To all members of a4.0rg - this disclaimer is the most serious one i'll ever put up, since the contents of this post aren't exactly nice in nature - fairly mean, actually. You might question my intentions - well, it's to make sure that no member of this board gets screwed the way i did. Fair enough? All of this is true - anybody who's met me in person will vouch that i take a fairly honest take on things. .. ok, serious disclaimer is done, onto the post. . . edmund.<p>PS- this was saved from yesterday, i wanted to make sure everyone could read it =)<br>******<p>Stuart Schikora...ahhh, what a nice guy. About three years ago I was at<br>my mechanic's shop, complaining about the brakes on my 750iL, when it<br>just so happened that Schikora was at another mechanic's shop, and came<br>highly recommended as well. So, we went over there, I talked to the guy,<br>highly likeable and very convincing - told me he could do a four piston<br>14" brake kit for my car for $1800 i believe. So fine, since my mechanic<br>knew the guy, I went ahead and gave him $800 deposit for the setup - he<br>promised the parts would be sent as soon as he went back down to LA.<p>For the next 6 months, despite calling him about once every other week,<br>and sometimes more frequently then that, he never sent ANY product AT<br>ALL - he just basically took my money and ran. My mechanic felt bad, and<br>he took care of what Stuart owed me...but that's another story.<p>Want more stories about Schikora? Motorsport One, back when Ed and Doug<br>were the two guys working there, lent Stuart a set of 16" rims OEM off<br>of an 850i - Stuart ended up basically stealing the rims from M1, they<br>didn't get them back until 8 months later, after they took him to small<br>claims court, and by then, the tires were burnt to hell.<p>One of the cars he was working on, a 911 Carerra, was supposed to have<br>the engine bored out and more....i can't personally confirm this story,<br>because i never met the owner, but supposedly Schikora had his car for<br>about 3 months, and didn't return it until the owner threatened to<br>report the car stolen...it came back with the speedo all messed up, i<br>believe that he tried to mess with the gauges or something.<p>Basically, it comes down to this. . .i know he's a very smart guy<br>(SUPPOSEDLY he graduated from the school of Engineering at UCLA) but,<br>and i hate to say it, he's basically an LA scam artist. I'd seriously<br>avoid him at all costs.<p>Don't think of this as a flaming letter - i'm just giving you my honest<br>experience with the guy. Maybe he's legit now? I have no clue. I would<br>never ask him to do anything or let him ever touch my car ever again. I<br>have never felt as strongly about telling people about this guy - he's<br>just bad bad bad news - and the old-timers on this board will vouch for<br>my credibility, if a test is needed.<p>If anyone wants more details about my experience with Schikora, feel<br>free to email me. =)<p>Edmund Louie<br>98 A4Q 30V<p><p>

. . . i'm sure Doug will be happy to give you his take on the man. =)<p>I just wanted to reiterate that this was my personal experience with the guy three years ago - there's a chance that he's changed his professional practices. In any case, i'm sure the work he did on Damon's car was prolly pretty good - i don't doubt that he is a good tuner, it's just that he's very flakey about stuff (translation : don't ever send him money). Anyways, i'm off to class. =)<p>Edmund Louie<br>98 A4Q 30V<br>ICQ#4174046

I thank you very much for the warning. I have also heard some mixed reviews about his being a "flake". I was a bit skeptical too and would never give him my car or any money up front. So far so good. As a matter of fact he just came by my work just to tell me that the pin I needed for my throttle body was not availble at either Steve Taub or Beverly Hills Porche Audi and that he ordered one for me from BH and he even paid the 13 bucks for next day delivery. He will be returning to my work tomorrow to install it. We'll see if he shows. He also has not asked <br>me for a sent so far.<p>Whats happened so far:<p>I saw him at the station, he reprogrammed my ECU, he advised me on the t-body issue, he went out of his way to order a part for me and even came by <br>my work (although he was 2 hours late per our agreed time) JUST to tell me what the status of everything was. Again, I have not given him ANY $.<p>Now, he wants a deal on some electronic equipment, I work at Sony and get 50% off everything they make, so maybe he's being on the level w/ me cause he NEEDS something from me? I don't know. What I do know is that, although I HAVE heard hes a total<br>flake, his knowledge of German cars IS very comprehensive and my experience so far has prooved this (My car likes what he does). <p>I will however take all this with a grain of salt and be VERY careful of my dealings with<br>Stuart. At this point the worst thing that could happen is that he abondons me with the t-body<br>problem, but I assume my dealer could figure it out anyway. Unless ofcorse his programming frys my motor but I doubt that.<p>I really really appreciate the heads up, for real, it's nice to know there's folks out there <br>lookin' out for ya. I was beginning to wonder if I had any friends left over there at the ORG.<br>freak UnAbiMmer. haha.<p>-Damon<br>

He has called me at a rate of about once evry 10 hours since I met him. We spoke this AM about ELON (stosk stuff). He also called at like 8:00 am to say he would be picking up the part at about 10am and would be by my work shortly there after to fix my t-body. Again I have not given Stuart A CENT!<p>Now I'm not stickin' up for him in any way shape or form, I'm sure he is guilty of the shady stuff that Edmund has illustrated, he just seems kinda like a snake. But I think he pics and chooses who to screw and I I've gooten the feelin' he's being on the level w/ me. He also agred to do my girls VW beetle 2.0 and my friend "shredsters" 12v. Both for free if I help him get a 33" flat screen. I also gave him a whole bunch of CDs but thats it so far. When I offered to give him the 13 bucks for t-body linkage clip he refused to take it.<p>We'll see, I'll keep the forum posted. And I tell you if he's tryin' to get one over on me he's first of all being REAL sly about it and second he's barkin' up the wrong tree. I been around the block a few times with some shady hi-po shops, it ain't gonna happen. Not to MY A4!<p>Damon

Caveat emptor<p>Steve S.<br>97 2.8QM<p>I would love a modification to my 12V.<br>

...if I'm not mistaken. That's why no one has come up with a chip.<p>Mike

This does however, bring up an interesting point. For all of us chip junkies, it would seem that perhaps the best way to get the most effective chip would be to get it customed so to speak, given that every car doesn't roll off the assembly line with the exact same specifications. i remember someone saying that they dynoed a new 1.8t and it had 140 hp were another had 155hp. This may also speak to the succsess of, or lack there of on the K4 upgrade. It could be possible that once you do a significant amount of mods, you may change the overall operating parameters of your car such that the best way to get the most bang for your buck is to have an ECU made specifically for the parameters that exist with your specific car. just a thought.<br>

WHAT is the problem with the hitachi ECU? Does anyone know the model number on the chip itself? I can program CPUS no problem, just don't know the right programing!!<p><br>1996 a4 2.8 qm (12v)

nt<br>

x

<br>There are Chips for the 12V, however the HP gains were minimal so no one really sells them.<p>Ned