2020 SQ5 Tuning Question
12-15-2023, 06:35 AM
#1
AudiWorld Member
Thread Starter
2020 SQ5 Tuning Question
I just hit 40K miles and had the service done, still a bit of warranty left on it but nothing is wrong with it so I'm planning to go with the 034 motorsports tune sometime soon, maybe do it over the holidays. Bone stock and looking to do the stage 1 ECU/stage 2 TCU package.
For those that have done it, I keep seeing you need to hook up a battery charger while installing the tune. I have a trickle charger somewhere, and a jump starter box, but not a "charger" per se and I don't feel like buying one for a single use. Any opinions on this, do I really need to hook it up if the battery is full charged? If so will either of my existing options do it?
I also have an issue of bad wifi reception outside my house and probably need to buy a signal extender of some sort to do this at home.
For those that have done it, I keep seeing you need to hook up a battery charger while installing the tune. I have a trickle charger somewhere, and a jump starter box, but not a "charger" per se and I don't feel like buying one for a single use. Any opinions on this, do I really need to hook it up if the battery is full charged? If so will either of my existing options do it?
I also have an issue of bad wifi reception outside my house and probably need to buy a signal extender of some sort to do this at home.
12-21-2023, 06:12 AM
#2
AudiWorld Member
Thread Starter
No one here has done it??
I went ahead and ordered the tune and a wifi extender, arranged for borrowing a battery charger. Hoping everything arrives in the next few days and I'll knock this out by Christmas.
I went ahead and ordered the tune and a wifi extender, arranged for borrowing a battery charger. Hoping everything arrives in the next few days and I'll knock this out by Christmas.
12-21-2023, 03:08 PM
#4
AudiWorld Super User
Issue is you really really really don't want the power to brown out when flashing the ECU, or you risk bricking it (you know that pop up on your computer that says "Doing updates... DO NOT POWER OFF your computer". That!
If you have a newer battery, and it's fully charged, you probably are fine. It's just the car turns on lights and other crap that does load the battery, and the flash can take several minutes.
If you have a newer battery, and it's fully charged, you probably are fine. It's just the car turns on lights and other crap that does load the battery, and the flash can take several minutes.
12-23-2023, 06:29 PM
#6
AudiWorld Member
Thread Starter
Initial review time, job is done. I got the package in the mail this afternoon and found the email they sent with the login and links which had been in my junk mail. Click the link, enter your login, hit forgot password, receive email, enter password. Hook up battery charger, connect the plug and USB, follow the prompts to reflash engine then repeat the process for the transmission, Lots of interesting noises and beeps while it does it's thing. ECU flash took 9 minutes, TCU took less than 2. This was the stage 1 93 octane tune and I just went with stage 1 TCU since it's free and I was unclear on the benefits of stage 2 in an otherwise stock vehicle. It's incredibly simple and quick to do, as straight forward as it gets.
As soon as I drove down the block in dynamic/sport mode you hear the crackles in the exhaust on deceleration. It's pretty cool but I'm very happy that this is just in dynamic mode and otherwise normal sounding. I took it easy figuring it might need some time to adjust. Drove to the gas station and could tell it was more responsive, less sluggish under light throttle. Filled up and gave it the beans on the way back. It's clearly a lot faster. Less lag, more urgent, the top end is very, very noticeably more powerful. At half throttle it's quite impressive now. Otherwise it seems just as smooth in regular driving it's just elevated.
Very initial feedback after driving maybe 30 miles with most of that being with wife and 5 year old in the car is this is a bargain. The repeated comments about waking up the car, transformative, should have come from the factory like this seem very true so far. Also, eliminating the auto stop/start annoyance is pretty huge in itself. I'm looking forward to just driving around a bit tomorrow volunteering for those last minute errands. If you're on the fence I'd highly recommend just doing it.
As soon as I drove down the block in dynamic/sport mode you hear the crackles in the exhaust on deceleration. It's pretty cool but I'm very happy that this is just in dynamic mode and otherwise normal sounding. I took it easy figuring it might need some time to adjust. Drove to the gas station and could tell it was more responsive, less sluggish under light throttle. Filled up and gave it the beans on the way back. It's clearly a lot faster. Less lag, more urgent, the top end is very, very noticeably more powerful. At half throttle it's quite impressive now. Otherwise it seems just as smooth in regular driving it's just elevated.
Very initial feedback after driving maybe 30 miles with most of that being with wife and 5 year old in the car is this is a bargain. The repeated comments about waking up the car, transformative, should have come from the factory like this seem very true so far. Also, eliminating the auto stop/start annoyance is pretty huge in itself. I'm looking forward to just driving around a bit tomorrow volunteering for those last minute errands. If you're on the fence I'd highly recommend just doing it.
12-24-2023, 01:27 PM
#7
AudiWorld Senior Member
I prefer Burger Motorsports JB4 since it's plug and play and you don't need to recode ECU or TCU. If in the future, you need to have your engine and transmmission repaired, that may cause an issue. JB4 simply disconnect before going to get serviced.
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12-25-2023, 06:34 AM
#8
AudiWorld Member
Under warranty? Get a JB4.
Not under warranty, get a real ECU and TCU tune.
I'll be going with 034 when my warranty is out.
Not under warranty, get a real ECU and TCU tune.
I'll be going with 034 when my warranty is out.
12-25-2023, 05:37 PM
#9
AudiWorld Member
Glad to hear your flash seems to have worked properly
The reason a power supply is recommended for flashing is simply because the chips used for the EEProm require 7 volts over whatever the chip is being powered with. The normal spec for chip power is 5v +/- 10%. Which means you may need up to 12.5 volts to effectively write the flash memories which hold the tune.
Most all battery chargers these days are switchers which have a fair amount of voltage ripple around the nominal 12.6 or so volt output. If while you are writing bits in the tune and the battery is not fully charged you may incorrectly write some of the tune software. Usually this doesn't happen as the tolerances have to stack up close to worst case values.
Problem can be if you do hit the worst case stack up the code written into the tune may be incoherent to the processor running the code. If that happens you may be up shyts creek sans paddle.
It's unusual but is really bad if it happens thus the recommendation to use a constant voltage power supply while loading the tune..
The reason a power supply is recommended for flashing is simply because the chips used for the EEProm require 7 volts over whatever the chip is being powered with. The normal spec for chip power is 5v +/- 10%. Which means you may need up to 12.5 volts to effectively write the flash memories which hold the tune.
Most all battery chargers these days are switchers which have a fair amount of voltage ripple around the nominal 12.6 or so volt output. If while you are writing bits in the tune and the battery is not fully charged you may incorrectly write some of the tune software. Usually this doesn't happen as the tolerances have to stack up close to worst case values.
Problem can be if you do hit the worst case stack up the code written into the tune may be incoherent to the processor running the code. If that happens you may be up shyts creek sans paddle.
It's unusual but is really bad if it happens thus the recommendation to use a constant voltage power supply while loading the tune..
12-26-2023, 07:43 AM
#10
Initial review time, job is done. I got the package in the mail this afternoon and found the email they sent with the login and links which had been in my junk mail. Click the link, enter your login, hit forgot password, receive email, enter password. Hook up battery charger, connect the plug and USB, follow the prompts to reflash engine then repeat the process for the transmission, Lots of interesting noises and beeps while it does it's thing. ECU flash took 9 minutes, TCU took less than 2. This was the stage 1 93 octane tune and I just went with stage 1 TCU since it's free and I was unclear on the benefits of stage 2 in an otherwise stock vehicle. It's incredibly simple and quick to do, as straight forward as it gets.
As soon as I drove down the block in dynamic/sport mode you hear the crackles in the exhaust on deceleration. It's pretty cool but I'm very happy that this is just in dynamic mode and otherwise normal sounding. I took it easy figuring it might need some time to adjust. Drove to the gas station and could tell it was more responsive, less sluggish under light throttle. Filled up and gave it the beans on the way back. It's clearly a lot faster. Less lag, more urgent, the top end is very, very noticeably more powerful. At half throttle it's quite impressive now. Otherwise it seems just as smooth in regular driving it's just elevated.
Very initial feedback after driving maybe 30 miles with most of that being with wife and 5 year old in the car is this is a bargain. The repeated comments about waking up the car, transformative, should have come from the factory like this seem very true so far. Also, eliminating the auto stop/start annoyance is pretty huge in itself. I'm looking forward to just driving around a bit tomorrow volunteering for those last minute errands. If you're on the fence I'd highly recommend just doing it.
As soon as I drove down the block in dynamic/sport mode you hear the crackles in the exhaust on deceleration. It's pretty cool but I'm very happy that this is just in dynamic mode and otherwise normal sounding. I took it easy figuring it might need some time to adjust. Drove to the gas station and could tell it was more responsive, less sluggish under light throttle. Filled up and gave it the beans on the way back. It's clearly a lot faster. Less lag, more urgent, the top end is very, very noticeably more powerful. At half throttle it's quite impressive now. Otherwise it seems just as smooth in regular driving it's just elevated.
Very initial feedback after driving maybe 30 miles with most of that being with wife and 5 year old in the car is this is a bargain. The repeated comments about waking up the car, transformative, should have come from the factory like this seem very true so far. Also, eliminating the auto stop/start annoyance is pretty huge in itself. I'm looking forward to just driving around a bit tomorrow volunteering for those last minute errands. If you're on the fence I'd highly recommend just doing it.