Brad Willis

I had a conversation with an Audi employee the other day, who shall remain nameless for obvious reasons. We had been discussing this whole recall thing, when the conversation changed to the topic of chipping the TT.

I told this person that I had heard very good things about the Garrett chip in particular, and asked, off the record of course, whether or not it was a good idea.

I was asked to provide the specifications of the GIAC chip, such as its boost, torque, horsepower and so on. This individual's opinion was that the chip would probably work well with the 180 Quattro FWD, and was probably a very bad idea for the FWD.

This person agrees with me that the transmission in the FWD is barely up to the task of handling the TT's 180hp output and increased torque. Actually, we both think that it may not be up to the task at all. Remember, this tranny is essentially the same as the transmission in lower end Volkswagen products. In fact, it has VW stamped on the transmission itself. I think that's why so many of us have had problems, and also why I recently said that I think that the handling issue is overblown and the tranny issue "underblown".

The bottom line seems to be that the 180 FWD's transmission is probably not up to handling the chip's 245 ft/lbs of torque, and there is a lesser issue of the 1.1 bar, 16 psi boost's effect on the K03 turbo. This person felt that chipping a TT might cause transmission damage, and that even "chip friendly" dealerships might deny warranty coverage.

This person also thought that the Quattro tranny could handle the torque without any trouble. Remember that the 180 Q's transmission is essentially the same as the 225Q's, only with 5 speeds instead of 6. This is not a VW shared platform transmission, but one built specifically for the TT, and more importantly, for higher output engines. Of course, you still have the question of whether the small K03 turbo can handle that 16 psi boost. It's unquestionably going to be working pretty hard.

Don't get me wrong, I still like the feel of the stock 180 FWD over the 180 Quattro. It's just that I have some real issues with its transmission, and those of you who are at least thinking about adding a performance chip (in other words, almost everyone) need to at least think about some of these issues. We all want the thrill that comes with increased performance. Just go ahead with your eyes wide open, and remember that the thrill may come with some unpleasant side-effects.

Once again, these are personal opinions. Audi's official position is that you should not modify the car, and doing this may void the warranty (yes, we all know about the Magnuson Moss Warranty Act, so save it).

Undercover (for now)

I can not tell much about my set up (I'm beta testing and they don't want me to say anything), other than I have a new ECU with a chip good for 210 HP and I'm adding a Borla exhaust on Wednesday... that will make the car close to 230HP.

The feeling of the car with 210 HP is incredible nothing to do with stock. I was thinking in selling the car .... now I know that this is the car that I want.... 230 HP with only 2650 Lbs of weight feels great. Also , it is easy to modulate so you don't spin the wheels in first gear.

There are a ton of Hondas, VW etc running setups with over 210 HP with no problems.

If you want to be in the safe side just get an extra ECU and if something goes wrong just swap it back.

Oh the answer for a posible question is " I allways disconect my battery when I live the car at the airport".

Thanks

00 TT FWD
98 A4 2.8QMS

David F.

Thanks for the information. (nt)

Garrett Lim

Dear Brad,

Here are some of my thoughts:

I understand your concern. I will have to see how this TT transmission that you have compares to the passat FWD and A4 front track. Those a4 and passat have made much more torque than the TT chip with not a single failure to date even with people drag racing them. Also some with the K04. I will look into it. We have tons of 1.8Ts on the road to date, since 1997.

But maybe they changed something in the trans to weaken it but I doubt it.. I do agree the quattro is better suited for high output. But 4wd is always better for huge power. Look at the OBDII Porsche 993 BT, 4wd- and it takes 500+ HP no problem.

Also remember that torque only comes when you go full throttle.. Too much full throttle in the US puts you in jail. But I love torque. It will kill HP any day, acceleration is what we can use in the US, high HP only helps in Germany. Torque wins races, HP sells parts....

regards,
Garrett Lim
GIAC
www.giacusa.com

Brad Willis

Hi Garrett. Thanks for responding. I hope that you are right, but we shall see. Please let me/us know if you learn more about the FWD TT's transmission. Do you have any concerns regarding overworking the K03 turbo?

Also, I wanted to make sure that you understood that my post wasn't "picking on" your chip. Actually, much the opposite, as it seems to be the one that's getting rave reviews. Obviously, we all want the fun that a performance chip can offer, but we don't want to screw up our cars or warranties either.

mne

I think we're all aware that if you do anything "in" warranty that isnt Audi or Audi recommended, they're going to attempt to get out of a related repair. Going to larger tires wheels forfeits your guarantee to a needed alignment under warranty (they told me that first time they saw new wheels/tires on my TT when it was in for 5k service). Would also make a case for failed/failing control arms, brakes, shocks, ball joints and wheel bearings. While Audi is willing to make suspension ugrades to us for free in this voluntary recall, I'd bet you dollars-to-donuts that they'd try to bail on any suspension repair under warranty where a known-better shock with gobs better rebound was used, which is EXACTLY their reason for upgrading our shocks... poor rebounding. I think Brad and I both know there is a prob with the synchros used in the TT transmission. We've harped on it enough. But no transmission we know of has suffered a catastrophic failure from torque overload. A well-shifted car transmissions synchros wouldnt know its chipped and possessing more power as the shifts are done (ideally) while OFF the power. Nor are synchros affected by any other torque than required to overcome their resistence in getting the gear shift lever past them to engage the gear they're supposed to protect. If failures were chip-related they'd be "blown" or grenaded transmissions... not an intermittent, yet consistent 2nd gear "grind." No question a car with more torque/HP is harder on ALL parts related to transferring power to the ground. But truth is we're not always on that power. To do that we'd be driving like animals ALL the time. I doubt even the more aggressive of us are that gung-ho as to be on WOT every time our butt is in contact with the seat. My car is chipped... hell I'm on my second chip with as many ECU's but other than the occasional trolling of "rice" or some 911's, Speedsters or S2000's I'm truly pedal-to-the-metal less than 60 seconds a day average in a month. But I do think I'm decent at being gentle on my equipment when I drive. I do think I'm conscienable and courteous and sensible... but I will have frivolity and dalliances with about anyone who shows an interest. My tranny suffered grinding its gears unchipped more from Audi oil than it has since being chipped with Mobil 1. Sad truth is Audi is going to void any part of the warranty they feel they can get away with. I understand those rules and am willing to play by them. Some things are worth the price... some things arent. Thats the ONLY reason I dont have a six speed ultra-close ratio gearset transmission in this car now. Man (and woman) has GOT to know his (her) limitations.

Now just a quick note to "Undercover"... if you blow your turbo or motor or anything else turbo-related then swap your ECU, Audi knows by their VAG that you did that 10 minutes after the incident or ten minutes before it got to the dealership by virtue of error codes. The ECU allows Audi to tell when an ECU was recently removed/installed, or even re-installed. The problem with that legally is it then becomes fraud on your part to attempt to qualify for warranty repairs by swearing you had the stock ECU in when this latest incident happened. We're in the same boat "Undercover" I too have spare ECU's 2 toal plus a stock one and my plan was the same as yours. Now I justify it by ease of swapping out ECU's for g-tech pro testing. You might wanna check the A4 forum on this. Theres alot been said about it and the bottom line remains that if something happens to you that might cost you some repair money, leave the offending ECU in the car. You have a fighting chance. Swap out ECU's and get caught and their case against you moves from civil to criminal. On another kindred note I had the Borla stainless steel cat-back system installed in my TT today. I took digital pics of before and after. Its an impressive improvement over stock. It sounds better too... very desirable, healthy exotic sound... tho only a teeny bit louder/deeper at idle/off idle. The polished tip is also a half inch larger diameter than stock so it fits the cutout in the rear valance much nicer than the stock tip. But you WILL feel the difference of this system in the seat of your pants chipped... guaranteed! I'll try and get the pics posted Monday if I can figure out how to get them compiled into one file. Anyone willing to help/advise me on the best way to do that, please contact me.

John TT

The 6 speed can handle up to 260 ft/lbs, according to the 64 pg R&T guide (nt)

DonM

I'm eager to improve the performance of my FWD. I'll wait to hear your thoughts on performance and cost of this setup (as well as who makes it).

Don

mne

Since the S4 generates + or - 250 lbs torque it BETTER be able to handle ALOT more than that (nt)

Brad Willis

I'd just post several of them here, if I were you. If you don't know how to do this, e-mail them to me and I'll do it for you. Apparently the webmasters here (I'm not sure who) have attempted to block my access to the picture poster, which I think is lousy. I have a cable modem with a static ip address, so for some this could be a problem.

What whoever did that doesn't know, is that I can route my messages from various ip addresses and servers from almost any country in the world. Anyone who doesn't believe me, can point me to a site that will record my ip address. I will do 3 posts within a span of a couple of minutes, and one will be tracable to Malaysa, another to Canada, and a 3rd will originate from Hong Kong (ain't technology grand).

Now the obvious question becomes, why did the webmasters try to block my access to the picture poster? As most of you know, I'm involved with the SoCal Audi TT Club. On the Club's Yahoo companion site, clicking on a member's name reveals their profile. And you can add a picture to the profile, if you wish. So I uploaded a Christmas picture to the A4.Org server and linked the Yahoo profile to it. Seemed pretty harmless to me, as there are hundreds of photos on their server, and I have written articles for the site, and provided information and such. I couldn't imagine that anyone would mind.

A few days later, my pic was deleted from the server. I had no idea that it was a webmaster, as I wouldn't imagine that they'e concern themselves with such a small thing, and certainly not without talking to me. Any of us can add or delete a photo, so I assumed that it was just some "a.h.", trying to be annoying. So when the photo got deleted, I would reload it. After a few days, my access was blocked to that server, both the archive search and the picture poster.

As I said, getting past that is a non-event, as I have a nearly infinite number of servers in many different countries that I can post from. But I really thought that blocking me without communicating was kind of petty. I did send Jason Teller an e-mail asking him to unblock me.

Sorry to get off on this tangent, but I thought that the whole thing was pretty odd. Anyway, send me the pics if you want my help.