Here it is: the exhaustively long (and I mean it!) Tip chip review. CAUTION: WAY TOO LONG FOR HUMAN CONSUMPTION! READ AT YOUR OWN RISK!
07-09-1999, 09:44 AM
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Here it is: the exhaustively long (and I mean it!) Tip chip review. CAUTION: WAY TOO LONG FOR HUMAN CONSUMPTION! READ AT YOUR OWN RISK!
OK, here goes. The long awaited Tip chip review. Please understand before I begin to babble on that these observations are my OWN, and I am NOT the most technical person in the whole world. I am attempting to share my views about the past month’s driving pattern with my Tip chip. So if you don’t like, agree or understand what I’m saying, feel free to comment either in the Forum or via email.<p>Now for the fun stuff: I own a 98.5 1.8T, Tiptronic, Quattro (of course…would you buy one w/o it?), Silver, no sport package but sport wheel, black onyx Leatherette interior and sunroof. Purchased Sept. 1998 at Pray Audi in Greenwich, CT. It has been modified as follows (in order of installation): K&N panel filter, Wett 1.0 bar chip, 205/55/ZR16 Dunlop SP8000s on Borbet Type C wheels, A!Avantgarde front grille w/ rings, GIAC Tip chip. Why is this important? Who knows or cares: some people want to know this stuff so here you go. Anyway, I really didn’t want to get an automatic transmission car, but my lovely wife (hi sweetheart) can’t drive stick. Teach her you say? NO WAY! I have neither the patience nor the $$$ to support complete clutch rebuilds every 3 years. I point to her sister as an example: she can’t drive a stick car any better than Mr. Magoo could (BTW, that’s what I call my sister-in-law, Mrs. Magoo- she’s not blind or anything, she JUST CAN’T DRIVE! All Metro Atlantans beware! She’s on her 3rd clutch in 4 years: her poor dealer is losing lotsa $ on her!!). So it’s easier for me to get an Auto w/ the added bonus of Tip: something for her and something for me. For the first 7 months of ownership, I used both the Tip shifting and the Auto shifting. Since I live in the NYC Metro area and drive approx. 1 hr. each way to work, I really use the Auto more: it’s simpler to use the Auto in traffic, which is practically all the time around here.<p>Anyway, enough rambling. The Tip chip issue originally arose because I found Garrett’s website which listed some info about what the Tip chip does. Oh, and I did speak to Garrett and the NYC Club meeting in Northern NJ in January of ’99 (or the winter sometime, I forget) at the PES 2.8 unveiling. See the link at the bottom for more info about GIAC. The site mentions that shifting speeds decrease from around 1 second to about 0.2 seconds. That sounded appealing to me because in a fast sprint, I could use the faster shifting to get going faster. Sounds intelligent, doesn’t it? I called Todd at AWE in Philly and asked him some questions about the Tip chip: he gave me some info and said that I should probably email Garrett for more info. I did, we traded emails, and once I was reasonably satisfied with what I would be paying for, made an appointment w/ AWE and Garrett to get the chip installed.<p>It was done on June 7th at AWE’s place in Philly. Todd has a nice shop and is a real friendly guy who knows practically everything about Audis and VWs. So, Garrett showed up and proceeded to program the chip while Todd dismantled the car to get to the Tip ECU. For those of you who missed my post here’s the summary: it’s under the front passenger’s feet. Take out the panel on the bottom right side of the passenger footwell, lift up the door trim, then lift up the carpet and voila: a black box not too dissimilar to the regular ECU in our engine bays. The only difference is that it opens MUCH easier: I believe it’s a clip. Unclip the ECU, open it up, de-solder the original chip, re-solder a socket for the new chip, install the Tip chip and you’re done. Put everything back together and if you’ve done your job properly, the car starts 1st time. It did, Todd tested it and then gave me the keys.<p>So, we did why, we covered where and when, now for how. I drove the Tip chip around the Newtown Square/Wayne, PA area for about a day (I was down on biz), both on highways (mainly Blue Route/476) and some local streets. At every shift of the Tip (when I was using it), I felt that it was smoother and quicker. The power didn’t fade or cut out between shifts as with the old Tip. I then drove back to NYC and home up the NJ Turnpike (those of you who remember my 1st post will remember my speeds and stupid moves- ‘nuff said about THAT). I have been testing the Chip since, on both everyday and high-speed driving situations and I can report the following: the GIAC tip chip has really improved this guy’s A4. It makes the car handle better because it gives you more control over the shifting and this in turn affects your handling of the car. You will notice that the power seems to flow quicker, and that it makes your driving much more fun.<p>So much for driving impressions. Here are some other things you should know: it WILL NOT change the WOT conditions on shifting. That is a hardware thing built into that tranny from the factory- GIAC can’t change that. Since I have a Wett chip, the rev limiter was bumped up to 7100RPM, and the speed limiter was removed as well. The 7100RPM limit is higher than I want to go. There’s a great post earlier in this Forum about someone who has a question about the two “stages” of pedal travel w/ a Tip tranny: push the pedal almost all the way down and it won’t engage WOT. But if you push it past a certain point (there’s something like a trigger I believe, or a switch), it will go into WOT mode and if you try and shift w/ the Tip, nothing will happen. That being said, I do not often go into WOT mode because I can’t lose my daily commute car to engine trouble- it’s a long walk home. This Tip chip is really designed to make your everyday driving experience more enjoyable and spirited (if you want). <p>So in conclusion: the Tip chip aids your Tip shifting w/ faster shifting times thereby increasing handling thereby increasing performance through enjoyment. (What the hell did I just say? Too much coffee this morning…) Anyway, see the link below for more info on the GIAC chips and what they cost and do. I hope this REALLY REALLY long post will answer some questions all of you have. I won’t be checking the board much after 5PM this afternoon EST, so I’ll look for stuff on Monday. If it gets archived, just post questions into the new board and I’ll see it. And lastly: I don’t work for GIAC, nor am I a compensated endorser: I like Garrett, his chips and they way they work. So there.<p>Rob (with WAY too much time on his hands this week ‘cause he’s writing all this stuff!)<br>