I live in Cincinnati -- 100 miles from Columbus. Today, a fellow AW member, Kevin Maloney came to Cincinnati to have the APR upgrade installed and was kind enough to bring his VAG com cable and add the:

Needle Sweep
Remote open/close of the windows (and sunroof close)
&
Remove the winking DRL's with the turn signal.

Hats off and thanks Kevin.

Another AW satisfied customer, reporting for duty!

Oh wow sweet! I didnt even know these things were possible..

Sweeter still, he brought his laptop and did the upgrades on my A4 for me while I sat there like a bump and watched.

He added the APR chip 93 octane program (and stock, of course) -- says he'll report on the impact.

He is a repeat APR user and says he loves the improvement.


His new A4 is the ONLY other one I have seen that has the 19" wheel package (prestige and 6spd Manual, too!)

The needle sweep is way cool, but cooler still is the ability to up and down the windows from the remote -- I had had this programmed on most of my other Audis, and for some reason the dealer (same one) couldn't or wouldn't do it, even tho they are usually quite "friendly" in this regard.

Of course, no winking DRL is very nice, but I will hardly ever see this change.

OH, forgot, he turned on the lap timer function too.

For the life of me, I cannot figure out why Audi doesn't enable these things in the MMI (not the stuff that is dangerous, but the stuff that, like what he did for me, is "convenient" and cosmetic oriented.

Although the needle sweep is kind of an "information function" (KIND OF) -- a neat way to see that your car actually responded to your press of the on off button.

Clarification: he added the APR upgrade to HIS A4, not mine!

I also disabled the seatbelt chime even though I wear it. One thing that is cool about the needle sweep is at night, the needles glow red and sweep before the gage backlighting comes on! Very cool effect!!!

Oh, and check your MMI. You now have a new menu and can turn on sunroof w/remote. If its closed it will only tilt open. If its fully open it will close. Enjoy!

That is very generous. Those are exactly the changes I asked my dealer to make and have in place when I picked up my car last week. I even went so far as to give them the Codes for the changes I picked up from this forum. After following the VAG-Comm discussions here, I didn't expect that it would be a problem, but the service manager said that it required a specific tool or cable that he didn't have. I understood that all Audi service departments had the VAG-Comm cbale that Kevin M. used to get you fixed up, but apparently that is not the case. Can anyone tell me specifically what the serice depaertment needs to accomplish this task? They say they are willing to do it for me if I can get them more information. If they can't do it, I may have to ask Kevin M. if I could drive down to Columbus some Saturday to have him perform the necessary surgery in exchange for lunch (or whatever). Any guidance forum members could give me in this regard would be appreciated. Thanks. Kevin D.

Anyone in Miami willing to do this for me? :) I havnt tried taking it to the dealer, but to save the hassle i rather have one of the A.W members help out..

I was glad to help out another AudiWorld member, and it was great meeting you yesterday, Mark.

My guess is that many dealers are discouraged from making any modifications due to the threat of a lawsuit. Imagine if a child caught his hand in the window that was rolled up remotely. Certainly one or two out there would threaten suit against the dealer who made that mod. It's tougher to explain why they wouldn't do less risky mods like the winking lights or needle sweep.

I too disabled the seat belt chime, and clearly it would be illegal for the dealer to make that mod. And it is probably unnecessary in the B8. My previous B6 and B7 had very sensitive sensors in the seats, and even a moderately-heavy briefcase sitting on the passenger seat would set the chime off. That forced me to disable the chime, but this new B8 with the sport seats doesn't seem as sensitive to weight sitting on the passenger seat. Still, I went ahead and disabled it, without concern because I religiously wear my seatbelt.

It is very, very difficult for me to believe that a dealer can't make these mods, it's probably just that they don't want too. Any dealer who can work on the ECU (and who can't?) must have the necessary cable and software to read the electronics and make any necessary changes, like change the service indicator warnings and read fault codes. They have to have the interface to do that, which is the Hex-Can cable. I suspect that the dealer who is saying that they don’t have the equipment to do this simply doesn’t want too. That, or I’d be looking for another dealer to service my car.

kdonovan, you are welcome to drive down here, but I may be in Geauga county on 8/19 on business. Contact me off list if you want to meet.

I responded off list as you suggested. Thanks! Kevin D.

That's really cool of you Kevin!

He added the APR chip 93 octane program (and stock, of course) -- says he'll report on the impact.

He is a repeat APR user and says he loves the improvement.


I have a question...

How!? :) (did you actually install the APR program on your own?)

That's really cool of you Kevin!



I have a question...

How!? :) (did you actually install the APR program on your own?)

No, Dubwerx in Cinci did it for me, and they are highly recommended! Still, I'm looking forward to the day that APR allows the customer to install the program.

No, Dubwerx in Cinci did it for me, and they are highly recommended! Still, I'm looking forward to the day that APR allows the customer to install the program.

Ah ok! Ya i'm really thinking of getting it done. I have an APR dealer really close to my place, I should drop by one of these days! :)

Very nice of you to help out Mark. Wish I had been more active on these boards lately because I'd have loved to ask you a few questions on the VAG-COM codes while you were down here. I'm probably picking up the cable and software this month to do some of the same things you did for Mark, and being my first time "modding" the computer of a car, would have liked some pointers.

Would like to have met Mark as well, since I think he's the only other B8 owning Cincinnatian on AW that regularly posts.