David R

Hi martin,

I would be interested to know, apart from the increased acceleration, how the car now drives.

One of the major reasons I chose the a3 was the quiet, refined character of the car. When driving, I can hear mild turbo whistle, and moderate engine noise at high revs. I realise that you have a different engine but I'd be interested to know how it affects the refinement of the car - do you get more turbo whistle, is it intrusive? How about the overall character of the engine?

I fiddled with the engine in my last car and bought induction kits etc.. they had a huge effect on noise, refinement etc. I like the stealthy manner the a3 travels at speed and would be dissapointed to mod mine into a noisy - obviously modified car. There are too many boy racers in my area driving Novas with 6 inch tail pipes creating more noise that motion - I'm not keen on joining them at the ENT clinic!

Regards

David

Martin

David, I haven´t been able to get the audible feel for my chipped car. It is winter, cold, snow, ice and a real mess here in Sweden so the spiked tires sound more that the engine. I have noticed a deeper growling sound at low revs but it must be from the air filter. I also have heard that the turbo whistles more when it is cold.

If you are interested in the 215 bhp BSR chip, take a look at the URL below with diagrams. (The BSR site is in Swedish).

Regards
/Martin<ul><li><a href="http://www.bsrab.se/se/ev_vag180.html">http://www.bsrab.se/se/ev_vag180.html</a</li></ul>

AL B

Hi,

Just thought I'd ask you a similar question to what David R asked Martin. What's it like to drive? - especially in the wet.

Getting the power down even in a standard A3 can be a fine art in the wet, but with 190bhp and front wheel drive, I bet it gets a bit tricky?

You are running on bigger wheels aren't you? Did you try 190bhp with the standard 16's? What was it like wet and dry?

Thanks,

Alan
'99.5 A3 1.8T MS Silver

Andy

I am going to get my S3 chipped by AMD, but through Aston Green Audi.
I have spoken to them and they will 'honour' the Audi warranty as long as you have your car serviced by them. The extra cost you pay Aston Green over AMD is an insurance policy.

AMD remove your chip and remap it and them fine tune on a rolling road to suit your car, afterall not 2 engines are the same.

Andy

IJ

Hi,

Don't know much about oversteer/understeer so I'll try to explain what it feels to drive it.

I guess its like any other FWD, there is a need to be careful and 'listen' to the front in order not to spin. Those extra 40bhp's do not really alter 1.8T that much. It's all about driveability rather than traffic-light starts (even though they are good). I agree with other comments that ESD does not really help.

I enjoy acceleration and speed but quite frankly I do not extract every possible bhp from my A3 when I drive it so the spin is the least of my problems.

In the wet the only major issue seems to be wheel-spin due to a sudden encountering of an uneven surface while cornering (i.e man-hole).
Basically anything that forces the suspension to travel diagonally the same moment as up/down makes A3 loose traction momentarily. The only reason I could think of was the stiff set-up of Ambition suspension. Sometimes it does not travel far enough to avoid loosing traction.

Otherwise 17" wheels are definitely better than 16". I think its not the size that matters, but its the offset of the wheel/tyre away from the hub. With larger wheels A3 has more traction in dry (don't know if its the case in the wet, perhaps little more), steers better and all that but what you really get is a huge increase in cornering stability, at least with my wheels. That's beacuse the extra width on my 17x8 wheels over 16x7 is not either side but more on the outer side, i.e. givving the effect of slightly wider wheel base. Not only looks good but drives good in the corners.

One other thing I noticed is the impact of tyre pressures on traction. With my wheels the higher the pressure the better the traction. I do not know what to make of it because with my 4x4 car I used to deflate tyres to increase the traction off-road?! I am still experimenting with this one.

Not sure if I answered your question, so just to add: 205 vs 225 tyre does not seem to add much more starting traction. You'll notice the tyre more while cornering and driving than kick-starting.

IJ
99A31.8T

AL B

Thanks for your views.

Yes. I'd like an improved 0-60mph time, but as you say, the biggest improvements with these chips (from what I've read) is in the mid-range.

I understand what you're saying about the handling and the bigger wheels + offset. By effectively increasing the wheel base, you're making the car wider, thus improving the cornering ability. Plus with wider tyres, grip is improved (in the dry).

So, you think the standard 16x7 wheels could handle the extra power, providing one pays close attention to how much throttle one gives when setting off in the wet.

Anyway, thanks again.

Alan
'99.5 A3 1.8T MS Silver

AL B

Andy any chance of you posting the price list, for S3 and A3 chips?

ravenx

Making the wheels wider shouldn't improve the 0-60mph time. For sure the wider wheels make the car more stable under sudden weight distribution and the extra grip gained by wider rubber allows you to enter corners at higher speeds, but that same extra grip usually adds a couple 1/10 seconds to your 0-60mph time.

I worked a couple of months at BMW Turkey as a summer intern, and this is what we have been tought in one of their training courses: "One of the main objects in car design is to make the components which remain below the suspension system as light as possible (I don't know the term in English, but here the engineers call the weight of such components "unbalanced weight"). That's why every car maker started using light alloys as the core material of wishbones and trailing arms etc. The less weight is put below the suspension the better the car should handle. This is one of the main reasons for choosing light alloy wheels".

I'm not an engineer and everything I wrote above might be complete rubbish. If so, please correct me.

ravenx
'00 Black S3

IJ

Hi,
Even though once upon a time I lived in the UK I forgot about the impact of weather on driving (sometimes a bit wet, no?).

I think that 16x7 wheel is fine for 40bhp mod, after all that's how my car originally came.

A3 is still a hatch-back and not many of those come with 16x7 or 195-205 tyres so its definitely good for this car which has a nice combination of chassis-suspension-wheel even in stock setup.

I also agree with below comment by ravenx that wider weel does not make starts quicker, its all about stability and cornering.

If you ever asked me about the order of modification for A3 1.8T I would always say things should come in following order:
- chip + panel filter (together) = greatest hatch
- bigger wheels + tyres = S3 without quattro
- all other goodies = nicer cosmetic appearance

Cheers,
IJ
99A31.8T

David R

Thanks