Question on Chipping?
 

Is boost pressure increased all the time
when driving a chipped car, even if you drive
like a candy ass, thus putting more strain on the
engine.

Or if you drive your stock car heavily and always under WOT, does that put more strain on your engine.

Sorry, if I don't make too much sense?

No and yes
 

No, boost pressure is not increased at all times with a chipped car. If you aren't accelerating, it behaves pretty much like stock (no boost). Partial acceleration increases boost, but you don't hit peak boost until you hit full throttle.

Yes, constantly driving a stock car around at WOT will put more stress on the turbo than driving a chipped car normally.

Took the words right out of my mouth. Glad I refreshed before i posted :)

Thanks. Another question inside.
 

Can someone please give me peace of mind for
chipping my car. Some recent articles, have made me the least comfortable about the chip and the future reliablilty of my car but I love it.

Boost pressure is increased when you want the engine to perform more than it can mechanically
 

That is to say: If you are at very low RPMs in a given gear and you floor it, the gearing is not such that it will do the work. Instead, the turbo realizes it is needed and starts pumping in air, increasing pressure. On the otherhand, if you are at 5K RPMs in 1st gear, and floor it, very little pressure will be made by the turbo because the gearing/RPM is sufficient to supply your needs.

Flooring it at a low RPM puts lots of strain on the turbo and related parts.

Always make sure you are in the right gear for the speed/acceleration you want to get the best performance. You want to maximize the engine's capabilities as well as the turbo's capabilities.

Sure, you can floor a chipped A4 in 5th gear at 50mph to pass, but it is much nicer on the engine if you drop down to 4th.

At the other end of the spectrum, if you rev to high, you will lose performance. I believe around 5500 RPM is the optimal shift point for most gears on the A4. Start going over that and you're going slower than if you had shifted. As for straining the engine, it's not such a good idea to be all over the redline either.

I've got almost 15000 chipped miles and...
 

I wouldn't change a thing! I've had no engine / turbo related problems and now have 33,000 miles on the car. I do, occasionally, drive the car VERY hard (I.E. rapid acceleration, high speed runs) with no problems so far. I also do quite a bit of city, high traffic driving and the car behaves very well under those conditions too.

Eventually I'll upgrade the turbo, but probably not for another 20,000 miles.

Hope this helps,

Dave

I'm afraid not
 

Chipping puts more strain on your turbo, engine, and drive train components, period. It will reduce their long term reliability. If you want to chip your car, you have to accept the risk.

The best I can do is suggest you read the chipping FAQ if you haven't already, and dig through the archives for the "Ch!ps and S@lsa" series (substitute "i" for "!" and "a" for "@", there are tons of references to this series of posts). This information will help you to understand exactly what is going on with the turbo and chipping, and when extra stress is being put on the turbo/engine. Most of the time the engine runs in a vacum state and doesn't use the turbo, boost is added when needed (based on throttle position), up to the max. In my case (MTM 1.0 bar), half throttle acceleration only results in about 8psi of boost (which is about equal to max boost levels when the car was unchipped). Get a boost guage (whether you chip or not) and it'll give you a good idea of when the turbo is being used and how hard it's being pushed.

The best I can tell you is to do your research and go with whatever you feel comfortable with...it's YOUR car.