Update!!!!!!
spent the day at MRC tuning:
drove around a quiet road full throttle in a couple of gears while it was being data logged, we were focusing on the usual suspects, fuel pressure, air mass meter, boost leaks
all apeared perfect but again was getting a rich mixture under full throttle (stock map). so although it was running Rich everything else was looking spot on so the decision was made to but the map on and have a look.
again went for a drive, data logging while full throttle, still coming up rich and not feeling perfect but still a million times more responsive than under the stock map
then went back to the work shop, map was changed to limit the fuel mixture so it wouldnt drop below 11.5 (below 9 before)
this made all the difference - the car was rapid, seriously rapid, couldnt belive the difference to be honest really was sensational.
while i was there i got the fuel filter changed, didnt notice much but did seem a bit more responsive than before.
then drove back, ended up dropping the owner Mihnea to heathrow as i was passing so when i got there he did a final check for error codes, warnings, nothing came up - although there was a weird error about the immobiliser but the car started so obviously nothing seriously wrong with it.
all in all the car seems to be behaving like a remapped GTI!! so am very very happy
when i woke up this morning i rang a local VW garage to get a trade in price for my car becuase they had an ED30 for sale. the salesman was annoying (reminded me of one of those people on the apprentice who are supposed to be great salesman but are just annoying as hell!!)
ended up leaving it and sticking with the car to get it sorted, have invested alot of time an effort (and a little emotion) into getting it up to scratch so would have been lame to have given up.
i asked the tuner why it was running rich and what fixed it, he couldnt explain it since all the usual suspects were behaving, after making more changes to his map and limiting the ECU to stop making the car run so rich that seems to have done it
very strange though, was convinced that it was something faulty but looks ok
they dont have a rolling road so dont have figures and to be honest i dont want to know, am loving how the car performs, will only be dissapointed for no reason if its still only putting out 220bhp..... the torque feels much stronger than yesterday and that was running at 265lb/ft so is probably up in the 280's now.
thanks for all the help and advice guys
Cheers
Duncan