ABT AEC - can you switch between vehicles?

[BarryBlack]

I think the warranty is with ABT and not Seat for cases like yours and tbh don’t know if it’s any good or not.

ABT pick the warranty up from Seat, at least for the drivetrain. Technically it does still void the vehicle's 'Weksgarantie' as far as I am aware.

re it being 370hp I’d be sceptical of it achieving that because one of the unfortunate side effects of the ABT’s safety features is that on a dyno without proper airflow (eg the same you’d get on a road actually moving) the intake temps will rise very quickly and it will ramp power down.
I don’t know anybody who has dyno’d an ABT box and gotten the power claimed.
I’m not saying it’s not there, quite the contrary (See below), but you’ll never be able to verify it in a dyno.

The point I was getting at when I said I’ll have it removed after 3 yrs is that there is more performance to be had easily on this engine and my car (R ST).
Another guy with my car has an APR stage 1 map and he has 375hp now. (He had the ABT box removed)
He can now do 0-60 3.69sec and 1/4mile 12.04 !!!

This is my point exactly - I don't care about dyno numbers in the slightest. I'd never bother to dyno the car - Real-world driving enjoyment is what concerns me, 350hp vs 370hp vs whatever is irrelevant. I'm not the sort of driver who uses launch control anyway, all I want is to be pushed back into my seat when I floor it!

Having said all that, I'm now looking at other options. You seem to gravitate towards APR, any reason for that? There are so many options out there

Edit: Those 0-60 times are epic, btw

 

[Slickric21]

I just used APR as an example as there is a user on this forum “Jenko” who had is R ST mapped by them and the results are significantly better than the ABT box he had on the car first.

Personally I will have the Revo stage 1 GPF map on my car when my warranty runs outs, simply because there are a few local tuners to me who are Revo specialists.
I’m sure Apr/Revo results will be near enough the same !!

 

[BigJase88]

ABT pick the warranty up from Seat, at least for the drivetrain. Technically it does still void the vehicle's 'Weksgarantie' as far as I am aware.



This is my point exactly - I don't care about dyno numbers in the slightest. I'd never bother to dyno the car - Real-world driving enjoyment is what concerns me, 350hp vs 370hp vs whatever is irrelevant. I'm not the sort of driver who uses launch control anyway, all I want is to be pushed back into my seat when I floor it!

Having said all that, I'm now looking at other options. You seem to gravitate towards APR, any reason for that? There are so many options out there

Edit: Those 0-60 times are epic, btw

I completely agree with you what ABT offer is a device that keeps the engine safe and maintains a warranty. Nothing is pushed to the limits

where as your tuning companies everything is running at 95% max all the time, you lose your warranty and you are putting components under stress and strain, clutches / turbo’s / and who knows what else

 

[BarryBlack]

I completely agree with you what ABT offer is a device that keeps the engine safe and maintains a warranty. Nothing is pushed to the limits

where as your tuning companies everything is running at 95% max all the time, you lose your warranty and you are putting components under stress and strain, clutches / turbo’s / and who knows what else

This is exactly how I see it.

On one end of the scale, there is a stock engine. On the opposite side are your ECU remaps (APR/Revo/etc) which give close the maximum amount of power these engines are capable of delivering. ABT sits somewhere in between; significantly faster than stock, but the engine isn't being pushed to a higher duty cycle when safe conditions aren't met. This is what I am looking for.

My Cupra is a family car that has balls, as opposed to something I'd ever consider taking on a track. Reliability and longevity are definitely concerns for me. Horses for courses, so they say!

 

[BigJase88]

This is exactly how I see it.

On one end of the scale, there is a stock engine. On the opposite side are your ECU remaps (APR/Revo/etc) which give close the maximum amount of power these engines are capable of delivering. ABT sits somewhere in between; significantly faster than stock, but the engine isn't being pushed to a higher duty cycle when safe conditions aren't met. This is what I am looking for.

My Cupra is a family car that has balls, as opposed to something I'd ever consider taking on a track. Reliability and longevity are definitely concerns for me. Horses for courses, so they say!

Another option would be a tuning box, remove without trace for warranty work?

DTUK are well renowned and a tuning box is around £399

https://www.diesel-performance.co.u...012-onwards/2-0-cupra-300ps221kw-1984-ccm/#go

 

[BarryBlack]

Update here: I've decided to abandon the ABT idea. Even with a discount deal they have going currently, the total cost would be around 2500€ with a years worth of them taking the Werksgarantie over. Absolutely not worth it unfortunately.

I might investigate the tuning-box route, I've heard good things about the JB4.

 

[Slickric21]

Yeah don’t go DTUK, the JB4 is a much better option. Smoother, safer, more power. They are very highly regarded.

 

[BarryBlack]

Yeah don’t go DTUK, the JB4 is a much better option. Smoother, safer, more power. They are very highly regarded.

Yeah my research tells me the same, stay away from DTUK. JB4 seems to do much of what the ABT unit claims to do. Its able to read diagnostic data via OBDII and make adjustments / corrections in realtime. George, the guy who supporns JB4 for VAG, seems to be incredibly helpful and an absolute legend as well which is a huge confidence boost.

 

[jamstonmartames]

Apparently they are tied to the cars VIN they were initially installed on but you could try it and see ?!?!?

re contacting ABT they generally ignore any contact with anything that may be ‘awkward’ for them.

Your best bet would be to contact a local reseller who may be able to help you or give you more info on it and if it’s possible.
Richter are the main reseller in the UK I think, don’t know about Germany however.

Hi Ric/Barry

Thought I'd post an update on this thread as I don't specifically have a cupra but i do have it's sister car (golf r ea888gen3.)

I was very intrigued by your posts. I came across an ABT module at bargain basement price in Germany 2nd hand and thought I'd give it a shot. It was identical to my engine code.

So I had a bunch of errors which i was able to clear down on ODIS and OBDEleven, the car was clean but the engine light kept flashing intermittently yet no error codes on the scan.

The car didn't feel any different and if I noticed anything the fuel economy was way off (probably with the engine not being able to work out what it was consuming going through another ECU/AEC that wasn't working. The other rumours of the ABT being a goldilocks device hasn't proven to be true or false as it may not be working yet, but I have heard it'll only let the car go for it when it juuusttt right (oil, humidity, air pressure, air temp, water temp, fuel quality)

My suspicion is a vin lock, but I'll let you know any progress I get. Anybody else braved this decision?

 

[Slickric21]

Yeah it’s vin locked for sure.
ABT can reprogram it for you but they charge ridiculous money to do it iirc