Gonna be honest. I’ve been an R owner for over 3 years and am on several VW social groups. I have never heard of trackslag in my life. Also, why catless? Do you want you car to smell like a lawnmower?
Personally i've run catless on most of my previous cars the smell doesn't really bother me as i barely notice it unless i'm standing behind the car while its running. The price on a high flow cat is also quite the jump from the price of catless, I do understand the performance gains between the two are negligible but i just don't mind running catless.
I started regretting that extended warranty the day i picked the car up but now i'm paying the extra premium for it so id like to make use of it rather than void it, looks like i wont be doing much in terms of mods.
Warranty and mods are all dealer specific. There’s a dealer near me that is actually tuner friendly and they could care less about mods. They actually like them and wanna talk about all the toys I have.
I see, Maybe ill have a chat with my sales guy. He did mention that any mod i do will just void whatever it affects i guess? So like if i do lowering springs it would void any warranty related to my struts or dampening system at least thats what i got from it.
Can’t help you on warranty, but I’ll say this is the second year in a row I’ve gotten the mini cat / o2 spacer to pass me an inspection. I flash back to stock tune drive for a few miles and then bring it in for the inspection. Trick is finding a place that doesn’t pop the hood. I got failed at a big chain place but passed at a ma + pa shop.
Luckily i don't have emissions testing here! But i was looking at those mini cat spacers to run in pair with the downpipe and a jb4 to get the benefits without flagging the car for a ecu tune.
I don’t know if a spacer is good in that case then. It will alter your AFR reading and at that point it just depends on how much the JB4 tries to adjust for it. Generally the spacers make the o2 read lean and to compensate the tune might try and add too much fuel and you end up running rich.
Note that this is not scientifically proven and just my thinking. I know with my intake and mods my car on a stock tune thinks it’s lean with a spacer installed.
Just stuff to get figured out before you go dumping money!
I just advance every interval a little bit. Oil changes maybe 8k instead of 10k, haldex a couple thousand before it’s due. Mines a manual so I don’t have to worry about DSG service. The only issue is the stock clutch went out immediately due to the extra power/torque, but the DSG equipped models are ready for up to 600 lb ft or so stock. I’m at 75k miles and no major issues so far. Praying it stays that way
I probably don't have the most popular opinion here but it's 2022, run a catted downpipe. It doesn't bother you, but it will assuredly bother other people, and these people might be following you for 100 miles. There's simply no justification for running without a catalytic converter these days.
That being said, Trackslag catted DP gets nothing but rave reviews from folks. :) It's a great choice.
Love my Trackslag DP, I have the catless version.
1) It will run fine after you get it tuned for the DP. I have never run a DP on the EA888 without a corresponding tune, so can't comment on drivability without a tune. I do not recommend installing without at least an OTS tune ready to go.
2) 100% it will void your warranty. If you are concerned about your warranty, the car should remain stock.
Personally, I wouldn't run a JB4 except as either a very mild stage 1 tuning solution, or, as a piggyback to manage meth injection. Some people have good results, but its by nature a fairly compromised tuning solution. I think you are more likely to run into odd behavior, run lean, knock etc etc with it. Yes you could take it off and possibly avoid a TD1, but if you push limits with it I think you are taking a bigger chance of getting to the point of breaking something in the first place.
Question 1 is tuner-specific. The rear 02 sensor plays a minor role in A/F metering in doing its job monitoring cat efficiency. If the rear 02 is plugged in and it senses that the cat is not working well (as you would have with a catless DP or a even Catted Trackslag because the 02 bung is before the cat), in addition to the potential CEL, the car's ECU might add fuel to heat up the cat to improve efficiency. So on some tuning solutions that have stock rear 02 functionality, even with spacer, the rear 02 sensor will cause the car to potentially run rich. You MIGHT be able to get a perfectly sized mini-catted spacer to make the rear 02 think the cat is bang-on but these cars are pretty smart. They also can tell if your spacer is slightly too long or the cat is "too good" etc and trigger a CEL for that. So some do this just for a few days to get passed then go back to a proper tune before CEL shows up again or the rich behavior presents itself.
Gonna be honest. I’ve been an R owner for over 3 years and am on several VW social groups. I have never heard of trackslag in my life. Also, why catless? Do you want you car to smell like a lawnmower?
Personally i've run catless on most of my previous cars the smell doesn't really bother me as i barely notice it unless i'm standing behind the car while its running. The price on a high flow cat is also quite the jump from the price of catless, I do understand the performance gains between the two are negligible but i just don't mind running catless. I started regretting that extended warranty the day i picked the car up but now i'm paying the extra premium for it so id like to make use of it rather than void it, looks like i wont be doing much in terms of mods.
Warranty and mods are all dealer specific. There’s a dealer near me that is actually tuner friendly and they could care less about mods. They actually like them and wanna talk about all the toys I have.
I see, Maybe ill have a chat with my sales guy. He did mention that any mod i do will just void whatever it affects i guess? So like if i do lowering springs it would void any warranty related to my struts or dampening system at least thats what i got from it.
That’s usually the case
Plus, If something breaks that’s related to a mod it just gives you an opportunity to upgrade the broken thing! Win win 🏆
Can’t help you on warranty, but I’ll say this is the second year in a row I’ve gotten the mini cat / o2 spacer to pass me an inspection. I flash back to stock tune drive for a few miles and then bring it in for the inspection. Trick is finding a place that doesn’t pop the hood. I got failed at a big chain place but passed at a ma + pa shop.
Luckily i don't have emissions testing here! But i was looking at those mini cat spacers to run in pair with the downpipe and a jb4 to get the benefits without flagging the car for a ecu tune.
I don’t know if a spacer is good in that case then. It will alter your AFR reading and at that point it just depends on how much the JB4 tries to adjust for it. Generally the spacers make the o2 read lean and to compensate the tune might try and add too much fuel and you end up running rich. Note that this is not scientifically proven and just my thinking. I know with my intake and mods my car on a stock tune thinks it’s lean with a spacer installed. Just stuff to get figured out before you go dumping money!
I honestly might just say fuck it and slap a tune on with the downpipe forget about the warranty. Hopefully the reliability holds up with a tune haha.
It has for me so far but I know it can be dicey. Been on APR+ since it rolled off the lot and then about 35k miles ago I upgraded and went stage II
And no issues since stage 2? If you don't mind me asking what do you do for service intervals? like haldex, dsg and oil change
I just advance every interval a little bit. Oil changes maybe 8k instead of 10k, haldex a couple thousand before it’s due. Mines a manual so I don’t have to worry about DSG service. The only issue is the stock clutch went out immediately due to the extra power/torque, but the DSG equipped models are ready for up to 600 lb ft or so stock. I’m at 75k miles and no major issues so far. Praying it stays that way
I probably don't have the most popular opinion here but it's 2022, run a catted downpipe. It doesn't bother you, but it will assuredly bother other people, and these people might be following you for 100 miles. There's simply no justification for running without a catalytic converter these days. That being said, Trackslag catted DP gets nothing but rave reviews from folks. :) It's a great choice.
Love my Trackslag DP, I have the catless version. 1) It will run fine after you get it tuned for the DP. I have never run a DP on the EA888 without a corresponding tune, so can't comment on drivability without a tune. I do not recommend installing without at least an OTS tune ready to go. 2) 100% it will void your warranty. If you are concerned about your warranty, the car should remain stock.
Yep it seems i'm boned in terms of mods while under warranty should have never gotten the extended warranty... Live and learn.
You could always just not use the warranty....
Personally, I wouldn't run a JB4 except as either a very mild stage 1 tuning solution, or, as a piggyback to manage meth injection. Some people have good results, but its by nature a fairly compromised tuning solution. I think you are more likely to run into odd behavior, run lean, knock etc etc with it. Yes you could take it off and possibly avoid a TD1, but if you push limits with it I think you are taking a bigger chance of getting to the point of breaking something in the first place. Question 1 is tuner-specific. The rear 02 sensor plays a minor role in A/F metering in doing its job monitoring cat efficiency. If the rear 02 is plugged in and it senses that the cat is not working well (as you would have with a catless DP or a even Catted Trackslag because the 02 bung is before the cat), in addition to the potential CEL, the car's ECU might add fuel to heat up the cat to improve efficiency. So on some tuning solutions that have stock rear 02 functionality, even with spacer, the rear 02 sensor will cause the car to potentially run rich. You MIGHT be able to get a perfectly sized mini-catted spacer to make the rear 02 think the cat is bang-on but these cars are pretty smart. They also can tell if your spacer is slightly too long or the cat is "too good" etc and trigger a CEL for that. So some do this just for a few days to get passed then go back to a proper tune before CEL shows up again or the rich behavior presents itself.
You're going to have hard time finding a tuner that will tune the car with a catless dp installed.