Ok so i am a new 04 A4 1.8T owner. I love the car inside and out. The only thing I am dissaponted about is that I feel the car is under powered for a car of this caliber. I am not a big tuner guy so realy I was looking at chipping my car just for more power. I know to do the DV valve when i upgrade. But I still have a few questions about chipping before i do it. First off, if i chip my car and take it back to the dealer for servicing would they notice that it is chipped and refuse to work on the car. What is the trade off of chipping. Does my gas milage suffer noticiable? Does it cause the turbo the wear out faster, or any other parts wear quicker. Does the car become alot louder? I have still not decided on GIAC or APR. I want the ability to switch it back to stock mode if i want. This will be the first time i have ever modded a car.

All advise is welcome. Please dont be shy. Thanks

 

When the dealer test drives your car, they'll notice it's chipped. If you can, try to switch back to stock mode before service. APR allows you to do it with teh cruise control stick. Nice.

With stage 1, your gas mileage may even get slightly better. However, it's directly proportional to how often you boost. The more you boost and get on it, the more gas you use so there's where your mileage will suffer.

I cant' comment on turbo wear but I doubt it will accelerate failure that much. IF anything, the extra psi being kicked out by teh turbo will accelerate any failures in your already dry/cracking/old hoses. Those are minor problems and easily fixed, though.

The car doesn't become louder (you will hear more turbo spool) unless you get a DV that does the psssh thing.

 

does anybody know which chips you can switch on and off?

 

nevermind, just read what you wrote too quickly and overlooked the APR. Thanks

 

You can switch all chips on and off with the right equipment, just bear in mind that you have to buy their "stock" program (it's nto true stock, it's theirs):

APR uses the cruise control stick to cycle through purchased programs.

REVO uses the SPS, a thing that plugs into your ODB and costs extra. It comes in three forms, the SPS3 being one where you can adjust advanced settings.

I'm not sure how GIAC does it, sorry.

 

so say you have the APR one and take it back to the dealship for it to be serviced for one reason or another and you revert it back to stock setting through the cruise control stick. Will they be able to tell its chipped if they look at the ecu for any reason?

 

Supposedly not but APR nor any other vendor will guarantee you it's invisible.

 

alright cool thanks man

 

GIAC uses a hand-held control device that plugs into the OBD-III port in the car.