Behner

I'm looking for anyone with real world experience using a tuning box on a North American spec 3.0 TDI clean diesel. I'm (a) trying to decide if they are worth it and (b) if so which one is best between TDI Tuning, Chipwerke and Racechip. This will be going in my '14 A6 3.0 and by the claims of these various manufacturers should make a noticeable change in performance....

1stGOAT

I can't give you a run down of all the tunes for TDI. I generally tune all my cars as they are all turbo or super charged. My 3.0TDI is my first diesel. I had heard about Malone Tuning for a number of years and from friends that have modded their TDI. I purchased a Stage 2 Malone tune for the TDI and it is wonderful. Huge increase in power and it really transforms my A8. It is now significantly faster than my 4.2 D3 A8 was.

If you buy their little loader along with the tune you can install it yourself. Just need a windows computer. The process, once you receive their little hardware loader is ....

Connect loader to car and download a copy of your stock tune to the loader
Connect loader to computer and download the copied file to computer
Send the file to Malone
Malone will send you back the stage 2 tune.

Connect loader to computer and upload stage 2 tune to loader
Connect loader to car and upload stage 2 tune to car

Start car and enjoy
The Malone Tune feels stock until you put your foot down. You will not be be disappointed. Can't recommend it enough and their support at least for me, was second to none.

Behner

1stGOAT, thank you for the input. I have heard from friends that Malone is the way to go if one is going to reprogram the ECU (which I may still do). Specifically though I am hoping there are others out there that have gone the tuning box (in-line) route and can relay their impressions on them. My interest in a tuning box is that it is easily reversible should I ever need to get work done under emissions warranty.

1stGOAT

Based upon posts in forum by other members, even a box that plugs into ODB-II leaves a trace in ECU that can be detected by their software. These were comments from folks who have used the factory software.

norris.shelton

I have a RaceChip on mine. I went with the lowest level of tune from horsepower per dollar perspective. It's great. You can definitely feel the difference. I take it off everything I go in for service. The dealership has never mentioned anything funny about my car or what's on the computers.

I would do it again in a heartbeat. I might look for something more aggressive once my warranty is up. The torque is great, but my A8 can use still more horsepower.

1stGOAT

They won't mention it as it is your car to do as you wish but if the engine fails and you bring it in for work under warranty that is when it will come up. As Audis in general are solid for the first 100K miles my feeling is that a simple tune
only increase pre 100K mile risk of failure by an insignificant amount if you properly maintain the engine. I have had 9 VW/Audi turbocharged cars in the last 20years all received tunes and none had issues.

Ross26

Hey I have novice question would a tune or reprogramming of the ecu on an Audi A7 tdi make it so the car would still run after having a EGR and DPF delete done then a straight pipe put on? Was told there are to many sensors that would send error messages to the computer and the car won’t run.

bpp

When the OBD is plugged in at the dealer, the tech AND Audi Corporate knows everything and anything done that is foreign to the system. When your car works there's no reason for them to say anything. If your car breaks and its related to the warranted parts, you're warranty's not valid. If you have cash to cover the repairs then it doesn't matter. .02

MrGonk

I'm guessing it's safe to assume that Audi would be every bit as interested in the software records showing a tune when it comes to your emissions warranty as they would be under the general manufacturer warranty, right? Very easy out for a fix - "you were running your engine out of spec and we can't warrant how the EGR/SCR/DPF/everything else work - or don't - when you run god knows what software written by god knows who."

JerrycanJack

Dont get a tuning box - they are not very good. Instead find out your ecu part number and get a remapped one off ebay. I got one for my 1.9 tdi for 100 quid.