Is a Malone tune right for me?

I'm not sure how difficult it is to make an ECU from one car work with another these days, with the more sophisticated encryption they now use. If you can do it that could help.

I decided I don't care about the warranty. I want to enjoy driving the car. Rocketchip uses the pre-fix programming as the base for tuning, so I believe the tuned car is going to put less stress on the turbo and emissions hardware. At the rate I'm going my car is going to age out of the warranty before I have enough miles on it for anything to fail. And if I did have a failure I'd not trust the dealer to fix it correctly.

Yea I’ll probably just scrap the warranty as I’m hearing a lot of parts take months to come into stock so the warranty is pretty worthless anyways.

52172 said:

Yea I’ll probably just scrap the warranty as I’m hearing a lot of parts take months to come into stock so the warranty is pretty worthless anyways.

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They are obligated to provide a loaner car in that case IIRC. You can throw the warranty away but it isn't worthless.

52172 said:

Yea I’ll probably just scrap the warranty as I’m hearing a lot of parts take months to come into stock so the warranty is pretty worthless anyways.

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They are obligated to provide a loaner car in that case IIRC. You can throw the warranty away but it isn't worthless. Everyone has to make their own decision on what is important to them.

I’ve heard of cats on back order for 3-4 months and vw not able to lend a car that long. Also cracked dpf filters same amount of time on back order.

Required by court order. VW is able to do whatever it wants to do as far as getting you a loaner. You will have to know what the court order requires them to do and be able to hold your own "if" it comes to any of that. Sounds like you want a tune though so just get one. They can be nice just know for sure what you are giving up in return.

I def want a tune, but first I want to see if people are passing the emissions test with a stage 1 tune here in Ca with all emissions stuff left in tact. I don’t see why it wouldn’t pass with everything in readiness. I was passing emissions with a gutted cat and hybrid turbo and Malone stage 4 but car was an 01.

You might want to do some research on that. I recall someone posting something about a tuned car getting flagged even though emissionsn were intact. But I don't recall the details. And I wouldn't necessarily trust a tuner to give you accurate info. Not really their job.

Last I heard not all the readiness monitors will set properly and it will not pass, if they are checking by OBDII. Ask your tuner though as I may be mistaken. You live in the worst state to try this though.

Mine shows readiness in Massachusetts. Inspection is no problem. But as Lightflyer1 says, CA is its own animal when it comes to inspections.

IndigoBlueWagon said:

One thing we've heard from customers is that cars with DPFs that have a lot of soot accumulation will suffer frequent regens as the system tries to reduce the soot load and back pressure.

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I have documentation that my DPF was replaced @ the fix 8k ago. Since Ive been watching the Polar fis readings Ive been regularly seeing the soot load build to active regen state in under 200 miles (mostly around town driving). I regen on the freeway, under the needed conditions and they only last a couple minutes before back to zero soot load. My question is why does my new DPF seem to require an active regen so fast?

I just installed a Kerma tune and the soot is waaaay less. Ive only really driven 80 miles, mostly freeway, so the jury is still out. The soot has held zero, much unlike the fix tune that loaded up quickly under passsive regeneration.

Owain@malonetuning said:

, EGR flow being under requested is another story.
https://log.malonetuning.com/chart/239515
https://log.malonetuning.com/chart/...Mw7jDj3RNw5M3w43CoWnDhmrDtAfDs8KXwpPCuhsBAAA=

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What exactly does dynamic EGR mean? Seems the threads Ive read allude to this being a needed part for passing emmisions (readiness monitor)

Lightflyer1 said:

The VW mother ship more than likely checks the flash counter every time it is connected to a dealer

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Do they automatically check?

IndigoBlueWagon said:

Mine shows readiness in Massachusetts. Inspection is no problem. But as Lightflyer1 says, CA is its own animal when it comes to inspections.

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Your def right, but I could always flash back to stock every two years for the emissions test. It’s crazy my hybrid turbo mk4 would pass the ca emissions test even with a gutted cat.

I had dynamic EGR on my mk4 and it was passing the test.

52172 said:

I def want a tune, but first I want to see if people are passing the emissions test with a stage 1 tune here in Ca with all emissions stuff left in tact. I don’t see why it wouldn’t pass with everything in readiness. I was passing emissions with a gutted cat and hybrid turbo and Malone stage 4 but car was an 01.

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forums.tdiclub.com/showthread.php?t=504664

IndigoBlueWagon said:

Mine shows readiness in Massachusetts. Inspection is no problem. But as Lightflyer1 says, CA is its own animal when it comes to inspections.

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Your def right, but I could always flash back to stock every two years for the emissions test. It’s crazy my hybrid turbo mk4 would pass the ca emissions test even with a gutted cat.

I wish I had some good regen data pre and post tune. I suspect that the timing was retarded quite a bit to pass NOx limits, which in turn reduces power, mileage and increases soot. Ditch that timing setup and it seems reasonable that, to some point, you can make more power with better mileage and still save the life of the DPF.

Glad I read this. I got a 2015 TDi DSG with the "fix" back in December. Warranty is 2 years, unlimited miles. I thought about flashing the ECU and flashing it back before going to the dealer, but that's not a good plan with a flash counter. Better to wait IMHO. Will probably do some suspension tuning and get new tires in the mean time and tighten up the handling a bit.