Audi sold me a tuned car

[sickboy10]

I bought a 2014 A7 bitdi from Audi in December.

It has just been back to them for a start-stop problem and while trying to do a recall software upgrade on the engine they told me it failed because the engine has been "chip tuned".

The car wasn't an Approved Used Audi because it was just over 5 years old but was still sold to me by Audi (Farnborough dealership).

Where does this leave me?
Does this affect my insurance?
Will this affect my warranty? It shouldn't because Audi sold me the car and supplied it with 12 month warranty so they should honour that.
What about resale? I suspect it would affect trade in price if I tried to part-ex with Audi in the future.

Help please. Not sure how to tackle this with them.

 

[NHN]

Talk to the dealer, if they sold it & won't do a recall update, it's up to them to resolve it tbh, they have the tools to check if it's been tuned.

 

[sickboy10]

I'm going to call them tomorrow and see what they say but I want to know what to expect.

1. Should they just be able to remap it to the original map?
2. If they say they can't, where does this leave me? I have know idea what type of tune has been done, by who or how well. I don't know what this will do to the life of the drive train and I'm considering insisting they buy it back. Also expect that resetting to original map will make it slower so it is not the car that I test drive before buying.

I wonder what the recall is for? Emissions?

 

[Evil Derboy]

Everythings guess-work until you speak to them, however a remapped ECU shouldnt effect the ability of the technician from applying a software update. More likely that the update has been rejected due to a TD1 flag being raised and they've just stopped there. (this is the bit of code that appears when an ECU has been remapped). I went through something similar with Audi about a decade ago on my original B8 A5. Had a shouting match with the service manager as they were trying to do the coding for an LED rear light cluster upgrade and couldnt do it becuase I'd used VAGCOM to add Drive Select to the MMI.

I already knew that they could simply overight back to the standard software but they didn't know this and didn't want to believe me. Until they finally spoke to the Mastertech who confirmed I was right. They then just did a car-wide software update and everything was sorted.

I may be that they've done something similar and the tech has simply hit a "computer says no" moment without investigating any further. In any case there are a lot of remapped Audi's out there and it would be extremely poor planning if a TD1 prevented mandatory software updates.

In any case, it's their problem to solve, not yours.

 

[NHN]

Problem is, vag are using this marker to not do work on systems that aren't even relative to the damn engine, it's beyond arrogant tbh.

You do have a case with them tbh, they can rewrite the ECU to stock, it's just Germany being idiotic by blanketing a cars systems with this marker.

 

[sickboy10]

I'm torn with what to do. I'm not sure if I want to keep a car that has been remapped when I don't have any knowledge of what sort of modifications were done or by who. I've always thought that mpg was way less than expected (average 24-28 mpg on a 30 min B road journey, never see more than 32 mpg unless motorways when i touch 40 mpg if careful) but I figured that was just Audi over quoting mpg figures.

At the same time, I don't know how the car might change if it reverts back to stock. I'll be hacked off if it shows a noticeable drop in power.

 

[sickboy10]

So just spoke to Audi. They can probably reset to stock but I've no idea what the performance will be after.

Looking at insurance for if I keep the remap, I need to be able to tell the insurer what sort of upgrade has been done and I don't know (and Audi can't tell me) so looks like I have no choice but to revert to stock and hope the car still feels quick. Or see if Audi will buy it back but that leaves me without a car.

 

[sickboy10]

Audi have offered to get the car on a dyno to see what sort of mod has been made but will this tell anything? Wouldn't it be comparing wheel bhp with Manufacturer quoted fly wheel bhp? So it will under quote the bhp increase? I don't know much about tuning so am completely guessing here.

 

[Footiecoach]

They can tell when the mapping was done as the ECU records the date of mapping so they will clearly see that you didn't have car ownership when said mapping was put in place.
Will car feel slower - yes it will as I have had 3.0bitdi mapped and unmapped previously and it does make a 'nice' difference. However the standard map is more than sufficient so you will still have fun with it.
I'm not really sure what them running dyno will tell then.....yes that its mapped, but what are they hoping to gain as it simply wont shout out APR or Ecotune mapping.

Audi are more than able to put it back to re-stock, if any issues drop me a PM.

Worst scenario if they put it back to stock and you really miss the extra power you have option to take to a good reputable mapper and discuss what you'd like - obviously checking with your insurance in advance to see additional premium costs (varies on who you are with).