Slight engine ping after heat soak.
 

Ok guys so I have had this 2001.5 a4 for about two weeks now, it has been an absolutely beautiful machine. Today it was about 95 degrees and got stuck in stop and go traffic for about twenty minutes after a good highway drive. After I dropped my girl off at work I noticed some engine pinging from about 1000-2000 rpms. I feel like it is a combination of the stock side mount intercooler heat soaking and the intake pulling air right beside the turbo. I'm going to work on some custom intake piping to reroute the air intake to somewhere behind the bumper.

Anyways my question is should dropping up to a colder plug like a brk7se (colder plug I believe) help keep the the pre-ignition down? I really feel like a heat shield for the turbo and custom cold air-intake should help. Oh and i'm running a tuned ecu on k03s running 18psi.

Today is the first time it pinged, I'm sure it's from heatsoak. I'm extremely meticulous about my vehicles and can't stand to have anything ping or knock.

Thanks guys!

well... looks like i'm left to diagnose this one myself. Does anyone know of a high performance forum specifically for the a4?

Pinging is not pre-ignition, it is detonation - two very different things. I doubt that a colder plug would have any effect on pinging. If you install the colder plugs, just watch for signs of fouling, which would not be likely unless the engine consumes oil excessively.

Time to take out the crappy small stock SMIC and upgrade it with a larger aftermarket SMIC or a FMIC.

If you need to talk feel free to PM me or email me at Mike@ringerracing.com

could just be light misfires as well. I never had a problem with the stock intercooler. if you have vagcom you can check your intake temps and see where they are at.

Hopefully its not a loose timing chain belt caused by a degrading tensioner. Like redline said.. it could be slight misfires even though I doubt it.

I was driving my baby the other night and I'm pretty sure the left CAT is clogged because I feel a loss of power.

Can driving on a clogged CAT destroy the engine?

Since your car is chipped you should be running colder plugs like the BKR7Es you mentioned.

I am sure you don't see 95 degs all that often in MN either. lol

A stock B5 SMIC on a chipped A4 1.8t wouldn't get past half throttle before hat soaking here in AZ during the summer when temps are 115+ degs.

we get a couple strings of 95 plus days up here. hotter than you'd think. but that doesn't mean I should go out and buy an intercooler for my chipped k03. op, where you from? if you see heat like that regularly, damn right an intercooler would help. if you only see 95 plus a few times a year like me, its not worth the cost.

again, i'm not sure op's pinging comes from heat soaking. some logging would need to prove it.

for anyone having this problem here is my solution

https://www.audiworld.com/forums/a4-.../#post25086559