Hi All, I have an AGU engine on OEM management, i am struggling to find someone able to remap the ecu. Does anyone have recommendations on changing to wideband from the later engine or am i best going with full stand-a-lone management? If so, what is the most favoured manufacturer? Thanks
Don't bother with standalone, I've done a fair few mish-mashes of 20vt into old skool inc AGU using k04 with ME7 @ 4 bar with wideband etc....so firstly it depends on what you want to achieve, a simple remap, there are a few co's that can do it! To not tread on any toes you'll just have to find AGU remap specialists! After that, well, the ME7 is covered so much more online in terms of both DIY help and tuners! So if you can afford it and change your basics like pedal box, ecu etc, then mixing and matching a hybrid set up becomes a much easier proposition after that for most if you're limited for tuning options by Geography!
its an interesting area. I do wonder if a second hand emerald k6 could be sourced, if that would be a btter option than converting to Wideband...or just changing the engine and loom for something different: https://www.clubgti.com/forums/index.php?threads/1-8t-20v-engine-codes-faq.34368/ i'm in the same boat as you. I dont want to go chasing numbers but who doesn't want another 100bhp from something like a BAM/APY/APX. Quite a few people have said go standalone and you can pick up a used K6 pretty readily But is it worth it on an AGU? i don't know enough to make a decision at this point but it would be good to hear from people with more experience.
I know the AGU management is quite 'dumb' and has its limitations, they are much less supported than the newer management hence why i was interested in upgrading. I know that inevitably i will hunt more power in the future and with less and less support for the AGU management it seems worthwhile changing. Who knows when a cheap big turbo is going to pop up on eBay I have seen used K6 ECUs going for £500-600 across eBay/Social Media etc. Emerald will supply them for around £800 with a base map which will be sufficient to drive the car to be tuned correctly. The good thing being they are plug and play on the OE loom. I have heard of people getting it supplied and mapped by the same people for around £1000. Wideband conversion would be approx £500 parts (eBay prices), plus any potential coding, fitting and then mapping. The other route was to buy a scabby car running that management and then break it to recover costs. I suppose it depends on budget and future plans for the car. I still haven't made my mind up myself.
I would not say an AGU ECU is "dumb". It is quite misunderstood by the general paying public and DIYers, as only a handful of tuners tuned them and had the equipment to make changes in real time. It is the same architecture as the EU 12v VR6 post august 95 engine and AGZ 10v VR5. It is a simple device that is more than capable to control the engine it is fitted to. The lack of know how, tuning ME3.8 and the time it takes without a emulator, makes it pretty uneconomical for most commercial places. Early M3.2 systems, ran a PLCC 44 chip like the VR6 versions meaning calibration changes took some faffing about to burn special MTP Flash Proms to update the ECU. This was made easy with the M3.8.2 and M3.8.3 as they allowed flash writing. Motronic E 7, the first 16 bit Bosch ECU with E gas. You would find some folk parroting some of these are "dumb" too, due to the first versions of ME7 running a branch of two point lambda sensors, in some markets only a feedgas binary sensor is fitting as "B1S1". It is similar to any SEM without actual lambda to tune ( if you have a standalone AFR gauge) but faster to tune and study as reading and writing are available. So are the number of clone tools on ebay to access it. The second Motronic E 7, has wider support and chip tuning communities dedicated to promoting it's use and development like Nefmoto. This Lev1 and EOBD ECU, in addition to the features of the first Motronic 7, the later ECU has closed loop planer sensor input and a targeting, making tuning up to tune a car with an extra set of AFR measuring tools not required. Because of how popular these later ECUs on 2001 onwards VW engines, most folk, in an attempt to access the power in their powertrain when they cannot find a tuner, switch to the ECUs from a European AMK, BAM,AUM or AUQ ( these codes do not exist in the USDM). Most places will have an idea on these types of ECU and be able to tune the engine of the car in a reasonable time. Alternatively, if you want to have unlimited access to tune the car yourself and do not want to invest in gear only used on your own car, then a SEM is viable solution. Emerald does do an adapter for the M3.8.X vehicles. However that system will do the same job as an OMEX, DTA or Megasquirt. All ECUs can meet the maximum ability of the engine hardware. You just to know what you are doing if using any of them.
