(Possible) Product Review: Volo VP12 Performance "ECU Soft-Flash" Chip
03-27-2011, 04:37 PM
#21
AudiWorld Super User
Join Date: Feb 2004
Location: Canada (NCR)
Posts: 7,677
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
2.8L V6 (which is, you guessed it, the ONLY power plant Audi offered)?
In North America...Yes
There was a different 12v in Europe and elsewhere. 2.6 IIRC
In North America...Yes
There was a different 12v in Europe and elsewhere. 2.6 IIRC
03-27-2011, 04:54 PM
#22
AudiWorld Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Mar 2010
Posts: 466
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
2.6 is correct, but in Europe the 2.6 wasn't the only engine available. There were also 2.0 and 2.3 versions during its run. As to the years associated with each choice, no clue.
But the person I was talking to knows I'm in the US, and in the US, the Cab only came with the 2.8. A few tweaks here and there, but still a 2.8 12V V6.
But the person I was talking to knows I'm in the US, and in the US, the Cab only came with the 2.8. A few tweaks here and there, but still a 2.8 12V V6.
03-28-2011, 10:49 AM
#24
AudiWorld Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Mar 2010
Posts: 466
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Houston, we are "GO" for launch...
Got the reply to my (hopefully) final question:
"Sean,
I completely understand your problems with the parts store. Especially when you ask for something as simple as wiper blades and they require your engine size.
The Volo Chip itself all look the same. The coding is different on the ROM. We put a label to indicate the difference. There is also a label on the outside of the box to indicate what it is.
Rest assured you have the Audi Cabriolet programming.
If you have any other questions let us know. Thanks.
Kevin
Sales & Installation
www.VoloPerformance.com"
So, I guess I just need to show a little faith in my fellow man. Problem is, I went to the storage garage to get a bit ahead of the game last night. I can't get the OBDII plug out of its place in my kneeboard. So, I'm going to drop the kneeboard and just leave the socket in place.
ElsaWin says there are 4 bolts that hold the kneeboard in place. I can see one bolt exposed on each the far left and far right of the knee board. I also have two plastic 1" circles placed at even intervals between those exposed bolts. I tried prying those circles off, but they were pretty stubborn, and I wanted to make sure that they aren't sensors for the airbag or something.
So, on the hard plastic shell pieces by your feet, are the bolts covered by these circles and I can just pop them off? Or am I missing something?
Got the reply to my (hopefully) final question:
"Sean,
I completely understand your problems with the parts store. Especially when you ask for something as simple as wiper blades and they require your engine size.
The Volo Chip itself all look the same. The coding is different on the ROM. We put a label to indicate the difference. There is also a label on the outside of the box to indicate what it is.
Rest assured you have the Audi Cabriolet programming.
If you have any other questions let us know. Thanks.
Kevin
Sales & Installation
www.VoloPerformance.com"
So, I guess I just need to show a little faith in my fellow man. Problem is, I went to the storage garage to get a bit ahead of the game last night. I can't get the OBDII plug out of its place in my kneeboard. So, I'm going to drop the kneeboard and just leave the socket in place.
ElsaWin says there are 4 bolts that hold the kneeboard in place. I can see one bolt exposed on each the far left and far right of the knee board. I also have two plastic 1" circles placed at even intervals between those exposed bolts. I tried prying those circles off, but they were pretty stubborn, and I wanted to make sure that they aren't sensors for the airbag or something.
So, on the hard plastic shell pieces by your feet, are the bolts covered by these circles and I can just pop them off? Or am I missing something?
03-28-2011, 07:53 PM
#25
AudiWorld Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Mar 2010
Posts: 466
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
The VP-12 unit is now installed. A few words of warning:
The cheater clips included are not my favorite. The wires in our OBDII sockets are thin, and I was scared that I would slice through them. This weekend, I will be re-installing with a different setup.
After I finished the intstall, I was admittedly a little confused by the instructions on how to "Calibrate" the system.
The little warning card said I had to hit the "Reset" Button as soon as I had finished the install. So, then I let the car get warmed up, then hit it again when I'm at full temp? Well, that's what I did. And the little red light went nuts for a minute or so, and then it calmed down. And, funny enough... So did my car.
May car has always had a mild stumble to its idle since the day I bought it. It's the main reason I bought new injectors. Once I put the new exhaust system on, it really became noticeable. Well, when the little red light on this unit stopped flashing like a strobe, my idle dropped to 650 on the nose (a bit low, from what I remember, but it didn't want to die), and I had no stumble.
So, what the Hell... I threw 'er in Reverse, backed out of the driveway and away I went.
I always let the tach get up to about 2500 in first when I leave the house, then let off the gas so the car will shift into second. It did it again as normal. No surprizes. Second gear, however, was another story. Second gear in this car has always been somewhat of an afterthought. A 5 second rest stop between first gear and coasting in traffic. This is where I noticed a definite improvement. Namely, shift points. I think this thing does something to change what the car knows as "familiar" about certain points of input. Specifically? My Throttle Position Sensor.
I'm not positive, but it really does feel like my gas pedal has a more "pro-active" attitude toward its function in life. Don't get me wrong, here. I'm not talking about my car feeling like it has a supercharger on it or anything. But I can tell you without a doubt in my mind that a lighter foot on the gas still yields a heavier feeling in my back and shoulders. From a stop light, this car now genuinely wants to accelerate. And every one of my shift points, no matter where I am on that throttle, is higher and cleaner.
But, this also brings up my first complaint. I can't tell if this is a symptom of the "needs 120 miles to fully adjust" thing or not, but I merged on to the freeway from 10 MPH up to 70 MPH, and I wasn't really noticing much different after about 50 MPH. 10 up to 50 was noticeably more entertaining, but it seemed like from 50 to 70, the car was kinda getting in its own way like it was trying to figure out what to do next. It wasn't missing, and the Ultra-gauge was still happy as a lark monitoring mix, advance, MAF volume, etc. The car just didn't have as much "head-snap" as I thought it would, based upon what I had felt already.
Cruising at 70, however, I noticed something that I really, really liked. The exhaust note. Simply put, "Hells to tha Yeah!" My short and long trim were in four-part harmony like Boyz II Men back in the day. I have NEVER seen that before. Normally, the trim would be bouncing all over between -7.5 and +7.5... Now, It was flowing gently between -3 and +1.5. You could hear the muffler, but what you couldn't hear was the drone. And I had the roof up, which usually causes the noise of the engine and exhaust to bounce off the ceiling and right to my ears. Not now. I have to attribute that to the more even flow of fuel and air. It sounded like a violoncello rolling a perfect D... And I've always been an F-sharp man in the ///AMG... and it seemed an awful shame not to see what this little tart could handle.
Smithers...
Release the Hounds!!!
If this chip really does take 120 miles to reach its full potential, I could have finished the remainder of the break-in period in an hour (Do the math). I was only up there for about thirty seconds, but... {Giggity} Guys, I officially own one sex-nasty little piece of German automotive technology.
The VP-12 seems to have its strong points, and it has it's possible weaknesses, too. But there isn't a doubt in my mind that this thing does SOMETHING. Let's face it... having something that re-calibrates the Throttle Position Sensor back to a lively setting (and KEEPS it there) is enough for most of us regular work-a-day Joe's, right? I consider the narrowing of my trim flux, the quieter running at speed, etc. to be bonus material.
So far, I'm a happy guy. I'll keep you posted.
The cheater clips included are not my favorite. The wires in our OBDII sockets are thin, and I was scared that I would slice through them. This weekend, I will be re-installing with a different setup.
After I finished the intstall, I was admittedly a little confused by the instructions on how to "Calibrate" the system.
The little warning card said I had to hit the "Reset" Button as soon as I had finished the install. So, then I let the car get warmed up, then hit it again when I'm at full temp? Well, that's what I did. And the little red light went nuts for a minute or so, and then it calmed down. And, funny enough... So did my car.
May car has always had a mild stumble to its idle since the day I bought it. It's the main reason I bought new injectors. Once I put the new exhaust system on, it really became noticeable. Well, when the little red light on this unit stopped flashing like a strobe, my idle dropped to 650 on the nose (a bit low, from what I remember, but it didn't want to die), and I had no stumble.
So, what the Hell... I threw 'er in Reverse, backed out of the driveway and away I went.
I always let the tach get up to about 2500 in first when I leave the house, then let off the gas so the car will shift into second. It did it again as normal. No surprizes. Second gear, however, was another story. Second gear in this car has always been somewhat of an afterthought. A 5 second rest stop between first gear and coasting in traffic. This is where I noticed a definite improvement. Namely, shift points. I think this thing does something to change what the car knows as "familiar" about certain points of input. Specifically? My Throttle Position Sensor.
I'm not positive, but it really does feel like my gas pedal has a more "pro-active" attitude toward its function in life. Don't get me wrong, here. I'm not talking about my car feeling like it has a supercharger on it or anything. But I can tell you without a doubt in my mind that a lighter foot on the gas still yields a heavier feeling in my back and shoulders. From a stop light, this car now genuinely wants to accelerate. And every one of my shift points, no matter where I am on that throttle, is higher and cleaner.
But, this also brings up my first complaint. I can't tell if this is a symptom of the "needs 120 miles to fully adjust" thing or not, but I merged on to the freeway from 10 MPH up to 70 MPH, and I wasn't really noticing much different after about 50 MPH. 10 up to 50 was noticeably more entertaining, but it seemed like from 50 to 70, the car was kinda getting in its own way like it was trying to figure out what to do next. It wasn't missing, and the Ultra-gauge was still happy as a lark monitoring mix, advance, MAF volume, etc. The car just didn't have as much "head-snap" as I thought it would, based upon what I had felt already.
Cruising at 70, however, I noticed something that I really, really liked. The exhaust note. Simply put, "Hells to tha Yeah!" My short and long trim were in four-part harmony like Boyz II Men back in the day. I have NEVER seen that before. Normally, the trim would be bouncing all over between -7.5 and +7.5... Now, It was flowing gently between -3 and +1.5. You could hear the muffler, but what you couldn't hear was the drone. And I had the roof up, which usually causes the noise of the engine and exhaust to bounce off the ceiling and right to my ears. Not now. I have to attribute that to the more even flow of fuel and air. It sounded like a violoncello rolling a perfect D... And I've always been an F-sharp man in the ///AMG... and it seemed an awful shame not to see what this little tart could handle.
Smithers...
Release the Hounds!!!
If this chip really does take 120 miles to reach its full potential, I could have finished the remainder of the break-in period in an hour (Do the math). I was only up there for about thirty seconds, but... {Giggity} Guys, I officially own one sex-nasty little piece of German automotive technology.
The VP-12 seems to have its strong points, and it has it's possible weaknesses, too. But there isn't a doubt in my mind that this thing does SOMETHING. Let's face it... having something that re-calibrates the Throttle Position Sensor back to a lively setting (and KEEPS it there) is enough for most of us regular work-a-day Joe's, right? I consider the narrowing of my trim flux, the quieter running at speed, etc. to be bonus material.
So far, I'm a happy guy. I'll keep you posted.
Last edited by Loudgoldwing; 03-28-2011 at 08:00 PM.
03-28-2011, 08:07 PM
#27
AudiWorld Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Mar 2010
Posts: 466
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Jesus... Thanks Grillage, I almost forgot.
Total trip, 22 miles. City out, freeway back.
25.3 MPG per the Ultra-gauge. But to be fair, I hit the MPG reset as I was pulling out of the driveway, so the idling 2 minutes to warmup a bit didn't factor in like it would in normal life.
Total trip, 22 miles. City out, freeway back.
25.3 MPG per the Ultra-gauge. But to be fair, I hit the MPG reset as I was pulling out of the driveway, so the idling 2 minutes to warmup a bit didn't factor in like it would in normal life.
03-28-2011, 08:53 PM
#29
AudiWorld Super User
hmmm this is interesting.... ill have to get in touch with these guys, if this thing can improve my power and mpg, ill defenetly get it
so you think i could just plug it in to the OBD-I port?
What was your MPGs before and after? i think this should be taken after the full calibration process is complete.
so you think i could just plug it in to the OBD-I port?
What was your MPGs before and after? i think this should be taken after the full calibration process is complete.
Last edited by CRAZY_RUSSIAN; 03-29-2011 at 09:24 AM.
03-30-2011, 07:17 PM
#30
AudiWorld Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Mar 2010
Posts: 466
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
I hit the 120 mile point today, and all still fares well. The jump I feel off the line is still impressive, and the car has also settled into a solid, clean and consistent shifting rhythm.
While this car is still a budget-minded B4 12-valve, it is now an extremely bad-*** budget-minded B4 12-valve. My only complaint? When the torque converter locks up, it REALLY locks up now, and I can tell I need a new pair of transmission mounts...
As for gas mileage, I was at an average of 21.2 MPG for 80% city and 20% highway driving. For the last 100 miles driving the same route, I am at 22.8 MPG. And I have been driving aggressively, given the newfound "spring" in the car's step.
While this car is still a budget-minded B4 12-valve, it is now an extremely bad-*** budget-minded B4 12-valve. My only complaint? When the torque converter locks up, it REALLY locks up now, and I can tell I need a new pair of transmission mounts...
As for gas mileage, I was at an average of 21.2 MPG for 80% city and 20% highway driving. For the last 100 miles driving the same route, I am at 22.8 MPG. And I have been driving aggressively, given the newfound "spring" in the car's step.