Newbie here - performnace upgrades for A4 TDI's?

ping

Registered User
Joined
Nov 19, 2003
Messages
6
Reaction score
0
Points
1
Location
Berks
Just reg'd today and wondered what people do with their A4 TDI 130's?

I've had to let an Imprezza Turbo MY00 (old shape) go /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cry.gif ECU remap to 275 BHP and 265 lbft /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif :- just tooooo expensive to run as my annual mileage has increased.

The A4 5 speed Sport is PDG, but I've been looking at various remap options - AMD, Revo, Superchips, etc and wondered what you all think - any advice re:

performance
engine longevity
economy
warranties ... eek - it's only 8 months old.

Also any simple things - air filters, etc.

Any comments would be gratefully received.

Thanks in advance

steve@rpc.eu.com
 
Has any one any comments on Upsolute upgrades ... their pricing is very, very low ..?

 
Upsolute aren't one of my top choices, but nevertheless they are known and I'm sure people that have the chip are no doubt happy, however I always feel that you get what you pay for, and I believe this is definitely true of chip tuning.

The first big hurdle you face is warranty, chipping will void your warranty in relation to failures believed to be caused by the chip, having said this there are more and more dealers in the UK who are taking responsibility for the chipping and any warranty implications. ....and why not as failures related to chips are very few and far between, in fact honestly I have not come across a substantiated case which shows that a chip has caused a failure.

The VAG engines are built extremely well and I would not fear the thought of chipping especially on the TDi's. Why do I have so much confidence, well along with knowing many guys on the forums having their TDi's chipped and a large percentage of TDi's here in The Netherlands are chipped by ABT from new (With full warranty and no insurance premium hikes) and I hear of no failures.

Performance, a chip is a must it completely transforms the car giving TDi's so much torque it's unbelievable, the performance change is extremely noticeable providing more torque across more of the rev range.

Economy, the likelihood is you will notice a bit more black smoke, but you may gain a few miles to the gallon if compared to the same driving as prior to the chip.....but if you drive it like a bat out of hell using the performance gained from the chip don't be surprised to see it drop! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

So I would say whilst still within the warranty period you can find a 'chip friendly' dealer or go out on a limb and have it tuned by someone else.
 
Just in case you haven't explored all of the options maybe the below tuning list I have come up with will you've covered all options.

Just to save you a bit of time ploughing through the search engines I've put my choice of top/recognised tuners for Audi's (VAG), and although originally was aimed at chip tuning encompasses general tuning as well, and does have a focus on the UK market;

Most recognised within the UK:
APR - www.goapr.co.uk/dealer/index.html - Good maps and well respected, especially in the US. Just released OBD* tuning. Switchable options using cruise control.
REVO- www.revotechnik.com/uk/ukrevo.html - Good maps, one of the first tuners to offer OBD* tuning in UK. Switchable options using switch (Dongle).
AmD - www.auto-amd.com - More than just a chip tuner, they are a complete tuner unlike many others. Respect.
Jabbasport - www.jabbasport.com/Audi/Jabbachips/Contact/contact.html - For those that want to take their tuning that little bit further. Well respected.
Forge Motorsport - www.forgemotorsport.co.uk - No chip tuning of their own but they do offer a number of great tuning products for VAG cars.
* - OBD = On Board Diagnostic. Tuning which is done via the diagnostic serial port located on the vehicle, so no chip replacement is required.

European VAG tuners:
Oettinger - www.oettinger.de or www.roadandsport.co.uk (UK dealer) - One of the longest running tuners for Audi's. A great tuner with a great range of products.
ABT- www.abtsportsline.co.uk/location.php3 - Again a long running tuner with good products. Official Audi chip tuning for The Netherlands, Germany and Belgium amongst other countries.
MTM- www.mtm-online.de or www.qstuning.com (UK dealer) - Well known for good maps with solid performance.
Projectzwo- www.projektzwo.de or www.roadandsport.co.uk (UK dealer) - Again a long runing tuner that's well respected.
SKN- www.skn-tuning.com or contact SKN (UK) Ltd. on www.scottsmototune.co.uk - Not so well known but good products nonetheless.
Upsolute - www.upsolute.com - Austrian tuner, well known worldwide.

Other recognised tuners for chips mainly;
Superchips - www.superchips.co.uk - Regarded as a general tuner offering nothing special, but map on 1.8T does produce good results!
Wetterauer - www.wetterauer.de - Not so well known german tuner, but still heard of. Used in both the US and Europe.
DBM - www.dbmengineering.nl - Similar to Jabbasport but in Holland. Nice product range with carbon air boxes. Produced a 420bhp S3 for the road!!
Bullpower - www.bullpower.nl - Very little known about this tuner.
Sportec- www.sportec.ch (Even though covered by AmD) - Relatively new to the UK scene. Good torque figures produced with the maps and satisfied customers.
Powerchips- www.powerchipgroup.com - Hardly ever mentioned on the forums, like Superchips, but look to provide good results. The website is extremely good, and the detailed datasheets provided within minutes of an enquiry are full of info. Available through www.mongooseexhausts.com or www.motorsportworld.co.uk <http://www.motorsportworld.co.uk>
Upsolute - www.upsolute.com - Austrian tuner, well known worldwide.

The below tuners are mainly for the US guys, as some tuners are not quite so well known or even available within Europe or have different US websites to the above.
APR - www.goapr.com - Very well known both in Europe and the States and stage III tuning gives very good figures.
GIAC- www.giacusa.com - Again another well known tuner in the states.
Neuspeed - www.neuspeed.com - Well known in the states, but less so than the two above.
Greedspeed - www.greedspeed.com - I don't know much about these guys but the Yanks do from what it seems.
TAP (Total Audi Performance) - www.tap1.com - Again I know nothing about these guys but they do across the water
AmD - www.amdtechnikusa.com - Newbie to the States, but based on the European arm will provide good products.
Forge Motorsport - www.forgemotorsport.com - No chip tuning of their own but they do offer a number of great tuning products for VAG cars.

All have their merits, and really it's a personal choice, and you have to check around before choosing in my opinion. There are many other smaller tuners who offer chips etc. but are not widely recognised, but can offer options cheaper than above, so additonal research will pay off.
Do not think for one moment that the above is comprehensive, it is only my opinion and based on my knowledge of tuning, the products offered and comments I have picked up on my travels and is intended to be unbiased, but I do have a weak spot for Oettinger these days.

Gambba
 
On the REVO side of things I would suggest doing a search on the complete forum to see what peoples thoughts are on them.....which doesn't make them right or wrong but are opinions, so I suppose count for something /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif For me REVO appeared as a fad, the first tuner to offer an easy way of trying before buying, and then with all the other complications surrounding allegations etc. kinda topped it off for me, but that didn't mean I didn't consider them! Revo are not the only ones to offer switching, APR do and I believe AmD are looking at releasing something soon.

You're quite right in your thoughts on Diesel engines, especially VAG units, as they are incredibly reliable. I would expect that you would not see any serious failures on a TDI engine especially below 100k miles, and I don't see why a chip would change this. I run an A3T and have had it chipped now for about 15k miles, with the car previously having 30k miles on it and as some will tell you when it passes by on the road it would appear to be stolen.....so the car gets an incredibly hard time and yet has no signs of anything even considering to fail.

As long as you allow the turbo warm up and cool down time you should not really face any significant problems.

A lot of my thoughts come from my trade as being an engineer for a forklift manufacturer which is an industry closely tied to the automotive industry, as well as working on friends cars as well as my own....oh and generally hanging around on here too much.
 
Gambba,

Again, thank you.

The attraction for REVO is two fold ...
Stealth
Locality - the local distributor (Fontain - Mark) lives within 10 minutes drive from home/office.
This makes it an ''Easy'' choice.

Looking at APR, it doesn't seem that they offer a TDI upgrade, but I know that AMD do. That was my other thought. The fact that they are very well known in UK, apparently doing conversions for AUDI dealers, offer Dyno's before and after all makes a very compelling arguement. If they have switchable version on the way, it would have to be down to which remap / chip feels best to drive /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif

Fontain appear not to have done too many TDI remaps, so getting a ''Test drive'' would be difficult (the 5 hour test remap is not available on TDI's). I have no idea (guess I ought to call them /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif!) about AMD's situation on this.

Glad to hear your feelings about the bullet proof nature of VAG engines, etc. and that my supposition was not completely naive /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

I'll keep you posted on my thoughts.

Oh, of course there is the all important WAF to consider ... Wife Approval Factor /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/1luvu.gif- now that is a brain teaser! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/jawdrop.gif

Steve
 

Similar threads