I really want to chip my B6 A4, but I dont really want to shorten engine life, put added stress on transmission etc. I was looking into getting an APR chip, so I just want to know of any negative effects that a chip could cause, such as added stress on the car or would it reduce the life on the engine. I searched on it a little bit, and saw most of the replies were like, "as long as your not zipping around, you're fine". I am just wondering, with regular driving and occasionally pushing the car a little bit, will that really have a noticeable negative effect on the car?

 

a chip isnt going to hurt anything they are designed to work well within the perameters of your motor and trannys capabilities

 

Is a chip, a re-programmed ecu designed to make your pea-sized turbo pump out twice as much PSI as it was originally meant to going to hurt your engine life? No of course not.

 

pea-sized turbo is right, lol... anything that puts added stress on the motor will cause a shorter life span. whether it be a chip or a bigger turbo. a chip by itself with not many other performance parts wont do much to motor life tho, instead of running 120k miles youll get 110k miles, thats definately not exact but its just a good way to look at it.

 

exactly, the turbo is designed to outlast the life of the car, w/ a chip, you might only get 250,000 miles out of it

after that long, the last thing you'll be worried about is ur turbo...

if you think about it, anything takes away from the life of your car, just running it takes away from its life, so its really all relative...

the chip dealers spend thousands and thousands of hours making sure that the chip keeps your motor in a powerful safe running state

if it breaks your car within the time that you own it, and you can prove that it was the chip that caused the failure, they will no doubt pay for it, and if they dont, they better strap on their flame suit, cuz every forum that has cars that accept their software is gonna flame them to no end, and therefore possibly make them go bankrupt...

my opinion, get ur chip, and flog your engine however you want, your pretty much safe, just remember to get it serviced within the interval

 

thats the correct answer

 

More stress=shorter life.. That goes for anything... The good part is that the 1.8t block/internals shouldnt be phased by just a chip, as some say- they were made for boost... I would really only worry about the life of the turbo. If its a k03 and it lasts up to 80k miles chipped, as opposed to 100k miles stock, and costs $300 to replace (yourself) then thats not too bad. As far as internal engine parts go, i wouldnt be worried about their reliability with just a chip. chips now a days have proven to be very reliable. There are some people that have driven 70k+ chipped miles with no problems what so ever. A lot of this depends on your particular driving habbits as well of course. I drive conservitively to moderately aggressive and expect not to have big problems anytime soon. I can tell when my pea sized turbo needs a rest, so i dont push it knowing its exhausted as they do get from time to time.

 

more stress=shorter life is right....

thats how i feel right now... i cant wait till summer when i can be at peace and drive my car hours upon hours... alas

 

but you put stress on the motor stock i seen k03 die at 2001 a4 at 50k the still seen people well over 100k miles chipped. its all about your car. i chipped it like 2 weeks ago cant complain espcially at a red light. it would suck if a minivan smokes you

 

That's the correct answer.

However, you might drive your car differently after chipping it, and THAT can impact the lifetime of the engine.

You need about 12hp to cruise at 60mph on a level road with a stock setup, and the same with a chipped motor. So the load on the engine will be the same.
The only time you run your engine over spec, is when you're using more hp than stock (full throttle, high revs) so if you do this often, the lifetime will be reduced.