My Wett chip blew a hole in my Turbo tube housing. <br>I had to replace it which costs over $400. In addition,<br>it messed up my air flow meter. All this took three weeks.<br>The parts had to be shipped from Germany. Any similar stories....<p>

Joe,<p>I think everyone here is interested in hearing more about your problem. I've got a couple of questions I'd like to ask, if you don't mind. First, what were the symptoms of the trouble you were having? Any noises or loss of power? Did you dealer do the service, and did they know about the chip? You make it sound like this wasn't covered under the warranty.<br>How long did you have the Wett chip before you noticed a problem? How do you know that the chip is what caused the problem, rather than a faulty part?<p>Any other information you can give would be appreciated, and would help more people respond to what you've posted. Thanks.<p>Miles

(nt)

I realized that I had loss power a short while after the installment of the chip. Say 2 months. 6 months later, my check engine light came on. Dealer told me that the engine will dieing as they were doing the diagnostic. They covered the air flow meter but then found the cause for all the trouble. A hole in the turbo tube. The air flow meter was trying to compsensate the extra air and eventually crashed. The warranty couldn't cover for the hole in the tube because it was due to too much turbo boost. It took them a long time to get the air flow meter. All this took 3 weeks. Should I sell my wett chip? Anyone?

Do you mean one of the hoses?

Do you mean the air hose from the turbo to the intercooler? Or from the intercooler to the throttle body? You state "The air flow meter was trying to compsensate the extra air" but it seems as though there would be less air if the hose was truely blown out. If the dealer gave you the supposed bad air flow meter that you paid for it would be interesting to reinstall it to see if it was truely bad or the just installed a new one as part of a shotgun diagnosis.

Geez, now let me get this straight you put a non certified part (they have to have CARB certification in the US to be really legal) on a new car, KNOWING that it could violate your warranty. You KNOW that it makes twice the boost as the DESIGNED stock setup and you want to blame WETT.... Come on, they didn't make you any promises, in fact read their warranty!<p>There is no foundation for your claim either I might add!<p>Now before you get all bent out of shape about my posting, I want you to go look through the archives.... See all those people that are talking about the car making a groaning noise and that they take it to the dealer and it has a blown hose. Well, did you look at the archive before you purchased, I'll bet you knew that could happen.<p>Ok, I'll be nice now, because there IS something to be learned here.<p>1) there was a design change in the 98.5 year to improve this part that is KNOWN to fail even in the stock setup! <p>2) the part that fails is the highpressure side of the turbo to intercooler hose and it will fail right where the bypass valve goes into it in at elbow that is way to sharp and way to flexible for high boost. MTM/Hoppen even make a small alum. flange to replace this point!<p>3) The 98.5's don't seem to have this problem that I know of because that hose is much more robust and they use a different bypass valve hose setup.<p>4) there are Samco hose kits that would have been WAY more inexpensive to use as the replacement, again listed in the archives. You could have pumped 20lbs of boost through them and had no failures in the future. And you get the WHOLE set, not just one hose!<p>Ok, so how do I know, I've got 19lbs actually I have 22lbs running through mine, but it's a 98.5 and I've replace all the hoses with the samco replacements..... BECAUSE I read the group and searched the ARCHIVES. And oh BTW, I'm making 240hp with a K04, again reason to change the hoses.<p>Sorry to pick on you, but I thought it was entirely unfair to blame the chip company for the problem. While it might have been influence by the higher boost, it's a basic design problem that was fixed and it was because you wanted more power in the first place. You really can't blame that on the chip company, they all would be to blame if that was the case!<p>Alan

Geez... You take a risk upping the ante in your engine, but as Alan said, there is a weakness in pre-98.5 cars...<p>-josh<br>2.8 with no problems AND Wett chip

They would have never known about the performance chip.. that's why wett sells a chip in a housing that you can swap from stock to performance (it only takes about 15 minutes)

First of all, it is the manufacturer's responsibility to prove that the installation of the aftermarket part directly caused the failure of the part in question.<p>On this hose, it has a well-known design flaw that has caused many, many STOCK cars to blow this same hose. Yes, the chip added more stress to this weak link, but it is a flawed part none the less.<p>One other thing... You REALLY should have put the stock chip back in to the car before you went to the dealer. "Hindsight is ALWAYS 20/20"<p>Rich Quinlan<br>Nowhere NEAR stock 1.8tqms<ul><li><a href="http://home.att.net/~richquinlan">Quinland</a></li></ul>

Hey Joe,<p>I don't know what year your A4 is, but there is a recall out for '98s regarding the Air Flow Meter. I have the recall information posted at the A4 Club of Vancouver web site. The recall page is linked below. It has to do with a loose screen in the AFM. I got the info from the BCAA homepage. (BCAA is the AAA affiliate here in British Columbia)<p>As for the hose, looks like everyone else has covered it.<p>hope this helps.<p><br>James Wu<br>A4 Club of Vancouver<br>1998 Black/Onyx 1.8tqa<ul><li><a href="http://vancouver.a4.org/recalls.shtml">A4 Recalls at the A4 Club of Vancouver site</a></li></ul>