APR/Borla exhaust installed....and a surprise!

So I take yesterday off to head down to Air & Water Enterprises to have my APR/Borla exhaust installed. I get there and I'm talking to Todd Sager (owner of AWE) about my A4 and how I'm not really all that thrilled with the suspension feel of my A4 on the road. He throws me the keys to his '99 1.8T (with H&R coil-overs, Garrett 1.0 bar chip, 18" Hamann alloys & Remus exhaust)....what a sweet ride! So I'm driving through the cobble-stone streets of the Chestnut Hill area of Philly and I cannot believe how comfortable the H&R coil-overs are. (Mental note #1: must save for coil-overs!)

I'm also extremely impressed with the smoothness and power of the Garrett chip. It totally blows away my Wett chip which I felt was kind of "jerky", especially when getting on and off the throttle. (Mental note #2: do I have enough $$$ with me to buy a Garrett chip too?) And oh yeah, the Remus exhaust sounds nice too, but I'm getting my APR/Borla exhaust installed, so that's not that important to me.

So I come back from my little "test drive" like 20 minutes later and I'm thinking to myself, I was going to have just an exhaust installed. But now I'm thinking about a new chip and coil-overs...I can hear the money flying out of my pocket already.

While I was gone, one of Todd's mechanics (Ben) is working on getting my stock exhaust removed....he was working on removing the stock downpipe when I got back. He gets that off after a bit of work (much easier on a lift with the proper tools and after spraying penetrating oil on the bolts). Long story short, the Borla exhaust goes on fairly easily...they did use three new bolts (cat-to-downpipe) as my original ones looked pretty rough after 40,000 miles. Bolting up the downpipe was probably the trickiest part as there isn't a whole heck of a lot of room to work. The rest of the exhaust bolted up very nicely...fit and finish is excellent and the staggered tips look real nice in the valence cut-out. I'll be the first one to say that the tips aren't my favorite, but the look of the tips was not my primary objective in getting the new exhaust. I wanted to add a more sporty "note" to the exhaust and I was interested in a performance increase. Not to say the Borla tips are ugly, but some might not like them. But, as APR mentioned to me, they can be changed if you want (they're growing on me, so I'm not going to bother)

So everything's tight and we fire it up in the shop...it seems pretty quiet sitting there idling...actually quieter than I imagined it would. I have to say I'm a bit concerned that it won't be loud enough for my taste, but it looks nice anyway. Todd wants to take it out first and check for clearance issues. As he pulls it out of the shop I notice that it sounds louder off-idle. And as he pulls out onto the street, it sounds really nice. Heck, I can hear him turning at the end of the block...really nice, mellow sound...reminiscent of a BMW M3 (to me anyway) I Love It!

So Todd comes back, makes a minor adjustment and I take it out for a spin. O yeah! this sounds really nice. Great tone which comes on stronger around 2,200 or so and continues building in a crescendo. In my short test drive I do notice improved performance in the higher RPM's, but it's really too short of a test drive to really accurately gauge the HP increase. I wanted to get back as I wanted to talk to Todd about trying out Garrett's chip in my car.

I come back to the shop with a big grin on my face and say to Ben and Todd that this is how an A4 should sound! I also approach Todd again and ask about installing a Garrett chip, he said no problem that he can do that right now. So Todd pulls my ECU and plugs one of Garrett's chips into my ECU (utilizing the bottom-half of the Wetterauer socket). But he's getting a "Check Engine" light so he pulls the chip out of his A4 and tries that, same "Check Engine" light. He finally figures out that the chip-carrier portion of the Garrett socket isn't really making good contact with the bottom portion of the Wett socket due to the different pin shapes (Wett had round pins while Garrett's were more flat-shaped). Todd decides to de-solder the Wett socket and install the entire Garrett socket. 15 minutes later he's all done and no check engine lights...so we're ready for a drive.

At this point, I talk to Todd a bit about letting the car sit for several minutes with the ignition in the "On" position prior to starting the car to allow the throttle time to calibrate. He tells me that this statement is not totally accurate. The correct procedure is to install the chip, reconnect the ECU and to start the car and allow it to idle for several minutes. The throttle will not go through it's calibration procedure without the engine running (unless you have a VAG tool). This was news to me and it seems that I had been misinformed in the past (not sure where I picked up the false info).

OK, time for a drive. I back it out of the shop and pull out on the road. I immediately notice more power off-idle. I'm also impressed with how smooth this chip is. Pull out onto the main street and goose the gas pedal...I'm flying in no time. Drive up a few more blocks and then turn down a side street where I really get on the gas hard. Car pulls like a freight train and I realize I'm going at least 35 mph over the speed limit (Mental note #3: I think I'm going to need a Valentine One radar detector now)

I pull back in the shop with an even bigger grin on my face. I can't get over how much nicer this chip is than the Wett that I have been using (original chip installed 8/98, new version installed approx. 5/99 to fix pinging) The "jerkiness" which I felt was confirmed earlier when Todd drove my car (after the exhaust install). He refers to it as "surging" and explained to me what the was causing it... (damn, I can't remember what his exact explanation was). He told me that he's heard a number of people complain about this same problem with other chips (he didn't name any names). All I know is that Garrett's chip feels way better than either of my Wett chips ever did. I may have gotten a "bum" chip from Wett, but how am I supposed to know that without some seat time in another chipped A4. That test drive in Todd's car was an eye-opening experience for me.

So I'm happy to say that I'm now running Garrett's 1 bar chip and I'm just thrilled to death with the transformation in my A4. Driveability is awesome. With my old chip, that "jerkiness" was very noticeable in bumper-to-bumper traffic (which I see quite a bit of during my daily commute) and actually detracted from the overall driving experience. I'd get home after an hour commute from work, and I just felt "frazzled"...needless to say, I had a few days where I felt like dumping my A4 for something else (BMW M3 or Audi TT thoughts crept into my mind). But now all of those feelings are gone. I couldn't stop driving my car yesterday...I kept coming up with excuses to go out again ;-)

So to sum up:

1) APR/Borla exhaust: great sound, somewhat tricky to install due to downpipe component, noticeable "seat of the pants" improvement, pretty nice tips IMO (others may disagree on this point)

2) Garrett chip: very smooth, incredibly torquey, tremendous power all over the RPM range. I still can't get over how refined it feels versus my old Wett chip. Garrett's got a true believer in me!

3) H&R Coilovers: awesome...if and when I upgrade my suspension beyond the "Sport" suspension, this is what I'll get. Of course then I'll want new 17's (I'm running the stock 7-spoke 16" "Sport" alloys right now). So the suspension will have to wait a while until I can scrape up some more $$$

4) Air & Water Enterprises: Todd and Ben are very knowledgeable about VW's and Audi's and made me feel right at home at their shop. They treated me more like a friend instead of a customer. I'm planning on using them for service after my warranty expires.

That's all for now. I did take some pics of the install. I'll either post them here or on my website sometime in the next few days.

Andy Hedin
'97 A4 1.8Tqms, Garrett 1.0 Bar, ABT Filter, APR/Borla Exhaust, Euro Headlights, more...

intending to get either an APR or Wett chip this month, but now you've got me convinced of the merits the Garrett chip instead of the Wett. Is there anyway you could get to drive an APR chipped car? I'd love to hear from someone that has had exposure to all three, as I'm leaning toward the APR chip right now, mostly for customer service and user reports.

Thanks,
Mark

• http://www.giacusa.com/vw_audi.html

Courtesy of Stephen at APR, who took the pics and had them in my e-mail within 15 minutes of a phone inquiry. I think I could deal with those tips! I was afraid they would be too large.

I would also like to add my support of Air & Water Enterprises. While I haven't been able to give them any business of my own yet, Todd has always been very knowledgeable, professional, and honest. I would not hesitate to recommend AWE if you need work done on your Audi.

Paul
'98.5 A4 1.8TQTSS in Pearl

can start a new chip craze. Like you already know, I 100% agree with you about Garrett and AWE. The Garrett chip has taken a back seat to APR, and with no APR "seat time" I will not try to compare the 2, but after riding in a Wett car and then a Garrett car, it was a no brainer for me. People often say that all 1bars are pretty much the same, but I know the Garrett practically breaks my neck in first gear. I would love to compare a APR chip one day (Andy, why don't you buy a APR since your on a roll, and go for the triple) to feel the difference, if any, between the 2. I can't wait to go for a spin to check the new exhaust. hmmm, a new exhaust would be pretty nice.

Rick 99.5 1.8tqms G