My rs3 feels slower suddenly :(

[lepooj]

Hey guys,

I got myself a 2018 RS3 with 16k miles on it and flashed it day 2, uni stage 1 flash only.

Now a few weeks later
+3I really feel the car got slower since when i flashed it (not compared to stock tho). The weather did get pretty much hotter since but id like to check if theres any known issues that could become a bottleneck that i could have checked.

Thank you

[John@Unitronic]

There's a few factors that can contribute to either the feeling of performance degradation or an actual performance degradation. Firstly, if you're using the stock intercooler, this unit will lose efficiency rather quickly, which is more prevalent as the ambient temperatures rise. There's a chance that you're encountering the limitations of some of the stock components, like the factory intercooler, which will degrade performance if it can't provide the necessary efficiency to keep the charge air cool and dense. If you find this to be the case, you should consider adding an intercooler upgrade. Our upcoming Intercooler Upgrade will certainly address the issues present with the stock intercooler, to ensure that efficiency is maintained to keep charge temp's to a minimum. In addition, it happens from time to time that customers will grow used to the added performance over time and as they adapt to the extra power over stock. With that being said, we have an awesome Authorized Dealer Network locally here in the greater Montreal area, and we (Unitronic) ourselves are here as well, so with this support network, I am certain that you can find the assistance in determining what could be causing what you've felt over the last few weeks, and work with you to address these shortcomings with the factory hardware components, etc. Hope that helps!

[S3DUDE]

There's a few factors that can contribute to either the feeling of performance degradation or an actual performance degradation. Firstly, if you're using the stock intercooler, this unit will lose efficiency rather quickly, which is more prevalent as the ambient temperatures rise. There's a chance that you're encountering the limitations of some of the stock components, like the factory intercooler, which will degrade performance if it can't provide the necessary efficiency to keep the charge air cool and dense. If you find this to be the case, you should consider adding an intercooler upgrade. Our upcoming Intercooler Upgrade will certainly address the issues present with the stock intercooler, to ensure that efficiency is maintained to keep charge temp's to a minimum. In addition, it happens from time to time that customers will grow used to the added performance over time and as they adapt to the extra power over stock. With that being said, we have an awesome Authorized Dealer Network locally here in the greater Montreal area, and we (Unitronic) ourselves are here as well, so with this support network, I am certain that you can find the assistance in determining what could be causing what you've felt over the last few weeks, and work with you to address these shortcomings with the factory hardware components, etc. Hope that helps!

Spot on. Initially you feel a big difference but after a while it feels normal because you get use to. He could benefit from the intercooler. I am running Uni E-85 (just the tune) and my car is performing flawlessly and I am flirting with the 110 degrees. Bulletproof tune at 3100 feet elevation and scorching heat

[lepooj]

THanks John yeah its at VAG motorsport for a catless midpipe and your inlet hose next thursdday, il have em check and yeah your upcoming DP and IC are going on the car. :)

- - - Updated - - -

Spot on. Initially you feel a big difference but after a while it feels normal because you get use to. He could benefit from the intercooler. I am running Uni E-85 (just the tune) and my car is performing flawlessly and I am flirting with the 110 degrees. Bulletproof tune at 3100 feet elevation and scorching heat

it doesnt feel much faster than my stg 2 golf r loql i think somethings wrong but yeah might be IC

[javbomb]

THanks John yeah its at VAG motorsport for a catless midpipe and your inlet hose next thursdday, il have em check and yeah your upcoming DP and IC are going on the car. :)

- - - Updated - - -




it doesnt feel much faster than my stg 2 golf r loql i think somethings wrong but yeah might be IC

You say you just went with stage 1? Why not 1+?

[hckymstr19]

Spot on. Initially you feel a big difference but after a while it feels normal because you get use to. He could benefit from the intercooler. I am running Uni E-85 (just the tune) and my car is performing flawlessly and I am flirting with the 110 degrees. Bulletproof tune at 3100 feet elevation and scorching heat

Any idea what your IATs are after a wot pull through a couple gears?

[Ross_T_Boss]

The best sanity checker is a Dragy... put some 100-200kmh times and you can compare. If it helps, my Stage 2 E85 map felt a little 'slow' this week - now I haven't pulled any times but I can be pretty certain it is just my brain re-calibrating, as I was shocked to find myself cresting the on-ramp at 110mph. It's been the same for any car I've ever had...

[TheContrarian]

You are suffering from acceleration desensitization. The only cure is more power. A side effect is diminishing cash balance

[S3DUDE]

Any idea what your IATs are after a wot pull through a couple gears?

No, not yet. I need to watch Brain's video for loging data so thatI can test the IAT and all that kind of stuff. If I have to guess I would say that yes the heat would rob power if I keep driving hard consistently. Are you driving hard all the time? I don't.

[javbomb]

No, not yet. I need to watch Brain's video for loging data so thatI can test the IAT and all that kind of stuff. If I have to guess I would say that yes the heat would rob power if I keep driving hard consistently. Are you driving hard all the time? I don't.

Seems your IAT will just simply continue to climb anyway when just driving around normally, its only when you get on the gas and on boost will it rapidly drop due to the airflow increase through the intercooler. Just about any intercooler will do this and heat soak itself on a drive around. Its all about how quickly it recovers when you put your foot down and how low it drops only then.

I've found my car will like to eventually warm up and sit at about 40-45C IAT when driving at cruising speed. Not sitting in traffic, When I put my foot down this can drop to mid or even low 30C depending on the ambient temp outside. Its usually on the warmer side in Australia. I've seen the Factory FMIC hit 70C in traffic, but being fin and tube it would drop pretty damned quickly when you start driving again, problem with that is it heat-soaks so damn fast though, so on boost it could easily climb into the 60's again.

Here is a 15 minute drive in my car from cold start on a 30C day and a couple little bursts pulls along the drive, this is the bar and plate CTS FMIC, you can see the IAT just gradually climbs over time, then I get on boost a tiny bit and it drops during the pull, then gradually climbs again.



Here is 4 short pulls in a row on a long road in quick succession. These were in 3rd, so the FMIC didnt even have time to drop IAT's fully, you can see the RPM drops before the temp stops dropping. The car was pretty warm here too.



Then on the dyno the IAT looks way different, the dyno cell here was about 29C and we are on the back end of about 16 dyno pulls in the space of an hour or so logging various things in my car... Still though, here under a full load, very long 5th gear pull, the IATs drop 10C really quickly, then slowly climb through the pull.

This first pull drops to only 6C above ambient during the pull, thats pretty good to me! p.s. Check out my wastegate, reaches 95% duty, on just Stage 1+ and CTS FMIC, no other mods!



Now the car was getting really heat soaked, still drops to 10C above ambient for the pull then climbs:




Since these logs I have upgrades heaps of stuff, got a catless downpipe and an IE intake on the car now fully stage 2. The other thing to look out for is your wastegate duty cycle, its possible your car is having trouble even hitting requested boost, which is leaving power on the table. And if you are pulling timing due to heatsoak or fuel quality, that's also going to be power on the table.

[hckymstr19]

Seems your IAT will just simply continue to climb anyway when just driving around normally, its only when you get on the gas and on boost will it rapidly drop due to the airflow increase through the intercooler. Just about any intercooler will do this and heat soak itself on a drive around. Its all about how quickly it recovers when you put your foot down and how low it drops only then.

I've found my car will like to eventually warm up and sit at about 40-45C IAT when driving at cruising speed. Not sitting in traffic, When I put my foot down this can drop to mid or even low 30C depending on the ambient temp outside. Its usually on the warmer side in Australia. I've seen the Factory FMIC hit 70C in traffic, but being fin and tube it would drop pretty damned quickly when you start driving again, problem with that is it heat-soaks so damn fast though, so on boost it could easily climb into the 60's again.

Here is a 15 minute drive in my car from cold start on a 30C day and a couple little bursts pulls along the drive, this is the bar and plate CTS FMIC, you can see the IAT just gradually climbs over time, then I get on boost a tiny bit and it drops during the pull, then gradually climbs again.



Here is 4 short pulls in a row on a long road in quick succession. These were in 3rd, so the FMIC didnt even have time to drop IAT's fully, you can see the RPM drops before the temp stops dropping. The car was pretty warm here too.



Then on the dyno the IAT looks way different, the dyno cell here was about 29C and we are on the back end of about 16 dyno pulls in the space of an hour or so logging various things in my car... Still though, here under a full load, very long 5th gear pull, the IATs drop 10C really quickly, then slowly climb through the pull.

This first pull drops to only 6C above ambient during the pull, thats pretty good to me! p.s. Check out my wastegate, reaches 95% duty, on just Stage 1+ and CTS FMIC, no other mods!



Now the car was getting really heat soaked, still drops to 10C above ambient for the pull then climbs:




Since these logs I have upgrades heaps of stuff, got a catless downpipe and an IE intake on the car now fully stage 2. The other thing to look out for is your wastegate duty cycle, its possible your car is having trouble even hitting requested boost, which is leaving power on the table. And if you are pulling timing due to heatsoak or fuel quality, that's also going to be power on the table.

Nice! Thanks for all that info! Yea the reason I was asking is because I am running stage 1+ e85 with the factory intercooler, although I am running water/meth so just wanted to compare the water/meth on factory intercooler to upgraded fmic. So that last graph(timing) does that show your getting a little timing pull?

[lepooj]

so i seem to do 3.5 ish sec 0-100km/h (0-60mph) with stage 1+ engine and stag 2 tranny software no inlet hose nothing else and those shit stock pirelli tires on 93 octane
https://www.instagram.com/p/BzggjEVD...d=1lc47upq12o3
Does this seem right?

My stage 2 golf R did around 4.1 so it IS faster.
Heres the golf:
https://www.instagram.com/p/BWU1QQfB..._web_copy_link

Maybe im just being too generous on my chrono because numbers are supposed to be faster but by the vid the rs3 is def faster than the stg2 golf

Tuesday im adding an inlet hose (should add acouple horses, i wonder if uni's claimed 505hp stage 1+ is with the inlet hose), catless midpipe (CTS does claim Power gains from 7+ whp 10+ ftlbs torque, is this BS ?), dropping the suspension, i will film again and post

and in a month i just receive my bc forged wheels and switch from these stock pirelli to michelin p4s 255 all around, im gonna time it again, i want to put an intercooler but i want to wait for the unitronic one.

[javbomb]

Nice! Thanks for all that info! Yea the reason I was asking is because I am running stage 1+ e85 with the factory intercooler, although I am running water/meth so just wanted to compare the water/meth on factory intercooler to upgraded fmic. So that last graph(timing) does that show your getting a little timing pull?

Yes a little timing pull.

It's more than likely our 98ron fuel in Australia is not that great.

If I put a few litres of E85 in the car it goes away.

[Ross_T_Boss]

so i seem to do 3.5 ish sec 0-100km/h (0-60mph) with stage 1+ engine and stag 2 tranny software no inlet hose nothing else and those shit stock pirelli tires on 93 octane
https://www.instagram.com/p/BzggjEVD...d=1lc47upq12o3
Does this seem right?

Tuesday im adding an inlet hose (should add acouple horses, i wonder if uni's claimed 505hp stage 1+ is with the inlet hose), catless midpipe (CTS does claim Power gains from 7+ whp 10+ ftlbs torque, is this BS ?), dropping the suspension, i will film again and post

and in a month i just receive my bc forged wheels and switch from these stock pirelli to michelin p4s 255 all around, im gonna time it again, i want to put an intercooler but i want to wait for the unitronic one.

Yes it's a crude measurement but you'll get a ballpark idea analysing video frames. The difficulty is the slow updates on the speedo. My fastest Stg1+ time to 100km/h was 3.24s, typically 3.3-3.4s, but TTRS. So to me that time looks very reasonable. But on the flip side, I was only 0.1s slower stock. A 100-200 time would be a bit more telling, too many variables on the launch, and power is limited anyway.

Stg1+ is calibrated for stock hardware so you won't see much improvement with intakes etc unless you are up in the 90s on wastewater duty like javbomb. But the car will be more responsive. Go stage 2 and it's mandatory to make the figures.

I didn't get a decent launch on 93/98 file for Stage 2 but on E85 and with Michelin PS4S on Neuspeed 19s my 0-60 dropped to 2.7s... I'll run on 93 soon, I expect to get below 3 still.

[lepooj]

Yes it's a crude measurement but you'll get a ballpark idea analysing video frames. The difficulty is the slow updates on the speedo. My fastest Stg1+ time to 100km/h was 3.24s, typically 3.3-3.4s, but TTRS. So to me that time looks very reasonable. But on the flip side, I was only 0.1s slower stock. A 100-200 time would be a bit more telling, too many variables on the launch, and power is limited anyway.

Stg1+ is calibrated for stock hardware so you won't see much improvement with intakes etc unless you are up in the 90s on wastewater duty like javbomb. But the car will be more responsive. Go stage 2 and it's mandatory to make the figures.

I didn't get a decent launch on 93/98 file for Stage 2 but on E85 and with Michelin PS4S on Neuspeed 19s my 0-60 dropped to 2.7s... I'll run on 93 soon, I expect to get below 3 still.

2.7 holy mother of god lmfao... i cant wait till uni releases their DP to go STG 2

[John@Unitronic]

so i seem to do 3.5 ish sec 0-100km/h (0-60mph) with stage 1+ engine and stag 2 tranny software no inlet hose nothing else and those shit stock pirelli tires on 93 octane
https://www.instagram.com/p/BzggjEVD...d=1lc47upq12o3
Does this seem right?

My stage 2 golf R did around 4.1 so it IS faster.
Heres the golf:
https://www.instagram.com/p/BWU1QQfB..._web_copy_link

Maybe im just being too generous on my chrono because numbers are supposed to be faster but by the vid the rs3 is def faster than the stg2 golf

Tuesday im adding an inlet hose (should add acouple horses, i wonder if uni's claimed 505hp stage 1+ is with the inlet hose), catless midpipe (CTS does claim Power gains from 7+ whp 10+ ftlbs torque, is this BS ?), dropping the suspension, i will film again and post

and in a month i just receive my bc forged wheels and switch from these stock pirelli to michelin p4s 255 all around, im gonna time it again, i want to put an intercooler but i want to wait for the unitronic one.

I managed to see your name and found your account in our system. I suggest that you do a few things:

(1) Buy a Dragy (LINK: https://stmtuned.com/products/dragy-...formance-meter) if you're interested in doing acceleration tests/comparisons. Timing a video with a chrono will never be remotely accurate.
(2) Get a UniCONNECT+ cable. You can buy one through VAG Motorsport.
(3) Reflash your TCU to the latest revision Stage 2 DSG file (rev1d) that we launched 2 weeks ago. (LINK: https://www.getunitronic.com/news/dq...e2-free-update) You're not using this file currently.
(4) Reflash your ECU to the latest revision Stage 1+ 93oct (rev1g3) that we launched 2 weeks ago. You're not using this file currently.

[lepooj]

Hey Paul,

Thanks for the advice im glad to see theres an update to the trany response too, it felt sluggish in some situations. Today im putting in the catless midpipe, Uni inlet hose and suspension drop and when it gets out the shop ill flash update it and report back.

Thanks