NefMoto

I'm Josh. A VW/audi technicain of 10 years and like the title says I've become a little desperate. Simply put, I really just want to drive my car. After being told, "I have no time for that kind of project" by a local "tuner". And being ignored by a more reputable company. I have decided to attempt to learn this process myself. I (kind of) drive a 03 GTI 20th Anniversary. It has a haldex AWD swap and what has become a standard a big turbo 1.8t stroker build. I have a goal of 500 awhp. When I started building my car it was 100% stock. I was clueless in the tuning process so I didn't really help anyone or myself much in the long run. It seems most people add mods slowly and make small tuning adjustments as they go. Everything in my engine bay was fabricated to fit and to look close to stock. So swapping parts isn't really possible. I did everything at once thinking I could just make a list of stuff I did and someone could whip up a tune. After spending many many hours in this forum now I realize that was a little naive. I spent almost 2 years putting my car together. I went through a tuning company that I deal with through the shop I work at. I got a good discount and he said he could do it. Over the course of 2 months I got 5 revisions in which the 5th finally made the car driveable daily. I relogged the car right away and emailed them over. After 1 month I politely asked if there was an update. To which I received no reply. After another month went by (with no response) I took it as a hint when he no longer supported custom ME7.5 tunes that he wasnt really interested any longer. I basically lost interest in driving it because it just wasnt enjoyable. What I spent years building has now become a major source of frustration. The last thing I needed was tuning and it was one of the very few things I couldnt do myself. It has now been 6 months since the 5th revision and the car is stored for winter. Luckily I have a friend that is letting me try things on his k04 B5 s4 and the girly has a stock 1.8t jetta.  So I am now taking it upon myself to learn as much as I can before spring so I can get my car boosting properly and feel the excitement Ive been longing for.

Excellent first post. Frustration with tuners is precisely what got me started in the first place!

Me too!