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Andromeda

gtimk6spd

Ready to race!
A little update on the car. I could not get the data from the VCDS to my computer correctly and the P0302 code kept coming back. Idle wasn't perfect in the cold and power felt down the colder it got. I ended up taking the car to VW who thought the issue was valve float. They recommended going to an aftermarket performance shop to get upgraded valve springs put in.

My car is currently at a new shop and isn't getting new valve springs. Instead, at the recommendation of this shop, I am getting a carbon cleaning and new injectors. I should have the car back within the next few days and hope to have no more CEL.

Once I get the car back I am going to put on some steel rims and winter tires. I plan to get these steelies. For tires I am thinking either Blizzak WS80 or Michelin X-ICE X13 205/55R16.
 

gtimk6spd

Ready to race!
Got my car back today after a fresh set of injectors and a carbon cleaning were performed. I am around 54,000 miles and the carbon buildup was said to be pretty minimal for those miles. Either way I wanted it done to save on labor.

So far no CEL, but it's snowing here and I am still on my summer tires. I didn't have a chance to redline it (where the problem commonly occurred). I will say it felt much smoother in the power delivery and maybe more powerful? I think the "extra" power is just a false butt dyno since I was driving a N/A 140 hp car the past week.

I will also say that the hesitation in the 2-3k RPM range under lighter throttle is once again fixed. It was initially fixed when I put in the GFB DV+, but that came back a short while later. Now it seems like everything is more linear. The car also idles smoother and doesn't feel down on power in the cold.

I'm going to swap my tires out tomorrow. This was my first time ever on summer tires which were great. Now it's my first time ever using winter tires and I am excited. The difference in looks is astounding and the compound of the winter tires seems much more sticky in the cold (just touching with hands). I went with Blizzak WS80 205/55R16's on the steelies I linked above (post #76).


 

gtimk6spd

Ready to race!
Got the winter tires on today. I know summer tires aren't good in the cold or snow, but I didn't expect such a massive difference going to actual winter tires. I'm never going with all season tires again now that I've experienced both summer and winter tires.

I found a nail in my passenger rear tire. It was (very) slowly leaking and I didn't think to check for a puncture before. What's funny to me about that is VW stated on my invoice the customer (me) inquired about my tire light coming on. I didn't mention it to them and if they actually inspected it how did they not notice the nail?

Anyway I installed the first tire on the rear passenger side. Open the next tire from it's packaging and it says "Passenger Side." I open the rest and see that I installed a drivers side tire on the passengers side haha. They forgot to mark that tire apparently. I also noticed two tires had weights on the outside of the rim and two had them inboard (engine side).

In the snow, freshly installed.

Lugging the Detroits back to my place (sticker for reference to where it goes).

Puncture.
 

gtimk6spd

Ready to race!
I still haven't been able to do full pulls due to the weather, however the car still feels stronger than it did before. It's very apparent in 4th-6th gear when I need to speed up without wanting to shift. 1st-3rd gear pulls will have to wait for spring as the tires spin once I get into any sort of good boost (can hold 5 or so PSI in 3rd, but that's about it).

I will say the exhaust sounds better now. I'm not sure if that's possible due to a carbon cleaning and new injectors. I do know I liked the AWE catback with stock DP. Once I got the APR DP put on I didn't love the exhaust unconditionally. It sounded good at times and bad at others (depending on boost, rpm, tunnels, etc.). Now I fully enjoy the setup. If it's all in my head that's fine too, but I'd love to hear if cleaning up the flow of air and proper amounts of fuel/combustion has an effect on the exhaust noise.
 

gtimk6spd

Ready to race!
I'm looking into getting a water/meth setup going. I don't want to try and get any additional power, but rather to help keep the valves clean. I am probably just going with a Stage 1 from Snow Performance. My only holdup right now is deciding where to put the nozzle.
 
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