Apparently I do, and didn't even know it.

Yeah, I know it sounds stupid, but I brought my A6 in to the local APR dealer today to get the APR 4-program flash while it was still on sale and after about 30 minutes of working with it, they told me they couldn't flash my ECU. Why? Well, once they pulled the ECU itself they saw that it was because the ECU already has an MTM chip soldered to it!

Imagine my surprise. I've owned the car for 2.5 years now and had no idea. It's the only 2.7T I've ever driven for more than 5 minutes, and I always kinda felt like it seemed faster than stock but just thought I was fooling myself. Apparently not.

Now the question is, which stage MTM chip do I have?

I obviously don't know much about it, since I didn't buy it and I never spoke to the previous owner (bought the car from a used car dealer who knew nothing about the car). What I do know is that it comes in 5 stages at 306/320/345/370/420 HP. I'm sure we can rule out the top 2 stages, and probably the third too. Is there any way I can tell for sure?

 

So, in a quest to find out more info on the chip in my car, I went ahead and pulled the ECU yesterday. I would've done this sooner but it's been raining too much lately and I don't have a garage.

Anyway, I was able to remove the ECU but wasn't able to see anything helpful except for an "MTM" sticker/seal on the ECU enclosure. It seems like someone (either Audi or MTM) does not anyone to be able to crack the thing open easily. Here are some pics of the enclosure:


^ The "MTM" sticker/seal


^ The only two bolts on the "outer" layer of the enclosure


^ A closeup of these bolts. How the hell am I supposed to remove these?


^ OK, these screws I can remove but they are on the "inner" layer of the enclosure. The "outer" needs to be removed first.


^ There are two connectors on the ECU. One of them came off real easy, but the other seems to be blocked from removal by a part of the "outer layer" of the enclosure, making things a bit more of a pain. Do I actually need to remove the outer layer to disconnect this plug or is there a trick to it?


So, can anyone tell me how I can open up the enclosure without breaking anything or damaging the ECU? My goal is to see if there is some kind of serial number on the MTM chip itself so I can give this to them over the phone in the hopes that they can tell me more about it. Is this even worthwhile? For those who have an MTM chip (anyone?), is there even any kind of serial number on the chip or am I wasting my time?

If not, my only other idea is to call MTM or Hoppen Motorsports (the US vendor for MTM) with my VIN# to see if they have any registration info or records on my car.

I just want to know, for sure, what I actually have connected to my ECU.

 

I assume you have stage one. Stage 2 is the Chip & exhaust, I have the mtm exhaust(2900) on my 2.8 and you'd know if you had it -

 

Thanks for the reply. After doing some more research, I see that "Stage 2" is indeed simply the Stage 1 software + cat-back. "Stage 3" seems to actually include different software and requires a few other pieces to support it (colder plugs, 5.0 bar FPR, etc).

As you said, I'd know if I had the MTM exhaust (which I don't) and I definitely don't have the Stage 3 software and supporting parts. So, I agree with the conclusion that I have the Stage 1 software.

I'm still a bit curious as to when/where the chip was added to the ECU, and if there might be any updates to the software if the chip is an older version. I think at this point, I'm just going to contact Hoppen Motorsports and/or MTM themselves with my VIN # to see if they have any records or registration info on my car. If not, I might still want to see if I can crack the ECU open.

Finally, I also heard that the chip can be "fine tuned" through VAG-COM (at least in regard to what octane fuel you are running). I don't have a VAG-COM (yet), but can anyone tell me anything about the possibility of tuning the MTM software through VAG-COM?