I am considering going with an ECU upgrade. I used APR on my 01 A4 1.8T Quattro and never had any issues.

My concern is drivability. It seems like an awful lot of torque to put through the front wheels. Even now, I peel the tires pulling away from a stop without much trouble. Furthermore, if I am rolling along at say 10MPH or so and floor it, the traction control flashes all the way until 2nd gear as the tires try to find traction. This is on bone dry roads, even worse on wet or snow.

So, are the only real gains to be had when passing at higher speeds? Does one have to feather the throttle to avoid peeling out all the time?

Thanks for reading

 

No at all. Ive had the chip for about 8 months now and it is absolutely fine as long as you have some good tires and dont step on it at every chance with tc turned off (which i did and wore out my summer tires pretty quick). With the APR tune, max torque is at around 3200-3300rpm so you wont have to worry about it all being applied from a stop. It gradually builds (but build up quickly). Cant tell you how it is in winter because i havnt gone though winter yet with the tune.

 

you just need to chill out when in first gear.
but my a3 was like that stock sooooooo just chip it and live good.