Sam's Mk2 Blue VRS Estate

[mrburdon123]

Sorry Ant. Didn't spot your post.

Sunday turned into a bit of an expensive one! One of these showed up on ebay for a good price it arrived on setting 4 but jumped it straight to 7.

Swapped it with the bluespark one tonight but havent had much time to drive it yet. there's sure a difference in sound at least.

[Ally_bassman]

You won't be disappointed! It made a huge difference to my CAVE engined car.

If anyone else is tempted by one.... I've got one for sale... ;-p

[Ant-Vrs]

Sorry Ant. Didn't spot your post.

Sunday turned into a bit of an expensive one! One of these showed up on ebay for a good price it arrived on setting 4 but jumped it straight to 7.

Swapped it with the bluespark one tonight but havent had much time to drive it yet. there's sure a difference in sound at least.

its alright Sam I had a full day in the end anyways. The box was cheap on eBay I won't say the price lol.

Did you take the picture of fitting the dv+ has it made any difference? What the kick down like?

Ant

[mrburdon123]

its alright Sam I had a full day in the end anyways. The box was cheap on eBay I won't say the price lol.

Did you take the picture of fitting the dv+ has it made any difference? What the kick down like?

Ant

Well a bit of a disappointment this morning. Driving to work and the EML light has flicked on :( must be something to do with the TMC box then? iv been running the bluespark box around with the GFB valve for a few days and had no problems.

got to plug it in to VCDS tonight and see whats cracking on. it may well be due to the combination of the TMC box and the GFB valve as it seems to me that the TMC box requests more boost than the BlueSpark box did.

I have a load of pics showing the fitting of the GFB valve if you want me to put them up? i must admit that i never use the kickdown intentionally, i always shift manually. The only realy noticeable difference is the lack of cho cho noise and the delay in delivered beans from pressing your foot from 50% ish throttle to full, has reduced.

[mrburdon123]

Good ish news. The fault code thrown was for the bov. Fault p2261. This fault is know to be generated by gfb but they say it's not a problem. For the fault to go away I would have to remove the small spring from the new dv+ valve so it operates like it would stock........mmmm what to do...think that gfb know better than vag?

[mmmRacer]

Had my DV+ on for about 4 months now without a problem. I would maybe try turning the tuning box down a notch or two to see if the fault comes back. The problem tuning boxes is that they don't deliver a smooth power curve like a proper tune would so you will get spikes in your boost. I probably had the TMC site opened a half a dozen times ready to buy one but after digging deeper and looking at some dyno graphs I decided to go for a APR tune when it was on special (which is every 3 months or so). That said I did have over boost problems with tune at redline in 4th gear. My only other mod at the time was a VWR air filter and a bigger intake hole (customized). From there I install a bigger intercooler and CAI. At this point I may have fixed my over boost problem but to be safe I then installed the DV+.

My suggestion, if you are looking at installing an aftermarket intercooler then do that sooner rather then later and have the TMC box set at 5 or 6 until you do. Removing the spring may solve your fault code but it takes away one of the best features of a DV+ which is the mid throttle. I have talked to guys from GFB in person before and they really enjoy getting any feedback you have, good or bad as this is have they learn to make things better.

[mrburdon123]

Thanks for your suggestions mmmRacer. If truth be told, I would rather a remap than a tuning box. For reasons like you mention smoother boost delivery more refined etc. BUT I would never buy a car if I knew it had been mapped. So when it comes time to sell up I want to be able to return things to stock.

On the intake side of things, the stock CAI for me is more than adequate for the power the vrs gives. I know more power can be freed up with the likes of the igt or vwr CAI but they are a fortune and look untidy in the engine bay Imo. I also don't like induction noise.

Intercoolers, can you give me your view on why you think there worth it? Does the vrs have particularly high charge air temps? I've spent many nights reading all the fors and againsts on intercoolers and the majority verdict I seem to find is that there only really needed if frequently running tracks or drag strip - which i dont. Or if your running way over stock power. In the UK where most of the time it's 15deg C or below I really don't see the need.

I think I'm going to put the tmc box and dv valve to one side for a while and do some logs. Once iv got a good range of data i want to do the following to compare the lot together and see whats doing what.

1 - stock

2 - stock + dv without gfb spring

3 - stock + dv with gfb spring

4 - tmc fitted

5 - tmc + dv without gfb spring

6 - tmc + dv with gfb spring

7 - bluespark fitted

I won't do the bluespark with the dv valve as I I will be able to see how the dv valve behaves from tests 5 and 6. Tests 4 and 7 will show what the different boxes are up to as I can compare these with the stock logs.

Tbh the car with the tmc box on setting 7 and the dv with the gfb spring feels like a beast. It pulls very smooth from any revs, and there is no suggestion that something isn't behaving as it should.

[mmmRacer]

Totally understand your reason for tuning your car if you plan on selling it with low miles. Me on the other hand. I keep my cars until they die so given that my last car I have had for just short of 20 years and is still running (although not very well). I plan on keeping my Fabia as I think the twinchargers will be collectable in the future especially if it is tuned properly.

On to the intercooler. There are 2 performance reasons to change your intercooler. First of course is to reduce intake temperatures. On Fabia TC motor the exhaust pipes run side by side in front of the motor and cross over each other under the motor. This means your intake temp will be always high and if you are giving it a bit for long periods of time the performance will drop off. The second and maybe more important reason for a intercooler upgrade is to improve the flow of air and reduce bootlenecks. OEM intercoolers and piping are notorious for flowing badly. They are more about being a cost effective way of stopping motors from melting down. A good intercooler manufacturer will take the time to flow test their units and put the figures on their website (check out Wagner tuning DE). A badly manufactured intercooler will increase lag and reduce power if it is not designed to flow properly.

If you are increasing the boost any bootlenecks like a OEM intercooler will limit performance gains.

Edited 5 December, 2014 by mmmRacer

[mrburdon123]

[mrburdon123]

Not done much for a while but recently fitted the new badges and put in the columbus HU. Really enjoying the satnav, full steering wheel functions with the bluetooth and the directions on the maxi dot.

A pic of the badge