I have an appointment to get the APR tune installed at my local shop. Should I shop around to find another tune, or pay attention here for getting smart on a tune to fit my needs?

 

I'd avoid a canned tune from APR who doesn't specialize in TDI engines.

Malone, Kerma, and relative newcomer Oakes, all have top reputations for tuning TDI engines.

Of course, this is a thread about TCM tunes -- hard to tell, I know, with all the random/unrelated discussion dominating the thread -- that just so happen to come from the originator of the TCM tune for this vehicle.

Your best bet is to buy a TCM tune from @yrktreg directly for the best results. The other TCM tunes on the market are merely imitations of the work he pioneered.

 

In my opinion the Aisin trans dates this platform far more than anything else. While reliable, it definitely feels more like an old slush box than a ZF 8HP, which has the speed and crispness of a DCT. Shifts are slow and mushy. I'm not sure if it's because the torque converter isn't fully locked or they just aren't aggressively engaging clutches (or a combination).

It's more notable when cold, where it's evident that the oncoming clutch pressure is too low and there is some engine flare during shifts. I think most notably 4->5 cold, but all the gear changes are slow and not impressively clean (where the engine speed seamlessly moves from one gear to the next). It's also evident fully warm during high load kickdowns. I've changed fluid and reset adaptations, and it makes no difference, so I believe it's performing as it was calibrated.

The pre-fix TCU software certainly helps, but it still feels antiquated. So I'd say shift speed and shift quality.

 

In my opinion the Aisin trans dates this platform far more than anything else. While reliable, it definitely feels more like an old slush box than a ZF 8HP, which has the speed and crispness of a DCT. Shifts are slow and mushy. I'm not sure if it's because the torque converter isn't fully locked or they just aren't aggressively engaging clutches (or a combination).

It's more notable when cold, where it's evident that the oncoming clutch pressure is too low and there is some engine flare during shifts. I think most notably 4->5 cold, but all the gear changes are slow and not impressively clean (where the engine speed seamlessly moves from one gear to the next). It's also evident fully warm during high load kickdowns. I've changed fluid and reset adaptations, and it makes no difference, so I believe it's performing as it was calibrated.

The pre-fix TCU software certainly helps, but it still feels antiquated. So I'd say shift speed and shift quality.

Excellent, and I agree completely. The ZF is a great trans, and my goals are to get the Aisin as close as possible to it.

 

I put 350 miles per day in mostly city

Math and common sense say you DON'T.

Especially in DC that has second worst traffic in country

When I attempt to drive in a place with "the 2nd worst traffic in the country", I'm certainly not averaging 50mph or so..... Unless maybe I'm in Ireland and everyone is at the pub instead of on the roads (@Dannyboy485 please confirm)

1. How to improve breaking especially at speed. Now 20k into new pads and rotors it reverts back to bad characteristics on highway. Whereby I have to give 3 car lengths at all times or lead the train. Even so the force breaking is a worry now. If your mod will help I'm interested

Are you seriously asking (out in public) for engine braking that's more aggressive than the ****ty OEM hydraulic brakes?

Your posts on the Touareg breaking have to be the funniest crap I've read on this site.... and there's been tons of crap over the years!

 

I sometimes roll down a window and throw out the anchor.... when I really need to stop in a hurry!

 

It's terrifying to see some of the things people post on these forums, that are driving on public roads with other people.

I've also been recently looking around a bit while driving in traffic to try to predict when people aren't paying attention and will do something dangerous. More and more people are setting automatic cruise control (usually on the closest tailgate setting - you know so people never merge in front of them and make them late for work) and then just turning on a movie and watching it, without looking up at the road at all. I literally couldn't believe it the first time I saw it, but then started to notice that it is now completely normal.

 

Completely agree with the lag. I put 350 miles per day in mostly city and that lag is frightening as kid's today are idiotically aggressive. I have to lead many actions and as a consequence take infinite more time. Putting it into sport just crushes gas but it must be done in stop and go highway traffic. Especially in DC that has second worst traffic in country. I also found that lag in a hairpin turn by my house where the power is a must because it is on highway speed and people simply just don't stop with your own lane. I'm super glad you identified it. I have no standing here.

That in conjunction with OM break setup makes this beast very dangerous. The 2 ton weight is a constant struggle with moving it from inertia to rapid short gains back to stop.

I thought it would require 3 points of attention the 4th being touching the engine.

1. Breaks back to OEM (fail).
2. Suspension (B6 in future)
3. Malone Mod.

My biggest problem specifically deals with managing the weight.

1. How to improve breaking especially at speed. Now 20k into new pads and rotors it reverts back to bad characteristics on highway. Whereby I have to give 3 car lengths at all times or lead the train. Even so the force breaking is a worry now. If your mod will help I'm interested

2. Simple city irregularities and curves I have to guide the vehicle too precisely as any speed over 25 releases greater recoil force to the driver. Passengers seem to be comfortable. Up and down movement is now too frequent and pronounced (hurting back at +5 hours). At speed I refrain from any sharp turns (that may be necessary due to ****ty drivers). The weight feels like loose body building weights shifting to the edge of body creating greater counter **** in power.

In brief... this never happened at 17k when I bought her.

3. The complete lack of performance at stop and go. Mind you I have passengers all the time and I have nothing but 5☆ ratings for safety and comfort. I can't slam the gas and slam the breaks as it suits me. You will burn gas. As it stands my range has dropped from 750 to 640 miles or less.

I was hoping a Malone tune would both address a reversal of lots of the restrictions allowing for smooth power and gained fuel efficiency. Less than the 30mpg I was getting before... there is no point in the diesel for me.

Please note that 90% or more of my driving is city (with very ignorant and aggressive city drivers). And the vehicle displays these characteristics practically EMPTY.

I have no interest in towing or overland at this time.

I just want to survive with what I thought was a cayenne cousin.

Very disappointed except for 1 style of driving... long highway. She belongs going long and strong... very steady at that point.

Thank you
2016 TDI lux

 

Even so the force breaking is a worry now

@Aaron A The stuff you are asking about relates mostly to the brakes and suspension- why would you expect a transmission tune to affect that in any way?

We covered this in a thread before- it seems pretty clear your braking system has some type of serious defect and isn't safe to drive... you don't need a modification, but just to diagnose and fix whatever the defect is. All stock Touaregs have amazing brakes, that are limited only by the tire traction in all situations except perhaps racing on a track. It's pretty terrifying to think you are still driving on the road and endangering other people, and looking at things like the transmission instead of fixing the brake system itself.

Also, you are saying your brakes are bad because you need to stay back 3 car lengths. E.g. in most places it is legally required to stay back 3 seconds, which at 65mph would be about 19 car lengths. 3 car lengths is suicidal driving even in a high end sports car unless you're going very slow. Even a lightweight sports car with massive brakes takes at least ~8-9 car lengths to stop from 60mph, not including response times.

 

Howdy,

What a coincidence! My V6 TDI Touareg has just run out of warranty and I am looking for a performance tune.
The stock, post fix tune is working fine and the performance is great,but I am fully aware of the potential of this engine and 8-speed transmission. My '14 Passat TDI and my '10 Jetta both have tunes in them and I don't ever want to go back to the stock tune. The Jetta has four selectable tunes (three plus stock) and that is a cool feature, but I always keep it in the max performance tune, since it does not tow.
I use my Touareg for long distance commuting and towing, so good fuel economy is a priority for cruising at 75+ mph and slight modifications to the trailer mode that add torque would be nice. I have no issues with the shift program and the third gear hold doesn't bother me at all, since I know it is intentional.

Sounds like good news!

 

You've come to the right place.

It seems like a majority of people like the idea of D and S being different so that's what i'm going to focus on along with something else I have in the works.

 

@yrktreg 2015 audi q7 tdi. I have one of your pre-fix tcm from a few years ago with the recent Tunezilla Autobahn tune over top of it. I have had zero engine braking from day 1 with this vehicle. Is there an adaptation i should change to? It is already set to the Porsche map with gear indicator enabled. I regularly tow a 5,000 lb travel trailer.

 

So the 15-16 vehicles in any form Touareg, Q7, and Cayenne are the most neutered from the factory compared to the earlier models they get less engine braking.
The autobahn tune basically got rid of my tune when it was flashed onto your TCU.

This can all be added back in with the performance tune especially for people that tow a lot.

How much of a difference was there between my tune and the autobahn tune?

 

A question for @yrktreg. Are you only working out tunes for the TDI engines, is that what the poll is geared towards?

Since this thread has skid to pedal boxes I'll add my 2¢.
I don't mash on my gas pedal like an adolescent teen who just got his license no matter how cool it might make me sound/look by saying I do. I like to slowly push the pedal so the Treg can climb smoothly through the RPM's ( I mostly don't go over 4K.... mostly).
I added a throttle controller to mine and it eliminated the small amount of dead pedal from a standstill that was left after doing a throttle body alignment with VCDS. That small amount of the pedal you would want to be more predictable when you move your foot a little, not have to lean into it to get to the responsive section of the pedal. Even on U0 it feels more like non drive by wire vehicles I've previously owned.

 

A question for @yrktreg. Are you only working out tunes for the TDI engines, is that what the poll is geared towards?

Since this thread has skid to pedal boxes I'll add my 2¢.
I don't mash on my gas pedal like an adolescent teen who just got his license no matter how cool it might make me sound/look by saying I do. I like to slowly push the pedal so the Treg can climb smoothly through the RPM's ( I mostly don't go over 4K.... mostly).
I added a throttle controller to mine and it eliminated the small amount of dead pedal from a standstill that was left after doing a throttle body alignment with VCDS. That small amount of the pedal you would want to be more predictable when you move your foot a little, not have to lean into it to get to the responsive section of the pedal. Even on U0 it feels more like non drive by wire vehicles I've previously owned.

Excellent question, since this platform all use a similar Aisin transmission, it shouldn't be too difficult to tune for gas engines as well.

 

Let's face it, the Touareg has pretty terrible throttle response when stock, and borders straight up dangerous at times. By time I had stage II tuning, muffler delete and custom intake mods it was about perfect. But stock? Way too many close calls with death

Certain cars benefit more from pedal commanders than others. which, by the way, I've had hours long conversations about this product and how it actually works with the Pedal Commander CEO, and he offers a 30 day money back guarantee if you don't believe him

 

Very happy to see a dedicated thread to the Performance Tune. Well done.

To be honest , I was convinced it had been released time ago, evidently I was wrong 🫣
Speaking about what kind of changed parameter I will to see they are the same Iasked to you in our conversation.
Still I updated there, with an important point. Check it as soon as you could.

That said I am with someone else..a month..three months.. half year ..How Much ??

 

I've had the stock stealth flash as I called it which fixes all of the "fix" update garbage that they put on it.

And have had beta performance stuff out for idk 2+ years (maybe more), but life pulled me in other directions, so I never fully finished it to my liking.

And as I posted above I want to see what the people want from it, instead of what I think they want on it.

 

Some drivers are very slow at moving their foot..... replacing a potentiometer with a on\off switch would also give you the same placebo effect.

 

Disagree... it's for yoyos that can't modulate the pedal properly themselves...

 

Some cars have a very slow reacting throttle pedal (ala Volkswagen Tiguan) and the pedal commander makes it a much more decent driving experience

 

Joe,
What tune are you referring to in this post? It seems like you're referring to TCU tuning, but I thought you already had performance TCU tuning out?

I'd like to see everything listed above in the poll for the touareg. There's zero downside to electing to any of those features and all upside!

 

I do have some beta performance tunes out there, but wanted to hear from everyone what THEY wanted versus what I think that they want if that makes sense.

 

Get a room, you two...

 

Jealousy won't get you anywhere..... we can invite you to our Signal chat if you play nice

 

Check fluid levels,
Check tire pressures,
Confirm tank range is sufficient for my planned drive that day,
Check my emails

Oh sorry, I thought we were listing ridiculous wants

 

Bitch why you reply here but no reply me

 

Add a way to reset the learned parameters of user driving. Or turn that feature off and always enable the learning mode of the transmission. Idk how to explain it.

 

You can do the nooby pedal reset. Key on, engine off. Hold pedal to the floor for 15 seconds. Key off.
Drive as normal. Or another way is to reset the driving record under basic settings.

 

Personally speaking, I selected all of the poll options.

Is there a way to monitor fluid condition? That would be pretty cool.

 

That would be awesome, but would take some custom code added to the TCU.

I just plan on doing fluid changes every 60,000 miles or less for extreme service duty.
And always make sure to reset all adaption channels after a fluid and filter change.

 

How close are we talking?

A month? Six months? A year?

 

I have some testers out now for a long enough time to get a good feel for it.
Few months time, and this poll will help me to know where to focus my efforts.

 

Less hesitation on pulling out would be great.

 

My current TCM tune fixes that, but this will build upon that and add other features.

 

Interested in this. Sounds like I would be able to ditch my pedal commander?

 

The pedal commander just adjusts the pedal throttle position that the ECU see's versus actual.
So this would be different than that.

 

I am excited for this! Wait so you are still talking about the transmission though right? You aren't getting into the actual ECU power?

 

Correct just TCM performance tune, I have a guy in germany for the ECU stuff

 

While I don't have as much experience with the 6 speeds as I do the 8 speeds, I have a feeling VW didn't have to change as much on them due to less restrictions on them being in a different emissions class.

But from an 8 speed standpoint:
1) No more hesitation while pulling out
2) Warm up post fix is gas like as it keeps the RPM range higher to avoid the peak torque area (more on that in a bit) This is restored back to normal
3) It actually takes advantage of the peak torque area for cruising and for shifting (this area is also the most efficient area of the engine, but also produces the most NOX which is why they try to avoid it)
4) Skip shifting is more pronounced as in give it a throttle full of gas and it will go from say 8th to 3rd as an example where the post fix tends to want to hang onto the current gear and then downshift.
5) Engine Braking which is virtually non existent in the post fix tune is restored back to normal
6) Overall shifting and torque converter lock-up is improved vs post fix

Just a few for examples...

 

Excellent question, the post fix for the 8 speeds has a very dangerous lag to it when you go to pull out.

It's like the transmission isn't sure what or how much power it wants to accept from the ECU and it hesitates.

Some people have recorded the hesitation to be up upwards of a full second.

So imagine you are trying to merge with traffic, you see an opening and punch it only to have your vehicle not go right away and just sit there. Meanwhile the gap that you had it traffic is now closing, and then all of the sudden your vehicle decide oh shoot I'm supposed to me moving then finally goes. It is downright dangerous and one of the many reasons I set out on this quest of TCM tuning as my wife used to drive our Touareg and the last thing I wanted to happen to her was to get waffled because the post fix software was so bad.

 

Excellent question, the post fix for the 8 speeds has a very dangerous lag to it when you go to pull out.

That is indeed dangerous, I had a loaner Atlas that had similar unpredictable delays (varying lengths of time) from the start-stop system, which also seems likely to cause accidents during merging. It seems like VW isn't adequately considering this when road testing their vehicles, which is shocking for a german company known for attention to detail in the driver experience.

I haven't seen this issue with the post-fix 6 speed tune.

I'm also hoping this process helps you understand and explain to us exactly everything VW changed, because some of it might be too subtle to really notice, but still important. Pointing these out and sharing that info with us will also make us want to buy your tune. For example, I am a little unclear on exactly how much and in which ways post fix altered things like automatic downshifting, hill descent control, and any off-road or towing features that people might not notice in different driving. VW implies in the post-fix pamphlet that they changed some of this stuff, but it is unclear exactly what they did.

 

What is dangerous about the post fix tune? Are you talking about the 8 speed only there? With my ‘09 6 speed I have driven it with both post and pre fix ECUs and ultimately decided the differences are fairly subtle, but the post fix ECU is likely a bit better. The main difference I actually notice is higher shift RPMs when cold, which makes the engine warm up much quicker- probably extending its lifespan, and making the heater work better in cold weather. The post fix ECU is closer to how I drive a diesel with a manual transmission myself- it is bad for a diesel to drive gently and shift at low rpms when cold because it then doesn’t burn enough fuel to get to operating temps in a timely manner.

The pre-fix one downshifts a bit sooner going down grades, but still not enough so- even with it I will use triptronic to downshift going down a substantial grade, especially with a trailer. So more aggressive engine braking and hill speed control - especially while towing would be the feature I would want, if possible.

 

Thank you so very much, I really appreciate the compliment!
This isn't just limited to TDi tunes anymore BTW
Anything Aisin should be able to be tuned