I am seriously considering a chip upgrade for my A4 1.8T. If someone could give me a little advice in the following areas, it would be greatly appreciated.<p>1. Which chip should I buy, and why? There are several companies out there that make chips. What's the difference.<p>2. If I buy one with the complete ECU swap out, will I be able to switch back to the stock ECU every time I take the car in for service? If so, is there any way the dealer will know that the ECU has been swapped out? Does swapping out effect any of the readings that they do during the routine 5000 mile services.<p>3. What kind of wear and tear do I need to worry about. Should I buy a turbo timer? If so, what will be the effect on the warrantee?<p>Thank you in advance for your help.

First off, check the archives, there's more infor than you can shake an ecu at in there. Now for my thoughts. Before I start, some quick info about what the chip does. It changes the engine management program from timing to fuel mix to turbo boost, and everything in between. Most of the improvemnt in performance comes from increasing the boost from the turbo...the rest is mostly adjusting, everything else to make the engine run correctly with the extra boost. You will see a lot about .8 bar and 1.0 bar, bar is a measure of pressure, just like psi. Stock boost is about .5 bar (~7 psi), chips are available in .8 bar (~10-11 psi), and 1.0 bar (~14-15 psi). The stock turbo on the A4 can put out up to 1.0 bar of boost, there are some that argue that it becomes inefficient over .8 bar, but I've noticed a difference riding in the same car with a .8 bar and 1.0 bar chip (1.0 bar was quicker).<p>1) That's the big question. Neuspeed is the least expensive at around $200. Wett has a lot of satisfied customers here and the socketed design is pretty cool, you can ask to get both the .8 and 1.0 bar chips for the same price and be able to switch between stock, .8, and 1.0 whenever you want. There are a whole bunch of other tuners offering chips as well. I'm leaning towards the MTM chip available from Hoppen because of MTM's relationship with Audi in Germany and Hoppen's history with Audi in the US.<p>2) Yes, you will be able to switch back to the stock ecu any time, including for service visits. They will be able to detect that the ecu has lost power from the battery, but that's all.<p>3) I wouldn't worry too much about wear and tear. The Audi is getting 180hp out of the 1.8t engine in the TT and as an option in European A4's. Make sure you let the engine warm up before getting into the boost and cool it down before shutting it off. Always give it a cool down period after hard driving, to reinforce this, tonight after a moderately hard drive pop the hood, you'll be able to see the turbo glowing red hot, and that's stock. It needs time for the oil to cool it down. Other than that you should be fine just keep up with the maintenance, give it good gas and regular oil changes. I haven't heard of anyone blowing a turbo with a stage 1 chip (maybe 1 person, but I don't think so), and there are a lot of folks on this forum who've had their cars chipped for quite a while.<p>Regards,<br>Rodney<p>'99 A4 1.8tqms

I have a 1998 1.8T Quattro w/Tiptronic...it was anemic off the line, and barely ok above 3,800 RPM...

...after three months of research, including talking with Wett, TAP, APR, AMS, etc ...and following the discussion on this forum, I finally purchased the APR 1 bar chip and installed it along with the K&N filter and changed the oil to Mobil 1 synthetic...the results after about 1,000 additional miles...this upgrade is amazing;

My A4 is now at least on par w/ my girlfriend's BMW 328I. I think the A4 is easily faster, but I don't want to piss her off, so we won't discuss that...in any evernt, I think the upgrade took about 2 seconds off the 0 - 60.

The chip seems to really kick in at about 2500 rpm and the car takes off like a powerful V6. In fact, my pal, an Audi mechanic says my car now easily outpaces the A4 v6.

I also just received my Borla exaust from APR...will have it installed this week....then I am done...other than maybe a turbo timer.

I decided on the APR chip because those guys really seem to know there stuff...they offer both .8 and 1.0 bar and they offer a spare ECU deal in case of warranty issues...