[sharan1988]

Hello BHPians.

Here I am with my second thread on this forum. For those who might have missed it can check out the link below.

https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/modif...-learning.html (Volkswagen Vento TSI with mods & accessories – My institution for learning)


My Vento was turning 6 and not to say I was bored with it, but I felt I had hit the wall with modifications that I could make to add value.

This time around I decided to look out for a used car to save some money upfront so that I can use it for modifications. I had a budget of up to 30 lakhs.

My needs:

• Luxury brand
• Mod friendly
• Automatic transmission
• Decent driving dynamics
• Decent performance
• 6 airbags
• Useful equipment
  like Apple Car Play, all-round parking sensors, reverse camera, premium cluster

Below are some of the cars I had considered:

-AUDI A3 - I really loved the way this car looked with such clean lines. TDI was the only option in the facelifted model, and I couldn’t find any in the 4 months that I spent looking for a car.

-BMW 320D - I saw a 2017 M-Sport in a lovely red done only 17,000 km but unfortunately the car was sold even before I could check it could. I couldn’t find a similar example after that.

-BMW X3 20D - This was a 2016 car in red with M-Sport kit on it and the car was also owned by BMW themselves. I really liked the way the car looked with those 20inch highly impractical wheels. During the test drive I found the car to be a tad underpowered. Also, the car was missing out on a lot of basic features. I decided that the car may not age well and let it go.

The story behind the Octavia:

I had really lost hope since I couldn’t find the car I wanted and decided to keep my Vento. However, one day while looking for cars on OLX we spotted an Octavia TSI but I wasn’t too interested even thought I liked the car. That’s when a friend of mine forced me to the have a look at it. With no intention to buy, we saw the car and took it out on a drive. I simply fell in love with it. Other than the brand the car had everything going for it. The engine felt like it was running on cream and the DQ200 made the gearshift so smooth that we couldn’t feel it! Unlike most people, I was not too concerned by the dq200 so it didn’t really stop me from buying this car. After the drive, I made up my mind and decided to go for it. The car was a October 2018 manufactured so it comes with everything under the sun including the virtual cluster that I instantly fell in love with.

What I liked:

• Car felt like new
• Odometer reading was below 9000km
• White colour is neutral and relatively easy to maintain
• Plush interiors
• Massive boot
• More features than you ever need like the virtual cluster, drivers’ & passenger’s electric seats, Canton 11 speaker stereo, electric seats, 8 airbags!

What I didn’t like:

• Extremely soft suspension
• Biege interior
• Sunroof
• Small alloy wheels
• Green and white illumination looks odd. It should have been either completely white or green.
• Car is neither classy nor sporty its in-between.
• Halogen fog lamp

Review time:

My first preowned car turned out to be not bad after all!

After driving it for a few days, the car was due for its first service. Gave the car to Skoda and I have nothing to complain about. I have had better services at VW and Skoda vs other brands, so I am very happy.


Enough has been said about the car in detail on this forum so let me focus on the modifications I have done to make this car better.

Sport line steering wheel:

The very first thing I wanted to change after getting the car was to install a flat bottom steering. Absolutely nothing wrong with the steering that came with the car but after using flat bottom steering on my Vento I have come to like it and also, it feels quite sporty!


Larger alloys and better rubber:

The car came with sad looking 16 inch alloys. It looked under tyred too, and would lose grip instantly on sudden acceleration.



I am, for the most part, an OEM person and the only OEM wheels I came across were the 18 inch wheels from a vRS 245. Since I use this car everywhere, I knew it wouldn’t be practical so I started looking for some 17” wheels. I didn’t want to pay too much and didn’t want to add too much weight. Lenso, although not the best looking, was light enough and priced decently. Decided to pick them up along with Michelin Primacy 4ST.



The car doesn’t slip anymore and rides a lot quieter. At that time I thought I had made the best choice but more on this later.

Dechrome and detailing:

The car has never been detailed by its previous owner and it badly needed one. This is first car I felt instantly looks better after dechrome and decided to get mild tints while at it.



VAG God had a plan:

It has only been 2 months since I have got the car and had coved over 7000 km on it. The engine has enough performance and more than we ever need for our Indian conditions, and never once have I felt the need for more. Surprisingly this 1.8 TSI engine is as fuel efficient as my 1.2 TSI in city driving, and it appears to be even better on the highways!

As usual when we don’t have plans, god makes them. A person known to me who had bought a brand new vRS 245 was upgrading his stock IS20 turbo to IS38. The stock turbo had done only 50 km. Without giving it much though, I bought it off him. Now you may ask why, since I was already happy with the way the car performed in stock form. To be honest, I don’t really have an answer. You could say that it was this uncontrollable urge to do something crazy and to also learn how to do the modifications myself by getting my hands dirty.

The research for the IS20 build started. I had the turbo below my bed for a month and was not confident to use it until I find myself a reliable tune. The DQ200 is among the fastest gearboxes but as documented elsewhere, it’s not a strong one. A bad tune will certainly slip the clutch and in no time I will be left with a failed gearbox. I spoke to many people with similar builds, tuned by some famous tuners and almost all of them had clutch slip issues. Over last few years I have made some friends over in Russia and as we know, Russians are far ahead insofar as car modifications are concerned. Some of them have perfected the tune for the IS20 turbo + DQ200 gearbox package. More on this later.

Parts I bought for the build:

• IHI IS20 turbo
• Go Fast Bits diverter valve
• Integrated-Engineering intercooler
• Milltek downpipe
• vRS 230 springs
• vRS 340 mm front brakes

Parts that I didn’t buy for a reason:

• Dog bone mount
• Pendulum mount
• Expensive air intake
• Coilovers
• Full exhaust system

Parts that I may end up buying in future if needed:

• Replacement air filter
• Better tyres
• Race cat
• Turbo inlet pipes
• Stronger engine mounts

Now with all the necessary mods it was the time to start the build. Many discouraged us from doing this build ourselves and told us that an established and experienced tuning garage is required for such a build. From here on, I had decided to take this upon myself and gained knowledge through videos and literature that I had completely immersed myself into for days and nights on end! From what I absorbed by watching videos and reading all the material available to me, I was confident that it is not too difficult to do it myself. A group of friends and my mechanic teamed up to start the build.



Being the first build for us, we took eight hours to complete it while having fun along the way. Once the turbo, downpipe and intercooler was installed we flashed the TCU and ECU. I had requested my tuner to flash the most conservative map possible and I wasn't after numbers, as Octavia is a front wheel drive car and too much power will probably land me in a soup. It took him 30 minutes to complete the mapping process.



We were ready to go for a drive once the car was remapped. The first drive was overwhelming since I have never experienced so much power! Had I gone through the modification process stage by stage over a period of time, I may not have been in such a state of shock! With traction control turned off, the wheels spin till 100kmph! That’s when I realised that I should have gone with stickier performance tyres. With traction turned on its a bit more manageable but still, the first 2 gears are useless if you send it! The car pulls relentlessly post 100kmph without breaking a sweat and masks it’s speed quite well. Probably the quietest stage 3 build.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KiLOIIEYNt0

The car used to feel very soft, wallowey and squishy on stock springs and used to roll quite a bit. The vRS springs have made a big difference to the way the car drives while retaining stock-like comfort and ride quality. Additionally, the car now sits about 15 mm lower than the stock car, giving it a much nicer stance. Skoda should have given these from factory as I find these more comfortable that stock due to very less vertical movement. Better antiroll bars will help in corners but for now I don’t really feel the need for it considering my relaxed driving style.



Upgrading the brakes wasn’t a must as the car had decent braking from factory and sufficient for my driving. I haven’t taken the car on the highway yet but I am sure bigger brakes will help at high speeds. Better to be safe than sorry, hence the upgrade. The swap was bolt on and coding was needed for the abs to adapt. Braking is very sharp and tyres again seem to be the weak link.



After taking logs the car is performing as it should. My only worry was the clutch slip and thankfully, there is none! The de-cat helps the power coming in a little late which is good for the gear box.



Post 500 km after remap, the fuel efficiency is much better than what I had got in a stock car when driven normally. However, it drops only when pushed a bit more than usual. The car feels just like a stock car when driven normally. The only give away is the sounds from the diverter valve. The engine is very smooth and gearshifts are like butter. Under heavy acceleration, the gear shift feels sloppy but only on occasion. This is thanks to the flex from the engine and gearbox which the dog bone and pendulum mounts can solve. However, installing these mounts would increase the NVH and hence decided to live with the flex.

I am certainly not an easy person to be contented with mediocrity, I must thank my tuner for coming all the way down to Chennai from Hyderabad to tune my car and I also thank everyone else who has been a part of this build.


I will post frequent updates on how the car performs over time. Hope you enjoyed reading this post.

Stay tuned for more!

[GTO]

Thread moved from the Assembly Line to the Modifications section. Thanks for sharing!

Beautiful car man, and love your taste with the mods. Your car will go to our homepage .

[AKSarkar1]

Loved everything about this thread! The Octavia for me is definitely one of the best cars here in India to carry out mods on. Must say that your mod choice is extremely tasteful. Do keep us updated with your journey and the future blessings of the 'VAG God'!

[Kashi053]

Great mods. Do you have the power and torque numbers after the mod?
Quick question. What made you buy Octavia 1.8 tsi and do the mod against buying new 2.0 L tsi (190ps & 320NM) for little higher premium considering the amount that was spent on tyres, alloy and stage3 remap?

[Philomath55]

That's an amazing car that you got Sharan and also love the mods you have done on it, even I would have bought an Octavia over a 320d or A3. Switch to Michelin PS4 whenever you can it makes a huge difference.
Congrats and drive safe!

[sharan1988]

Originally Posted by GTO

Thread moved from the Assembly Line to the Modifications section. Thanks for sharing!

Beautiful car man, and love your taste with the mods. Your car will go to our homepage .

Thanks a lot GTO.

Originally Posted by AKSarkar1

Loved everything about this thread! The Octavia for me is definitely one of the best cars here in India to carry out mods on. Must say that your mod choice is extremely tasteful. Do keep us updated with your journey and the future blessings of the 'VAG God'!

It's all the car we ever need. I will keep this thread updated.

Originally Posted by Kashi053

Great mods. Do you have the power and torque numbers after the mod?
Quick question. What made you buy Octavia 1.8 tsi and do the mod against buying new 2.0 L tsi (190ps & 320NM) for little higher premium considering the amount that was spent on tyres, alloy and stage3 remap?

Thanks. I could have done that but the 2.0 in the superb,tiguan,etc is higher compressions engine and it's not the same ones found in the vRS. So the mod potential is very limited and I would also call it risky. Since I would have to cough up 10 lakhs more for the superb sportline even after my modifications and not sure that would be a small amount considering now I have better power, better cooling and better brakes. The map that I have flashed puts 300HP and 400Nm to the wheels.

Originally Posted by Philomath55

That's an amazing car that you got Sharan and also love the mods you have done on it, even I would have bought an Octavia over a 320d or A3. Switch to Michelin PS4 whenever you can it makes a huge difference.
Congrats and drive safe!

Thanks a lot. Yes will swap them out immediately when my wallet permits
.

[JoshMachine]

Originally Posted by sharan1988

VAG God had a plan:

Does your VAG God have any 'blessings' to avail of warranty support (considering the modifications galore) ?
All VW cars have so much mod potential, and you seem to have found a knack to exploit them to the fullest. Congrats for the lovely write-up and a great car!

With VW, this (that of warranty getting void) is perhaps the only sore point that I am hesitant about, from my personal experience with Vento.

[shekjsk]

Congratulations for the great car and the very tasteful mods done on it. The Tsi and DSG combo is super addictive and once you have tasted it's difficult to be satisfied with anything else. And hats off to you for trying and successfully working on the build yourself.

Originally Posted by sharan1988

Hello BHPians.


With traction control turned off, the wheels spin till 100kmph! That’s when I realised that I should have gone with stickier performance tyres. With traction turned on its a bit more manageable but still, the first 2 gears are useless if you send it! The car pulls relentlessly post 100kmph without breaking a sweat and masks it’s speed quite well.

Better antiroll bars will help in corners but for now I don’t really feel the need for it considering my relaxed driving style.

Now that has to be some understatement.

[Nitish.arnold]

I am such an impressionable guy,
Every time I see such a beautifully crafted car (build, not bought types),
it gets added to my (to be) project cars list.

Burned my Hands on a Cedia sometime back while going stage 2,
Hats off to your support team which tuned the car to perfection without any issues.

[SLK]

Doesn't the DQ200 have a torque limit of 250nm and isn't consistently going beyond that asking for failure?

I read somewhere that stock 1.8 is limited to 250nm torque with the sole purpose of matching the gearbox capability.

[Astitva]

This thread is a testament to why Octavia is a dream car for many of us. Wonderful mods and subtle yet classy looks.

[sharan1988]

Originally Posted by SLK

Doesn't the DQ200 have a torque limit of 250nm and isn't consistently going beyond that asking for failure?

I read somewhere that stock 1.8 is limited to 250nm torque with the sole purpose of matching the gearbox capability.

Yes it does with factory TCU map. It can easily hold 400nm without slipping with a different TCU map. Ofcourse the life of the clutch will be reduced depending on your driving style.

[octane1002]

Originally Posted by sharan1988

Yes it does with factory TCU map. It can easily hold 400nm without slipping with a different TCU map. Ofcourse the life of the clutch will be reduced depending on your driving style.

Wonderfully executed mods.Car looks classy without being too loud.

I did have a query though on the gearbox though.How would a map remove mechanical torque limitations of a gearbox?If its that simple a fix, then I guess that's what every owner of a vehicle with the DQ200 should do straight out of the showroom.

[MDK]

Awesome modifications. Seems like you have unleashed the Hulk off the Bruce. Your ride is screaming your individuality. Keep us posted with your day to day experiences. Hands down.

[sharan1988]

Originally Posted by octane1002

Wonderfully executed mods.Car looks classy without being too loud.

I did have a query though on the gearbox though.How would a map remove mechanical torque limitations of a gearbox?If its that simple a fix, then I guess that's what every owner of a vehicle with the DQ200 should do straight out of the showroom.

TCU maps increases the clamping force which in turn doesn't let the clutch to slip with the added power. There will be more wear and mechanical pressure to the gear box and that might be the reason for the DQ200 to run at a much lesser torque from factory.