# Unitronic stage 2 review(a bit negative)



## jaja123 (Jan 17, 2011)

I got my stage 2 unitronic tune on my 2010 Golf 2.5 manual today. I have the carbonio cai, usp catted midpipe and gti catback. The shop called me on very short notice and asked if I wanted it chipped today. I said that is fine and went to the shop. After about 2 hours it was all done and I hopped in my car. After a night of driving around I have concluded that its not worth the cost. With install and tax I was at 769$ that is ridiculous(its a very reputable shop with excellent work) but still I can't believe I dropped so much dough for something that did not make much of a difference. That is a ton of money for someone who has a part time retail job. I am not sure if I can recover from this for awhile. I did not notice a difference in throttle response, low end power feels the same the rev limiter at 4,000 is still in place when sitting still. At WOT I think there may be just a tad more pull but thats it. I had to take it to redline to make sure I was even chipped and sure enough the redline was increased about 300 rpm more. A big amount of disappointment came when I did this. Adding the carbonio was more noticeable than the ecu by a long shot. I am aware n/a cars do not gain much but I at least expected a difference. I am going to dyno soon. Awhile back with just the carbonio cai and a magnaflow catback I did 163whp on a dyno dynamics dyno. So I now have the usp catted midpipe and tune in addition. Hopefully I can break 170whp but I hardly think it gained any. I know butt dynos are inaccurate but I feel the acceleration is not much different looking at the speedometer. Who knows my opinion may change later down the line but as of right now I am feeling terrible about this.


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## DerekH (Sep 4, 2010)

I remember when i first got tuned it felt like nothing happened. Then the drive in to work the next day i noticed a lot more go. Apparently the tunes have to adapt some how. Not sure how it works but give it 50-100 miles before you get too upset.


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## jaja123 (Jan 17, 2011)

DerekH said:


> I remember when i first got tuned it felt like nothing happened. Then the drive in to work the next day i noticed a lot more go. Apparently the tunes have to adapt some how. Not sure how it works but give it 50-100 miles before you get too upset.


alright thanks man, that makes me a feel a little better. I got a drive down to work tom hopefully my opinion will change.


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## cbs_24 (May 21, 2011)

That seems like a ton of money for a tune.


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## jaja123 (Jan 17, 2011)

cbs_24 said:


> That seems like a ton of money for a tune.


tune 550, install 170, tax 49=769$. The install is more on the mk6 since the ecu is taken out and benchflashed. It was 2 hours labor.


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## itskohler (Jan 7, 2011)

Ya, give it about 300 miles. Drive it is close as possible to a normal driver on the road. Shift early, don't get into it too much. After about a week, take it out and just romp it! It MAY be the placebo effect from not driving it like you stole it for a week, but it will increase your enjoyment. If i were you, I would've clocked 0-60 runs before and after. I've done that with all my mods and it proves to me that it was worth the time, money, and efforty. 

Just my .02. Not that anyone cares


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## MK5CNY (Sep 4, 2007)

You've altered your daily reality slightly and your wallet significantly. After a while your daily reality gets to be a routine again, and money burns in your wallet. 

What do you want to do next? {suggestion}:beer:


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## itskohler (Jan 7, 2011)

That's kind of what I was saying. By holding yourself back AND letting the car do its thing, you alter, what you call, your "reality".


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## Anile_eight (Sep 30, 2009)

did you ever consider just going for the short ram intake? for a little bit more you'd get really noticeable gains.


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## LampyB (Apr 2, 2007)

i agree with the others, before you make a final judgement drive it for 100-200 miles and then let us know how it feels. ECU's do adapt to your driving style, so i'm not sure why the guy above said to just take it easy for a while. i've tuned six different cars and every time i leave the shop they tell me if i drive it harder it will adapt and offer better power/throttle response. it's like test driving a brand new car off of the lot...it's always significantly slower than once you own the car and put some miles on it. 

also why would the rev limiter still be in place after getting tuned? i thought all tuners removed this even at Stage 1...?


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## itskohler (Jan 7, 2011)

LampyB said:


> ...so i'm not sure why the guy above said to just take it easy for a while. i've tuned six different cars and every time i leave the shop they tell me if i drive it harder it will adapt and offer better power/throttle response...


 I've never seen anything to prove that theory, if you have dyno charts to prove otherwise I will retract my statement. But it sounds like someone just "thinks" that will make a difference. It makes sense, and I mean no disrespect by what I am saying. With out PROVEN results from driving heavy as soon as you get a tune, it is simply a theory. I have spent extended amounts of time around tuners, VW and JDM, and no one has ever even brought that up. 

That being said, the ECU does use adaptation channels that adjust to how the car is being drvien. If you drive aggressive, keep high RPMs, the ECU will deliver a more aggressive mapping. BUT if the car is driven conservatively for, say gas mileage, the ECU then maps out the best way to run the engine efficiently. That's what it comes down to. The ECU optimizes mapping for efficiency based on yuor driving style. It does NOT set in stone as soon as it's flashed. It changes as driving habbits change, whether it be from mild to aggressive and vice versa.

My idea, to make him feel better about the money he spent, was the placebo effect. Let the car adapt, drive slow, then in a week get on the gas. That makes the car seem like it got a fresh breath of air. There is NO "gain" from this, it's all mental.


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## LampyB (Apr 2, 2007)

gotcha, that makes sense. thanks for the clarification. :beer:


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## itskohler (Jan 7, 2011)

_Sounds like an excuse to beat the PISS outta your car after getting a flash lol... Some kid probably said that ONCE when someone asked him why he's driving like a dbag and that was his reason lolololol...

Now, in all seriousness, the software does learn/adapt to SOME things but a tune is a tune is a tune. Parameters are set, AFR's are optimized, timing is advanced and the car reacts to those changes in the form of more power but beating on your car 100-200 mph after you get flashed because it helps get more from a tune that is already set sounds a little silly to me. 

The purpose of a tune is to set certain parameters at specific levels in order to gain the most and best performance from your motor. If those changed simply because people were beating on their cars, we would be selling 5 times the tunes because people's cars would experience changes in the tune and run differently lol. It just doesn't make much sense to me. That defeats the whole purpose of a tune. Does the tune learn your specific car? Yes but not to the extent that it would change it and give you more power because you ragged it out for 200 miles directly after a tune hahaha...

Hopefully that gives you a bit of clarity _


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## jaja123 (Jan 17, 2011)

I know what he means saying drive easy and then punch it. There are times when I drive like a grandma for awhile and then I got wot and it surprises me sometimes. But I believe the ecu adapts very quickly and not over long distances. So no I am not going to drive my like a mad man.


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## jaja123 (Jan 17, 2011)

Anile_eight said:


> did you ever consider just going for the short ram intake? for a little bit more you'd get really noticeable gains.


uh more than likely its not going to make much of a difference going from short ram to a cold air or vice versa. I also said adding the CAI was more noticeable than adding the tune.


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## itskohler (Jan 7, 2011)

Get a dogbone insert, and let the car adjust to the tune.


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## jaja123 (Jan 17, 2011)

itskohler said:


> Get a dogbone insert, and let the car adjust to the tune.


already have one =). I have also concluded that throttle has more tip in which is not a good thing to me. The dbw lag is the same as stock just that there is more jumpy throttle. Getting on the highway today it actually felt slower than usually I was like WTF.


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## itskohler (Jan 7, 2011)

I think the dog bone is the best bang for the buck, its always my first recommendation haha. :thumbup:

Have you contacted Unitronic? When I had my tune installed, I couldn't really tell a difference until the next day. I drove 2 hours to get it, so it was dialed in the next time I drove.


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## jaja123 (Jan 17, 2011)

itskohler said:


> I think the dog bone is the best bang for the buck, its always my first recommendation haha. :thumbup:
> 
> Have you contacted Unitronic? When I had my tune installed, I couldn't really tell a difference until the next day. I drove 2 hours to get it, so it was dialed in the next time I drove.


No I have not yet done that. Today is the second day having the tune but I still want a little more time behind the seat. I am going to dyno within the next week or two and if I do not see gains at all I am going to return it. My last dyno was in september with just the CAI and catback and I did 163whp on a dyno dynamics dyno which was awesome numbers so I wanted to do more. I now have the usp midpipe and tune in addition and If I do not gain 5 whp then I definitely want my money back. I would for sure hope the usp midipe and tune will add 5hp but who knows. This engine is already full of fail in my eyes and would NOT be surprised if it could not eek out those extra ponies. I really wish I had bought a used turbo car. But I am only 20 and my parents strictly said brand new car under 18,000$ and the golf was the clear winner. The only redeemable trait is the sound but right now it sounds horribly raspy over 4k rpm with the gti catback. But yea I like the dogbone a lot and it was in fact the first mod I did.


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## PhAyzoN (Nov 29, 2010)

I have Unitronic Stage 1 on an '07. I can't really complain about power (I didn't expect to feel the additional like 10 crank HP), but everything else kinda sucks. Throttle response is still mediocre and sometimes the rev hang feels as bad as stock. The redline is also lower than anyone else's software (6100RPM compared to C2's 6800, or even APR's 6500) Can't wait for the C2UNER to exist so I can finally get a C2 tune...


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## itskohler (Jan 7, 2011)

PhAyzoN said:


> Can't wait for the C2UNER to exist so I can finally get a C2 tune...


 :thumbup:


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## jaja123 (Jan 17, 2011)

PhAyzoN said:


> I have Unitronic Stage 1 on an '07. I can't really complain about power (I didn't expect to feel the additional like 10 crank HP), but everything else kinda sucks. Throttle response is still mediocre and sometimes the rev hang feels as bad as stock. The redline is also lower than anyone else's software (6100RPM compared to C2's 6800, or even APR's 6500) Can't wait for the C2UNER to exist so I can finally get a C2 tune...


For 08 the redline was increased on the 2.5's from 5800 to 6200. The redline for mine is 6500rpm with tune which means unitronic only increases redline by 300rpms. But I agree on the throttle response. Rev hang still sucks ass too. Your post made me feel worse but its the truth. I have lost hope on the 2.5 sadly. That c2 tuner will NOT work for the mk6 because the security encryption.


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## PhAyzoN (Nov 29, 2010)

jaja123 said:


> For 08 the redline was increased on the 2.5's from 5800 to 6200. The redline for mine is 6500rpm with tune which means unitronic only increases redline by 300rpms. But I agree on the throttle response. Rev hang still sucks ass too. Your post made me feel worse but its the truth. I have lost hope on the 2.5 sadly. That c2 tuner will NOT work for the mk6 because the security encryption.


To my knowledge, you can get a refund and return to stock tuning within 15 days or something like that. You'll still be out of luck on labor costs though.


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## itskohler (Jan 7, 2011)

jaja123 said:


> For 08 the redline was increased on the 2.5's from 5800 to 6200. The redline for mine is 6500rpm with tune which means unitronic only increases redline by 300rpms. But I agree on the throttle response. Rev hang still sucks ass too. Your post made me feel worse but its the truth. I have lost hope on the 2.5 sadly. That c2 tuner will NOT work for the mk6 because the security encryption.


Before you lose hope, try using companies that actively support the 2.5 platform!

Join up on the 2.5l FB page as well!


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## PhAyzoN (Nov 29, 2010)

itskohler said:


> Before you lose hope, try using companies that actively support the 2.5 platform!


^ This.

I haven't done much to my car personally, but I see a lot of thing going on with the 2.5 from C2, UM, IE and INA. So I know if I want to sink a bunch of money into this engine, I can.


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## itskohler (Jan 7, 2011)

Looking at dropping 4k on my next purchase. :banghead:


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## jaja123 (Jan 17, 2011)

ughghgh should have spent just a little more and gotten c2's SRI GOD DAMMIT IM LEGIT PISSED. I feel like such an idiot.


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## dhenry (Feb 10, 2009)

get your money back and wait for the release of the IE SRI


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## itskohler (Jan 7, 2011)

nickbeezy said:


> get your money back and wait for the release of the IE SRI


Hell ya! I wanna know the price point of it!


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## cbs_24 (May 21, 2011)

I think you may have gone with the wrong company's tune. I say cut your loses and return that ****.


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## TylerO28 (Jul 7, 2008)

yup! you went with the wrong company...

i say choose one that supports the 2.5 and it's community...

I originally bought the apr chip and it was "meh" but now that i've got the c2 stage 2 turbo set up this car is literally a different animal! beats up on .:R's and GTI's all day long and I really enjoy seeing the look of dissapointment on the local porsche owners that get a little cocky!


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