The Itty Bitty NOVA VW Committee

[SlimKlim]

After a bunch of deliberation and heartache I finally pulled the trigger on a set of wheels w/summer tires and the JB4 last week. 

I scraped google images for every photo I could of aftermarket wheels on MK7s, but I couldn't convince myself the sexual Neuspeed RSe10 would look as good as they do on stock suspension in 18x8.5 vs lowered with 19x9s.

If I wasn't going to be completely head-over-heels in love with the end result, I didn't want to spend a premium to get some trendy brand of wheels. The RSe10s would be about $305/wheel, plus individual shipping on the wheels and tires, plus mounting and balancing at a shop. I found some Enkeis in 18x8 on TireRack that were $225/wheel, flow-formed, and 0.3lbs more than the Neuspeeds. I also walked back from the Michelin PS4s I had been eyeballing and went for a set of Conti Extreme Contact Sports. Add in the savings on shipping and mounting, and I was able to cover the JB4 with the money saved on the wheel setup. 

Anyway, final specs are 18x8 +40 Enkei TS-10s that clock in at 19.5lbs each, wearing 235/40/18 Conti Extreme Contact Sports. Just to say I did, I brought a scale down to the garage and clocked the OEM wheels + tires in at 49.5lbs and these at 44.0lbs. So about a 12% reduction in unsprung weight. 






Onto the JB4. I opted for the overpriced but convenient smartphone connection upgrade kit, so the first thing I did was pry open the JB4 box, connect the kit to the data link side and tap into the power wire, you end up running a wire out of both sides of the JB4 enclosure and sticking the bluetooth dongle to outside of it with double-sided tape, I would've preferred if it was designed to all live inside the enclosure, but whatever.

This install is supposed to be easy, and physically it was. 2 out of the 3 plugs you need to access in the engine bay are right in front of you. The infamous lower plug on the charge pipe I wasn't able to find from the top so I just took the underpanel off and got to it from the bottom. Now that I know where it is I can reach it from the top, but its the kind of plug that requires a flathead screwdriver to release and I don't have the visibility or dexterity to get both hands down there and thread the tip of the screwdriver into the little release on the plug. 


Once I had it installed it was immediately apparent something was wrong, the car would start but run pathetically poorly and cut out a few seconds later, I disconnected and reconnected each plug twice but the issue persisted, I was able to connect to the unit with my phone but couldn't see much. I thought maybe it just needed to be driven to settle in but it was pretty obvious something wasn't right, stumbling when returning to idle and overall driving very poorly. 

I uninstalled it again so the car was at least functional, went and cleared the 9 (Nine!) OBD codes it set, and emailed George @ BMS explaining what was going on. He responded later that night suspecting I got a unit with incorrect firmware on it, so first thing yesterday morning I went out, reinstalled the unit again, and attempted to check the firmware. 

It took 15+ minutes to get the phone app to successfully connect to it, but I kept retrying it and was finally able to see that it was, in fact, on the wrong firmware. I downloaded the correct file and spent another 20+ nerve-wracking minutes watching it try and fail to write the new files onto the thing. 

After a dozen failed attempts it finally loaded, and when I started the car all of the previous days issues were gone, it had zero issues running and felt just like stock. Except it was too much like stock, because it was stock. I was able to change maps on the unit but they weren't actually taking effect, and the gauge screen was only displaying values for Boost, nothing else. 

More emailing back and forth w/George helped me figure out there was a problem with my OBD cable, I checked both sides and it was fine, so I pulled it back out of the car, and lo-and-fackin' behold: 



A bit of solder and heatshrink and all is officially well with the world. I've been running Map 2 which adds roughly 5psi over stock, and there is now 75% more giggling involved anytime you get the turbo scrolled up. 10/10, would pull my hair out over incorrect firmware and a broken wire again.