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I have already mentioned the intention of getting this for the car. More than a performance increase, I was looking for reduced performance where it was not needed. The 1.5TSI is too powerful for traffic, and you need to really be easy on the throttle in city to avoid sudden braking. Hence, I went for the RaceChip ECU to be able to have switchable performance as I need it.
The Racechip ECU connects to three sensors in the car. A - Manifold Absolute pressure sensor, B - Boost pressure sensor, C - Crankshaft position sensor. It does not alter fuel injector pressure as in many diesel tuning boxes and the fuel pump will not be meddled with. They provide a wiring harness with A, B and C pairs of connectors and each of it is a T junction where one connector picks up signals from the sensor and sends it to the ECU, and the other connector plugs into the vehicle harness to send data to the car engine ECU.
Installation was done at night so I do not have detailed instructions but the connection A to the MAP was the toughest since its located deep inside the gap between the intake and the cylinder block. I needed to use a long screw driver to unlock the connector and then remove it with two of my fingers which reached till there. And to fit the Racechip harness to the sensor I could again use only those two fingers to slide it into locking position. The gap you see in this image is where the palm must go in above the alternator, and you only get to peep into the area from above.
And to do this, I had to remove the vacuum pump off its mounting bolts to make space for the hand to be slid into the gap:
Connector B was relatively easier since it was easily accessible and connector C was cakewalk since the CKP sensor is right on top of the engine head cover below the plastic trim. Had to place the ECU near the battery and fusebox for now for easy removal. Will share some more pictures in the coming days when I get time to open up the engine bay in daylight.
The ECU receives its power from the power to these sensors and hence does not require any further wiring to the battery or any other component.
Like I explained earlier, after installation the ECU modes were supposed to be switched by mobile app only, since I opted for it. In the non-app version of the same product, there is an adjustment knob available which needs to be adjusted between six steps to change the performance modes from Economy till full fledged Race mode.
I was very angry about the app not working since there is a firewall that prevents Indian IPs from accessing their back end to fetch vehicle tuning data and update the ECU. When I contacted support, they gave a horrible response that the only way out was to use a VPN and they could not do anything about their backend and alter the firewall. Even after I tried using a paid VPN with Airtel internet, it didnt work and I requested a return(which was another challenge since I had to get it back to Germany first). I parked my car in my grandparents place with ACT fibernet and tried casually and the app was able to connect without issue.
Thats when it downloaded the maps specific to my car and flashed it into the ECU. After that I could set the performance modes. After this initial setup is done, there is no need to use VPN or internet unless an update to the maps is needed. So finally things got working the way it should.
Initial observations after around 100 kms of use:
I believe this would be the first chiptuned Slavia in the country. But had I not got this option of buying it directly in Germany, I would not have definitely spent twice the money on buying the same here.
By the way, here are some stats from the AC after the VCDS mod - You can notice how the evaporator temperature is at 2.0 deg C and the vent temperature at 10 degs even when the engine is idle with Climate control set at 21.5, which is how I have chilled air being thrown from the AC.
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