[Gannu_1]

What interior beautification did they do for Rs. 1500? Just curious.

[vignesh.cv]

Originally Posted by Gannu_1

What interior beautification did they do for Rs. 1500? Just curious.

I'd asked for an interior cleaning to be done as part of the service. They have some tie up with the 3M folks who clean the seats and interiors. Since my seats are fabric covered, I had opted for it.

[vignesh.cv]

Two years are over. Have been wanting to upgrade the lighting to something better as I do end up driving late evenings and early mornings on the highways. After a bit of researching ended up converting the low beam from halogens to xenons. My car came with a Hella manufactured projector for the low beams, but was running halogen bulbs from the factory.

I went with the following:

• Ballast - Hyluxtek 50W regular ballast. Link here
• Bulbs - CNLight 45W H7 4300K bulbs. Link here

This kit doesn't need the igniter as the ballast does the heavy lifting.

The installation was fairly straightforward. I took some time to figure out where to place the ballasts as they were quite big and heavy. I ended up keeping them in the slot above the headlamp on either sides of the bonnet. Used pieces of rubber to keep the ballast from vibrating and zip ties to keep it snug. I also had to put a hole on the rubber cap of the low beam - about the size of a 50p coin to allow the wires to come out.

Remember, what I bought was a normal ballast - not the canbus ones. All I had to do was select "Bi-xenon without shutters" option under the Central electrics in VCDS. Did the coding before I went with the install.

Other than that, there was no cutting or splicing of wires needed. The power leads for the bulb will fit directly onto the existing H7 holder from the car.

I have yet to test the car in the night to assess the effectiveness of the lighting. I was running Philips Xtreme Vision on the low beams earlier. Initial tests in the parking lot shows a night and day difference between the halogen and the xenon conversion. Hoping it'll be a big boon on our highways. Will post pics of the install a bit later.

Now that I've done this, I'm tempted to do a bi-xenon conversion sometime

[CarMaster]

Hi Vignesh, very nicely compiled review of one of my favourite cars from Skoda. How is the car fairing after 3 years of ownership? Hope the car is aging well.
I am close to picking up a pre owned 2013 Laura DSG, but iam worried about the maintenance part. Please share your opinion. Thanks

[vignesh.cv]

The car has completed 39k kms and she recently went for her 3rd service. I booked a service appointment with Vinayak Skoda at OMR and the service experience has been hassle free with them. I was attended by Prudhvi on the day of appointment. I noticed that the morning starts were not as quick and suspected the battery. Asked the SA to check the condition and he reported it at 12.4v - means the battery isn't holding charge that well and time to replace it. It's been 3 years so I decided to change it as a preventive maintenance. My front brake pads had almost gone so decided to change them during the service. Other than that, the usual air filter, oil filter, fuel filter, pollen filter were changed. Skoda had a discount going on for the consumables and that helped with the final bill. The final amount came to 23k which includes a new Amaron FLO battery, new front brake pads and other consumables.

I was advised by the SA to change the DSG oil the next time around - which is about right, 4years or 60k kms whichever comes earlier. I couldn't get the VW507.00 spec 5w30 oil this time and I had a highway trip coming up soon, so decided to stick with the default VW505.01 5w40. Unless I'm able to source the 507 spec oil in the market consistently, I'm going to stick with the one from the dealer for now.

The OEM NCT5 tyres were also giving away by now. The left rear tyre just had its sidewall cut and thats when I looked at the tyres and decided to replace them. Contacted Nikhil from Madhus Enterprises and he recommended Conti MC5 as a replacement. Went ahead and changed the 4 tyres to Conti and kept the spare wheel as it was - it was never swapped during the wheel alignment/balancing routines and is as good as new. I always carry a portable air compressor and a tubeless repair kit, so the spare is more of a backup. The difference I noticed with the Conti was that the sidewalls were a bit softer than the Goodyears. Other than that, I'm pretty satisfied with the road noise, grip under braking and road holding abilities.

One of the DRL bulbs had given away so I decided to experiment with LEDs. Got a set of LED bulbs with matching adapter from MotoHID. Recommend them for a seamless and quick transaction. Took out the old bulbs and swapped for these. A sample pic of the bulbs in action.



The headlamps are still HIDs from Aliexpress - running a 35W 4300K H7 HID with a set of canbus ballasts. They help a lot with the highway drives, I tend to drive a lot around the late evening times.

The car is a dream to drive on the highways and can comfortably keep up with the bigger German sedans. In a recent trip back from Coimbatore, had a 530d for company all the way to Bangalore and she was comfortable keeping up the the BMW. She still gives amazing fuel efficiency when the right foot is progressive and gentle. Recorded 18kmpl on a recent highway trip with the tankful to tankful calculation. And the average speed wasn't slow either. I'm now tempted for a remap to exploit the motor even better.

Originally Posted by CarMaster

Hi Vignesh, very nicely compiled review of one of my favourite cars from Skoda. How is the car fairing after 3 years of ownership? Hope the car is aging well.
I am close to picking up a pre owned 2013 Laura DSG, but iam worried about the maintenance part. Please share your opinion. Thanks

So that should answer your question :-) Just check for the service history of the car and if everything is ok, please go ahead with the purchase. It is a fantastic car in this segment with excellent road manners and a strong motor and in my opinion, a good value for money.

[VFM]

The OEM NCT5 tyres were also giving away by now.
I'm now tempted for a remap to exploit the motor even better.



I would recommend ToT 180whp/420NM remap. Been driving that more than 5k now and can say with surety that you would love the car even more post that.

About time you replace the NCT5. Go for Michelin P3ST.

In all have driven mine (same spec as yours) for 80k over the last four years and is still as much fun to drive as it was on day one.

[amidoc]

I would recommend ToT 180whp/420NM remap. Been driving that more than 5k now and can say with surety that you would love the car even more post that.


Hi

where did you get the remap done. Do you know of any place in mumbai where i can look at doing the same

[VFM]

Originally Posted by amidoc

where did you get the remap done. Do you know of any place in mumbai where i can look at doing the same

ToT folks travel to Mumbai as well for Remap. Place a request on their website and they will call you back.
It usually doesn't take more than an hour to get all of this done.

Not aware of places in Mumbai who offer this.

[vignesh.cv]

Thank you for the recommendations on the remap. This and reading up experiences from a few other folks with ToT, made me take the plunge today.

Yes, I got my Stage 1 remap done by ToT. Fixed up an appointment with Sid and Vivek to meet them up today and the entire remap got done in about 2 hrs. Vivek looked at my ECU firmware revision and recommended upgrading to the latest revision. I agreed to go for the same. Vivek then proceeded to back up my stock ECU firmware and proceeded to flash a newer version of the firmware. After that, he took a VCDS scan to ensure everything was in order before the remap process. By then Sid joined us. Sid took the time and explained to me what the remap does and what I could expect after the remap. He also wanted to know my driving style and habits. He also mentioned about the option of deactivating the EGR completely resulting in better power off idle and ability to fuel more precisely. Now, my driving is mostly Bangalore city commute combined with highway runs. All I wanted was the existing torque curve to be beefed up so that I can enjoy the highway drives better. I chose to keep the EGR in its factory setting as I wanted to do my part for the environment and also wasn't too keen on extracting every ounce of performance at the cost of emissions. With those inputs, Sid went away to work his magic on the remap while Vivek and I took a chai break.

By the time we finished our chai and came back, the map was ready. This is a 177whp/415Nm map. Vivek proceeded to flash the car with the new map. I kept a very open mind about what it would translate to. We then proceeded to take a short spin around the place to see how the car performed and also watch out for any CEL or anything of that sort. Vivek urged me to floor the throttle in a slightly open stretch and that's when this magic happened. I was in second gear in about 1800rpms. I would have given about 40% throttle and the front wheels were spinning and the traction control light came in to rein in the power. This wasn't on some wet greasy road, this was a proper piece of tarmac and my tyres are about 6000kms old. The same thing happened when I was accelerating off a green light on a concrete road. The only time I experienced a wheel spin before in 2nd gear was when I was climbing up a smallish incline with sand. That experience gave me a glimpse of what to expect further. The traffic thickened a bit so I couldn't push her further. I also noticed the idle sound clatter had come down a bit. Dropped Vivek back at his place and continue my way home. Now there is this piece of stretch which is mostly empty and I decided to experiment in higher gears. The motor seemed to rev a lot more freely and acceleration through 2nd, 3rd and 4th gears was just awesome. Even on 3rd gear, a mild push of the pedal makes the car surge forward with alacrity. I'm sure the highway rides will be a lot more enjoyable with this setup.

In summary, I'm very happy I opted for the remap and very happy to have gone with ToT. I will definitely recommend ToT to anyone looking to remap their car.

Next steps will be suspension and brakes in that order.

[vignesh.cv]

The car has completed 50k kms and this is the fourth year since I purchased her. She'll complete 4 years exactly in another month. After the ToT Stage 1 remap, the motor felt a lot more punchy but the chassis was looking soft and bouncy. Skoda Laura's launched in India came with the rough road package that increased the clearance by another inch or so. This translates to a lot of body roll while switching lanes on the highway or driving on ghat sections. This also meant while going at decent speeds on the highway and going over an undulation like the flyover joints, the car tends to bounce a lot more and that can unsettle the composure a bit - not in a dangerous way, it is unsettling nevertheless.

There are several options and a lot of folks have tried the aftermarket route and have reported their experiences. I recently got to sit on a Laura that had aftermarket springs and dampers and I found the ride to be way too stiff. It was as if the rebound and compression were cranked to the max or the spring was on the stiffer side. It would be nice to have such a setup on smooth and unbroken expressways but not for our kind of roads - at least my preference is something that can absorb bumps and undulations as well as offer a planted ride.

ToT offered an OEM based solution for this and I was wanting to try it out. The solution was dampers and springs from the European spec vRS TDI. This will bring the ride height down to normal European standards but promised similar damping characteristics as OEM. We swapped out the OEM stuff with OEM stuff. Looks wise, they both look exactly alike and one cannot make out the differences unless one reads the part numbers stamped on them. The suspension bushes weren't changed as they were found to be good for now. With this, the ride height came down a bit and my apprehensions were the infamous Bangalore speed breakers. I did a running around of this setup near my home where such examples exist and to this setup cleared all of it to my relief. I had to slow down and take it slow while going over, but that seemed like a reasonable trade off to me.

I also upgraded to a 17" wheel setup, again the OEM theme thanks to ToT. Normally one goes to a 225/45 setup but ToT advised against that for our kind of roads. Instead, we went for 17" wheels along with a 225/50 tyre setup. I saw such a setup on Vicky's car and did not find it to be too low. Did that change as well and the car looked like a proper sedan now.

A couple of weeks back I had taken the car to Coimbatore for the track school and that was when I sampled the changes completely. We were three in the car and the boot was loaded to the brim with gear and equipments. We did the usual Krishnagiri - Salem - Coimbatore route and the car was completely different. Lane changes had little or no body roll and there was lot of grip on sweeping corners. The car settled immediately after going through flyover expansion joints and that meant I did not have to ease on the throttle as before. There are sections where the flyover makes a sharp turn and is very bumpy. She held her line despite being thrown about by the undulations - in the stock setup, the car always wanted to step out and it can become very dangerous unless one slows down a lot. The car used to wheel spin in 2nd after the ToT remap with the stock suspension setup, not anymore. The squat has reduced and that means all the extra torque is driving the front wheels translating to a lot better driveability. My friends in the car commented as to how planted the ride felt the whole way.

Next in line are brake upgrades and a bit more power.

[razor4077]

Hi Vignesh,
Regarding the ToT remap - is there any black smoke emission post the remap? Have got this feedback from some who have gone this route. Also, could you give an idea of the cost (PM if you want)? Any other remap-related feedback?

[saurabhkum]

Originally Posted by vignesh.cv

Vivek looked at my ECU firmware revision and recommended upgrading to the latest revision.
In summary, I'm very happy I opted for the remap and very happy to have gone with ToT. I will definitely recommend ToT to anyone looking to remap their car.

Can you please let us know what is meant ECU upgrade to latest version and also the benefits out of the same. Also if you can help if that upgrade was free and the total cost associated with it.
I'm thinking of remapping my Jetta and considering various options and benefits with each of them. Pete's has come up with offer which is approx 15k and that makes it a very attractive.

[razor4077]

Originally Posted by saurabhkum

Pete's has come up with offer which is approx 15k and that makes it a very attractive.

Did you get this quote recently? They sent me a quote of 19k + taxes and shipping a couple of weeks back. Had inquired about remapping my Laura engine (same as the Jetta).

[saurabhkum]

Originally Posted by razor4077

Did you get this quote recently? They sent me a quote of 19k + taxes and shipping a couple of weeks back. Had inquired about remapping my Laura engine (same as the Jetta).

This offer has just started and is supposed to stay till 1st week of September. The only drawback for Mumbai customer especially for Jetta/Laura is the car being non-operational for 4-5 days as the ECU needs to be shipped to Pete's.

[vignesh.cv]

Originally Posted by razor4077

Hi Vignesh,
Regarding the ToT remap - is there any black smoke emission post the remap? Have got this feedback from some who have gone this route. Also, could you give an idea of the cost (PM if you want)? Any other remap-related feedback?

Hey razor, I've not seen any visible black smoke post the remap. I see smoke only upon very hard acceleration - which was the case even before the remap. With regards to remap itself, I've not seen a significant change in either fuel efficiency post the remap. It's been hovering around similar numbers. Torque wise there is a discernable difference - in gear acceleration is really good irrespective of the gear I'm in. Will PM you the cost.