[Rip Van Winkle]

I love my stage 3 but something doesn't seem right...not sure if this is normal for the stage 3 upgrade...but reading about those with just stage 1 and how the turbo gauge pegs out into the red....w/ the stage 3, the gauge never enters the red area...is this normal?

 

[VectorDan]

Definitely not from my experience... Mine barely touched the red before, but now goes to at least the second red notch during max boost.

 

[Dach]

I would suggest installing a boost gauge. the stock is only an indication, taking into account lots of stuff.

After I installed my boost gauge, sometimes at .7bar of boost, the stock indicator jumps up to max. so it is way off in terms of accuracy.

 

[fr4gm0nk3y]

The in dash boost gauge is for show, it can be set to always peg in red if you want it too.

 

[VectorDan]

The in dash boost gauge is for show, it can be set to always peg in red if you want it too.

Sort of... the reading is based on the engine load as determined by the ECU from the MAF sensor readout. It is an indication of the requested boost for a particular set of operating conditons - not the resulting pressure.

So one would expect that two identical engines with the exact same tune (Stage 3) would produce the exact same readout on the "boost" gauge for a particular set of operating conditions, since it's basically a "proactive" readout rather than a "reactive". So I think Rip has a fair question.

Does it FEEL like you're running a Stage 3 tune Rip? Does your turbo make a much louder whining sound now?

 

[fr4gm0nk3y]

Sort of... the reading is based on the engine load as determined by the ECU from the MAF sensor readout. It is an indication of the requested boost for a particular set of operating conditons - not the resulting pressure.

So one would expect that two identical engines with the exact same tune (Stage 3) would produce the exact same readout on the "boost" gauge for a particular set of operating conditions, since it's basically a "proactive" readout rather than a "reactive". So I think Rip has a fair question.

Does it FEEL like you're running a Stage 3 tune Rip? Does your turbo make a much louder whining sound now?

Point is it's not proportionate to the amount of boost youre pushing

 

[VectorDan]

Point is it's not proportionate to the amount of boost youre pushing

If anything's identical between two cars with the same tune, it should be this "readout". You would expect differences in readouts with an actual mechanical boost gauge, but not on an electronic one that operates on lookup tables with set data for a particular engine load. So if Rip's requested boost is lower than my requested boost, what's the result? That's my point/question.

I can't imagine that Rip's actual boost would be exceeding what is being requested, since the ECU controls boost by comparing the requested with the measured.

I agree, if you were clever you could reprogram the ECU to scale up the signal to the electronic gauge so it max's out all the time, but we're not that clever - well at least I'm not.

EDIT: I'm making the assumption here that our tunes are completely identical.

 

[Rip Van Winkle]

Sort of... the reading is based on the engine load as determined by the ECU from the MAF sensor readout. It is an indication of the requested boost for a particular set of operating conditons - not the resulting pressure.

So one would expect that two identical engines with the exact same tune (Stage 3) would produce the exact same readout on the "boost" gauge for a particular set of operating conditions, since it's basically a "proactive" readout rather than a "reactive". So I think Rip has a fair question.

Does it FEEL like you're running a Stage 3 tune Rip? Does your turbo make a much louder whining sound now?

there's an obvious difference in power from stock linear 2.0t to the new stage 3 set up...but the gauge doesn't reflect the needle in the red that everyone talks about with their bsr upgrades. It normally stops at the 2nd white line before it gets to the red. So I'm curious, although there is an apparent gain in power, if i'm not actually getting the full benefit.

 

[fr4gm0nk3y]

Only way to be sure is to dyno it