Unitronic Reflash Stg 1+

Having bought the Pocong, I do not intend to get it souped up like previous ride after going through countless of patiencey (is there such a word? haha) and misery. But the urged to have a taste of extra juice is just too great to resist. I really hope I don’t fall to the Lord Sidious …

Plenty of brands that can reflash VAG ECU:-

ABT - Provided by VW Cartrade. Warranty won’t be voided. Projected increase 193bhp/270nm. RM5K

APR - Has documented future upgrade path. Projected increase 209bhp/328nm. RM3.8K

GIAC - Flash loader comes as additional accessory. So you can adjust the mapping and boost on the fly. Projected increase depends on program you choose from the loader. RM3.8K (excluding flash loader)

Unitronic - Provide the most linear power delivery among them all, sacrificing peak torque. Projected increase 211bhp/300nm. RM3K

Having done some research on it, it's hard to detect whether a car has been chipped unless drive it hard, check ecu reflash log. Digging somemore found out that, most reflash brands do wipe out log reading as if ECU hasn't been tampered. Unlike those days where you need to physically install new chip in the ECU.

I almost went for APR because of the defined upgrade path but was told by Auto Reign owner’s Clement, he can provide me Unitronic Stg1+ for bang for buck RM2.5K. In the spirit of “slow, cheap and special” tagline, I went for Unitronic!

Reflash involves uploading new A/F and boost mapping to the ECU via the same ‘USB’ port used by VAGCOM. It all takes mere 30 minutes to download from Unitronic website in Canada and flash it into the ECU.

Brief test drive with Clement and fellow Polo GTI owner-KS, shows the amount spend really worth the investment. It pulls harder but somehow tame, very very smooth. On NPE, to reach 200 is much much easier. If you nailed the throttle on 1st and 2nd, tyres will screech even with ESP on.

Later went to GT Auto for dyno. It registers 178.57hp/253.67nm on wheel or 210hp/298nm on engine. Peak figure doesn’t amaze me as much as the curve, example, I can have 253.67nm torque as early as 3k rpm until 5k rpm - FLAT!

I only have some reservation on the boost i.e. 1.42 at 3k rpm. Was told by Clement and guys from Unitronic themselves, not too worry because 1.8T block and K03S turbo are strong enough to work at that level. Just need to save some money for Forge Dump Valve and Forge Turbo Inlet Pipe to get the delivery stronger.

Side Note:
Mileage 9250kms
Cost RM2490