Recently I've been having a cold start misfire problem with my chipped B5. I didn't tell the dealer about the chip when I took it in. He charged me $100 to find the chip and then told me to take the ECU back to stock. If the problem is the ECU, I think this is fair, if not I'll have an uphill battle getting my money back.<p>I tell you all this because I think there is an easy way to avoid this type of problem in the future. I would like to pool together with other chipped 1.8t 5spd owners in No Cal to buy a stock ECU. Figure $800 or so split by as many people as I can round up. Whenever you have any problem that could be remotely related to the chipped ECU, you pop in the stock unit and take it in for service. I don't think a socketed chip really works because the socket connections themselves can be the problem.<p>If you are interested in this type of "insurance", please e-mail me and I'll start keeping a list.<p>My Passat is a 98 1.8t 5spd. I still need to find out whether other years and Quattro are compatible.

One note! If you simply replace the ecu, you will still need to do a couple of things or the dealer will be able to tell right away that it's been changed. You'll need to clear the codes, it will problably have one set that says the throttle body power is intermittent and one for power removal. There is also a sneaky "install" procedure that needs to be done, and you need a VAG to do it. If you don't there is an 8 bit field that they can look at to see if the ECU has learned the car it's installed in.<p>Course those are only two of the ways that I know of, there are probably a hundred other ones!<p>Hope this helps,<br>Alan

Good info - thanks.<p>But, just b/c a dealer knows that you've 'swapped' the ECU, would that be enough to void any work under warranty? In other words, couldn't you just say that you replaced the the ECU b/c the old one was faulty?<p>Also, do you know if similar 'fault codes' would show up if you replaced a Wett chip with the stock chip using the socketed technology that they provide?<p>Chris<br>98 1.8TQS

Three issues:<p>Relevance, detection, warranty.<p>Why would the dealer be concerned that you have a modded chip! Did you burn a piston? Have intermittant start problems? Did you check with the chip company first to resolve the problem ethically? The piston and start problems are about the only way I think they would even be suspicious, enless you were unastute enough to rub their noses in it. <p>Those codes are not redflags for an ecu change! The A4 platform is infamous for electrical ghost loads. If you are concerned say that you had to get a jumpstart. <p>Finally, warranty issues are a non-problem for the dealer if you a cool about it. They don't pay, Audi does. They have to prove that you had another ecu in there 1! Then they have to demonstrate that the chip caused the problem 2! Now here is the best part: Name anybody who has had a warranty voided because of this!!!!!!!!!!! (Did they tell on themselves? Did they try to work it out with the chip company first?)<p>Lets not make a big deal about a non-issue. Many things are possible, few things are likely.

The codes Alan mentioned would show up when swapping from a chip such as Wett back to a stock chip because you have to remove the ECU from the car to swap chips. So the "fault codes" will be identical to those produced if you swap an entire ECU.<p>Andy Hedin<br>'97 A4 1.8Tqms, Wett 1.0 Bar, ABT Filter

The "power removal" code would also show up if you disconnected the battery. If your dealer asks, tell them you wne away on a business trip and you disconnected the battery.<p>I'm not familiar with the "throttle body power intermittent" code, so I won't speculate.<p>I'm chipped with a Wett 1.0 Bar and I swapped back to the stock chip for my last warranty work (broken wastegate rod). Dealer never questioned me about any codes. Incidently, they do not know my car is chipped (unless they read this forum ;-)<p>Andy Hedin<br>'97 A4 1.8Tqms, Wett 1.0 Bar Chip, ABT Filter, more...

So then the concept of a group purchase of a spare ECU is viable.<p>Although your comment about the Wett socket seems to accomplish the same thing - even if the dealer finds the socket with the stock chip, i guess they would have to prove that there was a performance chip in there at some point....<p>BTW - do you know if the Neuspeed socket technology is comparable to Wett's?<p>Thanks again,<br>Chris