Matthies

Hi all,

Thanks for taking the time to read this post. As I posted last week I was scheduled to have my car chipped Tuesday. Due to an emergency I needed my car and had to spend part of the money I had saved up to do the chip, so I cancelled my appointment. (Had to help a friend out of a bad jam).

Since then I have been reconsidering my decision to chip my car do to concerns I have about long-term effects on the cars reliability. I saved up for literally years to get this car before I quit working to return to school full time. (After 12 years of middle management hell) This car HAS to last me 5 years and about 65k miles, with out any or not much in, out of pocket expenses. By then I will be out of school and my income will hopefully return to the point of non-near starvation

Because of these needs and my limited knowledge of automobile mechanics I am now afraid to chip the car. I don't see how running the car at higher than designed horsepower could not affect the mechanical life of my cars parts, transmission, hoses and other materials. If this is an uneducated assumption, please inform me.

I would like to hear form those with long term experiences with chips on my concerns. I have decided to go with the APR chip if I do indeed get the upgrade. My driving style is sedate at best, with occasional (very rare) WOT just to see what the car can do Also I only make short trips mostly, with an occasional (once a year) road trip, if my driving style makes any difference.

Thanks,

Matt

RKA

I doubt that longevity will be an issue over the 65K you mention, but since you mentioned finances are tight, it's probably pretty important to you that Audi will pick up the tab for almost everything over the next 4 years. A chip can complicate matters a bit, and if something should go wrong, you may have to pay out of pocket. I don't want to be an alarmist, but s**t happens.

Teutonic Titwillow

the 1.8T engine is overengineered to start with. The additional boost from a 1 bar chip will effect the stock bypass valve, and it will eventually fail much sooner with a chipped engine, but it is a relatively inexpensive part to replace. Most of the time, while driving around town, our cars operate on vaccum, with the boost only coming on during medium to hard throttle. If you did not dog your car before the chip, and you don't intend to dog it afterward, you should be fine.

Follow the maintenance guide, switch to synthetic oil, and eventually swap out the bypass valve, and you should enjoy the car for many years and many tens of thousands of miles. I have over 10K on my APR v.3 chip, and I have yet to have a problem. The only problem I really have is saving enough money to pay for the mods I have planned!!!

Good luck

Chris B.
98.5 1.8TM APR (saving my pennies for stage 3)

skroll

Would you recommend not chipping a leased car

SMOKINA4TURBO

Chip it...If your real scared, maybe like a .8 bar chip

WClark

Left stock there is no question about your warrantee with AoA. Chipping is not in itself going to cause damage to your engine, but things do fail either way and AoA is becoming priggish about cars with chips. Certainly the modified ECU shouldnt be covered by AoA but there is a risk that AoA may blame other powertrain failures on that "chip", whether right or wrong, and you will have to pay (one way or another). If you cant afford the financial risk of having to pay for a repair, dont modify.

RKA

Go for it...I did!

CPQuattro

You are wise going w/APR. Make sure to get EMCS option w/stock and 1.0bar switching as well as fault code erase/throttle body.

With my experience -- I would say -- skip buying a spare ECU. My original ECU sits in a box at home.

Get some additional airflow across your intercooler w/an S4 wheel well liner and start using good synthetic oil at 3k intervals.

Roast non-boosted A4s on the way to work - and smile.

Then start planning on that exhaust...and then...hmm...how fast can I blow this smallass turbo....so I have an excuse to go for a stage 3 upgrade....

It dosen't end. Good luck

WYSIWYG

say, if youre like me who WOTs every chance i get. or if youre smarter you just use it when in battle.
extra boost applies only at full throttle, think about it. same applies to your stock chip

Poethius

(a) You run the risk of having dealerships refuse to do warranty work, and (b) the benefits will be questionable, given your driving style.

I'm in the same boat: I drive pretty conservatively most of the time, so I hardly notice any gain from the chip. I rarely go WOT for more than a few seconds, which is barely enough time for the turbo to spool up. I do notice an improvement in accelerating up hill and when deliberately trying to exercise the turbo, but that doesn't happen often enough to make it as much of a deal as it is for many other drivers.

In fact, at first I thought I wasn't getting any extra boost and was concerned that there was a mechanical problem in the turbo system. But how could I check it out? I couldn't bring it to a dealership and complain: I couldn't tell them about the chip, and the car performed normally! I even found that a number of independent garages refused to deal with a car that had been chipped. It wasn't a warranty issue; it was just an unknown quantity to them. Finally I had to take the car to a performance-oriented garage, where it checked out fine.

Also, you want to think about what happens when you eventually sell the car. For *most* buyers, the chip (if they know about it) will be a put-off, since they'll imagine that the car was abused by a speed-crazed boy racer!

All this is irrelevant for those who get real pleasure and satisfaction from the increased performance. But you've hinted that you might not be in that group.