My A3 TDI Modification Progress

Terry270

Veteran Member
Joined
Jul 18, 2014
Location
BG, KY
TDI
03 golf, 10 A3
Thanks Terry. I hear you there man. I kept the stock struts from the 18" sport package because they were good, and I wasn't so ready for a harsher ride due to struts just yet :)
Well if what I read is correct, the koni yellows are an improvement over factory ride quality. We'll see i guess
 

PhunkFX

Veteran Member
Joined
May 19, 2011
Location
Hudson Valley, NY
TDI
2014 Audi Q5 TDI S-Line, 2005.5 Jetta TDI (BRM) 6MT (02Q)
Took my car to a dyno today for somewhat of a TDI tuner shootout. It was pretty cool other than my car kept trying to shift while in manual DSG mode when it shouldn't. But with all of my mods I was surprised at how well it performed.

182whp / 327wtq

Video of the run: https://youtu.be/CutkZbNqyNo





The other car was Kerma tuned Jetta TDI 6MT, tune and catback only, no deletes. It did very well also. Out of respect to the vendors, both equally helpful, and for the privacy of the other owner, I'll not publicly state the competition numbers. But as a surprise, I did better in HP, and the Jetta did better in TQ.
 

PhunkFX

Veteran Member
Joined
May 19, 2011
Location
Hudson Valley, NY
TDI
2014 Audi Q5 TDI S-Line, 2005.5 Jetta TDI (BRM) 6MT (02Q)
Just a more aggressive tune. But that could be true as well. They are both technically manual trans, one just shifts for you... So I'm not sure here.
 

Terry270

Veteran Member
Joined
Jul 18, 2014
Location
BG, KY
TDI
03 golf, 10 A3
Nice! I'll await the feedback. :p
I was just reading this thread to see if you had to readjust your headlights after lowering your A3 and saw this lol.

The ride with Koni yellows and springs is better than factory when dealing with small bumps in the road, if it's a bad pothole then you do feel it a bit more than stock. Overall very happy with it.

About the headlights, I am guessing that they need to be adjusted through vag com or something? The headlight sensor is attached to the lower control arm on the drivers rear so it thinks that there is like 500lbs in the trunk and is aiming the headlights down lol
 

turbobrick240

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Nov 18, 2014
Location
maine
TDI
2011 vw golf tdi(gone to greener pastures), 2001 ford f250 powerstroke
Just a more aggressive tune. But that could be true as well. They are both technically manual trans, one just shifts for you... So I'm not sure here.
Not really trying to nitpick here- but if your car tries to shift when you don't want it to, it's not a true manual transmission. It's a dual clutch automatic transmission that somewhat resembles a true manual transmission internally.
 

Tailwagger

Well-known member
Joined
Nov 1, 2014
Location
MA
TDI
2015 A3
Not really trying to nitpick here- but if your car tries to shift when you don't want it to, it's not a true manual transmission. It's a dual clutch automatic transmission that somewhat resembles a true manual transmission internally.
True, but the point is that there is no torque converter; gearing is direct and the question is about equivalent drive train loss. Regardless, always iffy to take the numbers as definitive when comparing two cars, even on the same dyno on the same day. Beyond driveline differences... when was the last time all the relevant fluids were changed... changes in ambient conditions along with different tires, pressures, wear levels, can skew results. Certainly enough to be unable to declare a 'winner' when the differences are under a couple of percent.
 

turbobrick240

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Nov 18, 2014
Location
maine
TDI
2011 vw golf tdi(gone to greener pastures), 2001 ford f250 powerstroke
True, but the point is that there is no torque converter; gearing is direct and the question is about equivalent drive train loss. Regardless, always iffy to take the numbers as definitive when comparing two cars, even on the same dyno on the same day. Beyond driveline differences... when was the last time all the relevant fluids were changed... changes in ambient conditions along with different tires, pressures, wear levels, can skew results. Certainly enough to be unable to declare a 'winner' when the differences are under a couple of percent.
Good point. There are probably some quite minor additional parasitic pumping losses in the DSG vs. the manual trans., but I doubt it's more than a horsepower or two.
 

skycrane

Well-known member
Joined
Jul 29, 2016
Location
NoVA
TDI
'12 Audi A3, 96 E300, 87 300SDL
Of course lol. I'm about to get started on the NFA trust so I'll probably look for an AA12 after all that's done. Or if there is another semi auto drum fed shotgun out there I would probably go that route
The AA12 is an automatic Shotgun:). I've got a semi Saiga 12 with a 20 Rd drum:) it wears out my trigger finger when I have fun with it... hehe
 
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