I'm considering chipping my 1.8T but I have reservations due to the possibility of voiding the factory warranty. Has anyone out there been denied service because Audi suspected the chip to cause a problem to the powertrain? Thanks alot!<br>

Dealerships seam to vary on the chip debate. If yours is ok with it you have nothing to worry about.

In all the talk about chips and dealers, I have never in a year and a half heard anyone say they were denied warranty service due to chipping. That being said, I can tell you some dealers are and can be a little bit of a pain, but to date I have not heard anyone actually get turned down. I do think it will be more of an issue as VW comes out with the 1.8T in other cars and tuning is even more common. Dealers will do all they can to talk you out of chipping, but thats to save themselfs possible hassles with getting paid for warranty work by AUDI. If you really want to be safe you have only one option, get a second ECU, then later when everone is having problems you will have a solution, all-be-it a pricey one.

One chip in car, one chip in glove box. Something happens, a quick swap and no one knows but you and the trees.

This will work for some problems, but if you have a problem and they go to replace the ECU, they will see the socket, and they replace alot of ECU's. In my experience this is a half measure and will not give true piece of mind in the long run. when they have your car for service they can look anyplace they want to find a problem.

No mechanic is going to bother completely dissasembling an ecu box. Why, because there is nothing to fix in there. The whole box is the part, one part number. <p>They have a decision tree: 1.Check the onboard diagnostics, 2. reload the volatile memory, 3. Put in a new box.<p>The mechanic gets paid ONLY for following the decision tree outlined in the service manual. If he does it faster, he gets paid more (min charges).<p>They could disassemble it, in theory. Do they know about sockets, maybe. It doesn't matter because they get paid by AUDI for replacing the box NOT for pissing off the customer.

If Audi gets an ECU that has been modified the dealer will not get paid for the work and parts they did. Then you will have a major problem. They have also been replacing many ECU's, the whole ECU, due to software problems from AUDI,the ECU must be sent to AUDI AG., they look inside EVERY silverbox they get back under warranty,and can turn down the dealers warranty claim. When the dealer opens the black case they will see the socket, they will never open the ECU (silver box), but you still have a problem. I was in the automobile business for 11 years and not all shops pay the way you describe, if the mechanic spends time on your car he gets paid no matter what tree he follows. IF AUDI AG turns down a dealers claim cause the ECU was tampered with what do you think the dealer is going to do? He will not eat it, and your warranty is void. This is not a new issue for dealers, I had customers chipping cars when I was with Porsche, VW, Jeep, Eagle,TALON,( Mopar even sold a unit for Dodge Ram pickups and they still do),BMW,Honda, Ford,and to many more to list, I'm not trying to bust balls here, just trying to help and warn, if you think I'm wrong it's no skin off my nose, but if I'm right (and I know I am)then I may save some of you alot of trouble.

one may just go out and buy a brand new ECU unit from Clair or whoever.. <br>What were they going for last? $800??<p>Cris

I have heard of dealers which do not raise many issues on chipped cars. I, however, spoke to the service manager at my dealer and he explicitly took a different position. I gave the old if the failure is not directly attirbuted to the aftermarket part . . . argument and he did not seem to buy in to it. He conveyed a story to me about a 1.8T that came in that was chipped, had an after market cam, exhaust and etc. He basically intimated that the car had serious problems and the the owner was out of pocket for those repairs.<p>While chip companies arguments may be sound and compelling, Audi is likely to value the opinion of the service department. If the service department has a negative attitude to after market modifications, your battle to have warranty coverage could get rather nasty and expensive. If this is truly a concern of yours, I would approach the situation fully informed as to all interested parties posture.

First of all,<br>What is this secret ecu failure that you are talking about?? We sure haven't seen this on the board, and my tech has never seen one. Please elaborate.<p>You cannot see the socket unless you open the ecu itself. As I said. There are no repairable parts, it is one unit.<p>All the techs get paid for the AAdvantage by set time to repair figures from AoA (a whole book). If they exceed this time they have to justify. This is how my tech explains it to me.<p>Yes, If Audi/vw get a lot of replacement ecu problems they are going to inspect them. I talked about this in my post specifically! The stolen chip industry will sour the whole deal for everyone. Right now there is NO issue. This is just speculation on your part untill we actually have a person with a problem.

1997 1.8 T, First software version 8 DO 907 557 N<br>1997 1.8T, Second software version 8 DO 907 558 M<br>1997 1.8T, Third software version 8 DO 907 559 <br>Your tech may not be aware of these problems if he replaces an ECU my guess is he does not even look at these numbers. I became aware of these problems after talking to TAP, my dealer PRAY ( the largest AUDI dealer on Earth) and Clair's Parts Express when I bought my second ECU. clair's says they are replacing so many that they have contracted with an outside soarce to sell rebuilt ECU's for $750.00. I am not sure what the problem has been with each version of software except for the major problems people with Trip, trans had, Try to tell them there was no ECU problems, or look in the Archives. I thought at first Automatics were the only effected ECU's but later found out otherwise. Ivor first made me aware of the new versions because evertime a new version comes out, they have to change the chip software. He told me of all kinds of running problems related to old versions of the ECU software, but why don't you just call Clairs and ask them? 1-800-354-5100