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Got these installed this weekend. Same style rotors in the back.
Had a problem with the front pads, but it turned out I was sent TTS pads by mistake. Correct ones are being shipped. So if any one in New England area needs them, reach out to me.
Full wash and rinse today, but to tired to dry so took it out on the highway. Treated the leather while temperatures are still up there. Put on my winter wheels with Nokian all season tires. This will be the third and last season.
I did the APR tune to my TT yesterday. I got the engine ECU Stage I tune and the transmission programming upgrade. I had it done in Augusta, GA which is 100 miles from my house. So these are my first impressions only based on my 100 mile drive home. The Stage 1 tune requires the use of 93 octane fuel, which I had always been using anyway. This tune adds a little more than 10% horsepower at the wheels. The transmission program is the more noticeable change to me and I'd say that if you wanted to spread out the cost of upgrades, then do this first. The transmission is much more responsive in normal mode now making the car even more fun to drive.
I found the transmission in normal mode just too slow to want to upshift with in-town driving. I would often use the paddle shifter to downshift just to get the engine torque that I wanted. In normal mode the transmission seems to want to keep the engine rpm's low. I find sport mode too aggressive for in-town driving. Sport mode is perfect for spirited driving in the mountains. I also like manual mode; but to me, the paddles should be fixed on the steering column. I find it hard to shift with the paddles when the steering wheel is turned 180 degrees. And going into and out of turns is where I need the ability to shift gears. The APR transmission program is like halfway between stock normal mode and Sport mode. It is eager to downshift now when tipping into the throttle making the car much more fun to drive in traffic. The shifts are also faster. One other nice feature of the transmission program is that the display on the dash now shows the gear. So instead of just showing a D, it now shows D1, D2, D3, etc. on the dash.
I'm sure the car's more responsive feel is due to both the increased horsepower and transmission programming. If my nearest APR dealer wasn't 100 miles away I might have tried one first and then the other. But so far, I'm very happy with the improved drive ability and increased responsiveness of the car. I'm thinking about getting their cold air intake next. It adds 5% more horsepower but costs almost as much as the Stage I ECU upgrade that I just did. But it is more horsepower. And then there is the Stage II upgrade to start thinking about...
The APR dealer in Augusta was very good, I think. The shop is nearly dedicated to VW and Audi's. All of the mechanics drive VW's. The parking lot was full of GTIs. The shop owner was relatively young but displayed confidence based on experience. He is just as comfortable at the computer keyboard as he is working on the engine. I guess this is the 21st century mechanic. They do any and all work on cars there as well as being an APR dealer. He seems to do a good volume of business and so I felt he knew his stuff. This is a gritty garage, not the wood and leather boutique like the dealerships; but the pricing is very attractive even if the shop is not. Don't get me wrong, I like hanging out at a shop like this where I can see what's happening more than sipping cappuccino at the dealer while waiting on my car.
Here are some important things I learned there yesterday. First, I had changed my spark plugs 5000 miles earlier back in June. When I did, I lost two ignition coils. So I ended up buying a new set of coils. I got a set of RS coils because they are red and look cool.
The shop owner replaced my spark plugs yesterday with a new set of NGK. He noted that the gap on my plugs were set too high. He said my plug gap was close to 0.040" which surprised me. I don't remember if I checked them myself before installing or not. I know the box says they are preset to factory spec. I won't depend on that in the future. He said that could be why I lost two coils. The higher gap requires higher voltage to make a spark. Higher voltage means higher stress on the coils. Since my old coils had 30,000 miles on them at the time, the higher stress could be why they blew. This is the first reasonable explanation for what happened to my old ignition coils that I have found.
He set the gap on my new spark plugs at 0.028". He says this is the best gap setting for this engine although factory spec is something like 0.032", I believe. He also said to stick with NGK. They seem to work best in this engine. He also told me to change them every 20,000 miles now with this ECU tune just to avoid having problems.
A higher gap means a higher voltage to make a spark which also means a hotter spark. I was experiencing occasional spark knock which, maybe, just maybe was due to the high spark plug gap setting. I suspected as much and wish that I had rechecked my plug gaps earlier but I have never found much information about spark plugs and our engines on the web. So check your spark plug gap and keep it in the right range.
I got a cold air intake today. This was to complete my Stage I tune. I feel a difference. The car pulls hard. I went with the Neuspeed for a couple of reasons. It was cheaper than the APR intake and I like how it looks. I checked some under hood temperatures with my laser thermometer. Sure, thermocouples would be more accurate but this is what I have. So the old airbox I found pulls in mostly hot air. It has the cold air port but I see large windows on two sides exposed to underhood air heated by the engine. The temperature was 105F inside the opening of the cold air intake port. This was after driving the car and then idling for a few minutes before raising the hood. I also measured 125F on the side of the air cleaner facing the engine. The temps over in the front corner of the car measured 83F. This is where the new air filter sits. Ambient at the time was 74F. I expect the heat shield to help as well keeping temperatures at the new air filter cooler than the engine area.
The sound of the engine did not increase much. I can hear a bit of whistling by the turbo from 0 to about 30mph. I can also hear the poppet blow off but this is with the windows down, low speed and the radio off. It is not loud, just noticeable when listening for it. I will be driving the car more this weekend. Hope to have some fun with it.
Installation was fairly straight forward. One thing I found is that I had to remove the coupler from the air box and use it to transition from the plastic pipe going to the turbocharger and the rubber coupler that came in the kit. If you look, you can see one of the bolt flanges on this coupler that was bolted into the air box. The rubber coupler would not fit directly over the plastic pipe. My car does not have an MAF. So I think that is why I ended up having to pull that airbox coupler out and use it. I am also going to buy some rubber lining to put around the bottom of the heat shield. It comes with the large rubber piece that goes on top. I want to line all of the sharp edges with rubber.
[First time TT owner and love this car! I've owned it for almost there years and started to upgrade and tune over the summer. I started with wheels and KW coilovers. Thought that might be all: that's until a friend invited me to a track night. This started my new expensive hobby, getting my car track ready. I started with upgrading everything around the Turbo charge, discharge, intake, and diverter piping. Once complete I installed the APR stage one tune..
The car tracked awesome!! The KWs and help from some Bridgestone track tires the TT was flawless.
My only issue was on my last lap. My transmission gears started flashing and the DSG started to shift poorly. I believe it was the 75000 miles on the fluid.
I just recently changed the DSG fluid and coolant. Along with the brake fluid from tracking the car..I also installed APRs down pipe and got their stage 2 tune installed. Next was also a set of Blackforest Stage 2 motor mounts. The track and tunes....miles too...destroyed the factory ones.
Ever step of the way this car had noticeable gains! The Audi mix of luxury and performance is now gone.....it's all performance.
Next up is the timing and can tensioner belt and chain. Along with this I'll get APRs HPFP and that tune. I'll convert the single exhaugst with a dual Armytronix. Finally, I'll upgrade to Brembo big brakes.
Im thinking these upgrades might be the extent this originally stock 2.0 may take.
[First time TT owner and love this car! I've owned it for almost there years and started to upgrade and tune over the summer. I started with wheels and KW coilovers. Thought that might be all: that's until a friend invited me to a track night. This started my new expensive hobby, getting my car track ready. I started with upgrading everything around the Turbo charge, discharge, intake, and diverter piping. Once complete I installed the APR stage one tune..
The car tracked awesome!! The KWs and help from some Bridgestone track tires the TT was flawless.
My only issue was on my last lap. My transmission gears started flashing and the DSG started to shift poorly. I believe it was the 75000 miles on the fluid.
I just recently changed the DSG fluid and coolant. Along with the brake fluid from tracking the car..I also installed APRs down pipe and got their stage 2 tune installed. Next was also a set of Blackforest Stage 2 motor mounts. The track and tunes....miles too...destroyed the factory ones.
Ever step of the way this car had noticeable gains! The Audi mix of luxury and performance is now gone.....it's all performance.
Next up is the timing and can tensioner belt and chain. Along with this I'll get APRs HPFP and that tune. I'll convert the single exhaugst with a dual Armytronix. Finally, I'll upgrade to Brembo big brakes.
Im thinking these upgrades might be the extent this originally stock 2.0 may take.
Those wheels look super nice and that drop has the perfect gap between the wheel and the fender. Check out Adams rotors, lots of choices on rotors to compliment the Brembo upgrade. I've read that the DSG can get over heated when pushed hard for an extended time, but corrects itself after it cools down. I'd recommend fluids be changed after any track day as this is not a track car from the factory. Love what you're doing to the car. You're making me miss my turbo.
I've been having an issue with the right rear lights. Working/not working, on and off like this for a couple of months until it completely stopped working. I purchased the inner component on eBay for $45 and swapped it out today. All is working. I wished I had the time to do the "grounding fix" I saw on utube, but it'll have to wait for another time. Took me about a half hour or so. Honestly, the hardest part was getting the light assembly out of the car. There's a little metal ball toward the back that has to slide sideways and then the assembly pulls straight out.
09-12-2016, 05:40 PM
