I have the 2000 A4 1.8T, manual transmission, No Electronic Stability (no ESP),and ATW engine code.
TheECUI have is Bosch P/N:4B0 906 018P.
I am looking to get a spareECU to send outto get chipped, because Irelyonmy car every day.
I found anECU from a Passat,Bosch P/N: 4B0 906 018BG.
ThePassat was a1.8T, manual, no ESP, ATWengine code also.
Two local Audi/VW dealers told me they could not crossreference thepart numbers and could notguarantee it would work.
One dealer actually told meputting it in would mess up my car permanently, andsaid there could be a feature on it so ifthe ECU is not programmed with my VINnumber, the car wouldn't even start.
Two of the junk yards I called saiditwould work for certain.
Does anyone have actual experience with swapping these ECUs without problems,or are there other potential problems I haven't listed?
Thanks.

 

The guy talking the crap about the VIN number was talking about the immobilizer, which your car doesn't have so don't worry about it, VW im sure doesn't have immoblizer until 03 in the US either.
So theoredically if the engine code is the same it should work fine, we have ordered ECM's from VW cause we didn't have any in stock at audi, same people that make the ECM's anyway, it should work fine.
The worst case scenario would be the ECM is screwed up and the engine wouldn't start or it would run like crap.

 

Thanks, So if I just drive the car to the junk yard, I should be able to simply swap the ECU out right there. If the car will start and run ok, then it should be fine? Should I disconnect the battery or do anything elsebefore disconnecting the ECU, or is it as simple as changing a fuse?

 

You could just swap it out right there, no dis-connecting of the battery is needed.
If it doesn't start then fvck it.

 

Thanks, I'll probably go pick it up this afternoon. I'll let you know if it works or not. For $150, it's better than not having a car to drive while the ECU is out getting chipped.

 

For anyone with the A4 1.8T (see options above), if you are wondering, the Passat ECU does work in the A4! Got one for$125 and sending it outto get chipped tomorrow!