Afternoon all,

Just thought I would share my experience of "enhancing" my 1.8 TSI. I am a believer in dynamic safety, and appreciate solid performance when I need it. I bought a manual 2011 FL 1.8 Elegance as a much cheaper alternative to the VRS; I was attracted by the clear potential for remapping. the 1.8 is an audi engine and has been deliberately detuned to avoid competing with the VRS and to avoid overpowering the weak (184ft-lb torque limit) 7-speed DSG. It's also chain driven, which I prefer for obvious reasons.

I considered options for remapping it, and settled on Superchips Bluefin as a very affordable and cost effective solution - it was £365, and is re-usable/transferable to another car if required. The original map supplied was too aggressive, causing the car to stumble on full throttle, but Superchips quickly sent a revised map that solved this problem. The result is a delight to drive; the torque is a solid stream, peaking around 3k, with power all the way to the redline (this is why I am not keen on diesels). It is surprisingly fast and feels rock solid; Superchips tested at 207bhp and 249ft-lbs, though I have not verified this (I may do, at Powerstation).

I have felt no need to alter the suspension, finding the 16 inch alloys and 205/55 tyres cope with the currently appalling road surfaces in the UK much better than my previous vehicles 225/35/18s. Grip is more than sufficient and the brakes are excellent as standard. I can achieve 44+mpg on my daily commute (30 miles mixed country roads, motorway and a little town) or get around 35mpg if I drive the car briskly. All in all, a wonderfully cost effective family car (extra insurance in minimal) with good performance, and very much in stealth clothing.

I hope this is useful if you are considering something similar!

I wish you lot would stop talking about remapping 1.8 tsi, I am going to wait till November.

You are all making me jealous!

Edited 19 March, 201412 yr by fairlight5

I have been thinking about having the wifes' car mapped as well, not that I think in standard form it is lacking, but we all want a bit more.

 

A good write up of your experiences, thank you.

 

I am not sure who to go with yet, as a sponsor of the site, I quite fancy Shark as a number of owners on here have used them.

Couldn't PM you for some reason, is there any way of getting something specific like a job number so if I call superchips they will know what your case was and they might be able to tell me if the chip you got is the model for ALL 1.8's now or if they did something specific? Been thinking of doing this for a few years but your post sounds good.

Did the ECU have to be removed from the car to remap it?

just out of interest how much did the insurance increase with the mapping? thanks

Geez I wish you guys could talk in metric... I haven't had to use all those old fashioned measurements for 20 years.  :-)

 

I have a 2007 1.8tsi manual Elegance sedan with 130,000km.  It's been Bluefinned since 50,000km.  I'm not sure what the OP is on about with detuning & Audi engines as it is just another VW group engine fitted to Passats, Superbs, Octys, Scouts, Yetis, A4s, etc.  Sure it performs well above expectations & many of them do dyno up at slightly more than the rated 118kw/250Nm. 

 

Having driven a few GTIs/vRS the Bluefin definitely isn't 154kw (207hp) - more like 140/145kw.  That's nothing to sneeze at & very noticeable.  The change in the torque curve & the added torque (I doubt it's 338nm but it probably exceeds 300Nm) is what makes a remap an almost mandatory upgrade for these engines.

 

Somewhere in this forum I posted about my Bluefin upgrade & gave before & after in gear times - the improvement was pretty impressive.

 

I agree with what he says about the stock 16x6.5 & 205/55 combo but there are incremental gains to be had by fitting 16x7.5 rims or 17x7.5 with 225/45r17s or even 235/45r17s.  You can get away with the slight increase in diameter as the speedo reads about 10% fast at 100kmh (certainly the AU spec units do).  I've actually run 17x8 ET35 but there was too much poke & it looked naff & made the steering not quite as sweet.  ET40-42 would have been ideal.  I've also run 225/55r16 tyres (speedo is still 4% fast) and currently on 225/50r17 which gives 0% speedo tolerance & they foul the guard liners if you have low springs, so you can file that in the "stupid idea" folder.

 

I like to tinker so I've also fitted:

Eibach lowered springs off a vRS diesel wagon (higher spring rate at the rear),

Koni Yellows,

a Golf GTI RSB with slight mods to increase the stiffness,

312mm rotors & caliper carriers (retained original pads & calipers) - definitely an improvement

round tube pipes from the turbo to the IC & from IC to throttlebody

slightly modded the inlet grid in the air filter housing

removed the first cat (right next to the turbo) so the turbo could breathe a bit better.

 

mods coming up:

S3 plastic tank intercooler

Swap out the Audience HU for a Bolera & Dension Gateway (bought last night)

Maybe a 3" downpipe with 200cell cat

 

I don't think the last two changes have released any more power but the turbo spins up earlier & quicker.  It now starts to noticeably spool at 1500rpm.  Was more like 1700-1800 before (yes 200rpm makes a difference).

 

Fuel economy - I faff about on the motorway most of the time.  Our motorway speeds are considerably lower than the UK (crap drivers & speed Nazis).  I've averaged 6.6L/100 since new (43mpg?).  Motorway is about 6.0L/100km (47mpg) doing 80-100kmh; 110kmh sucks it down at 6.6L/100 (I'm sure there's an issue but my mech says it's fine) .  Crap Sydney traffic with short trips (like London but spread out over a 50kmx50km area) is more like 9L/100 (30mpg?).

 

I agree with the OP though.  Good engine/car combo stock, great cars with a remap, even better with a few other changes.

Edited 20 March, 201412 yr by brad1.8T

Welcome to the club

 I have felt no need to alter the suspension, finding the 16 inch alloys and 205/55 tyres cope with the currently appalling road surfaces in the UK much better than my previous vehicles 225/35/18s.

 

Fully agree with this. I like the look of the low profile tyres but for many of the roads I am on the considerable added weight of the alloys means I gain no benefit over my winter wheels which are additionally more comfy.

Thanks for the feedback all. A few comments:

@fairlight5; why wait until November? Summer is the perfect time to enjoy the extra performance!

@blackspaven; Superchips have a number of maps for the engine, it's a question of finding one that suits your car/you. They will be able to help you with this according to your requirements. They are far from the only supplier of such maps; I chose them primarily because they have a representative near me and for the very reasonable price, long experience and potential re-usability of the device. Shark are a long way from me and a little more expensive, though it sounds like their individual service is excellent.

@DGW: No, I was fortunate in that my May '11 car is one of the last not to require ECU removal. The Bluefin just plugged straight in... two minutes work. Superchips supply an application for your PC that handles updating the map loaded to the Bluefin, so a new map can be emailed.

@willydog: It added about 80 quid to my Aviva policy. Very reasonable!

@Brad1.8T: I have read in a number of places that the 1.8 was specifically designed by Audi, e.g.:

http://www.autoevolution.com/news/volkswagen-tsi-engines-explained-60143.html - here.

Continued, as the forum application trimmed my post!

@Brad1.8T:

I am also aware that the engine can be purchased in different states of tune, e.g 140bhp in Audi A3. It is also used in the TT base model, but not in the Golf. It was introduced in the Passat relatively late.

Your tinkering sounds great fun, but this is my daily commuter, purchased very reasonably (1.8 TSIs are excellent value in the UK), and as such I don't like to spend unnecessary money on it. I have added Xenon lamps, but nothing more. The weekend car gets the attention!

@TsvRS: The grip levels of modern quality tyres is such that very wide/low profile tyres are rarely utilised anywhere near their limits by the owner; it's more about the look (and noise!). I blame BMW!

Happy remapping all!

Forum app is removing all my formatting... is it Firefox? Most annoying!

@DGW: No, I was fortunate in that my May '11 car is one of the last not to require ECU removal. The Bluefin just plugged straight in... two minutes work. Superchips supply an application for your PC that handles updating the map loaded to the Bluefin, so a new map can be emailed.

That is interesting. My 1.8TSI, which was built on 12 October 2010, has a protected ECU.

911jon

My manufactures warranty expires in November. I've had the car from new, I figure I've waited this long so another 6 months won't hurt!

Grip levels with 4x4 and winter tyres mean a remap is fun all year round...

Edited to add, agree whole heartedly re tyre sizes. As you say BMW are the chief culprit for putting ridiculous size tyres on cooking cars, with Vauxhall having got on the band wagon with the very average but way over tyred insignia.

For a little perspective my wife neede a car to replace her stolen I10. It had to be smallish to fit in parking spaces at her work and fit in the garage, it had to be fun to drive (unlike the I10..) so I ended up getting a mint low mileage 2001 puma. Its brilliant as a fun daily driver, it can be driven hard on 195/50/15 tyres and handles sweetly with very neutral balance. Bigger wheels would absolutely ruin it as a road car.

Edited 20 March, 201412 yr by fairlight5

23 mile route to work this morning, 47.8mpg. Speed was limited by commuting traffic, but normal road speeds, A and B roads. Pretty remarkable for a car with the performance potential of this one!

My TSI's not so economical but then again I have the very early version of the engine (bzb) so my road tax is high as well at £225. today for the 1st time I arrived home and my mpg showed 39 and that's driving like a vicar and having Goodyear efficient grip performance tyres all round, and running on shell nitro. Mind you it does go well when pushed a bit..