Any independent tuners around?

[gflatt]

Any VAG-COM tuners in Jacksonville Florida ??

I'm an old turbo Diesel guy with many years of Mercedes, Gm & Cummins experience. Now have a 06 TDI Jetta, DSG.
I live in Jacksonville, FL., and looking for a local tuner. I want to start with an ECU & DSG basic tune from the stock tune. Anticipate a cam & lifter job in the future.
Contacted Darkside and they do not as of yet have an interface for their DSG tune to be remotely downloaded. (in-house only).
Contacted Kermatdi and they have nothing for the DSG, (Sad)
Inspection @ Now 156,000mi looks good but it's definitely on the list.
Any and all input welcome

 

[kennethsime]

Have you reached out to Malone to see what they might have for you? I just got a Stage 1.5 for my wagon and love it. All done remotely, had the tune installed just a few days after ordering.

The words "independent" and "tuner" in one sentence sound like a terrible idea to me. You want someone reliable, who's seen a lot and is still going be around 6 months from now.

 

[jmodge]

Look for Tdtuning or Malone dealers in your area. Get togethers are another avenue if there are any going on around you, Jeff Roberts of Rocketchip is an example of a Vendor who uses that approach

 

[1854sailor]

Look for Tdtuning or Malone dealers in your area. Get togethers are another avenue if there are any going on around you, Jeff Roberts of Rocketchip is an example of a Vendor who uses that approach

That's Jeff Robertson...

 

[jmodge]

That's Jeff Robertson...

What’s three letters

 

[1854sailor]

What’s three letters

There's another Jeff somebody out there who has been mistaken for RocketChip...

 

[jmodge]

You’re right, and I believe his name is Roberts. Apparently another playing off the Rocketchip name by adding USA at the end of it

 

[Jetta_Pilot]

You really do NOT need anyone else to do this for you.

Unless I am wrong I thought "Kerma" is gone?

Malone will rent you the Flashzilla tool to download your OEM tune via the OBD II port, then you email the OEM tune to them. Within a very short time you will get your new tune emailed back to you. Then you use the Flashzilla tool to install the tuned file to your car. Next send the tool back to Malone for your refundable deposit. Or you can buy the Flaszilla tool.

For the DSG tune the procedure is similar except that there is a bit more work involved to get at the plug for the DSG. This requires a different tool, not the Flashzilla.

 

[gflatt]

Been a long time,, Now 2022,, I, have a Frank02 Stg. 2 Cam & lifter, along with a full "T" belt, & water pump. Removed the EGR completely, a MUCH Better workroom for turbo upgrades. Just ordered a 3BAR MAP Sensor from Cascade in Oregon. Need it for a Malone Stg.2 Tune, with anticipation of GT17 in the future. Will be doing a LubroMolly DSG fluid & filter service soon after the Tune.

 

[DivineChaos]

Yeah. Malone tuned here. Love it.stage 4 kit. Cp3 to be installed.

 

[KERMA]

The CR cars have artificially low torque limiters ,which drives the initial desire for DSG tunes on those. And aggressive upshifting designed to get you into 4th gear quickly as possible to help with emissions certification on the EPA test cycle dyno. Then they bog down in real world driving, which gets annoying and even dangerous. A proper DSG tune makes them a lot better to live with.

The BRM, on the other hand, are pretty decently behaved even with strong state of engine tune turbos injectors, etc. With the BRM DSG, we've found the desire to tune (very frequently) stems from the existence of some strange malfunction that causes odd behavior even when the engine is stock. They read about how the magic tunes fix everything, and come to believe they can "fix" some weird transmission problem like worn out clutches or low fluid for example, by "tuning it out". (I want a dsg tune because my stock brm is flanging or slipping in top gear or banging and I heard a dsg tune can fix that) Sadly it doesn't exactly work like that. As a practical or technical matter, DSG tune on MK5 BRM is no problem, and we've done them, it works well. But we've learned to be very selective about agreeing to BRM DSG tunes because of we've found most of the guys coming to us for them in a BRM are hoping to avoid fixing a mechanical issue.
Because the stock BRM DSG tune works great as-is, even with very strong engine builds. So the sales team screens BRM DSG inquiries a little more thoroughly, then we tend to talk them out of getting a dsg tune. (Better to repair the transmission or replace with manual perhaps) Nowadays DSG tune can be done via the QPro, it's actually pretty convenient. So we advise tuning the engine, then if they still feel the need for a DSG tune we can revisit that later. Very few actually end up actually wanting the DSG tune, so the stock answer has pretty much defaulted to " no" when the question comes up. It's just not needed for teh vast majority of builds.
Maybe we should try to sell more, IDK. They are usually just fine without it.

 

[KERMA]

BTW in Jax go see Southside Euro

 

[gflatt]

Have you reached out to Malone to see what they might have for you? I just got a Stage 1.5 for my wagon and love it. All done remotely, had the tune installed just a few days after ordering.

The words "independent" and "tuner" in one sentence sound like a terrible idea to me. You want someone reliable, who's seen a lot and is still going be around 6 months from now.

My intention with (independent) was professional, other than Dealership. There are 2 Malone, & 1 Kerma tuners in Jacksonville, I have fully removed the EGR & the Kerma guy didn't like that. So Malone is what it will be. If I were younger and more tech. than Wrench, I would just buy the Flashzilla and order the tunes.

 

[kennethsime]

My intention with (independent) was professional, other than Dealership. There are 2 Malone, & 1 Kerma tuners in Jacksonville, I have fully removed the EGR & the Kerma guy didn't like that. So Malone is what it will be. If I were younger and more tech. than Wrench, I would just buy the Flashzilla and order the tunes.

Ok, that makes a lot of sense. Malone and Kerma are great.

There are a couple of small-time guys who tried to get into the business of tuning recently and failed miserably - their drama has been all over several VW / TDI Facebook groups. In summary, they offered tuning and then disappeared when customers had trouble. I would keep guys like that away from my car at all costs. Why anyone would trust some guy from a Facebook group to mess around with their car's ECU is beyond me.

 

[1854sailor]

I have only ever had RocketChip tunes as I could drive to Jeff's place in about 45 minutes when I lived in Baltimore. I much prefer the in-person service to doing it through email. Jeff would do a scan, take the car for a test drive and log info, then work his magic. As soon as Part Two of the Dieselgate "Fix" is done on our cars, I'll be checking his schedule to find out when he's going to be up this way...