particular ECU in mine cannot be read properly (this is a non IT person trying to translate what was a very detailed but technical explanation), they have been on the phone to the US to try and rectify it but it now is looking very much like the ECU will be making a Transatlantic journey so that it can get sorted out.

Steve has been great at keeping me informed and Evan seems extremely determined to get it sorted. I have agreed to leave the car with them, Evan sorting me out a hire car, and they will get it done.

Am a bit disappointed as had been looking forward to trying it out tomorrow but really glad I have chosen a good outfit to get it done by as they have been extremely professional and made sure I am happy with everything.

Hopefully get it all sorted next week.

Blimey... Thats good service. I will be making the trip to Milton Keynes in the near future to do the same as this seems to be the best map with the cruise control feature. Any particular reason yours cant be done? is it a particular year of production? I dont want to make the journey and find the same.

Good reputation and the cruise switching was what sold me on them.

To be honest I don't actually understand the problem fully, all a bit technical. Evan and Steve both gave me excellent descriptions of it but 30secs after the call I can't quite put the right words together (I am more inclined to the mechanical persuasion techniques). From what I gather it is down to my ECU, whether it is a batch issue or the particular software encryption on it I'm not sure.. They had another 1.4 TSI engine in today which got done no problem. Probably just my luck!

Best bet is to give them a call. On the up side if your ECU is the same as mine then the fix they sort out for mine could proably be applied to yours.

Just curious, how old is your car?

Just curious, how old is your car?

61 Plate from end of last year

How come the ECU might make a transatlantic journey? Are they made in the US?!

APR HQ is in central US. Evan was working with them this afternoon to try and figure out a way forward. Had hoped they would be able to do it via email but may well need to get done fully by the main software guys in the US.

Will be interested to hear the outcome of this as I'm currently considering the APR map..... Would not be too happy if I missioned all the way to Milton Keynes and it couldn't be done.

Will be interested to hear the outcome of this as I'm currently considering the APR map..... Would not be too happy if I missioned all the way to Milton Keynes and it couldn't be done.

So far I am very impressed with the customer service and how it is being dealt with. I am lucky in that I didn't have to take it to them and be the one wondering around Milton Keynes Industrial estate. Evan and Steve have been great and I am sure it will get rectified. In a strange warped way what has happened has actually left me more impressed currently than I may actually have been had it all got done seemlessly. Dealing with a smooth operation is easy, dealing well when there is a problem is the difficult part.

Hmm, I wonder if APR have only had older cars in then as from mid 2011 the ECU swapped to a new encrypted one which normally requires the ECU box to be opened and the pins "hacked" to open the encryption up. They do have VRsy's car, but his may not have the encrypted ECU. Strange one.

Mine is encrypted. So was James and Haydens. Thats how I out about all the solder marks left by my previous tuner.

I don't understand, mines a 61 2012 build and the ecu was removed and unlocked in house at the tuners who did my car. Once it was then "unlocked" the revo flash went straight on. They didnt have problems getting around all this and revo talked them through the process, now mines "unlocked" so to speak the stage 2 can be flashed on easy with no messing, just hardware upgrades required.

This sometimes happens without any logic. We had one case of 11 vRS refuse to accept Revo recently.

When I first read the first post I thought that the problem might have been they haven't had that version of software before, when mine first went down in May mine was the very latest Skoda software and they couldn't map my car but they emailed my file over to the states and then it came back a few hours later, and then it could be written to the ECU. That map didn't work right an has now been re-written and was done on my car, and was finished this month. Mines a 2011 (05/11)

But as you mentioned it may need to be sent to the states, it must be quite a complex job as the guys at MK have all the equipment for passing the encryption on ECU's even the very latest that need multiple points touching on the board to enter a boot mode, so they can be read/ written.

Just spoken to Evan at APR (does the man not sleep!). My ECU is now back from the states and in the car again. From what he was saying the other day to me, part of the problem was the encryption on my ECU and part was on the new kit they are using. They have now updated the new software to be able to extract the code and do their stuff.

Should be getting the car back tomorrow and with the forecast looking good I can see a nice evening drive coming on!

Brilliant mate are they dynoing it? It will be well worth the wait

Brilliant mate are they dynoing it? It will be well worth the wait

Think so as they as they are setting it up for the car and current fuel.

Been a long two weeks running around in a woeful Ford Fiesta. Now to start planning a test route.

Greta news mate. Got to love APR. Get them to do a stock v stage 1 dyno graph!!

Evan and one of his guys dropped the car off this afternoon with everything sorted. Choice of stock, 95Ron, 98Ron and valet mode maps and a security lock all switchable via the cruise control stalk. Car really does pull much better and is so smooth. Didn't manage to see if they had any graphs for it but have emailed him now to see and stupidly didn't even find out what the torque and bhp were up to! When I get the figures off him I'll post them up.

One thing he did say was that they now have a higher power map (still stage 1) which can be used if you have uprated spark plugs, nothing else required apparently, which would add about a further 10bhp and 30Nm!!!! Once I find out from him the plugs he is talking about I will on the hunt for a coil pack extraction tool, a set of new plugs and the route to APR Milton Keynes

Overall I am immensely happy with the results and so pleased I went with APR. Evan s a great guy and really knowledgeable and extremely helpful. Also a big thanks to Steve Cresswell from C&R Enterprises who took the car down to Milton Keynes for me to see how the 1.4 ECU is done. C&R are the Nottingham APR reps but didn't have the necessary kit to do the 1.4 ECU at the time.

Oh and to make me smile even more, as the ECU helped them out and the time it took, Evan didn't charge me for the remap and is paying for the hire car I had. Now that is some seriously excellent customer service. :rofl: :rofl:

This is exactly why i went APR. The R&D, support and maps are brilliant in my experience of them. Id bet no other tuning company would go that far out of their way to do all of this.

I see your in Nottingham. I live about 10 mile outside of Nottingham, so your welcome to try mine if you want to find out what the higher stages of tune feel like.

Excellent news for you mate!

I could of swore somebody mentioned to them about spark plugs and they said they weren't needed!!

Forgot to mention he also filled the car up with 99!

Have had an email from Evan this morning, he is going to look into which plugs are best for the 1.4 as there is a lot of debate about this. While it sounded yesterday like he had an uprated map ready to go, I think I was mistaken as he is looking at what extra could be squeezed out with decent plugs. Watch this space!

Sy, thanks for the offer, would be interested to see what the differences are. Not sure I need any more as I'm not into track days just general driving, so difficult to justify what appears to be a substantial investment for some extra gain.

gonna get a Apr map tomorow since my dealer overwrote my last map with some new update ...

lets see if they can do it without any trouble like you had first .

sadly they dont have a dyno there but on the way back there is one.

KeithAPR told me to get the "Testpipe" file wich is new and very good for cars with uprated intercooler,Dp,...

Totaly Sick Software ... Just got the V2.1 testpipe file. Clutch Slips a bit in 6th gear @ 3000rpm

I doubt it would slip, the dsg would detect slippage and stop the power to it wouldn't it