Jetta MK6 ESC/Traction Control Off Button

The current generation VW Jetta (A6, Typ1B)(2011 onwards), also known as the MK6 version, do not come with the option to turn off Traction Control or ESC for all markets.

Indirectly this can make the car quite dull in a sense that you can hardly do a handbrake turn, J-turn or some induced oversteer without the electronic nanny coming into play.

Thankfully for the VAG group, almost all their components are literally interchangeable across all models ranging from Audi to Skoda. With this in mind, I went out to source for an ESC off kit for the car.

Installation of the kit is very straightforward as it is literally plug and play as the ESC module in the Jetta is infact shared across all the PQ35 platforms. The only thing missing in the Jetta MK6 ESC module is the bloody "ESC Off" kit.

Grrr...

So what I did was to obtain the kit for my Malaysia Spec 1.4 TSI Twincharge Jetta and have it installed to the car. Just possibly the only Jetta MK6 in Malaysia with the option to have "ESC Off".

I've gotten the kit online here and the good folks at EA Autoworks installed it for me.
With installation fees of course.

Below is how it looks like after installing the "ESC Off" button.

Now, after the installation of this kit, it allows me a certain control over how much of fun before the ESC kicks in.

Why did I say so?

Because after installing the kit, and by pressing the "ESC Off" button, it only turn off the Traction Control (ASR). This basically means that I am allow only a certain degree of "wheel spin" and a very small degree of "oversteer" before the ESC cuts the fun.

So what I did was to do an "ESC defeat" by changing the coding of the ESP module.

With the "ESC defeat" coding done, I am able to turn off ESP completely by holding down the "ESC Off" button for 3 seconds.

With the ESC completely turned-off, yep, it is indeed fun time as you can do a complete 180 degrees handbrake turn, J-turn and more.

So at the end of the day, what is it that is being done?

Press "ESC Off" once - Disable Traction Control (ASR)

Press and Hold "ESC Off" for 3 seconds - Completely disable ESC

Note:

Electronic Stability Control (ESC) is there for a reason. Go figure.

DQ200 (DSG7) - The max torque story v2

Continuing from here, where it shows that the DQ200 (DSG7) potential maximum factory rated torque of 360 NM instead of the more commonly known 250NM torque limit, I am fortunate to have a friend to test out this theory.

The car involved is a Passat B7. A Passat B7 that is locally assembled in Malaysia with a 1.8L turbo-charged engine with a rated 160PS and 250NM output stock from factory. And yes, it has a DQ200 (DSG7) gearbox mated to it.

So what we have done to the car is the usual full custom exhaust system, upgraded coil packs, upgraded spark plugs, upgraded the factory turbos, upgraded the stock intercooler, junked the factory intake and replaced it with an APR intake kit and not to mentioned we have a stage 3 Project'A map done to the car.

With all the mods and fine-tuning to the engine mapping done, we finally arrived at this figures below.

We managed to push the Passat to a final figures of 284PS and 321NM on wheels.

This is done with a fuel rating of RON97.

In case anyone has been wondering of the durability, this car has been running around town since 5th of May 2014 till now without issues. Total stock gearbox with stock clutch pack.

On top of being daily driven, this car has also seen the usual mountain road runs of Ulu Yam and Genting Highlands on an almost bi-weekly basis. Not to mention too the usual high-speed runs on the highways around the country.

A closing note:
This is by no means an absolute fact about DSG7. This is purely based on the personal experience that me and my friend have playing around with the "supposedly fragile" DSG7.
Mod at your own risk.

Updated:
I've gotten the green light to reveal the tuner.
This Passat is running on a stage 3 Project'A map.

More info on the stage 3 output here.

Another Track Day

2015 started off kinda good to me. Early in the new year, I have another opportunity to have a go in the famed Sepang International Circuit (SIC).

Yup, its another open track day for the track junkies. I grab this window of opportunity to test out the newly added items to the Altis right at the end of 2014.

I have the brakes uprated from the original calipers to the brake kit from a Golf R MK6 armed with Ferodo Racing brake pads.

I have also junked the original absorbers which is already at its end of service life for a pair of coilover kit from BC Racing. Its a V1 series with 8k rated spring rate for front pair and a 5k rated spring rate for the rear pair. Damping is 30 way adjustable.

On top of that, I have the previously used Kumho KU36 donuts swapped with a new fresh set of Hankook RS3 rubbers.

A perfect time indeed to get those items tested out and see if I can improve on my previous time which is just right below 3.00 mins per lap done in a completely stock car with Kumho KU36 tyres and uprated brake pads on stock calipers and disc.

Taking a break after one of the many laps.

Safety car is deployed due to some mishap.

At the end of my session, my best time as captured by the Race Chrono app is as below.

A good 6 seconds improvement even with traffic on track.

All this done without any power mods apart from an air intake kit.

This gives me a renewed confidence that I should be able to hit 2.50 per lap (without power mods) if I am to further improve on my braking, throttle time and also racing lines. Time will tell on this.

All in all, I had a good fun session learning more about the capability of the car.

A final shot of the Altis after the track session.

An Island city night drive...

Taking full opportunity of having my own here, I went out for a night cruise around this Island City to catch the sights and sound from a different perspective.

Somehow ended up at Gardens By The Bay.



A nice at night really.

P/S - 

Pic are taken by phone cameras. 

Sony Z1 Compact and Samsung Galaxy Alpha. 

No DSLR trickery here.

RON97 vs RON95 - The comparisons

RON97 vs RON95 arguements has been going around for quite sometimes already with some saying RON95 is shit fuel and RON97 is the better fuel and provides more power, better mileage etc.

Now that Paultan has done a RON97 vs RON95 fuel test as written in their article here, I think I can further add on to their test.

For those lazy buggers who are lazy to click on the link to read, Paultan's team basically does a fuel consumption test between RON95 and RON97 on 2 similiar car, namely 2 VW Polo Sedan 1.6 and 2 VW Jetta 1.4 TSI with one of the Polo being filled with RON95 and the other with RON97. Its the same scenario with the Jetta too with one running RON95 and one running RON97.

The cars are then driven as "real world" as possible through a mixture of heavy traffic routes, trunk routes, highways and so on to find out what will be the consumption be at the end of the journey.

Now please click the link here to find out more as I won't be repeating their article here.

My personal test
What I am going to show here is that, what will be the difference in power between RON95 and RON97 on the same car, which is a VW Jetta 1.4 TSI belonging to yours truly here.

For this scenario, while the car has been running RON95, I've managed to dyno the car to get an output figure for reference purpose.
For the RON97 dyno, I filled up the car with RON97 for 4 tanks before hitting the dyno again. This is so that I've completely clear out as much RON95 as possible from the car fuel tanks.

Between the last RON95 tanks and the 4 tanks of RON97, roughly about 1800 km's has passed.

And the car is running on stock ECU map. No performance remapping done. Plain stock map from factory.

Now enough of text, time to show hand.

Click to enlarge the dyno chart image.

RED is RON 97

BLUE is RON95

Now from dyno chart, between RON97 and RON95, there seems to be no significant power gain.

What you most likely gain is that with RON97, the engine delivers the power smoother compared to RON95 and thus gives the impression that RON97 "produce" more power.

Basically with a smoother engine, the engine sound or note will be less harsh and thus reinforce the impression of more power.

So whats the moral of the story?

Unless you are running performance map or a performance/race/tuned-up engine or driving a performance/sports car, there is no noticeable difference between RON95 and RON97.

So for others driving regular cars and can't decide between RON95 and RON97, the only question you need to ask yourself is , "Can my pocket afford to pay more for fuel?"

Your personal call.

Vagcom - Services for hire

Been considering this for a long time coming.
Finally decided to make this as my part time job.
After all I do need to recoup the cost of the equipment right? Haha.

My Vagcom services for hire is now official.
The services is available for any VW, Audi and Skoda vehicle.

What can I provide?
Basically I can provide a full vehicle diagnostic to ensure that your vehicle is all fine and dandy.
I will be able to inform you about hidden error (ie, errors that do not trigger a checklight on your meter cluster) and also the resolution for it.

Apart from diagnostic, I will also be able to enable/disable features and functions of the car that you never know existed.

For example, on the MK6 Jetta in Malaysia, below is some of the functions that can be enabled or disabled.

Alarm beep on lock and unlock function & Auto Rain Closing function

Total amount of fuel to refuel (in Litres)

Additional example of features/functions will be found here and here.

The cost for the services will be as follows
- Polo Sedan / TSI - $30
- PQ/PL Platforms based - $50
- MQB Platforms based - $150

The cost includes the following job scope
- Full diagnostic of the car
- Enable/Disable functions of the car
- Free Enabling of discovered functions in the future (no future charges)

If only diagnostic is required, it will cost a paltry $10.

The reason why MQB platforms based cost so much is because there is alot of functionality in the MQB platforms to play around with. Some of the MQB platforms examples are as below.

Options to disable/enable Daytime Running Lights.

DRL dim when signal is enagaged. Brightness of the DRL can be adjusted to. Individually at that.

Driving School Mode - Driving information display in your headunit.

Enable auto closing in rain and also alarm chirp on unlock and locking of the car.

The million dollar question.

Will it void warranty?

No. It will not.

So for more information, please feel free to contact me via any channel below
+60123636750
+6594286836

Vagcom - Golf 1.4 TSI MK7 Malaysia - Needle Sweep/Staging

I work on this quite a while back.

Was trying out the multiple functions of the MK7 controllers, and my word, there is just too many functions to play with. I have yet to have time to explore everything completely.

Basically a lot of the functions can be controlled all the way down to the brightness of the U-shaped LED bar.

The interesting thing is, unlike the bigger brother on steroids, the Golf GTI MK7 laaa, the Golf 1.4 TSI has its needle sweep/staging disabled on startup.

What I did was to play around and managed enable it as per the video below.

I got a happy 1.4 MK7 owner there.

There is still more to be discovered as I go on.

Now, if only I have the time.

Vagcom - Polo Sedan (6R) 2014 CKD Malaysia - needle sweep/staging capable !!

Had the opportunity to play around with a Polo Sedan (6R) via Vagcom over the weekend when I was home.

Found out that there is actually more to meet the eyes.

From the time I had with the car, I managed to discover the following.

Single Door unlock

Press unlock button on the remote once, driver door unlocks. Press again, all 4 doors unlock.

Front Wiper Tear wiping

Front wiper will perform a final wipe about 5 seconds after the previous wipe cycle to try clean up remaining water drips that may still be on the windscreen.

Emergency Lights Flashing

Emergency lights (Hazard lights) will flash together with the brake lights upon hard or emergency braking to alert motorist behind you. Default will be only brake lights will flash.

Lane change flash
When the signal stalk is tap lightly, the signal lights will blink 3 times. This is usually too short, so the blink count for this car is raised to 5 times to gives more visibility.

Interior Lights activation with rear lid

Cabin lights will turn on if the boot lid is opened via remote.

Sensors tone settings

The reverse sensor tone can be changed to a different tone (9 different beep to select from) and also the volume of the beep can be adjusted to be softer or louder.

Refuel Amount
Display Amount of fuel (in litres) to refuel to full tank

Alarm beep on lock and unlock
For this particular unit of Polo Sedan, the locking and unlocking of the car is literally via the sounding of the car honk. Owner decided that the honking is too loud and thus this is not enabled.

Finally, the ultimate will be this.

The Polo Sedan is able to do a Needle sweep/Staging on start up. Looks good eh?
I'm guessing this could be the first Polo Sedan in Malaysia with needle sweep/staging on startup?
*fingers crossed*

Other functions that I've discovered but do not have the time to trial and test it out will be

- Coming Home lights

- Leaving Home lights

- Daytime Running lights 

- Cornering lights

- Instant fuel consumption / Average fuel consumption display

Will work on it once I have the chance with the car again.

A Car...

A car...

DQ200 (DSG7) possible max torque?

A couple of weeks back, while exploring around the BCM of the "Altis", I stumbled upon a very interesting discovery.

Apparently the DQ200 gearbox (thats DSG7 dry clutch for layman) has a factory rated max torque of 359.9 NM (360 NM) instead of the more well known 250 NM limit.

This is an interesting piece of information indeed, even to myself.

Now lets see what shall I do next with this newly discovered information.

Update:

More experience on DQ200 (DSG7) torque story here.