Me and my mate Martin (phatchoonz1) on here, went and fitted my FMIC yesterday, and my what a job it proved to be.. Took most of the day due to a couple of problems.
Before I get onto those though, the car feels quicker, more responsive and alot smoother, even though I'm on my standard mapped 225. The spool up is so much more progressive and less sudden which I've been pleased with. We did some logs before using the old SMIC's with ambient temp at 20 degrees, and the reading on vag com when booted in 4th on a few runs was showing upto 35-40 degrees. However, we had no time due to the delays to get the important after logs with the FMIC.. I want to do them this week but now my fans are playing up and I want it sorted!
1st prob during the fitting of fmic - discovered when close to connecting last silicone join on the fmic that the stainless joiner was missing from the box
- so we chopped up the old lower boost pipe and made our own! This delayed the fitting a fair amount!
Least pleasing though, was the fact that the bumper would NOT fit back on without cutting out the backing of the fog cover surrounds both sides. Basically they want to go slap bang onto the metal intercooler pipes down by where the fogs usually sit (they've now gone btw)
So we used a jigsaw and cut the backing out of this area causing a bit of a mess. None you can see from the front though and a bit of weight saved Still, this slowed us right down. This wasn't mentioned at all in the instructions either to my disappointment.
Finally the bumper was on arches all bolted and we fired her up....
The car sounded lumpy and juddery as hell on idle, and almost laggy like on the 1st test run. All went fine..
2nd run I let my mate take her up the road and back, and sure thing, boost hose OFF! And it was the joiner we had made up that they forgot to send me... Problem was that oil off the oem intercooler pipe that goes down to meet the joiner on the right side had a small amount of oil which got onto the metal joiner. Cleaned both off and did the jubilee back up tight! Since then it's not come off. I've contacted the company I bought the fmic from though, and they are sending the joiner out to me so I'll change that over when it comes. We reset the throttle body using vag com and it cured the lumpiness and 'lag' feel I felt when driving. It had never been done and I'm guessing this has helped massively with the smoother/more responsive drive.
My now evident problem is the fans, I noticed it somewhat yesterday after we had done it but we did do 3/4 runs of 'full boost check the hoses are on tight and not going to pop off' so expected the fans to be working overtime after. But today, they kicked in this morning on the way to work twice and the same on the way home. One fan actually cut out yesterday after the runs, and bizarrely when prodded, decided to start working again!!
What would have caused this as I've never had them do this before until the fmic was fitted?
I love the fmic and how the car drives/feels under boost now but the fans are worrying the c**p out of me as I know they can be expensive! I wanted to get coilovers or my full exhaust this payday and want to know if I now have to forget that idea!!
Before I get onto those though, the car feels quicker, more responsive and alot smoother, even though I'm on my standard mapped 225. The spool up is so much more progressive and less sudden which I've been pleased with. We did some logs before using the old SMIC's with ambient temp at 20 degrees, and the reading on vag com when booted in 4th on a few runs was showing upto 35-40 degrees. However, we had no time due to the delays to get the important after logs with the FMIC.. I want to do them this week but now my fans are playing up and I want it sorted!
1st prob during the fitting of fmic - discovered when close to connecting last silicone join on the fmic that the stainless joiner was missing from the box
- so we chopped up the old lower boost pipe and made our own! This delayed the fitting a fair amount!Least pleasing though, was the fact that the bumper would NOT fit back on without cutting out the backing of the fog cover surrounds both sides. Basically they want to go slap bang onto the metal intercooler pipes down by where the fogs usually sit (they've now gone btw)
So we used a jigsaw and cut the backing out of this area causing a bit of a mess. None you can see from the front though and a bit of weight saved
Still, this slowed us right down. This wasn't mentioned at all in the instructions either to my disappointment.Finally the bumper was on arches all bolted and we fired her up....
The car sounded lumpy and juddery as hell on idle, and almost laggy like on the 1st test run. All went fine..
2nd run I let my mate take her up the road and back, and sure thing, boost hose OFF! And it was the joiner we had made up that they forgot to send me... Problem was that oil off the oem intercooler pipe that goes down to meet the joiner on the right side had a small amount of oil which got onto the metal joiner. Cleaned both off and did the jubilee back up tight! Since then it's not come off. I've contacted the company I bought the fmic from though, and they are sending the joiner out to me so I'll change that over when it comes. We reset the throttle body using vag com and it cured the lumpiness and 'lag' feel I felt when driving. It had never been done and I'm guessing this has helped massively with the smoother/more responsive drive.
My now evident problem is the fans, I noticed it somewhat yesterday after we had done it but we did do 3/4 runs of 'full boost check the hoses are on tight and not going to pop off' so expected the fans to be working overtime after. But today, they kicked in this morning on the way to work twice and the same on the way home. One fan actually cut out yesterday after the runs, and bizarrely when prodded, decided to start working again!!
What would have caused this as I've never had them do this before until the fmic was fitted?
I love the fmic and how the car drives/feels under boost now but the fans are worrying the c**p out of me as I know they can be expensive! I wanted to get coilovers or my full exhaust this payday and want to know if I now have to forget that idea!!
