TechCom-Mike

Seeing the APR Stage 1 for A6 3.0t (2015 in my case) costing around $1000 (not sure if that includes the tweaking at one of their facilities / support shops) but my question is for the truly experienced gear heads, trying to be purely analytic and unbiased even if you have actually performed this upgrade (I'm a complete mug in this respect). It seems to boost HP to around 420 and Torque to 370/380 lbs. I know its essentially just a remapping of the CPU / boost etc but the question is since HP is thus going up by another 1/3 over stock 310, does this theoretically put another 1/3 strain on most of the power train delivery components and by association, can we logically assume that most of those parts are prone to deterioration / failure 1/3 of the time sooner than they would be if the car was left untouched? In other words, is there more of a potential cost than just the up-front Dollars to perform the tweak in pure day to day risk created by structural stresses? Didn't ask this question on Audizine because its like the Formula 1 grid there and I just don't expect to get a pragmatic answer. Thanks for the input.

saadcee

I have a 3.0T and haven't tuned it, but thought about it and have the same concerns as you. From an engineering perspective, certainly increased stresses will decrease lifetime of components. Mean stress to fatigue failure relationship isn't linear, its logarithmic. So it's hard to say what effect X increase in HP will do without knowing all the other design factors.

Comes down to cost vs. benefit, and whether you value long term service or higher performance. Personally the stock engine has enough power for my needs, and i'd like the car to run a long time with as little maintenance and repair as possible.

dac2800

IMO it is a manageable stress. I have a 16' 3.0T and did the APR tune. That said, I don't drive it regularly at full bore. One thing I think helps is finding a good independent shop that can help you stay ahead of the curve on maintenance. As for performance, the jump was insane. I recommend looking at a rear sway bar upgrade at the same time, it really helps tracking and balance. As for cost, the price includes everything. APR regularly runs a 10-15% off sale, expect one around Memorial Day.

TechCom-Mike

Plainly not a topic to lure a mass scrum of replies but appreciate the replies because in combination they actually helped clarify my thoughts on this. Driving today I gave it the beans a few times and it has to be said was far beyond 'watch for officers' miles per hour so damn fast that it did leave me wondering why I'd want to get to that place even quicker? I do value reliability even more and I'm mindful of Dac's advice for an added sway bar to handle the Stage 1 upgrade. If there's that much more juice to it, I'm pretty sure I just don't need it as I rarely see north of 3000 revs anyway. Thanks both for your views though.

Moonlightblue

Thanks for posing your original question as I’ve been wondering the exact same thing and was looking for some qualified opinions. I reached the same conclusion as you btw.

murf3319

This is stage II run with SC pulley only. I have not had car on dyno with dual pulley.
I started out with APR stage II single pulley (SC) two years ago... zero issues. I added APR crank pulley one year ago, which now makes nice power. Recently car started getting a misfire on cylinder 3. I suspected coolant issue as coolant level ever so slowly dropping in return tank. Independent shop TS down to passenger side inter cooler leaking into cylinder 3. Turns out Audi has a revised inter cooler so replaced it and driver side since supercharger was on the bench. Not sure if this inter cooler issue is related to APR mod. Also, I have APR larger supercharger radiator installed. Otherwise zero reliability issues.

murf3319

Going up to Stage II dual pulley the supercharger spins 25% faster than OEM. From what I understand this still is within the Eaton built SC. I don't intend to install APR ultracharger as that requires replacing OEM cats with high flow types and puts SC closer to design limits. Trust me, car has tons of power... a bit of a poor mans S6.