So I have decided to take the plunge and book in for the REVO DSG stage 1 TCU remap. With the Black Friday offer it will be £360.

 

ive always found on both the vRS and the Golf R the DSG software leaves much to be desired.

constantly chasing the highest gear for economy, meaning that most of the time it’s:

 

1,200rpm..... accelerating - no power

1,300rpm..... accelerating - no power

1,400rpm..... accelerating - no power

1,500rpm.... accelerating - power beginning to build

1,600rpm..... accelerating - power beginning to build more

1,700rpm.... accelerating - boost really coming on

1,800rpm.... torque about to be delivered***********

Gear change, back to 1,200 rpm

1,200rpm..... no power

 

I know manual mode can be used, but the annoying thing is that at 8mph it auto down changes from 2nd to 1st. Not great for a mix of slower then quicker driving.

 

its booked in for 1 week Saturday so will keep you updated.

should compliment the stage 1 Engine nicely :-)

 

Edited 25 February, 20188 yr by xpower

Awesome! Looking forward to the update. What changes does the TCU remap actually do? I assume it's more than just changing the shift points?

They list:

 

1) Optimised shift points

2) In D - 2nd gear is held unless the vehicle comes to a complete stop (it will just slip second).

3) RPM multistage launch control depending on how much you press the accelerator pedal

4) in manual mode automatic kickdown is disabled. It will only change gear at the Rev limiter and when the Engine is labouring at low RPM

5) Shift speeds increased slightly

 

thats the main ones :-)

My manual box reprograms seemingly automatically to match my emotional state and perceived external demands

Cheap too

 

Edited 7 December, 20178 yr by Gerrycan

@xpower Did you not think to try Oscarli? I only ask because I know you was happy with the vRS or does Revo offer more in-terms of remapping for the Golf R.

@BATVANVRS I did speak to Oscarli but they weren’t able to offer everything I wanted fron a DSG remap without spending extensive time on it.

TBH REVO may not offer everything I want either but I will find out next week.

Just an update - I have finally had the DSG remap now for a few months so am am able to offer some feedback on it.

Before I begin I will say that I have been offered a no quibble refund on the remap from REVO, I have elected to keep it for reason 1 on the 'good things' list.

 

The good things

1. Snatchy down shifting - My Golf like many other DSG cars suffered from the snatchy down change when going from 4th>3rd, and 3rd>2nd.  It seems hit and miss which cars get this but it isn't limited to a specific brand.  My car only has 24,000 miles on it, but many many people report it from new, and its nothing the dealers can seem to fix.  Prior to the DSG remap I checked my gearbox TCU with ODIS and there weren't any software updates.
   The REVO DSG remap has fixed this issue, down changes are now silk smooth.  If your car doesn't have this issue then this won't be of benefit to you.
2. Launch control - the new launch control works great by giving you multi stage launch RPM.  Not something I will generally use but it works.
3. Kick down in manual mode - This is now disabled, when you are in M mode you can plant your foot to the floor and it won't kick down.  Perfect 
4. Full throttle, max RPM gear changes - These are more positive although now not as smooth, but that is due to quicker gear changes and higher clamping forces.
5. Slightly more reactive - In D mode the DSG will now down change slightly earlier as you apply engine load.
6. Quicker gear changes - These are slightly quicker but very difficult to notice, they are pretty quick anyway.

The Bad things

1. They advertise the following - "in Drive and Eco mode at low RPM 2nd gear is held unless you come to a stop", this isn't true, its 2mph.  So when you are rolling up to the lights and they change just before you come to a stop, the DSG will still down-shift to first gear just as you press the accelerator to go.  This is a shame as I know its not much but it makes a difference.
2. Optimised shift points - If you are expecting the general feeling or Drive or Sport mode to change it doesn't (with the exception of point 5 in the good things). 
   Drive mode chases 6th gear as quick as it did before, meaning the engine spends most of its time out of the power band.  So when you want to go........ you have to wait
   Sport mode does what it usually does, holds on to the RPM's with almost no load meaning you can't really use it in all but a few situations.
   Considering this is what most people moan about, it's really disappointing that this wasn't improved in the remap.  People I have spoken to agree with myself and want something in-between that can be used on a daily basis.
3. Manual mode auto down-shift - Although not advertised so we can't complain, in M mode the car will auto down-shift from 2nd > 1st at 8mph.  So that means its annoying to use in traffic / local driving.  They should have this so its 2mph like in D mode.  If I want it to change down then I will pull the paddle, its clearly capable of this from a software point of view.
4. Bug in the software when using ACC and stop / start - I assume that this only affects cars with auto hold, but when ACC brings the car to a stop it holds the car indefinitely.  After a few seconds start stop kicks in and ACC continues to hold the car.  When the car in front moves away this is detected by the ACC and the engine automatically restarts ready for you to continue.  To go the driver must then either touch the accelerator or press resume on the steering wheel and the car drives off with AAC still engaged.  Unfortunately since the remap when you press resume on the steering wheel, Drive will not engage and the engine revs to 4000+ rpm and the car just sits there.  The only way to re-engage drive it to put your foot on the brake (which disengages ACC) and then Drive will re-engage so you can drive off.  A temporary cure is easy, disable stop / start as its only when it kicks in there is an issue.  Fingers crossed they will fix this issue.

 

Hopefully I have been fair in my review, as a technician I am a picky customer and have high expectations.  For me this remap could have been amazing and really transformed the way the car drives.  I personally would accept a drop in fuel economy to make the car 'fun' to drive and really address point 2 on the bad things.  If I wanted economy I would have brought the GTD.

Any questions then let me know :-)

 

Car is a 2015 Golf R DSG with 24,000 miles.  I have tested the DSG remap with both stock ECU software, and Stage 1 ECU software (non REVO).  There was no difference to how the DSG behaved.

Good insight @xpower thanks for posting with an update and sharing your thoughts! 

Good thoughts on this. Of course, if we're expecting in D mode that the gears hold on to RPMs for longer to allow for more power then we are in a less economic mode. It makes sense to have E mode significantly different to D mode, but I'm guessing the car companies know that most people drive in D mode so they are obliged to keep it fuel economical. What should be done is have an extra 'B' mode (boost or the like) where the RPMs are held on somewhere between what is currently D mode and S mode. That would be a useful switch for when you need the extra power without needing to run wild at 5,000-6,000 rpm or have little load at 3,000rpm as in S mode.

Thanks for this review, I will cross Revo off my list of DSG maps to consider as I definitely want the change points changed preferably in both D and S.

 

Have you fed back to Revo, I would be interested in their response.

I am considering APR stage 1 + DSG remap for my new car, but it will be a long while before that happens, since the warranty is 5 years / 100tkm (whatever comes first...) and I don't want to take any risks of them refusing a claim.

...such a long warranty is actually quite nice thing to have.

 

BTW, I failed to mention that the DSG remap is also the APR one.

Edited 12 March, 20188 yr by Jaco2k

6 hours ago, octavia5 said:

Thanks for this review, I will cross Revo off my list of DSG maps to consider as I definitely want the change points changed preferably in both D and S.

 

Have you fed back to Revo, I would be interested in their response.

 

I have fed back to revo on the following 3

 

1) in Drive and Eco mode at low RPM 2nd gear is held unless you come to a stop", this isn't true, its 2mph.

2) Bug in the software when using ACC and stop / start

3) Manual mode auto down-shift

 

They said they couldn’t fix it quickly (no timeline) and offered my money back.

its a real shame, they could have really cleaned up with this remap by adjusting D and S shift points . As soon as reviews came out saying how much it improved the  general drive ability people would be buying. Instead it offers a mild improvement which if my g’box wasn’t a bit jerky to begin with, I would have had a refund.

 

4 hours ago, Jaco2k said:

I am considering APR stage 1 + DSG remap for my new car, but it will be a long while before that happens, since the warranty is 5 years / 100tkm (whatever comes first...) and I don't want to take any risks of them refusing a claim.

...such a long warranty is actually quite nice thing to have.

 

BTW, I failed to mention that the DSG remap is also the APR one.

 

Is there any good customer reviews of the APR one, also it’s mega expensive

9 hours ago, SkodaAsh said:

Good thoughts on this. Of course, if we're expecting in D mode that the gears hold on to RPMs for longer to allow for more power then we are in a less economic mode. It makes sense to have E mode significantly different to D mode, but I'm guessing the car companies know that most people drive in D mode so they are obliged to keep it fuel economical. What should be done is have an extra 'B' mode (boost or the like) where the RPMs are held on somewhere between what is currently D mode and S mode. That would be a useful switch for when you need the extra power without needing to run wild at 5,000-6,000 rpm or have little load at 3,000rpm as in S mode.

 

I ageee with what your saying, if this were true then they could leave E and D alone and competely redo S - I’m sure that 99% of people are like me and don’t use it.  If I want to drive spirited then even S doesn’t get the gears right, that’s what the paddles are for!

 

paddles for enjoyment

D for everyday driving

On 2/25/2018 at 10:39, xpower said:

 

The Bad things

 

1. Optimised shift points - If you are expecting the general feeling or Drive or Sport mode to change it doesn't (with the exception of point 5 in the good things). 
   Drive mode chases 6th gear as quick as it did before, meaning the engine spends most of its time out of the power band.  So when you want to go........ you have to wait
   Sport mode does what it usually does, holds on to the RPM's with almost no load meaning you can't really use it in all but a few situations.
   Considering this is what most people moan about, it's really disappointing that this wasn't improved in the remap.  People I have spoken to agree with myself and want something in-between that can be used on a daily basis.

 

 

 

Hey, have you considered TVS Engineering? They are promising better shifting points and also remapping DSG+ECU.

 

You can also find on Fabia forums, somebody has their software and said he has better shift points.

Edited 12 March, 20188 yr by n1tro

18 hours ago, xpower said:

 

I ageee with what your saying, if this were true then they could leave E and D alone and competely redo S - I’m sure that 99% of people are like me and don’t use it.  If I want to drive spirited then even S doesn’t get the gears right, that’s what the paddles are for!

 

paddles for enjoyment

D for everyday driving

 

Yeah, I'd agree with that too. If D had less early shifting down it's be a nicer drive, but it might 'suffer' with a lower fuel economy. As for S, yep, not the greatest in the gear selection department in that mode, may as well go with paddles.

23 hours ago, n1tro said:

 

Hey, have you considered TVS Engineering? They are promising better shifting points and also remapping DSG+ECU.

 

You can also find on Fabia forums, somebody has their software and said he has better shift points.

 

I havent seen them - although i’ve spent my remap budget now ;-)

I've had dsg cars for over ten years. Currently run four.

I've driven loads of different combinations. Petrol\Diesel, Wet/Dry Clutch, 6\7 Speed. 

In everyone S mode mapping is useless. If someone could make S mode the same as drive but move the shift points by say 25% they could take my money now.

 

Lee

On 13/03/2018 at 21:33, logiclee said:

I've had dsg cars for over ten years. Currently run four.

I've driven loads of different combinations. Petrol\Diesel, Wet/Dry Clutch, 6\7 Speed. 

In everyone S mode mapping is useless. If someone could make S mode the same as drive but move the shift points by say 25% they could take my money now.

 

Lee

 

If only they listed to the customers lee,

 

im sure it’s either:

1) companies don’t listen to feedback, and give us what they feel we want.

2) The changes they have made are quite easy and don’t require much labour time.  The changes we really want are quite difficult and therefore would be really expensive to the end user.

Agree with all of the above.

D is for pootling about, M is for fun. 

Drove a 2018 Audi TT 1.8 DSG 7spd today - VAG have finally got the factory DSG software sorted.

 

In ‘S’ it shifts exactly how we want it to, around 2,500rpm light load and the harder you push it the higher the shift point. I drove it around in ‘S’ for a while and it was damn near perfect. Any faster then switch to the padles!

 

wish that the tuners could drive them and reproduce a modified map for ours.

Mine has the 6 speed DSG (that I like a lot better than the 7 speed in my wifes Fabia), but still I am agree with those who dont understand and dont use Sport mode.

In D it just chasing to shift at as low RPM as possible, and in S it is chasing as high rpm as possible.

I want to decide the changepoints with how hard I press the accelerator, I find this very difficult to get right from time to time. 

And I hate the kickdown in M. I like to use the torque and just WOT on low rpm.

 

21 minutes ago, norsko said:

Mine has the 6 speed DSG (that I like a lot better than the 7 speed in my wifes Fabia), but still I am agree with those who dont understand and dont use Sport mode.

In D it just chasing to shift at as low RPM as possible, and in S it is chasing as high rpm as possible.

I want to decide the changepoints with how hard I press the accelerator, I find this very difficult to get right from time to time. 

And I hate the kickdown in M. I like to use the torque and just WOT on low rpm.

 

 

I ‘think’ the new 7spd is the wet clutch like our 6spd. Couldn’t agree more with the shift point comments, if only the tuners would listen :-)

 

At least the REVO map fixes the auto kickdown in M mode 

Just read your full update report and things in there, are why my last Golf R had to be a manual.

 

Just felt never fully in control, the car would do it's own things no matter what you actually wanted it to do; like that little down shift to 1st just when you wanted to floor it to get away it's farting around doing something else which gives you that little bit of hesitation and can unnerve you if you say a bit on the edge.

 

Never suffered the clunky downshift issue, thankfully.

 

Good review

Edited 2 April, 20188 yr by Defenderben