Does anyone have any experience with unplugging the ECU, to get it to reset, and then going out and driving hard so that your car "learns" (for lack of a better word) certain driving characteristics of the driver. When Tony Ricci was here last week, discussing what the ECU does, he mentioned something that got the attention of Mark Franklin (fellow A4 owner) and I.<br>He said, and correct me if I am wrong here, that the ECU constantly makes adjustments to the boost and advance of your 1.8T engines, usually decreasing performance as adjustments are made. Therefore, we postulated that if one would periodically unplug the battery or ECU, one could reset back to baseline, re-teach the ECU how to act, and keep the performance at maximum levels. Does this sound feasible to you....or am I just blowin smoke today....?<p>Inquiring minds want to know.<p>Steve S.<br>97 2.8QM <- - what do you mean no chip? what, no supercharger? whatz up wid dat?

and neither of us have noticed any performance degradation over the life of our chips. I'm thinking about trying this after the Pahrumph.... but I'm happy with how my car is running right now. I don't want to mess with it until after the score is in...<p>Wett (1.0) / Remus-gp vs. TAP II /Scorp<br>Robbie<br>TAP II<br>

Steve,<br>The ECM is constantly receiving information on the air/fuel ratio from the oxygen sensors. This "real time" data is called the short term fuel trim. When the averages of the short term trim point to either a rich or lean condition a change is made to the long term fuel by adding or subtracting a percentage of fuel from the the original ECM program. This change is global meaning that it makes the change to ALL fuel maps. A properly tuned chip which has been tested under all types of driving conditions will stay close to 0% on long term trim. I consider + or -5% to be excellent. The factory OBD2 spec. is + or -10%. Once + or - 25% is approached the check engine light will come on. There is a seperate learnng block for idle control. <br> A chip will lose performance over time under the following example...<br>A chip tuner raises the boost and fuel on a 1.8T to increase performance. Lets say that this tuner concentrates mostly the FULL THROTTLE air/fuel mix since this is where the chip will be judged. Ok so lets say the FULL THROTTLE mix is perfect for optimum power. Now lets say that not as much attention was paid to the part throttle fuel and lets say the engine is running rich when the car is driven in a normal manner and is running in closed loop (ECM receiving data from O2 sensors).This rich condition will cause changes to be made to the long term fuel trim to subtract fuel. Remember the changes are global, so now what was perfect full throttle fuel is now a little lean. When these cars go even a little lean , trace knock will be present (you can't hear it). The very sensitive knock sensors however will hear it and pull back timing to protect the engine. Both the 1.8T and 30V rely on timing to make good power. Even 4 degrees of timing can be felt in the seat of the pants. The knock sensors can pull as much as 10 degrees of timing. <br> In conclusion, a well designed and tested chip will NOT have to be reset ever, and will deliver consistent performance. A chip which does not have a tight spec. on closed loop fuel will mal-adapt over time, and the only way to restore "new chip" performance is to reset the ECM. Hope this sheds some light on what your car is "thinking".<p>Tony

If you don't know who Tony is, you should probably not take pot shots at him. He has a garrett lim chip if you must know...and he has had several chips before that. Tony is the originator of PES...the company that is putting out the supercharger for the 30V. Did you not know this?<p>It must be a full moon.<p>Steve S.<br>97 2.8QM

I think he was just asking what chip he was using...if he was using one at all. Tony seemed very knowledgeable and addressed an issue many of us may not be aware of, therefore it makes sense that someone with this kind of knowledge would not buy a chip which exibits the aformentioned flaws...therefore asking what chip he uses is a compliment as he may respect his opinion and is interested in finding out which chips do or don't have this problem.<p>Just an observation...I notice you don't pounce on people very often so maybe this Bwarren guy has been a pain, I don't know. Just thought I'd give you my 0.02<p>James R<p>99 1.8TM Neuspeed 17" Ronal R-28's and one sore mouth (4 impacted wisdom teeth removed on Thurs)