VW Passat CC Tuning

"Thanks for reading our VW Passat CC tuning tips."

We were impressed with the handling and overall design of the Passat, and we got more than a little excited to see they released a coupe version, the CC, which takes an awesome practical car and turns it into a thing of beauty.

The CC is a brilliant tuning project to have. We see people often wasting money on their Passat CC doing the wrong mods and then having to start over. Follow our articles to avoid ruining your car

Here we review and look at Passat CC tuning and provide tips on the optimum modifications. VW Passat CC provide a fun base for your project and with the optimum modified mods like remaps, turbo improvements and camshafts you will positively maximise your driving experience.

Please watch our video introduction to VW Tuning.

Handling/Suspension upgrades

Handling modifications are high on most peoples lists for the Passat CC.

On the track, quick cornering is critical, and suspension plays a role. Because the track is forgiving, you may employ severe suspension and lower the vehicle to improve aerodynamics and centre of gravity.

As the rubber suspension bushings on the Passat deteriorate, you may notice squeaks, rattles, and bumps, and the suspension may not be as snug as it might be.

Therefore, your first step should be to improve the fundamental setup, and replacing to polyurethane bushings is an excellent suggestion.

Thus, what variables and elements must you consider while setting up and selecting the suspension for your everyday driver?

When engineers build a vehicle's suspension, they must take into account speed bumps, uneven terrain, passenger comfort, and road noise.

The majority of factory-built autos include soft suspensions that degrade handling and driving enjoyment. Because track vehicles are configured for driver preference and style, the best configuration is not only subjective, but also dependent on the circuit's attributes.

A good suspension system maintains the tyres' proper angle on the road for maximum contact area. Body roll must be kept at a minimum, and the centre of gravity of the vehicle must be kept low. Torquecars recommends a 30mm drop for hot hatches with enhanced suspension.

We found that most Passat CC factory suspension setups need tweaking, a few degrees of toe out for cornering or toe in for stability, 1-1.7, and slight negative camber will greatly improve your cornering and handling.

We suggest that you fit motorsport suspension and lower the car by 25mm - 35 mm. Larger drops require arch work - especially on models already equipped with uprated suspension.

Buying suspension kits for your Passat CC

buying a 30mm non-adjustable suspension kit and expecting perfection.

Most kits are rather general, and vendors typically say they may be used on any or many vehicles.

One suspension does not accommodate all engine, wheel, and Passat weights (the diesel engines are pretty heavy).

Buying lower springs and using conventional dampers is likewise a terrible idea. The suspension system should be upgraded as a whole and not piecemeal.

Cars look awesome when lowered but we note that often when done to extremes tires rub in wheel arches and speed bumps become insurmountable obstacles.

Remember that speed bumps will damage the sump, the engine, and the front skirt of a lowered vehicle. Less isn't always better.

Lowering the vehicle improves handling and minimises airflow beneath the car, which enhances stability.

Use matching lower springs and shocks. A spring developed to function with tolerances is not designed to be cut, hence cutting the springs is not feasible.

WARNING: CUT SPRINGS WILL SHATTER!

Purchase a suspension system that can be easily adjusted to your driving style.

This is where a nice set of coilovers come in. KW, Koni, Bilstein Eibach for example offer some really good kits.

CC Power mods.

Typically these tuning modifications are usually fitted by our members, decide how far you want to push your car before you begin.

Here are engines, that may be suitable for a swap in your Passat CC and they give detailed tuning advice and tips.

• 1.4 1.5 TFSi tuning
• 1.4 TSi/TFSi/Twincharge tuning
• 1.8T engine Tuning
• 1.8 & 2.0 TFSi (mk1) Tuning
• 1.8 2.0 TFSi (ea888) Tuning
• 2.0 TFSi carbon issue & care guide
• 2.5tfsi tuning
• 3.0 V6 24v TFSI Tuning
• 2.8 V6 30 valve, 24 valve 3.0 V6 30v and 3.2 3.6 VR6 Tuning
• 1.6 TDi tuning
• 1.9 TDi tuning
• 2.0 TDI 140-170 tuning
• 2.0 TDI tuning (EA188)
• 2.5 TDI tuning
• 2.7 & 3.0 TDI tuning
• 2.5 Tdi R5
• 3.0 Tdi EA897

Getting the best motorsport parts for your planned usage of the car is a time and money saver. Stage 3 motor sport parts just won't work well on the road hard to control in slow traffic.

Please view our video on  VW Passat Mods & Tuning.  Be sure to subscribe and support our new channe.

Best Engine Mods for your Car

1. Engine Tunes - engine tuning/remapping provides the most advantage in terms of cost savings,  aftermarket ECUs, and piggyback ECUs are all alternatives.
2. Fast road cams are one of the most significant mechanical changes, but they must be installed by someone who knows what they're doing and they are not always easy to source but you might find a local firm to regrind a stock camshaft.
3. Intake and Exhaust - Note that on their own these mods will NOT ADD POWER in most cases, but they can help enhance power after other mods by removing the restriction.
4. Upgrades to turbochargers and superchargers - forced induction is the most efficient approach to increase air supply, allowing you to burn more fuel and make more power. It is one of the most costly upgrades but provides the best gains.
5. Head work - The goals of porting and flowing the head are to get air flowing into the engine while removing flow restrictions and turbulence.

So we will break these usual recommendations down and see if these 'best mods' are appropriate for your car and we shall look in detail at the mods that will work for you and your needs.
Typical stage 1 mods often include: Suspension upgrade (drop 25mm - 35 mm.), Panel air filter, Engine Tunes/Remapping, Sports exhaust, Lighter flywheel, Alloy wheels.

Typical stage 2 mods often include: Power/Sport clutch, fuel pump upgrades, Fast road cam, Ported and polished head, high flow fuel injector.

Typical stage 3 mods often include: Competition cam, Internal engine upgrades (pistons/head/valves), Engine balancing, Sports gearbox, Adding or upgrading forced induction (turbo/supercharger).

Your aims when tuning the engine should be a nice flat torque band. You want to avoid sending all the power to be at the top end unless you are creating a motor sport car.

The point of our tips is to give a limited introduction of tuning upgrades and point you in the right direction, our forum is the place to go for detailed advice and tips on your customized car project, the best modified kits and all aspects of modding cars.Fast road cams offer one of the biggest performance gains for your money as far as a solitary tuning parts goes on a NA (naturally aspirated) engine.

It improves the intake and exhaust durations and pushes up the power if done right. Ideally you'd add other mods and finish up with a remap. We'd also caution you not to go with a motor sport cam as this affects the engines idling and general town driving characteristics.

When pushing up the power you will need to ramp up to the fuelling. More power needs more fuel.

Most power losses, and erratic idling after parts are done can usually be traced to timing or fuelling issues. Increasing the injectors is another beneficial modification and will deliver sufficient fuel.

Uprate the fuel pump to cope with the extra fuel requirements of your tuned Passat CC's uprated injectors.

Intake and Exhaust Tuning.

The next area for modification is the intake and exhaust.  Please note that WE DO NOT SEE IMPROVEMENTS WITH INDUCTION KITS, unless you have tuned your car extensively and are finding that the standard air intake has become limited.

Maximum power gains come from a full induction kit with a cold air feed on heavily tuned engines, this can be sited within an air box but a performance panel filter should suffice for most applications. TorqueCars suggest you use a panel air filter as these are easy to clean and maintain and generally perform better than paper ones.

Sports exhausts balance the flow of gases through the engine. But if your exhaust pipe is too large, ie: it's over 2.5 inches bore, you will lose much of the exhaust flow rate and end up sapping power and torque.

Getting a professionally flowed (ported and polished) head with larger valves can fully maximise your power gains. Your clutch can seriously let you down if it starts to fail and the standard clutches are only ever good for power gains of up to 45%. Fit a sports clutch to avoid power loss through the transmission. The best mods in our opinion for your Passat CC are fast road camshaft, remap, induction and exhaust, suspension.

NA (naturally aspirated) engines do not achieve big power gains if you tune/remap them, unless you have done extensive modifications. With turbocharged engines this is another story. A tuned/remapped turbo will give significant power gains and fully release the potential power of the engine.

We've also come across some owners experimenting with twincharging conversions and making some very high power hikes.

Adding forced induction will see impressive power gains but this is usually too expensive to be cost effective. It is usually easier to bolt on a supercharger than it is to fit a working turbo. Turbos give boost in exponential proportion to increasing engine speed and this can make mapping difficult.

It is easier to map a supercharger because the boost is proportional to engine speed on a linear curve. Adding forced induction will nearly always require a lower compression ratio or water injection.

Alloy wheel upgrades.

Alloy wheels can help the brake cooling and are usually less heavy than the steel ones. Further improvements can be made to your cars handling with the addition of directional tread pattern tire. We should point out that although they can look cool on the Passat CC large alloy wheels will actually decrease your performance. The larger you go the lower your acceleration will be - this to the change in your effective final drive ratio.

Although some people have installed larger rims without issues we would stick to a 18 inch rim size as the maximum.

If you would like to know more, or just get some friendly advice on Tuning your car please join us in our friendly forum where you can discuss Passat CC options in more detail with our Passat CC owners. It would also be worth reading our unbiased VW tuning articles to get a full grasp of the benefits and drawbacks of each modification.

Please help us improve these tips by sending us your feedback in the comments box below.

We love hearing about our website visitors projects, especially the mods done and which work best for you on your car. Which helps us keep our guides and tips up to date helping others with their modified car projects. Your feedback and comments are used to keep this page up to date, and help improve the accuracy of these articles which are kept updated and constantly revised.

If you've enjoyed this page we would be very grateful if you could share a link to it on your favourite forums or on your social media profiles, it helps us keep going.

Please Check out my YouTube channel, we're regularly adding new content...

Click to accept YouTube Cookies & Play.

This article is flagged for an update, so please pass on specific tips below that I can include. All articles, and content was written by me, Waynne Smith TorqueCars founder. Some outlines are just too general so I appreciate your feedback and suggestions. This entry was filed under Volkswagen. You can leave a response below or join our forum to discuss this article and car modification in detail with our members.

If you liked this page please share it with your friends, drop a link to it in your favourite forum or use the bookmarking options to save it to your social media profile.