Completed Phase 1 TDI Fix on my 2015 TDI Sportwagen

Yesterday morning I had phase 1 TDI fix done on my 2015 TDI Sportwagen. So far I've driven it on a 36 mile trip from dealer to work, then to home. I think I like the new throttle response better. The new throttle change feels smoother, snappier, and possibly faster. The whole car feels more spunky. I personally feel my car is much more enjoyable to drive then before. To me there is an inconsiderable difference when changing lanes on the freeway while traveling around 65 mph in D mode. I also notice that my car is now more spontaneous when making a turn from a dead stop. Prior to reprogramming and recalibration my car had a slight hesitation when turning from a dead stop, even though the engine sounded like it was revving up when making a turn, which has not been apparent so far. Engine noise was a little different, not louder or annoying, but I usually have the music playing...so no big deal. Good stuff!

Update: I was driving to work today and I had my music turned off so that I may hear the engine better. I really don't believe the engine was any louder than it was before, but I do think it purrs more often. Although' whether in D or S mode, the first 3 gears do initialized quicker. However, the last 3 gears seem to initalized slightly slower. Even so, I can still say in the the last 3 gears the car still feels faster then before. On the other hand, it's hard for me to describe or pin-point but the last 3 gears do also feel a little bit out of place.

...So far I still like the change more.

how much time passed from when you submitted your docs online to when you were able to schedule an appointment?

Huh, I wonder if they tuned it or added a dogbone to offset whatever they have to do to "decrease emmisions"? LOL

What you are describing sounds like turbo lag is now eased, which usually happens with a tune.

Ooga said:

how much time passed from when you submitted your docs online to when you were able to schedule an appointment?

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If I recall correctly I think I applied in September,agreement was received less then a month later, notarized the forms in October, scanned and uploaded documents then waited. I guess I was lucky... I can definitely say my experience was smooth with no hiccups. Once I received notice in the mail that the fix was approved by CARB and EPA...I called my dealer and made an appointment for the next day...the dealer was ready to go with the fix...dropped the car off the next early morning and it took them less than 2 hours to complete (while I had my breakfast at the nearby Starbucks). They even cleaned the snow salt off the car, did a quick vacuum in the cabin, and got extra goodies with the purchase of VW gear I made when I was there. Nice!

TDIinMA said:

Huh, I wonder if they tuned it or added a dogbone to offset whatever they have to do to "decrease emmisions"? LOL

What you are describing sounds like turbo lag is now eased, which usually happens with a tune.

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not sure.

thanks for the reply!

Picked up my gsw/s/6mt after the fix. Only thing I noticed is a higher initial idle at 1000 rpm and stayed there until I depressed the clutch and shifted into first. Could be the cold start, but I have had cold starts where it didn't do this in the past before the fix. Couldn't detect any change in performance and sound once I got going on rush hour traffic.

I have my appointment Thursday morning!

Does make me wonder if the turbo boost and fuel curve was changed to compensate for reprogramming power reduction...

Just received my email this morning from chase bank and registered new account.

Got my payment January 27, three days after receiving email from Chase bank.! YAY... and best yet, I still love my TDI. Win-Win! I've driven the same distance to and from work and filled up after the same number of days before the fix since the last fill up (which was done right after the fix) ,so I don't think MPG was affected much (yeah, not scientific but it a good indication of what to expect for MPG).

had the Phase 1 Emissions mod done last Wed... seems quicker off the line, no more accidental 'chirp' of the wheels if pedal is pressed too hard or too fast... engine doesn't sound louder... and amazingly, still haven't had a regen as yet, despite driving around the county for four hours last Friday...

had a chance to punch it this morning when getting on a state highway from a long frontage road and ramp - seems just as good at acceleration (no loss of power at all)

oh, and the first bit of settlement money hit the bank this morning!

willie
on the liking life on the Gulf of Mexico

They say 9 hours for next fix? Hope that won't mess things up!
Had first adjustment no more turbo lag. Wonder what the warrenty is like?

ajaleo@comcast.net said:

Wonder what the warrenty is like?

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Didn't you read the disclosure booklet? It describes what's covered, and for how long. Also describes what Phase 2 of the fix will entail, and what differences VW says to expect after the fix.

DanB36 said:

Also describes what Phase 2 of the fix will entail, and what differences VW says to expect after the fix.

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If anyone can decipher phase II please explain it here. Very ambiguous wording. I can't make sense of it.

DanB36 said:

Didn't you read the disclosure booklet? It describes what's covered, and for how long. Also describes what Phase 2 of the fix will entail, and what differences VW says to expect after the fix.

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This is my interpretation: At the time when your vehicle is brought into service for the 2nd fix...

1) If your TDI has MORE than 40,000(automatic) or 70,000(manual) on the odometer, your vehicle will need to have lots of stuff added and removed from your car, as well as more software updates, to maintain the emissions and reliability of your vehicle's 150,000 mile estimated useful life. But there will be no significant change in driving experience since the first fix. (I think they do this because this indicates you drive way too much so your car may produce increase pollution and experience more wear.)

2) If your TDI has LESS than 40,000(automatic) or 70,000(manual) on the odometer, your vehicle will need to have only one thing changed to maintain the emissions and reliability of your vehicle's 150,000 mile estimated useful life. But there will be no significant change in driving experience since the first fix. (I think this indicates you don't drive enough.)

Spielen said:

This is my interpretation: At the time when your vehicle is brought into service for the 2nd fix...
1) If your TDI has MORE than 40,000(automatic) or 70,000(manual) on the odometer, your vehicle will need to have lots of stuff added and removed from your car, as well as more software updates, to maintain the emissions and reliability of your vehicle's 150,000 mile estimated useful life. But there will be no significant change in driving experience since the first fix. (I think they do this because this indicates you drive way too much so your car may produce increase pollution and experience more wear.)
2) If your TDI has LESS than 40,000(automatic) or 70,000(manual) on the odometer, your vehicle will need to have only one thing changed to maintain the emissions and reliability of your vehicle's 150,000 mile estimated useful life. But there will be no significant change in driving experience since the first fix. (I think this indicates you don't drive enough.)

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You may be correct but it makes no sense to me. If you car has more that 40,000/70,000 it needs parts to make it to 150,000 miles, but if it has less than 40,000/70,000 the current parts will suffice to 150,000? We may just may have to wait until PII is rolled out before we really know the details.
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Also the 150,000 mile figure is supposedly the life of the emissions system, not necessarily the useful life of the car.

I finally decided to do the fix on the 2015. I submitted the paperwork on Saturday. On Monday I had papers. Submitted them the same day. Yesterday had offer, submitted it today. 20 minutes later the claim was fully approved and I was asked to schedule an appointment with the dealer.

HOLY CRAP

They've got their stuff together since I turned in the Passat. Phase 1 scheduled for Friday. I hope I don't regret it.

16vjohn said:

Phase 1 scheduled for Friday. I hope I don't regret it.

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i don't think you will... the deal for '15 owners is too good.. who knows what Phase 2 will bring, but so far Phase 1 seems not to affect the driving experience in a negative way... in fact, the DSG shifting seems to be somewhat improved for us non-Sport-mode users...

on the other hand, who knows about the hardware... and we have still have not had a regen since last Wed after the reflash....

i'll be out tomorrow morning to the dealer who forgot to affix the emissions stickers last week (they won't get paid otherwise?)

willie
on the gonna-go-back Gulf of Mexico

My dealer seemed to think that if a car had less than the prescribed miles (40 or 70k), then the 2 stage fix would still be applied if the car was brought in for stage 2, but that the parts would be replaced if they failed before 150k.

The language is tricky though. The first paragraph kind of makes it sound like they'll only replace the DOC if the car has accumulated enough miles, while the second says it'll be replaced a second time if the car has fewer than 40 or 70k. Upon a second reading, I'm guessing they'll do the update regardless of miles at the time, and that they assume that the new DOC will last 110k on DSG cars, 80k on manual cars, and that if your car won't make it past 150k on the first replacement, they schedule a second 110 or 80k later. They've set the numbers, so they'll have to replace as few as possible a second time.

There is no way, I'll be anywhere near 70k when the second stage arrives. It'll be interesting to see if I'm right. I don't think my dealer's assessment squares with the language of the settlement.

By the way. The only difference I can tell on my 6mt Passat is the stickers under the hood and knowing it's 100% ours since we've used the payment to pay off the bank loan.

Stage 1

So months ago I filled out all the questions on the on line WEB. I have my claim number etc.......

Does VW send me notice to set up appointment for the fix with my pre- selected dealer or does the Dealer send me notice for the fix.

Dealer states that VW will ? But they do not sound too organized.

FiveLugNut said:

Does VW send me notice to set up appointment for the fix with my pre- selected dealer or does the Dealer send me notice for the fix.

Dealer states that VW will ? But they do not sound too organized.

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once you get your offer letter from VW - which states how much you'll get for the Phase 1 and 2 modifications - you'll then need to sign and notarize the last page of the document, then either scan the entire document into a single PDF and upload it, or mail or fax the document back to VW...

you'll then hear from VW - either by mail, phone, or email - whichever you chose - that the offer letter has been accepted...

then YOU call your dealer to set up the appointment... i had to admit that i was a bit confused about this part of the process - i [believe] that any VW dealer can do the modification, but i went to the one i selected at the VW online claims web site

hope this helps...

willie
on the waiting-for-Phase-2 Gulf of Mexico

Zero discernible difference after phase 1 except I can hear the dosing system working harder during warm up. I took it on a long drive, mileage didn't suffer. I noticed no difference in power or engine sounds. Hard to figure out why these cars didn't have this tune from the factory. I wish we really knew more about the actual changes to the config... Duty cycles, etc.

Edit --

For those interested, after you accept the offer in the portal, they ask you to schedule an appointment. They will show you your "preferred dealer" and you can schedule an appointment online from there. I had questions, so I called my dealer service department directly. They asked me 2 or 3 times if I was sure I completed the paperwork and was authorized to receive the fix. Upon arrival at the dealer, they said it would take 3 hours. I spoke with the actual technician and he said it was simply a software update. In that, he hooked up his computer and flashed the ECU. This was followed by the new under-hood sticker, (which was done hastily with a sharpie) and a quick drive around the area to make sure the car functioned and no codes were produced. There was also paperwork that had to be completed and this took some time as well. I was waiting about 2.5 hours while I did some work on my laptop. The technician mentioned that I was the 5th car to receive it and they hadn't heard of any issues or had anybody call back yet. He gave me a new window sticker that showed the "new EPA figures which are unchanged". The next page had some details on the work that would be done in the phases and that I would be receiving the 2/3 money today and the rest later.

After checking the console to make sure the coins were still there, I was off. Pretty painless for a dealer visit.

Fix sop

linux_author said:

once you get your offer letter from VW - which states how much you'll get for the Phase 1 and 2 modifications - you'll then need to sign and notarize the last page of the document, then either scan the entire document into a single PDF and upload it, or mail or fax the document back to VW...

you'll then hear from VW - either by mail, phone, or email - whichever you chose - that the offer letter has been accepted...

then YOU call your dealer to set up the appointment... i had to admit that i was a bit confused about this part of the process - i [believe] that any VW dealer can do the modification, but i went to the one i selected at the VW online claims web site

hope this helps...

willie
on the waiting-for-Phase-2 Gulf of Mexico

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Thanks. I found out I need to load Reg and Lic to Claims site first which I did today.......................

16vjohn said:

... mileage didn't suffer. I noticed no difference in power or engine sounds.

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I just fueled up and got the best mpg tank of the whole winter. The software flash had obviously zero impact on fuel efficiency. Still, no noticeable changes in behavior. Phase 1 is off to a good start, phase 2 will be more interesting, I think.

I would think a before and after dyno would answer any fears

as promised earlier in this thread:

just filled up for the first time following the Phase 1 Emissions Modification:

using paper and pencil:

403 miles with a 10.33 gal fill up = 39.01 mpg city/hwy combined (25-50mph county roads)

so we're happy that we have kept our '15 GSW TDI DSG

willie
on the 'a smile with every mile' Gulf of Mexico

laminated said:

I would think a before and after dyno would answer any fears

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I'm sure it will take an actual dyno test for some, but I'm telling you... if it did change the maximum output or delivery of power by way of hp/torque curves, I noticed absolutely no difference. I can't speak for the DSG owners, who have typically reported an improvement in driving characteristics, but by every practical measurement to me, as the driver, it changed nothing.

I realize I can't speak for everyone, but even if the power was down 20% to 120hp, I'd still be 120% satisfied with this car.

linux_author said:

as promised earlier in this thread:

just filled up for the first time following the Phase 1 Emissions Modification:

using paper and pencil:

403 miles with a 10.33 gal fill up = 39.01 mpg city/hwy combined (25-50mph county roads)

so we're happy that we have kept our '15 GSW TDI DSG

willie
on the 'a smile with every mile' Gulf of Mexico

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The important questions are have you been driving the same routes you normally do and in your normal fashion? And how different is that mileage calculation from what you were getting previously before having the fix done (if any difference)?