DDAnimalzz

Two questions:

1) If I just want to get the ECU upgrade from APR and nothing else, is it worth it?

2) Long term, is the ECU upgrade safe? Again, assuming I upgrade nothing else on the car. Will the extra power have any negative effects?

ItsDubC

1) Yes

2) Yes, the APR tune is actually the most upgrade-safe on the market. The extra power will likely cause you to drive more spiritedly out of enjoyment, which tends to result in more trips to the pump.

EDIT:

I may have misunderstood your 2nd question. If you're asking specifically about long-term safety, I have yet to hear of any general long-term issues w/ any ECU tune, regardless of brand.

Huey52

The A4/A5 2.0T tune basically increases the boost threshold to that of the stock TTS 2.0T, so no long term issues. Of course the TTS is still more robust as it's a lighter vehicle.

iflywoe

1-YES!!!!! when you do it you will ask yourself why you waited

2-use common sense, our engines can handle a lot, but if you drive it like you stole it everyday and do other upgrades, you might want to consider doing more maintenance. i have friend that has 180k miles on his tuned a4.

PDong

I'm guessing you meant to say the TT-S is more robust because it has a different block/heads/injectors than the 2.0T in the A4. It's the equivalent of the old S4 4.2 versus the RS4 4.2, same displacement, but different engines, for all intents and purposes.

Huey52

Yes, all that stuff too.

Spec's, for what they're worth (TT-S still a lot lighter

TT-S stock

Horsepower 265 hp @ 6000 RPM

Torque 258 lb-ft. @ 2500-5000 RPM

0 - 60 4.9


A5 2.0T with StaSIS tune

Horsepower 261 hp

Torque 305 lb-ft.

0 - 60 5.2

jdong

I've got a STaSIS tune, but the effects should be pretty similar to the APR one...


(1) Whether or not it's worth it depends on what you find lacking in the 2.0T. For me, it was the dead zone below 2000RPM (whether it's turbo lag or throttle lag, I don't know)... The car had strong pull in all other engine speed ranges but right off the line, it sucked. The tune fixed that and then some. However, if your concern is highway passing speed, don't get too excited... the stock turbo still gives out at higher RPMs. I could not notice any difference in high-RPM performance compared to before the tune.


(2) Safety wise, it's hard to know. APR and proponents of tunes will give you reasons why it's safe, ranging from "Nobody's reported anything bad happening" to "These parameters were used in car X with the same engine/transmission/whatever as yours". Personally, I don't buy it... Increasing the power/torque output, then using it aggressively, will likely lead to a higher chance of trouble in the future. How much, I have no idea. Certainly the 10 or 20 people talking about it on the forums don't make for a big enough sample size to say anything meaningful. It still didn't stop me from getting my tune, though. The rewards of making the car more fun to drive outweighed the potential risk of something going wrong in the future.

ItsDubC

The TT-S also uses a different turbo, which coincidentally I believe is the one in APR's B8 2.0T K04 kit.

As stated, don't launch the car on a regular basis and you should be fine. One of the reasons why tunes exist is because manufacturers don't know what kind of fuel customers will put into their cars. It would be unacceptable for Audi engines to die if someone put 89 octane in the gas tank, so the engine must be tuned for that possibility.

If you know you'll always be filling up with 93 octane, then an ECU tune designed specifically for 93 octane can give you more power.

QUA77R0

Any increase in boost will increase failure rates of certain components. In the B8 A4, the plastic intake has shown itself to be one poorly engineered piece.

Given the same turbine size, an increase in boost will also increase heat in the engine bay as well as heat transmitted into the oil and coolant. Heat kills electronic components and breaks down seals. A larger turbine is more efficient at handling increased boost thus heat increase is less than a smaller less efficient turbo. The biggest problem with increased boost in an otherwise stock 2.0 TFSI motor is the catalytic convertor being located almost directly aft of the turbine. This creates a lot of backpressure that will eventually kill the turbo by holding excess heat in the turbo which will kill the bearing seals. If you catch it early enough, you will only need a rebuild. Wait too long and the impeller will end up wobbling and inevitably make contact with the iron housing of the turbine.

The result is shrapnel. Shrapnel that will travel down the downpipe into the catalytic converter. Depending on the impeller speed when it strikes the housing, the bits will either clog or blow out the catalytic converters substrate core. It's pretty impressive to see happen at night with red hot glowing pieces of slag blasting out of your tailpipe. Unless you are racing when it goes, you will probably just clog the cat.

But hey that's just a worse case scenario since you asked about long term negative effects if you don't change any other components. Do you want to drive a Camry or a sporty Audi? I'll take a sporty Audi and let Stasis and the dealers sort it out.

ItsDubC

^But hey, then you will have a testpipe!