Hey guys, did I just screwed myself? I bought a chipped ecu for a 1998 1.8T Quattro manual off of ebay and it won't start on my car. My car has the same specs, same year, and the numbers on the ecu even match (although the chipped ecu seemed to be manufactured in 1999). The chip is a Wetterauer chip. The main reason why I bought it is because it also came with the stock chip. I figured, if the Wetterauer chip is bogus, I could send the the ecu in to get it chipped or use this ecu with the stock chip while I sent my stock one in. However, the car won't start with the chipped ecu. I even swapped the chip with the stock chip and still nothing.

So does this mean there is a security issue that I'm missing here or is the chipped ecu just busted? I read somewhere about a vagcom and built-in ecu swapping security or something similar, but I believe that wasn't built into the cars untill the 2002 models. (Yes, I'm a newbie to the Audi world if you haven't figured it out yet. However, I've been modifying Japanese cars for a few years now.) Could it be possible that the chipped ecu is for a 1998 A4 and would that even matter?

So,

1) Do the Audi A4 B5's have a built in security preventing ecu swapping?

and/or

2) Does anyone know the correct orientation of the chip and the chip socket? I need to figure this out because it seems the chip can be fitted into the socket in any orientation and the socket can fit onto the ecu in any orientation also. I would like to know the correct orientation to at least figure out if the ecu is dead or not.

This is what Mike Peluso of www.steveseuropeanauto.com emailed me when I inquired about the chipped ecu:

"There a few different styles of wetterauer EPROM chips and sockets. Iam not sure if you are using the correct socket with the correctchip.[/align] [/align] There is a dimple on the EPROM to show orientation. The dimple is on the ground pin, you will need to make sure the dimple is in the correct spot in the socket and that the socket is soldered to the board in the correct orientation. [/align] [/align] Further more there are a few different kinds of sockets some are straight pass threw sockets and others have security features built into them."

3) Other than that he wouldn't say anything else except offered to give me a price quote on chipping my stock ecu ( appearantly Wetterauer does not support 2nd hand owners). I wouldn't mind, but he didn't answer me when I asked how to tell if this ecu was dead and he never replied back to me about a price quote. Does any one else have any ideas?

 

it won't work for your car at all. and yes you did screw yourself really bad actually. go sell it

 

All you said was that "it won't work". I know that already, that's why this post is here in the first place! What I need to know is why? I need to know why it doesn't work on my car so at least I can decide what's best to do with the ecu. I don't want to sell a dead ecu and screw people. And I don't want to throw away a working chipped ecu when someone else can benefit from it. I bought it for only $200 shipped so it's about the same as driving 1 hour to a junk and buying a used ecu....sorry if I sound a little harsh, but I get irritated when people just state the obvious without even trying to help.

 

The security system your referring to is called immobilizer, and its only used on 2002+ models. The ECM you have should start the car fine, chances are the ECM is a dud and won't start the car no matter what you do to it.
What you did wrong is buy electronics off of Ebay.