05/09/2026
I got into work today to tune one of my favourite cars. 😍
A 2.0TDI 150HP Golf R Line with a DSG gearbox.
Why are these one of my favourite cars?
They have a smaller turbo than the equivalent GTD, so the spool up is instant. You can make these really punchy and responsive low down, almost like an old PD but with more refinement. Which is fantastic because the owner had come from a long string of diesel Golfs and had an older PD140 BKD engine in a Mk5 years ago, and he knew exactly what I meant when I said I'd make his new common rail diesel drive like an old PD.
Ordinarily with the DSG 150hp cars I don't push gearbox tuning, however this customer had some specific requests which meant I had a fiddle with the gearbox too.
Initially we health checked the car with a road test. During the road test our datalogging equipment was setup and recording and we did various different things with it, part throttle steady driving, pulling away from junctions, simulating an overtake, a full throttle pull from 1200rpm to almost redline etc etc. Once we had a handle on the data we came back and I looked through it all.
We looked at requested vs actual boost pressure, we checked the airflow, we checked fuel pressure, monitored exhaust gas temperatures, DPF pressure, inlet temperatures, injection quantity and duration as well as every other bit of data I could get my hands on.
The outcome was a very, very healthy car. Dare I say it, faultless.
The engine tune was easy, I've done plenty of these so I went for one of my "go to" files but had a little tweak on the drivers wish to make the gearbox and throttle pedal slightly more responsive. This tune has been on hundreds of cars and always delivers 420nm and around 185hp, with safe and controlled exhaust temps and a really nice boost profile.
The gearbox had the torque limitations raised, shift points on the way up the gearbox raised by 200rpm up to 60% throttle and on the way back down the gearbox shift points were raised by 300rpm in the no throttle and up to around 30% throttle zones. Giving a sportier and more coherent feel to the gearbox.
Torque reduction during gear shifts was decreased, shift time was reduced to give a faster physical gear change and clamping pressure was ramped up by a moderate 10%.
Then we went back out on the road with me driving initially and in my eyes the car was perfect. Sharper, smoother delivery, more torque, more power and a perfectly behaved gearbox.
We came back and I sent the owner out for a drive, and he came back with a different opinion. 😬
He found he was having to apply more throttle than he wanted to for the gearbox to drop down a gear and was hoping for a more responsive feel.
I COULD have flashed the car again, but first I changed the coding of the throttle pedal from VW spec to the sport linerisation that Audi models had. Then I sent him out for another drive.
Job done. "I don't find it annoying anymore."
The car did throw a spanner in the works mid tuning session, the park position microswitch in the shifter decided that five minutes after I tuned it would be a fantastic time for it to start playing up. The customer was no spring chicken, so once I explained the fault and the fix there was no question it was an irrelevant and poorly timed coincidence. But at least it's a cheap fix!
The customer was fantastic, which given my staged return to work and enormously reduced pace was something I really appreciated. As much as I appreciated his 6 hour round trip to visit us this morning.
Job jobbed.
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This post should hopefully serve as a nudge for people, I AM returning to work slowly.
Yes it's only one car a day, but there's no reason I shouldn't be able to spread the diary out that way until I'm back on my feet.
If you want to book in our diary is here - https://northeasttuning.as.me
The way the diary is setup at the moment it shows all available times on one day, once one appointment is booked it closes that day and won't accept anymore bookings.
Thanks for your support, lets get me working again. 💪
