If my specific question has been asked and answered before, bare with me, or direct me to the proper thread. I have searched this forum as well as Audizine, but I have not found the answer I am looking for.

I have a 2003 A4 1.8TQ 5 speed with about 60k. I have been giving a lot of thought to upgrading the engine with a chip, specifically the APR Stage I+. According to APR I should end up with 235hp and 275 Lb/Ft for around a thousand dollars.

My question is this, if APR can kick up the performance on my car this darstically for a thousand dollars, why doesn't Audi do it themselves.

I firmly believe that you can not get something for nothing, so what is the down side to a chip?

Thanks for the feed back.

 

Id go revo with the b6

 

Id go with REVO on your car too man, and audi doesnt want to make the cars to hot bescaue then it would in theory be as fast as a TT and be competitve with the S4, so they leave alot of room for imporvement

 

also they dont want some grandma going around in a high performance audi killing herself. also just about all cars are only tuned to 85-90% of there potential ecu wise so the motors will last longer

 

I'm inclined to agree with BadLuckAudi.....

I think that they under-perform the turbo on this car for a few reasons.
Not to kill their TT market.
To leave plenty of performance room between the A4 and S4.
And most importantly, have room to bump the performance of their revised 2.0's for the next generation models without having to come up with an entirely different engine.

They can just increase the timing and output on the same motor and that gives them at least one more model year change before it's back to the drawing board.

 

audi doesnt do it becasue they want to keep cost low and go the safer route of low boost and keep a refined approach toward driving

 

O.K. So the potential reasoning why Audi does not kick up the output of the 1.8T has been addressed, but not the potential down side. Are there any potential issues with the APR Stage I+ upgrade?

If it matters my plan is to keep the car for at least 5 more years, which would bring the mileage up to the 150-160k mark, I travel quite a bit for work and reliability and dependability are big concerns for me.

Thanks again.

 

some people have experienced minor problems like CEL's and stuff but for the most part, at least for people on this forum, they haven't run into any problems and you should be fine chipping it.

 

I can't believe you guys are missing the boat this badly.

The reason why Audi doesn't tune them that way from the factore has nothing to do with the TT market (apples to oranges; 4 door sedan to 2 door coupe), or the S4 (Twin turbo 2.7T is waaay more powerful than chipped A4, and the V8 is just a monster). The reason the 1.8T is best described as "peppy" out of the factory is so they can sell their V6's for $4,000 more. For the B5's 2.8 and the B6's 3.0, they both would be either comprable or succeeded by a 1.8T with its full potential tapped in.

Think about how many V6 A4s Audi would sell if they were slower than the 1.8Ts.

 

i just got my b6 apr tuned i wanted to go with apr for similar reasons like not to beat on the engine all the time. Everyone here seems to like giac or revo over apr but there all real similar the thing that turned me on to apr is how easy it is to switch programs. With apr u can change programs with the cruise control button. get stock and chipped mode sometimes i run it chipped when cruisin around town but for road trips or drivin to work run stock mode and save gas and wear and tear. If u do go with apr be aware that u can get your ecu soldered or flashed. Flashed is the most common but i just think cause its the easiest for them to do but i would go with thesoldered chip. difference being soldered chip u can turn on and off with car runnin like when u pull up to light and wanna run with someone. flash takes about 30 secs and car needs to be off.