S4thrills

I find it interesting that APR advertises on the Audi Club North America forums yet Audi won't necessarily honor warranty claims on tuned cars if the tune caused the issue.

http://forums.fourtitude.com/showthr...-4.0-TFSI-ECUs!

snagitseven

While ACNA may have a partnership with Audi of America (i.e. the ACNA new car discount), they are an independently owned organization. Fourtitude is also independently owned (not by ACNA or Audi) and and uses sponsors and partnerships just like AudiWorld and other auto web forums.
In any case, my understanding is some ECU vendors (i.e. Stasis) offer their own warranty to cover problems caused by their products that Audi won't cover under the factory warranty. Also note that the Audi factory warranty is not voided by any mods made other than if Audi can show that a problem was caused by the mod itself.

Edit: changed "..most, if not all ECU vendors.." to "some ECU vendors (i.e. Statsis).

gatorguy7

There is no warranty by APR against any problems with your car. The only thing covered is problems with their software. There are also a growing number of cases where Audi will tag anything they can with TD1. I think we will see a lot more kick back from them in the future related to mods and warranty. There are a growing number of cases where Audi has voided a warranty due to a tune and didn't try to prove anything.

This is not to say that an APR tune will cause any problems because I seriously doubt that they would, but problems can occur with any car, and if you happen to have a tune then it could cause problems.

S4thrills

snagitsteven... thanks for clarifying the relationship of all these entities. I didn't realize they were that independent. One could easily assume they were more intertwined.

S4thrills

Back when I had my first Audi, a 1.8T A4, I had it tuned (APR), and I never had or heard of issues. When I migrated to my first S4, Audi started to crack down and I'd hear a lot of horror stories about blown turbos on tuned cars (not necessarily cause and effect) with Audi denying warranty claims. This kept me from ever tuning my prior S4's. I have the prior model S6 which is n.a. so tuning was never really a temptation but with the new S6 it is so tempting for me. But I am hesitant to do it.

subterFUSE

I'm in the same boat. I really want to do the tune, but I don't want to get flagged TD1 or risk an expensive engine related repair being out-of-warranty.

Perhaps when I get closer to the end of the factory warranty I will reconsider.

CreoS4

I had the passenger-side turbo go on my B5 S4 (2011). It was replaced under warranty, but back then I had the ability to swap from the stock ECU to the AMS/ABT ECU (and vice versa) quite easily. My Audi dealer knew I was tuned, and they didn't care as long as I brought the car back with the stock ECU if any warranty work came up. Then again, the dealership didn't complete the turbo replacement correctly. I had power steering fluid dump all over my driveway one night and then I had a "creaking" noise from the front suspension that they couldn't figure out how to fix. I quickly unloaded the car after being without it for 2.5 months.

In the interim I've owned several tuned/upgraded turbo Subarus without any major issues. I've had my B8 S4 APR tuned for the past 3 years, and I'll likely have the S6 tuned by APR after a few thousand miles (to make sure there are no initial issues).

I also have all my maintenance work performed at a local independent shop (owned by a certified Audi tech), so I'm not overly concerned with "TD1." ECU tuning is a risk, but I just can't drive a stock car.

subterFUSE

Could an APR tuned ECU be swapped with a stock ECU when going in for service? Or would Audi be wise to that?

CreoS4

From what I understand, it doesn't work that way with the newer model years. The ECU is tied to the keys, so you would essentially need to go back to the Audi dealership to re-code the keys to the ECU each time you swap (and the dealer would figure out why).

cagambler

Unfortunately, Audi is in the same position with the buyer that the IRS is with the taxpayer. If Audi says the problem is not covered by warranty, they don't have to prove anything. The buyer has to prove (by lawsuit, most likely) that the problem was not caused by the tune.

While ECU vendors warranty their products, I have heard of none except Stasis (questionable relationship with Audi presently according to rumor) and Dinan (for BMW) that will cover consequential damage to something else on the car.