Took the plunge with TVS gearbox tune

[JimboBlue]

I picked up my 2018 S3 back at the start of December and have been deliberating for the last few weeks about whether or not to have a TCU software tune. Pretty much since day one I found the gearbox frustrating, in normal D mode it seemed to change up to 6th as fast as possible which made the car feel lazy and sluggish, even laboured on occasions but then in S mode it was too aggressive, holding onto gears for too long when it should be changing up.

Anyway, I had the update done on Friday and for me it has totally transformed the character of the car, it now feels alert and responsive in D mode which is perfect for day to day driving and in S mode the shift points are perfect with it now changing up when you're not hard on the throttle making it much more useable.

It's not a cheap upgrade but I honestly think this is how it should come from the factory, I can only think that there must be other factors that prevent Audi from using a TCU map like this as standard, maybe emissions regs or similar.

For anyone else debating this I would 100% recommend it - it almost feels like a different car

 

[Marky79]

Congrats. I’ve been deliberating over this for years. I first considered it on my 63 plate S3, then my first RS3, now I’m considering it again with the current RS3. I’m dubious of the long term viability of the maps as some folk have said the gearbox relearns and adjusts. Whether that’s nonsense or not, I don’t know.

 

[8YARWY]

I had this on my stage 1.5/2 FL RS3.

Makes such a difference to it.

Reason for getting it ? I could flash the car myself

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[Marky79]

I had this on my stage 1.5/2 FL RS3.

Makes such a difference to it.

Reason for getting it ? I could flash the car myself

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What was the price all in?

 

[8YARWY]

What was the price all in?

£900.


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[JimboBlue]

Congrats. I’ve been deliberating over this for years. I first considered it on my 63 plate S3, then my first RS3, now I’m considering it again with the current RS3. I’m dubious of the long term viability of the maps as some folk have said the gearbox relearns and adjusts. Whether that’s nonsense or not, I don’t know.

I'd thoroughly recommend it, the car may go through a process of adaptation after the initial update but I don't believe it will or can overwrite the parameters set by the TVS TCU software. I went for the 'driveability' option as I have no interest in going stage 1 etc and this cost £430 all in. To me there's far more benefit to the much improved driveability than I would get from having more power, the car is plenty quick enough for todays roads!

 

[henkkeumus]

I had the DSG done by them too (live close near the HQ of TVS/DSG Dokter), lucky me gehee.

I'm now booked in for the 22nd of Feb to get the stage2++ map on motor ECU.
I had somebody map my car and did not change anything for my DSG, so the guys at TVS directly told me it will feel like a whole different car after the Stage2++ map on my DSG box and they did not lie. It's a complete new car like you describe.

So cant wait to get my engine mapped to the same package .

 

[seventeenapg]

I picked up my 2018 S3 back at the start of December and have been deliberating for the last few weeks about whether or not to have a TCU software tune. Pretty much since day one I found the gearbox frustrating, in normal D mode it seemed to change up to 6th as fast as possible which made the car feel lazy and sluggish, even laboured on occasions but then in S mode it was too aggressive, holding onto gears for too long when it should be changing up.

Anyway, I had the update done on Friday and for me it has totally transformed the character of the car, it now feels alert and responsive in D mode which is perfect for day to day driving and in S mode the shift points are perfect with it now changing up when you're not hard on the throttle making it much more useable.

It's not a cheap upgrade but I honestly think this is how it should come from the factory, I can only think that there must be other factors that prevent Audi from using a TCU map like this as standard, maybe emissions regs or similar.

For anyone else debating this I would 100% recommend it - it almost feels like a different car

Good to hear that. I have a stage 1 remap and am thinking of getting a TVS TCU map as well. One of the things I hate about existing S mode is that hte gearbox will never engage 7th gear unless you are travelling at illegal speeds or you engage cruise. With TVS does the car engage 7th in S mode at a reasonable speed?

 

[henkkeumus]

I got my A3 to TVS again last week for a engine remap. So at this moment I have a S2+ DSG Box tune and motor map aswell.

I'm LOVING every bit of it

Car is a bit dirty..

 

[JimboBlue]

Good to hear that. I have a stage 1 remap and am thinking of getting a TVS TCU map as well. One of the things I hate about existing S mode is that hte gearbox will never engage 7th gear unless you are travelling at illegal speeds or you engage cruise. With TVS does the car engage 7th in S mode at a reasonable speed?

I'll check and get back to you, since having this done I've been using D mode 90% of the time as it's so much better than the stock map, I've only really used S mode for quick blasts on local roads which doesn't give the opportunity to reach 7th gear, although I'm pretty sure that when cruising at around 70 it will drop into 7th

 

[seventeenapg]

I'll check and get back to you, since having this done I've been using D mode 90% of the time as it's so much better than the stock map, I've only really used S mode for quick blasts on local roads which doesn't give the opportunity to reach 7th gear, although I'm pretty sure that when cruising at around 70 it will drop into 7th

Thanks, looking forward to hearing from you. I hope that TVS engages 7th in S mode at 70 at the highest. Would you recommend going this route even though I've had a TCU map that was applied at same time as ECU? And if so, does TVS have their own place in UK? I would be travelling over from N Ireland.

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[8YARWY]

Thanks, looking forward to hearing from you. I hope that TVS engages 7th in S mode at 70 at the highest. Would you recommend going this route even though I've had a TCU map that was applied at same time as ECU? And if so, does TVS have their own place in UK? I would be travelling over from N Ireland.

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I flashed it myself using TVS interface.
Not cheap but saved a dealer visit

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[Marky-s3]

Been running tvs stage 3 dsg software for 3 years now on 7 speed Gr8 software 2.8 0-60 10.6 1/4 mile over 300 launches going well

 

[seventeenapg]

I flashed it myself using TVS interface.
Not cheap but saved a dealer visit
View attachment 250531


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Prob a dealer visit me S should I decide to go down this route. I just need to be sure that it's gonna be better than I currently have.

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[JimboBlue]

Thanks, looking forward to hearing from you. I hope that TVS engages 7th in S mode at 70 at the highest. Would you recommend going this route even though I've had a TCU map that was applied at same time as ECU? And if so, does TVS have their own place in UK? I would be travelling over from N Ireland.

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Been out and about today and after a longer motorway run I found that the car didn't engage 7th in S mode at normal motorway cruising speeds, I'd hazard a guess that you'd need to be cruising at mid to high 80s for it to drop into 7th. For me it's absolutely fine, on longer motorway runs I don't see the need for S mode anyway particularly as D mode is now so much more responsive.

Like I said in my original post the TVS tune has transformed my car but whether it's worth it for you is hard to say, as you have already had a TCU map I would have thought some of these common complaints should have been addresses already unless your TCU tune was solely to adjust clamping forces etc for your ECU tune.

Peron Automotive are the UK distributors for TVS, take a look at their site as they have a dealer locator function.

 

[Harvey]

Looks like TVS have dealers located in Ireland with Peron Automotive being the main UK agent for TVS

Dealer Finder

Find your local your local dealer for Akrapovic, PERON Tuning, HRE Wheels, TVS Engineering and Nortech Performance Product Range

peron-automotive.co.uk

The N. Ireland TVS dealer are

Momentum Motorsport Shop

Momentum Motorsport offer our in house manufactured, world leading race car components and Mitsubishi EVO suspension arms and tubular subframes

momentummotorsportshop.com

 

[seventeenapg]

Looks like TVS have dealers located in Ireland with Peron Automotive being the main UK agent for TVS

Dealer Finder

Find your local your local dealer for Akrapovic, PERON Tuning, HRE Wheels, TVS Engineering and Nortech Performance Product Range

peron-automotive.co.uk

The N. Ireland TVS dealer are

Momentum Motorsport Shop

Momentum Motorsport offer our in house manufactured, world leading race car components and Mitsubishi EVO suspension arms and tubular subframes

momentummotorsportshop.com

Many thanks, will give the guys in NI a shout next week.

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[AlS3BE]

Does anyone know if the drivability upgrade remove the torque limiters in the low gears?

 

[Marky79]

Does anyone know if the drivability upgrade remove the torque limiters in the low gears?

From what I read, no. You need stage2 or stage2+
drivability gives you:

Optimized D Shift Program
Optimized S Shift Program
Optimized M Shift Program
Optimized Cruise Control Program
1st Gear de- or reactivation (optional)
Improved clutch cooling
Improved thermomanagement

 

[Harvey]

To clarify as this is not fully clear on the TVS site.
Stage 2 will keep your stock DSG factory map but increase the clutch pack clamping force to handle 600Nm.
Stage 2+ adds the Drivability map & increase the clutch pack clamping force to handle 600Nm.

 

[seventeenapg]

To clarify as this is not fully clear on the TVS site.
Stage 2 will keep your stock DSG factory map but increase the clutch pack clamping force to handle 600Nm.
Stage 2+ adds the Drivability map & increase the clutch pack clamping force to handle 600Nm.
View attachment 253975

What about stage 1 Harvey? I have that and the gearbox was done at the same time. If TVS is only going to do clamping pressures then there would be no real point in spending more money . By the way too, my stage 1 is running at 682 Nm.

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[Harvey]

See the TVS website link I posted, all your answers are on there. Or contact TVS directly for further clarification.

 

[AlS3BE]

It’s just a bit unclear whether any of them removes the stock torque limiter in 1st and 2nd.
I understand the increase max torque if you have tuned the car but as stock the limiting factor is first, second torque limiter which could make launching quicker and reduce 0-60 times without a remap.

 

[Harvey]

I would have though that it's tweaked by TVS so as I said earlier drop them a line and ask them directly, TVS contact us page.

 

[MattDC]

Mine's only a 1.4 TFSI but I find the same thing with the 7sp S-Tronic box in it - in D it races up to 7th as quick as it can (it's usually in 5th by 30mph, often less!) in order to get the best mpg it can, and in S it holds the gear longer than needed for light driving. I notice in D if you get your foot in it will hold the gear longer to build the rpm's, but in S even with gentle throttle it still wants to rev up to 4k before shifting. I've take to just knocking the selector over to M if I want to hold a gear while I'm in D (going up a hill for example, or coming out a t-junction) and then slotting it back over when I've got the revs I want (or I'll let it shift to 3rd, then tap it down with the paddle to get the same effect, and it puts itself back in D after a short while). So I quite like the idea of a "drivability" tune for the gearbox. I don't thrash the car by any means (as said, it's only a 1400!) and don't even spend much time in S mode, but it'd be nice to get a bit more drivability out of it

 

[Harvey]

Then I would highly recommend the TVS Drivability tune for your DSG.... sorry I keep forgetting we're on a push Audi site...S-Tronic.