I recently moved away from the BMW 330i and into an Audi A4. It's a great car and I'm 99% happy with the choice.
The 1% being that I'd like a little more "ooomph" when I hit the gas. The turbo is outstanding, but I know there's more waiting for me.

As I have little to no experience with modding and my Audi is on a 3yr lease, I am curious as to what my options are.

If possible, I would just like to do the ECU upgrade and add a performance air filter - that's it.

My question is.....If I don't change the exhaust or anything else about the car, other than the 2 changes above - will it be worth the $500 and the effort?
(This will be for an 06' Quattro with TipTronic Manual)

Also, I have done a little preliminary research and I've seen a few names come up over and over for the ECU upgrade.
The names are GIAC, APR, and NeuSpeed. Which will offer the most bang for the buck and NOT get me into trouble with the warranty / lease?
Can you please check and tell me if this seems like a bad way to go - ECU UPGRADE?
The reviews for this item are outstanding and the price is DEFINITELY competitive. Any thoughts?

 

I know that apr has it set up where the dealler cant see it, but GIAC is supposed to be more powerfull, and more enjoyable. let some of the others chime in on this one. welcome and great choise on your new ride.

 

they're soldered onto the ECU chip ... you can just replace the ECU chip when u return the car

 

I'd go for an APR software flash, so they can just re-flash your ECU... Messing with the hardware, they are going to see that you tampered with the security seal...

 

From his post, I believe he has an 06, which means the software will be flash loaded. What you can do is have different setting for the chip. For example APR offers stock, 91 and 93 octane. This allows you to swtich back to stock when you bring it in for servicing. They won't notice anything.

 

Go for APR with stock and chipped modes, flip switch to switch back and forth, and security lockout to hide it all from the dealer and leasing company. It couldn't be easier - they'll plug a laptop into your OBD port, and 10 minutes later you drive away with more HP and torque. See here.

 

Thats the way to go right there. You'll love it.

 

Awesome - I love how quickly everyone got involved in the discussion.
There's a good amount of feedback there and that was EXACTLY what I was looking for.
It seems that I'll be going with APR, but did anyone check the link that I put for the ECU Upgrade in the first post?
Is that a bad way to go or no?

Thanks!!

 

All of the tuners have flash programs for newer cars, not only APR. Look into Revo and GIAC as well. If you have a local Revo dealer, they can flash you with a 5 hour free trial (5 driving hours) so you can see if you want to drop the cash. I'm pretty sure APR do the same thing, with APR though, if you choose to purchase you can activate the full programming over the phone.

Some GIAC dealers offer 30 day money back if you're not happy with the programming and they'll reflash the stock settings.

I have APR now, I'm switching to GIAC when I get my car back from the body shop next week. Along with the programming you may want to looking into the big injector files as well. It'll give you a lot more oomph and it's easy to switch back to stock when you change the programming back.

 

also, I wouldnt go with the ebay tuning. Your best bet would be to find a reputable tuner in your area and use them. If you only plan on doing the chip and maybe injectors, you damn near get the same power from them all.

So it comes down to future mods which programming to choose. If you have no plans to go big turbo or any of that fun stuff, all the programming will essentially be the same. So pick someone close incase something goes wrong, you can then take the car back to them without having to ship your ECU anywhere.