User 52121

What I find interesting about your post is that there are countless posts here, from the pre-fix, pre-scandal days, where LOTS of people compared the VAG Diesel SUVs (Cayenne, Touareg, and Q7) to the competing German Diesel SUVs and found no comparison... that the Benz, BMW, etc. felt slow by comparison.

Moving on....

Did anybody actually try out the Malone TCM tune? The lag is definitely back. Really frustrating. I love this car otherwise.

hotrod2448

And if you go to the BMW forums you'll find it was clearly superior and I'm sure the same story for the MB on the MB forums.

I've had two BMW 35d's (X5 and 335d) and I will say that my experience with that engine was very positive. To me the BMW diesel feels the most responsive (likely due to Vanos and Valvetronic) and felt like it made the most power while thanks to being an I6 also being the smoothest running. If I could have that motor in my CD I'd be a happy camper. When I was shopping vehicles back then I found the VAG diesel to be middle of the road and the MB to be totally unimpressive.

I didn't see a TCU tune on the Malone website but, who knows how often they update it. It would be nice to get the ECU/TCU tuned by the same vendor as a package.

docwyte

My friend, who's a service advisor for a local BMW dealer, warned me away from the X5 diesels. Said they were wildly unreliable. So, honestly, I could care less about their performance.

RomSL

Post-fix CD performance is so bad that people get rid of CDs.
Hint: Lexus will outperform any German car when it comes to reliability.

User 52121

Other categories where Lexus beats Porsche is in cars that put me to sleep.

YaNi

There is a guy on Club Touareg that flashes the TCU. Malone aren't doing any TCU calibration, but they sent me his contact info: yrk2.7t@gmail.com
Depending on which module you have, he can send you one and then you ship yours back to him. The TCU is mounted underneath the passenger seat and takes maybe 10-15 minutes to remove. Keep in mind that the actual part number on the TCU sticker may not be the actual calibration on it. You'll need one of the scan tools to check what's flashed on it. It seems that VAG got 1 calibration to actually pass emissions and they then flashed it to all models (Touareg, Q7, Cayenne).
To be honest, the TCU doesn't make as big a difference as the engine. It did get rid of the high rpm shifting when cold. Other than that, it works against the dieselgate ECU calibration, because it's always putting you right into that giant hole where there once was a lump of torque. With just the TCU you just tip in and there's nothing until it downshifts. You really need the engine reflash to get the engine braking back and also eliminate that horrendous lag that now exists.

hotrod2448

Thanks for the info. That same guy was on here a while back offering the TCU flash.

visitador

^^^ I have been visiting the Touareg forum and owners who got the TCU fix are quite happy; even someone who had a Malone tune. Maybe you need both to bring a CD closer to prefix

chsu74

Chrysler/Ram diesels getting $3K per vehicle.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-f...-idUSKCN1S91YM

visitador

Well, at the time of my purchase decision, I was actually looking for a GC Overland diesel. The CD was just a bit too much for my budget. Decided to test the CD anyway and found it was worth the premium over a fully loaded GC Overland. So, I paid about $25K premium over the Overland and got $10K back from VW. If I had purchased the GC, I may be a bit disappointed now to just get back $3K. I wonder whether GC owners are also getting an extended powertrain warranty

YaNi

The engine calibration comprises 90% of the hatefulness. The TCU has an affect, but it's a small part.

sclemmons

I have not fixed my CD and I am very happy with it. @chsu74 helped me get hooked up on it and I am eternally grateful to @digs for smooth deal.

I drove a fixed CD demo at the dealership and did not hate it enough to leave $10k on the table, but I keep hearing the nightmare stories. A friend of mine did the Malone Tune and took every thing off his Toureg. It is not really street legal if they start testing. If they start testing, I can always get the fix but will miss the money. The more I read, the more I am thinking about just standing pat, leaving the money with VAG and driving my CD until the wheels fall off. If the Green New Deal passes, I will get the fix, but what are the chances of that in Red America? Aside from the $10k, what am I missing out on? Repeated trips to the dealer 150 miles away (that Red America again, where dealers are spread out), and what else?

Part of me believes that a lightly driven unfixed CD will fetch a premium vs a fixed CD in 2021. On the spectrum between totally farfetched or plausible, where does that thesis fit?

Does anybody have a sense of what will be the path forward if they do not get enough cars fixed? Is that even a possible scenario?

chsu74

^ Skip,

Did you not collect the first $5K of the settlement or did the first owner?

User 52121

Thanks for this - I was very curious to hear feedback like this on JUST doing the TCU tune. It makes sense.

Yes that guy has posted here before - I think a few of us may have "run him off". Not that it was the intent to do so.... but some folks might've been a little harsh, especially when it came to discussing the value of the warranty some of us had. I checked into the Touareg forums the other day.... seems he's gotten screwed a few times with the loaner TCU's not coming back to him. So I'm not sure how much longer he'll be doing it.

I'm getting really tired of this throttle delay. REALLY tired. But I love the vehicle otherwise, and really, there's nothing out there I'd want to trade it for outside of a CTTS. And I love and very much value the warranty.... so I'm on the fence about even considering a Malone tune (or TCU update, if that guy is still doing them).

RomSL

2014 and 2015+ CDs are affected differently by the fix. TCU tune does change a lot in 2015+, especially that most annoying surging issue.