2016 Golf R

OverclockN'

OverclockN'

Well-known member
The new car I picked up a couple weeks back, a 2016 Golf R. Fully loaded with Dynamic Chassis Control, DSG, Blind Spot Warning, Lane Assist, Adaptive Cruise Control, Front Crash Avoidance, reverse cam, NAV, front/rear parking sensors, Rain Sensing Wipers, Fender Audio, and Apple Carplay/Android Auto.

Love it so far, except for all of the assisted driving aids. They are totally obnoxious, like the Adaptive Cruise Control (cant disable), Lane Assist, Auto Wipers, and Front Crash Avoidance. I've turned everything off at this point. The rest of it is quite a good package. The interior is fantastic material and build quality. The audio sounds GREAT to me, since I've never had a car with even a remotely decent stereo system.

The gearbox is bittersweet. Love it when I'm in attack mode and in a sporty mood, but it's not great from a dead stop as it creeps up slowly through the gears. It's great as it cranks through the gears very quickly. The DSG fart noise between shifts is mildly amusing, but mostly just silly. I'd turn that off too if I could.

Driving experience is good for a daily driver and halfway normal car. It's not GREAT, but it's good. Handling toward the limit is a little funny. Definitely front wheel drive balance in the corners. Brakes are good, and I feel like even though they have a great initial bite and feel at first like they are extremely good....there's something not quite analog and they don't feel like it has that bite/stopping power from high speeds. Which tells me it's all fake and over-boosted. But that's ok. We'll see how it does with better pads during a track day sometime in the future. Really though, it's just a decently balanced and fun car to get around in.

Won't go crazy with this thing, but I would like to do what they call a "stage 2" tune (I still find stages pointless). Which is basically a bit more aggressive tune with a downpipe that is required. Looking to go for the stage 1 tune right away along with the TCU tune for the DSG trans. Will take it to the dragstrip immediately after.

For now, some pics I snapped today. Not the greatest, but I've been busy lately.

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Greasy said:
Nice ride man! I drove my neighbors and fell in love with it. So much fun to drive!
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Thanks! Yeah, when considering the whole package...it's fantastic. I knew I had to have it after the first drive compared to everything I drove before it. May seem a little harsh on some parts of it...but it's just being critical and comparing to other things I've driven.

All things considered...this may be the best car I've ever owned. I have other cars that are better for a single purpose, but this is just a damn good car and does everything pretty well.
 
Awesome! Looks really clean! The audio is pretty good, but the sub kinda sucks. It can't put out really low sounds, it just cuts off.

Try setting a custom mode. Set the engine to sport, transmission to normal to improve the low rpm dsg shifts. The fart sound is just a byproduct of the engine changing timing to cut power so it can shift.

PS. Every complaint you have except for the DSG, you can tweak with OBDEleven.
 
Roadhog_ said:
Awesome! Looks really clean! The audio is pretty good, but the sub kinda sucks. It can't put out really low sounds, it just cuts off.

Try setting a custom mode. Set the engine to sport, transmission to normal to improve the low rpm dsg shifts. The fart sound is just a byproduct of the engine changing timing to cut power so it can shift.

PS. Every complaint you have except for the DSG, you can tweak with OBDEleven.
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It's super clean. I noticed a small ding on the fender last week, so I'll get that pulled out soon. Other than that, it looks to be in fantastic condition. DSG service is getting done on Friday. I might take it to the dragstrip after that to get some baseline stock numbers. I don't think I'll be able to hold back from getting the stage 1 tunes this year. :lol:

I think I'm sold on OBDEleven. Is there a complete list somewhere of all the one-click coding things it supports for the Golf 7? It seems difficult to find that...
 
OverclockN' said:
I think I'm sold on OBDEleven. Is there a complete list somewhere of all the one-click coding things it supports for the Golf 7? It seems difficult to find that...
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The one click coding things will be in the App when you enter all your car info during setup. Most of the stuff you listed that you wanted to change would be manually by either adaptation channels, or long coding.

Like for example you can turn off the brake over boost, and tone down the assist level. That would not be done through the 1 click app. One thing to note, before you do ANY coding change, backup your control module configs. Just do a backup of all the modules and email them to yourself.

If you have something you want to change, just google it or search the vwvortex, golfmk7, or obdeleven forum. Chances are someone has figured out how to do it. The OBDeleven and VCDS tweaks are HUGE with these cars, you will find threads with thousands of posts with just tweaks.

https://forums.vwvortex.com/showthread.php?7761442-OBDEleven-Adventure-Thread

http://forum.obdeleven.com/board/81/mk7

https://www.golfmk7.com/forums/showthread.php?t=15896

https://sites.google.com/a/naturalnetworks.ca/vw-golf-mk7-vcds-how-to/
 
Thanks Roadhog. I did quite a bit of searching and watched YouTube videos on it. No doubt I missed some stuff. Will check it out when I get a chance! :up:
 
Looking good. White is one of the better colors. Sometimes black feels so blah on these.
 
logical said:
Looking good. White is one of the better colors. Sometimes black feels so blah on these.
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I absolutely love the blue from VW. My favorite is probably the Laguna Seca blue that you see a lot of the Mustangs running, but damn the MK7 Golf R's look fantastic in blue. BMW has a beautiful blue as well.
 
DSG service was done today, and picking the car up after work.

Still enjoying the car, but the complaints are ramping up fast the longer I own it. I discovered on Tuesday that the car completely neuters itself in turns if you don't stability off or to the Sport mode. I came around a corner quick and went to apply throttle to power out and...NOTHING. it didn't apply any power until I was nearly perfectly straight and then it just slammed the throttle on and charged forward. I tried the same thing the next day after pressing the Stability button once for Sport, and it behaves just fine. So normal mode is super intrusive and ridiculous. On top of that, if you have stability in Sport or OFF, it disables cruise control. FFS.

The low speed normal driving is kind of aggrevating. It's a total turd. I'm borrowing a Jetta as a loaner and it's way better, so I wonder if there is carbon buildup. We will see how it feels with the fresh DSG fluid, but I expect no change. The dealer gave it a clean bill of health and called it perfect, of course. I'll scope it and check it myself. Otherwise, for normal driving, the car is just a disappointing gutless weenie. :p

Thinking about taking it to the dragstrip to get some baseline stock numbers.
 
Sounds like normal traction control to me, regarding having to switch to sport mode for spirited driving.
 
Elysian said:
Sounds like normal traction control to me, regarding having to switch to sport mode for spirited driving.
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Sure, just never had a car where it was that intrusive. But, maybe newer cars are just that way. My 2013 BRZ definitely wasn't. It didn't completely cut throttle, you could have some fun and maintain a little speed.
 
OverclockN' said:
Sure, just never had a car where it was that intrusive. But, maybe newer cars are just that way. My 2013 BRZ definitely wasn't. It didn't completely cut throttle, you could have some fun and maintain a little speed.
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My Colorado can be pretty intrusive when it wants to, and other times send the rear end swinging around... The VW stuff seems to work better. Or worse, depending how you look at it :p
 
OverclockN' said:
DSG service was done today, and picking the car up after work.

Still enjoying the car, but the complaints are ramping up fast the longer I own it. I discovered on Tuesday that the car completely neuters itself in turns if you don't stability off or to the Sport mode. I came around a corner quick and went to apply throttle to power out and...NOTHING. it didn't apply any power until I was nearly perfectly straight and then it just slammed the throttle on and charged forward. I tried the same thing the next day after pressing the Stability button once for Sport, and it behaves just fine. So normal mode is super intrusive and ridiculous. On top of that, if you have stability in Sport or OFF, it disables cruise control. FFS.
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Wait.... You mean the stability control did what it should in normal mode? If it senses wheel slip or anything in normal, it does everything it can to prevent it. How does it know you didn't hit a patch of ice? Set it to sport or off if you want to hoon. It's literally 1 button press, takes less than a second. I've never noticed cruise being disabled with it in Sport or off, i'll have to try that. But maybe because I don't have ACC.

OverclockN' said:
The low speed normal driving is kind of aggrevating. It's a total turd. I'm borrowing a Jetta as a loaner and it's way better, so I wonder if there is carbon buildup. We will see how it feels with the fresh DSG fluid, but I expect no change. The dealer gave it a clean bill of health and called it perfect, of course. I'll scope it and check it myself. Otherwise, for normal driving, the car is just a disappointing gutless weenie. :p

Thinking about taking it to the dragstrip to get some baseline stock numbers.
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Is this your first turbocharged 4 cylinder? I'm sure the Golf R is more laggy than the GTI at low RPM's as it has a larger turbo. These engines shouldn't have a high load at low rpm's too. You can get LSPI which = boom.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low-speed_pre-ignition

If you want to take off like a rocket, use launch control, the clutches are wet, they can handle the abuse fine. If not, roll into the throttle and never go full throttle under 2k rpms. 2500 is even better.
 
Roadhog_ said:
Wait.... You mean the stability control did what it should in normal mode? If it senses wheel slip or anything in normal, it does everything it can to prevent it. How does it know you didn't hit a patch of ice? Set it to sport or off if you want to hoon. It's literally 1 button press, takes less than a second. I've never noticed cruise being disabled with it in Sport or off, i'll have to try that. But maybe because I don't have ACC.



Is this your first turbocharged 4 cylinder? I'm sure the Golf R is more laggy than the GTI at low RPM's as it has a larger turbo. These engines shouldn't have a high load at low rpm's too. You can get LSPI which = boom.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low-speed_pre-ignition

If you want to take off like a rocket, use launch control, the clutches are wet, they can handle the abuse fine. If not, roll into the throttle and never go full throttle under 2k rpms. 2500 is even better.
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I'm just talking normal driving. Just creeping along from light to light and driving like a normal person. The throttle response and getting it to move is awful. The Jetta I have as a loaner has the DSG is MUCH better. Could it be a turbo lag thing with the R it? Sure...but that's why I say it's a ridiculously gutless weenie then. :p

As far as the stability control, I get that. I just didn't expect it to interfere THAT much. I expected it to allow enough throttle to keep you moving and hauling around the turn while monitoring and adjusting for slip. It apparently doesn't do that in the normal mode, it just goes..."you're going too fast, so I won't let you do ANYTHING"...and 100% cuts throttle.

I've had exposure to many 4cyl turbo cars. I had my brothers STI for 3 years, my friends currently own a Focus ST and 16 Golf GTI. Friend use to own a 500 Abarth. Etc etc. None of them were this bad out of boost.
 
OverclockN' said:
I'm just talking normal driving. Just creeping along from light to light and driving like a normal person. The throttle response and getting it to move is awful. The Jetta I have as a loaner has the DSG is MUCH better. Could it be a turbo lag thing with the R it? Sure...but that's why I say it's a ridiculously gutless weenie then. :p
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The DSG like to creep along in second gear because people complained that first was too jerky. So you get all the clutch slip in second gear now. Push the stick to S and it will creep in first with no clutch slip. It's also easier on the transmission. I agree it's stupid, but you can't make everyone happy and it seems VW choose to cater to the majority. Turbo lag def there, if you had something to read boost, you would see and understand why it is so unresponsive under 2k rpms. Mostly to prevent LSPI I would think. The Jetta, I had one too as a loaner, it has an itty bitty turbo and different gearing. I do agree, it was very responsive. I'm honestly just totally used to the turbo and little bit of dsg lag. You will get used to it too.

OverclockN' said:
As far as the stability control, I get that. I just didn't expect it to interfere THAT much. I expected it to allow enough throttle to keep you moving and hauling around the turn while monitoring and adjusting for slip. It apparently doesn't do that in the normal mode, it just goes..."you're going too fast, so I won't let you do ANYTHING"...and 100% cuts throttle.

I've had exposure to many 4cyl turbo cars. I had my brothers STI for 3 years, my friends currently own a Focus ST and 16 Golf GTI. Friend use to own a 500 Abarth. Etc etc. None of them were this bad out of boost.
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Those are all tiny turbo cars with much less power than the Golf R. STI is also known for turbo lag, not sure how you can say it didn't have any? Seriously, these engines should not have a high load at low RPM. If you request it, you just won't get it.

And Yes, Traction control is annoying in normal. But Sport is just 1 press. :D
 
Roadhog_ said:
The DSG like to creep along in second gear because people complained that first was too jerky. So you get all the clutch slip in second gear now. Push the stick to S and it will creep in first with no clutch slip. It's also easier on the transmission. I agree it's stupid, but you can't make everyone happy and it seems VW choose to cater to the majority. Turbo lag def there, if you had something to read boost, you would see and understand why it is so unresponsive under 2k rpms. Mostly to prevent LSPI I would think. The Jetta, I had one too as a loaner, it has an itty bitty turbo and different gearing. I do agree, it was very responsive. I'm honestly just totally used to the turbo and little bit of dsg lag. You will get used to it too.



Those are all tiny turbo cars with much less power than the Golf R. STI is also known for turbo lag, not sure how you can say it didn't have any? Seriously, these engines should not have a high load at low RPM. If you request it, you just won't get it.

And Yes, Traction control is annoying in normal. But Sport is just 1 press. :D
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I never said anything didn't have turbo lag, they all do. It's not relevant. I'm talking about how they drive in normal city driving not in boost. None of them had the poor throttle response and sluggishness of this R. And Like I said earlier, maybe there is a problem. It could be plugged up with carbon, who knows. If it's normal, it's disappointingly sluggish, that's all.

I'm not a fan of S for normal driving due to how high it maintains the rpm.

And, I'll repeat it again, because you keep mentioning high load at low rpm, so we are still not on the same page. I'm talking low load, low RPM, driving like a normal sane person. It has very poor throttle response and getting it to move at all. It feels like it's all plugged up to me. No clue if it's normal for these cars, and that's what I'm trying to find out.

I understand how the stability button works. It's just a minor complaint, I'm not up in arms about it. I was surprised how incredibly intrusive it was in normal, and then surprised it disables cruise so I couldn't just leave it in there either.
 
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