So I have been wanted to chip my Jetta since day one of ownership. Didn’t start looking into it seriously until last summer. Was all set and ready to go with a stage 2 from Gonzo Tuning (an independent tuner who’s slowly getting up there in the German car community). Placed my order and had called up Gonzo’s main office to follow up and see why I hadn’t received any sort of confirmation email regarding my order. Took 3 weeks for the guy to get back to me and by that point I had decided to call my bank to stop the transaction. Point being…I did not feel comfortable sending out my ECU to a one man show tuning company even if it was for $250.
I then started to look into GIAC X+. By that point my car had started throwing SAI and cat inefficiency (was running a race downpipe with a wayne angle block). Since GIAC doesn’t offer emissions deletes, I had to dish out the money to run a few diagnostics on the SAI to make sure it actually needed replacing and swap out the catless dp for a catted. Needless to say, the money I had saved up for chipping was pretty much gone.
Which brings me to this summer (sorry it’s taking too long to get to the point lol). CEL free, funds available, I could only look at the pro’s and con’s of each tuning software made available. With GIAC (Black Forest Motorsport), APR (VW Orchard Park), and Unitronic (Swiderski Motorcar) all available locally, the options started driving me insane! Days went by as I looked at the constant threads on the vortex and jetta junkie forums as ‘fan boys’ of each software bashed the other with no legit facts to back it all up (i.e. dyno plots). In the end I decided to go with Unitronic seeing how a friend of mine had gotten it recently and recommended it. That and the emissions delete being offered (still have the catless dp to throw on soon) is what really drove me to get it.
So yesterday after getting home from work I swapped out the DV for a 710n and rushed over to Swiderski Motorcar. I had already called in earlier to set up an appointment and was told to drop by later in the afternoon. The customer service I received there was phenomenal! Within 30 minutes, my ECU had been flashed and it was ready for little test drive.
Let me start out by saying…WHY HAS IT TAKEN ME SO LONG TO DO THIS?! I unfortunately do not have any dyno plots to better illustrate the ‘before’ and after, but the torque and hp gains are insane. Delivery throughout the powerband is consistent and very smooth! No longer need to drop into 3rd just to merge onto the freeway. Turbo lag is almost nonexistent now, which was drastically improved throttle response. Spins tires in first, second, and ever so slightly in third gear. Even with four grown adults, the car pulls just fine.
To give you a more technical representation of power increase, my K03s turbo went from holding 10psi and spiking at 12psi to holding at 17psi and spiking at 20psi.
All and all, best mod I have ever done to the Jetta. Sorry for the long post…just wanted to share my excitement and experience with everyone!
Thank you Swiderski Motorcar for making it all happen!!
