Hi

When my car is out of warranty, I intend to stage one map it. Now, from what I have learned on this site, my car does not come with a decent VAQ diff, just a standard one. As I am only going as far as a stage one, will I get terrible wheelspin when giving it some peddle down, or should it be manageable? Of course, I could manage it by pressing the loud pedal progressively instead. Before then, I intend to put some better grippy tyres all round, such as Michelin PS4S. That is another question, can I go from the 225/35/19 tyres I have on the car as standard, to 235/35/19, a little wider on the same rims? I think I have already seen on some posts, that the standard clutch should handle stage one, hopefully that is true.  Sorry about all the questions, it's just once I started to ask one, I thought of the others. 

All good Q's, don't apologise

 

Q1- The pre-FL230 (older one) still wheelspins under Stage 1 power with the VAQ diff., but it's better with good tyres and a dogbone engine mount. But it should still be manageable, depending on conditions and finesse on the Loud Pedal.

 

Q2 - Yes, you can go from 225/25/R19s to 235/35/R19s with no issues whatsoever. The wider tyres provide better sidewalls and rim protection. You may get garages / tyre sites saying you have the "wrong size" for the alloys, but it's perfectly fine and it's purely since 235/35 is Skoda's recommended size... which most of us would have recommended should be 235/35 OEM. 

 

Q3 - Can confirm the standard clutch can handle stage 1 fine, so long as you're not launching it at every other standing start  - I say this from experience. Only slip I've had is when trying to accelerate hard in 5th... which is bad for the engine anyway; just drop down and manage the torque manually - makes driving fun. 

 

Caveat - all this is from my personal experience in the last 2.5 years of ownership of the pre-FL230 (mapped it 1.5 years ago with Shark (now Racingline - Stage 1)

Edited 22 August, 20196 yr by Ads230

I say do it. My remap is by revo and is 307bhp tries to spin but it's easy to keep it under control. Top speed after new oil, filter and premium fuel is 180mph. Don't hesitate. You will not be disappointed, the boy racers will be when you whip them in a skoda. Go for it. 

2 hours ago, Ads230 said:

All good Q's, don't apologise

 

Q1- The pre-FL230 (older one) still wheelspins under Stage 1 power with the VAQ diff., but it's better with good tyres and a dogbone engine mount. But it should still be manageable, depending on conditions and finesse on the Loud Pedal.

 

Q2 - Yes, you can go from 225/25/R19s to 235/35/R19s with no issues whatsoever. The wider tyres provide better sidewalls and rim protection. You may get garages / tyre sites saying you have the "wrong size" for the alloys, but it's perfectly fine and it's purely since 235/35 is Skoda's recommended size... which most of us would have recommended should be 235/35 OEM. 

 

Q3 - Can confirm the standard clutch can handle stage 1 fine, so long as you're not launching it at every other standing start  - I say this from experience. Only slip I've had is when trying to accelerate hard in 5th... which is bad for the engine anyway; just drop down and manage the torque manually - makes driving fun. 

 

Caveat - all this is from my personal experience in the last 2.5 years of ownership of the pre-FL230 (mapped it 1.5 years ago with Shark (now Racingline - Stage 1)

Thank you for this excellent info on my questions. With my VRS 230, it sadly came with a standard diff from what I have read on this site. So from your answer on this, I assume your car has the VAQ diff. Maybe I will need to be even gentler on the power pedal with a stage one. I have read that the dogbone mount throws up a bit of vibration, do you find that with yours? If not, that will be a future addition to my car. 

I also thought going from 225 tyre profile to 235 would not only give a bit more grip, but help protect the 19inch diamond cut alloys, which seem to get a graze from just going into a pot hole, I know it's happened.   

As for the remap, I remember Shark, as I had my previous 2011 Octavia VRS TSI remapped by them in the past. The original standard clutch on that car with the remap on the car for the last 40k miles, was still going strong when I sold it at 103k miles. As an advantage of the job I do, I am fairly good at vehicle handling and understand torque at low speed in high gears against using higher revs in the lower gear. I am a bit too old and sensible to burn off at the lights, but I still like a bit more power, if only to surprise my fellow road user at times. Lol. Thanks again for the time you have spent giving me some useful information Ads230.

@roaddetective No worries, glad it's useful.

 

Yeah, I have the older 230 with the VAQ diff which is awesome. I've no idea why they dropped that on the new ones, when you have slightly more power as standard but I presume it was for cost reasons.

 

For the Dogbone mount - thread I already answered on which might be interesting for you here. TLDR - vibration is barely noticeable; note my princess and the pea comment

 

Tyre choice - 100%. More grip ✔ + better protection of '19s ✔

 

Shark / Racingline are still excellent, and still provide brilliant customer service as well as a great Stage 1 map (OEM+ it's marketed as now). 

15 hours ago, roaddetective said:

but I still like a bit more power, if only to surprise my fellow road user at times

⬆ this is exactly what you'll get with the Stage 1 map - feels like it always should have been like that.

Of course, if the lack of vaq diff does cause an issue you can always fit a mechanical LSD to get the same end result.

 

I looked at this as an option in case I couldn't find a pfl 230.  Was £1550 for supply and fitment of a quaife LSD.

On 22/08/2019 at 19:46, roaddetective said:

Thank you for this excellent info on my questions. With my VRS 230, it sadly came with a standard diff from what I have read on this site. So from your answer on this, I assume your car has the VAQ diff. Maybe I will need to be even gentler on the power pedal with a stage one. I have read that the dogbone mount throws up a bit of vibration, do you find that with yours? If not, that will be a future addition to my car. 

I also thought going from 225 tyre profile to 235 would not only give a bit more grip, but help protect the 19inch diamond cut alloys, which seem to get a graze from just going into a pot hole, I know it's happened.   

As for the remap, I remember Shark, as I had my previous 2011 Octavia VRS TSI remapped by them in the past. The original standard clutch on that car with the remap on the car for the last 40k miles, was still going strong when I sold it at 103k miles. As an advantage of the job I do, I am fairly good at vehicle handling and understand torque at low speed in high gears against using higher revs in the lower gear. I am a bit too old and sensible to burn off at the lights, but I still like a bit more power, if only to surprise my fellow road user at times. Lol. Thanks again for the time you have spent giving me some useful information Ads230.

From what you say about usage, driving style, understanding torque and experience of a Shark map, you appear to be answering your own question. You'll have no trouble, if you're in the right gear and road conditions are safe then you should be able to put the power down without trouble or damaging your clutch. You'll know that stamping on the gas in 2nd out of a bend with or without VAQ will produce the same result. With VAQ in the VRS Octy, which is not bad around the bends, it will help drag it around them a but better, so in everyday use, the remap your car will be fine without the diff. 

2 hours ago, Redboy said:

From what you say about usage, driving style, understanding torque and experience of a Shark map, you appear to be answering your own question. You'll have no trouble, if you're in the right gear and road conditions are safe then you should be able to put the power down without trouble or damaging your clutch. You'll know that stamping on the gas in 2nd out of a bend with or without VAQ will produce the same result. With VAQ in the VRS Octy, which is not bad around the bends, it will help drag it around them a but better, so in everyday use, the remap your car will be fine without the diff. 

Hi Redboy

Yes, although it would have been nice to have the VAQ diff, I should easily be able to manage perfectly well without it. Still, this is all in the future, if I have the will power to hold back on the remap till the car is out of Skoda warranty that is!