avantster

Made an interesting finding today. The Check Engine light on my '00 1.8T Avant w/APR 3.0 went on recently. Also my car has been seeming prety down on power for about 3 months. Well on a whim I tried reseting the ECU (unplugged for 5 min.).

After plugging it back in, no more check engine light and WOW the power is really back!

Any idea what gives here? Bad gas screwing up the fuel map?

Dex4

That's interesting,maybe i should reset the ECU,do you have a 1.8 or a 2.8?

Paul H. (near Annapolis, MD)

..clearing the error codes (even if there aren't any), and re-running throttle adaptation would have the same effect?

Supposedly clearing error codes erases all learned values (including throttle adaptation, according to my Bentley CD).

Paul
P.S.- He said he has a 1.8T

curyfury

Not to rain on your parade, but I'd still keep my eye on it. Since you don't know why you're CEL came on, who's not to say that it won't come back on later? Having just reset the ECU the car is just doing what it is programmed to do. However, once the ECU gets the same error that caused the CEL before the car may very well go back to being handicapped.

djnelsen

Must be a 1.8, since he's got APR 3

BIG NIPPER

The check engine light is there for a reason. Next time you are going to have it cleared, at least have someone run a laptog through it too see what codes your computer is throwing. I had my check engine light come on a couple weeks ago, and it was a fuel leak...I really don't think that is something that should be cleared. But then again, anything that is serious will come back up again. I just advise you check the code before clearing them.

Also the reason why if felt stronger is...if the chip (all chips) sense that it may be pinging, it will run different maps in the program. Sooner or later it will find a map. It is good to reset it once in a while to maintain the power. If the check engine light comes on again, I suggest you take it to the dealership...check engine lights are usually associated with emissions.

-Eric

Paul H. (near Annapolis, MD)

APR V3 definitely requires 91-92 octane or higher (depending on your altitude). 87 will cause detonation and pinging which will cause the ECU to retard timing to protect the engine, thus the reduction in performance. It should eventually come back, but over a long period of time perhaps.

Resetting the ECU will clear the adaptation to 87 octane much more quickly.

Be careful. Due to the aforementioned detonantion, running 87 with the APR chip a lot could cause damage to your engine (primarily pistons, rings, and spark plugs).

Paul

avantster

My current guess is bad gas. Here in Oregon we can't pump our own and I've had several times where the attendent has filled it most of the way with 87 Octane before I caught it.