I was thinking about chipping my car 1.8t. will these affect the car in the long run?

 

It's not the chip itself as much as how you drive it. If you are constantly on the boost, you can potentially wear out the turbo faster. Otherwise the increase in power, coupled with hard use, can damage the transmission and other suspension components. Having given that caution, I chipped my A6 at 75k (going from 250 to 318 hp) and had to replace the clutch and flywheel within 10k miles. After that I drove much gentler and currently have 235k on the car. The turbos have been lightly leaking for about 60k but otherwise she is ok. The drivetrain and suspension are solid. Any other issues seem pretty normal given the mileage.

 

I chipped up my 2004 1.8T cabriolet with an APR tuned board - amazing results - had a few error codes start coming in that pointed to a weak DV valve - replaced the valve with an upgrade from europarts and the car has been solid since then. Much less lag and better power band.


In a related matter, I am thinking of upgrading the catalytic converter with a high flow - is this worth the $$ ? I am assuming it should since any reduction in dP through the exhaust should result in more power...

 

OP, yes. A chip and DV is the best bang for your buck upgrade and completely worth it.

Apa, the increase in TQ will be underwhelming compared to the amount of money you'll pay for a high flow cat. I put a test pipe in my old chipped 1.8T and didn't really notice much of a difference in overall performance. I already had a 2.5 inch Neuspeed cat-back exhaust though.