Ive been running the rebellion S1v2 piggyback for about a month now and absolutely love it. Totally changed the feeling of the car and I wrote up a review here if ya want to look it up. In that review I mentioned how frustrating the stock TCU/Trans logic was in its shifting and torque management in the first 2 gears. The car felt like it was being held back on the intitial hit of going WOT and would short shift first at 5200 rpm and second below 6000 rpm causing a bog when getting into 3rd. The trans also didn't feel super fast like other DCT cars ive driven and seemed to drop boost a bit between shifts adding to the "bog" feeling.

Rebellion has released a TCU tune to reprogram the torque limiters and shifting. The shipped me a little tool that plugs into the ODBII port so nothing has to be removed or sent out. It was literally the easiest mod ive ever done to any car. You have the key in the 2nd "ON" position before starting the car, plug the device in it beeps once, 30 seconds go by and it starts constantly beeping, turn car off & remove, turn engine on and let idle for 5 minutes ... DONE !

Now this car is exactly what I wanted not being held back and able to use that nuke under the hood. Did only about 10 miles of HARD driving so I'm sure it will get even better with more use but very good results ! For races i like to use sport mode with manual selected so it shifts at redline. Stock TCU would give me 5200-5400 rpm in first and ~5800 rpm in second at best... total tease since this car makes power up top. After ripping on it with rebellion TCU it starting going 5800 in first ... 6000 in first, and then finally 2 of last 3 runs it shifted at almost redline in first and complete redline in 2nd. Making use of all the power available and also not bogging after the shifts since the revs dropped to low before with stock TCU short shift.

I also noticed in the cla45 the car would drop boost/ bog after up shifts. I've been in other turbo DCT cars like gtr and they never drop boost in between shifts and feel like one constant gear. I got this feeling now much improved a combination of the higher revs and the faster shifts. Manual mode felt amazing I would bounce rev limiter or short shift with the slow response before but it's more precise now and I was nailing perfect manual shifts. Honestly amazing job guys you've made this car a rocket it's 80 degrees and semi humid it will be mad in the winter at sea level here in nj.

Anyone that owns the CLA/A45 the piggyback is a must.
If you drive the car hard and appreciate performance the TCU is a great addition.

 

Like I mentioned the weather has been hot and humid here so that has a big role in performance. Rebellion says the TCU tune unleashes about 30 lb ft of torque in the mid range. It was just hard to feel with the power already being made and the loss of torque due to heat. The last time I drove the car was at night mid 50's low humidity so much better conditions. Even under the heat the total acceleration felt stronger

 

Really?? I also have the TCU tune and Im a bit underwhelmed. Did it help?? Yes. But I was hoping it would make the shifts much more aggressive which, thus far, it hassnt. I have roughly 60 miles since install so I guess there is still some adapting to do. I wish they had switchable programs, almost like the Sprintbooster, so you can select modes (sport, race, etc). I still think there is room for improvement.

 

What I noticed is don't use Sport + manual(when your in sport mode and hit the paddles). If you just use sport without manual it nails the upshifts perfectly its almost like when you engage sport with manual it goes back to stock shift points

 

The biggest difference for me was FULL manual mode(M on screen). The shifts feel MUCH faster and don't bog seems to also have made the snap of upshifts less dramatic. The only thing I was disappointed with was the torque limiters I didn't notice any extra mid range. I was also expecting more of a "violent" reaction when coming onto boost but it still seems to slowly ramp up. The improvements in Full Manual mode and Standard sport mode were great shift wise

 

Would agree. I think the TCU tune should be half the price though. When you're comparing the price of the ECU tune and are blown away by the performance gains naturally when you shell out the same amount on a TCU tune you'd expect to be blown away too. It didn't have that effect on me...at least not yet. Either way it's better than stock.


A45 with Rebellion ECU and TCU tune running 11.9 with race start.

 

Agreed.

I think its better than stock....but I was expecting more....especially for the price.

 

Thanks for the honest feedback guys.... I guess it always going to be difficult to match the 'blown away' feeling you get from the ECU system vs the TCU tune. Remember we are still facing certain limitations that prevent us from having full control over every parameter we would like to change..and ultimately the TCU is not going to give you such a big difference that stock to S1 does.

Price wise again is difficult because we have tried to price the S1 very competitively...however there are extra cost associated with the programming tool in the TCU kit that hold it's price up..

I guess the only example I can use is that if you ran our ECU and TCU the total cost is still the same or slightly less than some competitor Stage 1 only kits..

I would also say that the majority of what the TCU kit does will not necessarily be felt as much as seen in results etc.. One of our customers in Spain has put up vbox results in the vid in this thread and these show improvement over S1v2 only in his car..

Maybe we shouldn't have made v2 as good

 

Thanks for the great feedback and also to Matt for chiming in. Ultimately what I'm reading from those who have the TCU is that it's definitely an improvement over stock. That in itself is a win when you consider that every review on this car has mentioned the disappointing stock DCT. I'm hoping Mercedes comes out with a factory upgrade by the time I finally order my car but if not, this mod will be on my list.

 

Hi Guy's
I just ordered Rebellions gearbox Tune to complete the Ituning that I already have installed so lets see how my car reacts...

 

My TCU tune has gotten better with age. It definitely shifts faster now and also has more available torque in lower gears. Just an update on my previous post.

 

Excellent, I can't wait....

 

Hey TT thanks for the update I really appreciate your feedback

 

I would like to thank Rebellion for being very active on this CLA 45 forum and keeping us informed about new MODS unlike Renntech,Eurochagred,Weistec and OE Tuning that you hardly hear from them...keep up the Excellent Job Matt..

 

Thanks for the shout out but remember this is our specialist platform and we have had hands on since Aug 13.. The companies you mention all have their own specialities in various platforms aswell...

The last thing we want is a slanging match between fans or companies, ultimately we are all fans of the same thing... AMG.

 

I think Weistec is going to surprise us with some good mods

 

No problem. I always try to give honest, unbiased reviews. The TCU tune has definitely gotten better now that its adapted for a while. Seems that it really needs some hard runs to get it fully adapted.

 

For you guys that got the TCU tune, what was your build date? AMG said that they had updated the TCU software in August of 2013.

I test drove a CLA45 in November of last year and was a bit disappointed by the transmission. When I got my car in April, the transmission felt noticeably better than the one I test drove.

 

My car was build in January so i should have the TCU software update and if I do the gearbox is still a bit slugish when it shifts at high rpms

 

I find it very frustrating to drive, it hesitates so much. It doesn't seem to be bad if I'm consistently driving it hard (usually weekends) but when I'm commuting to downtown Toronto in bumper to bumper traffic everyday I never know how it's going to respond. Often long lag times between hitting the gas and getting any forward momentum, or frequently seems to up shift at exactly the wrong time. I always drive in S mode.

My build date was October 13. If it has the newer version of software, maybe I need to do a tcu reset because of my daily grind?

 

Hey brotha, I think if you install the sprint throttle booster it will fix these problems. I noticed a big difference when I installed that.

 

TCU tune will not help this. As James said, the Sprintbooster will help...but can also make things a bit more tricky (lurch) in race mode.

 

Uhhh... Eurocharged is on this forum every single day. Stop making blanket statements like that. Check the C63 section if you don't believe me

 

I dont think he was talking about C63 section.

 

ML63
You need to go back to school and learn how to read because if you had read then you would of saw that I said the CLA 45 section of this forum and not the C63 section and that's all I have to say on this.....