Good news. Bad news.
Drove the car yesterday and day before - putting about 50mi on it. Felt GREAT, solid, sorted. So far, only two minor issues. A coolant leak at the radiator main hose (requiring bumper-removal and re-seating) and no reverse. The no-reverse was a bit concerning, but turned out to be an adjustment required at the shifter end of the linkage. Both were easily fixed.
As others have reported while at this stage, the idle is a little wobbly (hunting between 700-800rpm), and the ABS and Traction Control lamps are lit. No CEL (which surprised me - I expected that the SAI delete would have flipped that switch).
I had not driven the car much at all since acquisition - putting only a few miles on it with a dodgy trans in limp mode. So this was really the first time uninhibited. The car feels a lot like my RS4. A lot of low down torque - surprisingly little lag. Pushed-back-into-the-seat torque - and this is while babying the clutch. Oh, the clutch - a stage 4 ringer (non-puck) - it bites hard (and will take a little getting used to), but not so hard that it will be uncomfortable to drive. This car wants to play. Excellent!
So, onto the tune.
The bad news:
Reached out to nubcake to begin the tune process. Nubcake, despite being on a very different time-zone is very responsive and quick. With a nubcake tune ready for flashing (and with nubcake online with remote access to my PC, and ready to guide) we started the process. Long story short - we bricked the ECU - and boot loading is extremely tricky. Turns out, the ECU was already sporting a tune -and was hardware modded. Had no clue of this until opening it up.
Notice the daughter board. It has been installed and takes the place of the OEM AM29F800BB chip.
Board removed:
And close ups of board:
There are no markings to suggest origin tuner. Hoping that someone can identify.
Options:
Determine original tuner - locate and send in for reverse-mod/crypto
Source AM29F800BB chip and find someone that can reverse the mod.
Source and a used ECU.
Very frustrating to be at this point. Anti-climatic.
My thoughts are, with this type of tune already installed, that it will be one of the bigger shops - APR, MTM, or similar. Does anyone have any experience with these style of tunes and/or experience that can identity the above?
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