(Some) APR / (but mostly) BFI Nightmare!!***Resolved***
edit: The title, for the sake of clarity
Where to begin... I guess I'll give the whole story.
Back in October I purchased the APR stage 1 tune for my 2010 VW GTI and had it installed at Black Forest Industries. Unfortunately, within a few miles of driving the car I had a check engine light appear. I brought the car back to BFI and was told the error was related to the cam timing, and I was instructed to head to the dealership in order to get the problem resolved.
A few weeks later, I had the entire camshaft adjuster replaced, yet the warning light persisted. After a little more probing and investigation, the dealership had come to the conclusion that the ECU could be at fault. The dealership asked me if I had any tuning done to the car, to which I replied yes. The dealership, being familiar with BFI, suggested that I bring the car back to them - as the problem seems to be tuning-related - or pay out of pocket for a replacement ECU.
I was getting a little tired at this point, but I decided to call up BFI. They informed me that there was no way this problem was tune related, but they offered to look at the car one last time.
Nothing was resolved with that visit, but I did have the car re-flashed back to stock. Still, the check-engine light persisted. BFI suggested that I try bringing the car to another dealership. Sounded like another dead-end to me, but I started up the whole process again with another dealership.
I suspected that something may have gone wrong during the installation, but BFI would hear nothing of it. Despite that, I do have to credit them for being so polite through the whole process.
APR on the other hand, oh APR...I tried to talk to APR about the possibility of an installation related problem, but they refused to even consider the possibility that my problem stemmed from the ECU. Actually, they seemed rude about the whole thing.
So, its March. Now my car has been at this other dealership for a month now. They eventually found out about the tune from the first dealership, but they decided to keep trying hardware-related fixes. Several items were replaced including oil delivery parts and even one of the camshafts. No luck.
The dealership brought in a VW engineer who decided to check the ECU. He pulled the unit and found that the unit appeared damaged and was apparently pretty banged up. Of course, now the dealer is looking at the ECU as the culprit. They tried swapping out units with another GTI - and sure enough - no CEL. Now, it looks like the dealership is trying to screw me over for the previous work done, the cost of a new ECU, and the cost of the loaner car. Great.
This could have all been avoided had APR or BFI tried to actively diagnose my problem instead of ignoring me. Not sure how this whole thing is going to work out now.
So, what have I learned from this whole process?
- THESE TUNES AND THEIR INSTALLATION ARE NEVER PERFECT. Even from a reputed installer like BFI.
- DO NOT GET A TUNE.
- DO NOT TRUST APR TO HAVE YOUR BACK IF THINGS GO WRONG.
- DO NOT GET A TUNE.
For the curious, these were my codes. The car seemed to run fine despite them.
Error codes:
1) 0010 P000A 000 - "A" Camshaft Position Slow Response (Bank 1)
2) 01322 P052A 000 - Cold Start "A" Camshaft Position Timing Over-Advanced
Any opinions guys? Just trying to bring some awareness here, I hope this never has to happen to anyone else. I am kind of hoping this post will 'finally' get APR's attention.
EDIT: Not trying to completely dump on APR here, their tune is gold. However, I definitely would have appreciated more effort from APR on trying to resolve the problem.
edit: The title, for the sake of clarity
Where to begin... I guess I'll give the whole story.
Back in October I purchased the APR stage 1 tune for my 2010 VW GTI and had it installed at Black Forest Industries. Unfortunately, within a few miles of driving the car I had a check engine light appear. I brought the car back to BFI and was told the error was related to the cam timing, and I was instructed to head to the dealership in order to get the problem resolved.
A few weeks later, I had the entire camshaft adjuster replaced, yet the warning light persisted. After a little more probing and investigation, the dealership had come to the conclusion that the ECU could be at fault. The dealership asked me if I had any tuning done to the car, to which I replied yes. The dealership, being familiar with BFI, suggested that I bring the car back to them - as the problem seems to be tuning-related - or pay out of pocket for a replacement ECU.
I was getting a little tired at this point, but I decided to call up BFI. They informed me that there was no way this problem was tune related, but they offered to look at the car one last time.
Nothing was resolved with that visit, but I did have the car re-flashed back to stock. Still, the check-engine light persisted. BFI suggested that I try bringing the car to another dealership. Sounded like another dead-end to me, but I started up the whole process again with another dealership.
I suspected that something may have gone wrong during the installation, but BFI would hear nothing of it. Despite that, I do have to credit them for being so polite through the whole process.
APR on the other hand, oh APR...I tried to talk to APR about the possibility of an installation related problem, but they refused to even consider the possibility that my problem stemmed from the ECU. Actually, they seemed rude about the whole thing.
So, its March. Now my car has been at this other dealership for a month now. They eventually found out about the tune from the first dealership, but they decided to keep trying hardware-related fixes. Several items were replaced including oil delivery parts and even one of the camshafts. No luck.
The dealership brought in a VW engineer who decided to check the ECU. He pulled the unit and found that the unit appeared damaged and was apparently pretty banged up. Of course, now the dealer is looking at the ECU as the culprit. They tried swapping out units with another GTI - and sure enough - no CEL. Now, it looks like the dealership is trying to screw me over for the previous work done, the cost of a new ECU, and the cost of the loaner car. Great.
This could have all been avoided had APR or BFI tried to actively diagnose my problem instead of ignoring me. Not sure how this whole thing is going to work out now.
So, what have I learned from this whole process?
- THESE TUNES AND THEIR INSTALLATION ARE NEVER PERFECT. Even from a reputed installer like BFI.
- DO NOT GET A TUNE.
- DO NOT TRUST APR TO HAVE YOUR BACK IF THINGS GO WRONG.
- DO NOT GET A TUNE.
For the curious, these were my codes. The car seemed to run fine despite them.
Error codes:
1) 0010 P000A 000 - "A" Camshaft Position Slow Response (Bank 1)
2) 01322 P052A 000 - Cold Start "A" Camshaft Position Timing Over-Advanced
Any opinions guys? Just trying to bring some awareness here, I hope this never has to happen to anyone else. I am kind of hoping this post will 'finally' get APR's attention.
EDIT: Not trying to completely dump on APR here, their tune is gold. However, I definitely would have appreciated more effort from APR on trying to resolve the problem.
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