alrightroad

I've been (re)searching on the forum all night for a comprehensive review of chip vendors for the AR. Did I miss it somewhere?

Consensus seems to be:

APR: slightly lower HP feel than GIAC but smooth power band all the way through (higher torque)

GIAC: stronger HP jump feel, lower torque than APR, not as smooth

MTM: lower-hp-and-torque-specs-but-if-you-got-the-money-buy-it feel, most respected chip product and warranty

Dahlback: ??

All this is assuming stage I only (stock exhaust). I am out of warranty so not too worried about being able to switch back to 'stock' setting.

shaggymatt

I had two B5's, I had both APR and GIAC. APR in the (now ex) wife's car, and GIAC in mine. I put the GIAC in at like 5k miles. It is definitely VERY hard hitting. I was spoiled by 20k and was on my way to a larger turbo, which was only just the beginning of the obsession.

The APR chip in her car was very similar to the stock curve, just with "more" there.

Now that I have the ar, I am somewhat torn as to where I'm going to go with chipping. I race sailboats, so I need to tow a somewhat light trailer. APR said, "Trailer towing is great with the chip." GIAC said, "We recommend running in stock mode since the K03's are fragile." Logically this makes sense, I think that GIAC comes on strong and hard down low. APR being a smooth curve, it is so similar to stock, you're just getting more power.

So I think that I could go with APR and not need the stock program, or GIAC and get the stock program. Their both great programs, and in all honesty, I will probably chose whoever has a sale first.

Woodman-ar 01

Been very happy with my GIAC (Going on two years now)

happy allroader

European Car did a "shoot out" for various chips for the 1.8T engine that is common to both Audi and VW. I thought they did it for the 2.7T also but I can't find it. I did find (and linked) to an article about tuning a S4 with the 2.7T.

Remember that we share the 2.7T engine with the B6 (one previous to the present V8 model) version of the Audi S4. Try that forum. They tend to be a touch more performance oriented that us in the allroad forum.

The standard advice is to find a good shop that installs the chip (or software) and stands behind their product. I have the GIAC software loaded directly into (on to?) the stock chip. I've been happy.<ul><li><a href="http://www.europeancarweb.com/features/0309ce_s4/index.html">European Car magizine article on the S4 with the 2.7T chipped</a></li></ul>

tonester

especially after they lemmiwinked me down 10%.
Still get too much torque when I slam on it to pass when driving in "D", in "S" or tip it works fine.

rdar

Had the MTM chip for about a month and been very happy with it. It's on sale until the end of March. Very smooth and has had a very positive affect on the tip. Below is a link to a survey that was done a couple of years ago.<ul><li><a href="http://www.audiport.com/survey/survey-main.htm">http://www.audiport.com/survey/survey-main.htm</a</li></ul>

Scot W

I knew I had these bookmarked somewhere:

<a href="https://forums.audiworld.com/s4/msgs/1185070.phtml"> let the chip debate begin.....dyno inside</a>

<a href="http://www.s4biturbo.com/timeslips.cgi">For Audi 2.7L Biturbo Timeslips</a>

There is still one more review I am trying to find with pics of a blue (if I remember correctly) S4 on the dyno and lengthy descriptions. Unfortunately I seem to have a lot of bookmarks in my Audi folder and have not found the article I am looking for . . . yet.