CanyonRS4

tape of the over rev... time, date RPM... said the warranty was shot due to the abuse...

JMSIV

anything newer than the 355, but I have a pretty close relationship with 2 dealers and a ton of owners, and this is the first I have heard of anything like it. I know my car in and out, and there is simply no way to tell any of that, at least on the 355. I am quite certain that the dealers near me don't care about customers driving the **** out of the cars, and they both sponsor track events regularly. Luckily, it doesn't apply at all to me and my car. If April is around, she might be able to chime in...

(For the record Bob, not doubting at all what you have been told, you know how dealers and their philosophies vary from place to place).

I had a Lotus, and the engine monitor is well known. If you are buying a used one (Elise or Exige) it is customary to get an "ECU dump" printout which will tell you what the max revs have been, duration at high revs, max speed, and I think water and oil temps during these events. Not much more. The dealers will void your valvetrain warranty if you spin it over 9.5k revs, but even that is a bit subjective. It does give an idea of how hard the car has been driven, but of course it can be cleared by the dealer, a scary prospect if you are buying a used car from them.

All of this is off topic, but I thought I read that the GTR monitor in Japanese models had a GPS that would tell the computer if the car was on a road or on a track. If on road, the ECM would set the speed limiter very low (cannot remember how low) and if on track it would lift it entirely. It also monitored engine output, knew how much performance you were getting, and could tell if the engine was performing better than it should (ie you modded it). This would also be used to void the warranty. It's been a while since I read that, and I cannot remember where.

All of that big brother stuff just makes me love my long out of warranty no traction control no stability control 355 all the more. Oh yeah, and the RS4 too!

Silver Fun

The 575 and Enzo both have it for sure.

rgr121

Audi's MY 2007 and below don't have vehicle black boxes that compute speed, rpm's and so forth. At least that's what we were told by our instructors from Northwestern University Center for Public Safety. Our class viewed a 2007 Corvette Z06 black box from a crash that killed a 17 yr. old detailing the last 5 seconds before the crash indicating the speed and rpm's.

Jet Jockey/A4 Pilot

What you had for breakfast, that's how much info they can get from their ECUs.

BTW on my ECU it will encode and engine overspeed limit... Believe me I know because I saw it on the VAG COM.

April

since the throttle on that car is still cable operated. The ECU has adaptive capabilities over a base layer of programming for air fuel and timing. The car has a number of different ECUs that operate individual systems but the car does not use CAN bus. It might be possible to look at the most recent adaptations across all the car's ECUs and extrapolate, but it would be purely guesswork methinks.

Can you think of any cable throttle car with any kind of basic data logging at all? The first year of the F355 uses Bosch Motronic 2.7. Later cars got 5.2. They all use cables.

It's a very primitive car in many respects. Lovely engine with good chassis, cloaked by pretty bodywork. But materials are often ****e and it's screwed together somewhat indifferently. All the energy went into designing the engine and chassis. They couldn't be bothered to make window switches that stay in place for more than a few years, so you can bet they weren't wasting their time with data logging for the purposes of warranty denial. That isn't to say they are not royal pains about honouring portions of the warranty though.

Bob W.

and my understanding is that there is a function of one (or more) of the ECUs that will record RPM data and time stamp it. that's just what I was told.

Bob W.

...they took it to a track in Japan (I can't remember which one) and the GPS 'unlocked' the limiter. I think I'll pass on that technology too.

April

I don't ever recall him mentioning anything of the sort though, and he always runs through the car after a track event.

Going to a show this Sunday and will ask him.

Epiplatys

Well, let's face it - many Japanese cars, GT-R included are superior to the German cars. I had (still have) both. And I am also (still) considering the GT-R. But this issue makes me to have second thoughts... I really don't like the idea if the EDR at all.