APR vs Racingline

[RoddersUK]

Which tune for mk3 Octavia vrs with DSG?

 

Place near me offers APR ECU and DSG tune for £1320 and the same but racingline for £960

 

He considers APR as the best, but racing line are an up and coming tuning company.

Obviously they are probably trying to push the most expensive one to make the most money!

 

He's phoning back at 1700hrs today, an speedy answers appreciated

[Ootohere]

?

Who is the place near you?     Do they have a dyno, and is your car ready,

checked for fault codes, serviced, new oil and filter, new plugs in, clean air filter and running well just now on E5 Super Unleaded? 

 

RacingLine are a bit more than up and coming.

http://racingline.com/oem

 

 

 

 

Edited 17 March, 2023 by toot

[RoddersUK]

Regal autosport Southampton.

Yes Dyno, do a pre run, make sure everything's ok before proceeding. Any faults and they stop.

Then flash it all and post run and checks, fueling etc....

 

Service due later this year, but all up together.

Running Tesco 99

[Ootohere]

Best get the new plugs in before the remap unless recently in and run the car a few hundred miles before the remap IMO.

 

Tesco Momentum 99 is 'simply clever'.  Not the same UK wide though.

 

It is 99 ron min though.

 

 

 

 

Edited 17 March, 2023 by toot

[Gizmo]

RacingLine maps are done by Ben Wardle (formally Shark Performance). 
Ben has mapped 5 our our family cars, personally I wouldn’t use anyone else by choice. 

[RoddersUK]

Hmmm, hard to decide if APR worth the extra money.

Seems racingline on here gets praise.

[RoddersUK]

Well it's done, gone with APR.

[nl88]

Any reasons why u went with the APR instead ? I read that APR has more low end torque. Just wondering how’s your experience so far ? I’m also torn between APR and Racingline. 

On 18/03/2023 at 01:44, RoddersUK said:

Well it's done, gone with APR.

 

[RoddersUK]

Sorry, I've booked an APR, not had it done yet, going next week.

 

APR more well known, maybe better/easier resale.

 

TBH, there's prob not much in it, as I put above, the garage said the other company is up and coming.

[Gizmo]

Remaps generally hamper resale as most people don’t like them. 
 

APR also have there bad press (like most companies though TBH) I’m sure it was on here where one owner blew their engine up with an APR remap installed on it. 
I don’t know the full story so just make your decision with your eyes wide open. 
 

Never heard on RacingLine referred to as ‘up and coming’ 😂 

 

I’m sure I have even seen Ben mention they work directly with the VW racing team. 

[RoddersUK]

Hopefully that engine blow up was just unfortunate. Do you remember what went wrong, just the turbo go, or bent rods etc...

Seems like quite a few people tune these engines with no problems.

[Gizmo]

I don’t but from memory it was a full engine. 
seem to think it was around 2015 ish??

[RoddersUK]

Missus will go made if it blows up......lol

[Ootohere]

People Remap cars with engines that are not running right, and without sorting out issues first.

 

1.4 TSI / TFSI 132-136 kW Twinchargers had issues, that was from the Factory and with standard parts, plugs and Engine Management.

 

An APR Stage 1 map, a change of spark plugs from OE and not using the Castrol Long Life oil and 99 Ron and you were on a winner.

 

The REVO stage 1 remap was and is crap.  In my and in others opinion and experience. It was just not right as they had it when used on a road car.

 

They did warn you about the engine issues, and their dealers still did remaps, and on dodgy engines.

Said it was for 98 ron super unleaded and they could not say where in the UK there was 98 ron as it was already only 97 or 99 ron min on sale. 

They were hopeless with Customer Services and failures that were down to their Software & not the actual engines.

There was a Company Person that replied on here quite a lot and was just clueless.

 

SHARK. So RaceLine.  were trusted.  I trusted APR with Twin chargers.

http://briskoda.net/forums/topic/392363-remap-options-fabia-vrs

 

2011 when the Twinchargers in a Fabia were on sale for a year.

http://briskoda.net/forums/topic/206191-remap-for-mk2-vrs

 

2013

http://briskoda.net/forums/topic/290877-fabia-vrs-twincharger-remapping

 

.................

REVO did and still do make customers aware of issues and potential problems.  As did i very very often. You can only try telling people, they might ignore that warnings.

 

Edited 22 March, 2023 by toot

[RoddersUK]

They run it up first and do a health check. Won't proceed if anything is wrong.

 

What plugs do you recommend @toot

Edited 22 March, 2023 by RoddersUK

[Ootohere]

@RoddersUKdiscussions on the spark plugs, air filter or any other hardware and anything else concerning tuning a vehicle is what should happen with the Tuner before they touch the car.

 

They are supposedly the person with all the gear and more than ideas, and one would want them to be totally familiar with the engines.

If they are not i would not be using them.

 

No point me just quoting or linking the correct plugs or gap from a standard car.   Those are easy enough to check up on. 

 

http://opieoils.co.uk

 

[RoddersUK]

I was only asking as about you say not OE, or you may be refering to the original fitted.

[Ootohere]

@RoddersUK

 

Sorry I have never had anything to do with Euro 6 2.0 TSI's and just see what others put on this forum or social media.

 

There are plenty about with the knowledge or experience.

 

http://briskoda.net/forums/topic/503525-raceline-remap

 

 

[EnterName]

On 22/03/2023 at 11:20, toot said:

An APR Stage 1 map, a change of spark plugs from OE and not using the Castrol Long Life oil and 99 Ron and you were on a winner.

Is there a problem with long-life oils and remaps or just the Castrol Long Life oil, @toot?

I'm due an oil change this year after a couple of years on Mobil 1 ESP 0W20.

My mileage is ridiculously low, so I'm reluctant to change the oil every 12 months. (Car registered Q2 2019 and has under 15,000 miles on it.)

[Ootohere]

@EnterNameThe issue was different with the Twinchargers but worth knowing about as it was VW / Skoda not giving a damn and not listening to the issues, and not acting on them. 

Borewash was and is an issue, and even though they run on 95 ron the prescribed fuel was Super Unleaded.

 

There are enough detergents in oil, and in the fuel, and when you have issues like borewash then an oil suitable for the temperatures the engine might be reaching 

and the fact the Standard  Oil capacity is so low that you need good protection.

(I never used just 3.6 litres, i used 4 litres as did others, and never used Long Life Oil, even doing oil changes much sooner than 9,400 miles / 12 months.)

 

The first Twinchargers did not have a Service Code for Flexible / Variable servicing but had Long Life Oil from the Factory and got Long Life oil , VW504 00 /507 00 at Dealership services.  2011 the Servicing code changed from Fixed or Variable.

They were better off IME with VW502 00 so not long life and the Super Unleaded.   (Long life oil / short life 1.4 TSI / TFSI Twinchargers.

 

The other issue was crap OE plugs, wrong gap, then the revised OE plugs with a different gap still crap. 

Inlet manifold cooked one plug, crap engine management etc. 

 

 

Edited 31 March, 2023 by toot

[EnterName]

1 minute ago, toot said:

@EnterNameThe issue was different with the Twinchargers but worth knowing about as it was VW / Skoda not giving a damn and not listening to the issues, and not acting on them.

Ah! Thanks for clarifying.

Incidentally, I realise I've done very little mileage in the last couple of years, probably around 6-7K, but the car seems to have used no oil at all, which I'm very pleased about.

[Dooge]

Interesting topic and one I've been debating myself. I've a 2015 VRS DSG estate, I'm edging towards Racingline. 

 

I spoke to them at Goodwood last year and they impressed me. 

 

Revo and APR were also on my hitlist.

 

Some mappers recommend different plugs for stage 1, some don't. My last car was mapped and had OE spec plugs, no issues at all.

[RoddersUK]

I still can't decide what to do.

 

£1300 just seems really pricey, I know it's for ECU and TCU and two rolling road tmrun ups, but still....

 

Racing line seems a bit better priced, but still up there!

[Dooge]

I think you'd be hard pressed to feel the difference between them, there's 2 many other variables. Short of back to back testing in a variety of conditions which you can't easily do, both are going to be capable and the outright performance will vastly improve the way the car works.

 

I can't imagine there will be much peak power difference between the two, it would come down to driveability.

[RoddersUK]

Not worried about top figures, any where around 300bhp is fine.

 

What price have you been quoted for Racingline @Doogeand is that including TCU as well?