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Stasis flash ?

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Old 05-15-2013, 11:49 AM
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Originally Posted by A u d i A5
No problem with them doing the flash. I understand the warranty...After the flash Audi drops the powertrain warranty and Stasis picks it up till 50,000 miles. My question is after the flash will my vehicle be flagged and effect my lease deal?
well it depends, if you chip your car and then bring it to service for any warranty work that requires the car to be connected to the Audi's computer (that sends the information about the warranty claim to corporate) YES you will be flagged TD1 and I do not think that is something you can do with a leased car, BUT (and this is a big BUT) if you chip it and then NEVER connect it to the computer for the rest of your lease and put the back to stock first before returning the car when the lease is over you will be fine, there is some urban legends that say the TD1 code could be generated after putting the car back to stock, because the sofware might look into the logs and if any value is off their limits the TD1 flag coudl be entered but I do not think any dealer will connect the car to the computer to the main Audi computer if there is nothing wrong with it.
They actually never do, unless there is a warranty claim BECAUSE that takes (labor)time that the dealer dont get reimbursed by Audi.
Old 05-15-2013, 05:47 PM
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Originally Posted by feralc
well it depends, if you chip your car and then bring it to service for any warranty work that requires the car to be connected to the Audi's computer (that sends the information about the warranty claim to corporate) YES you will be flagged TD1 and I do not think that is something you can do with a leased car, BUT (and this is a big BUT) if you chip it and then NEVER connect it to the computer for the rest of your lease and put the back to stock first before returning the car when the lease is over you will be fine, there is some urban legends that say the TD1 code could be generated after putting the car back to stock, because the sofware might look into the logs and if any value is off their limits the TD1 flag coudl be entered but I do not think any dealer will connect the car to the computer to the main Audi computer if there is nothing wrong with it.
They actually never do, unless there is a warranty claim BECAUSE that takes (labor)time that the dealer dont get reimbursed by Audi.
Thank's guys! feralc you hit the nail on the head with the answer I was looking for. I wasn't worried that the flash was going to cause any premature power train failure. Stasis is reputable, as are all of the other big name tuners. Their products are thoroughly tested hence why it takes so long for them become available. Besides I'm not that hard on my vehicles anyway to worry about them failing. I was worried upon returning my lease that they would see that it had been flashed, as you are supposed to return the car the same as when you leased it.
So.. I'm going to pull the trigger this week. More than excited for the result!
Old 05-15-2013, 06:14 PM
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anybody know about what the gas milage is with just the ecu?
Old 05-15-2013, 08:02 PM
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Originally Posted by pakman21
anybody know about what the gas milage is with just the ecu?
It depends - are you getting the tune for more performance or better fuel economy? If you drive it enthusiastically, then mileage will drop as more power requires proportionately more fuel. If you drive sedately, or cruise at a reasonable speed, then mileage will likely increase slightly due to efficiencies in the tune (more advanced timing, for instance). As the old saying goes, YMMV.
Old 05-15-2013, 08:26 PM
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I'd like to add something to this thread: I was one day...one day!... away from having my car flashed at Bell Audi of Edison New Jersey. After much back and forth I was going to take advantage of a special they were running. Stasis would be at Bell on Friday and the flash would be done the same day. Bell would pick up and return my car and as part of the special there would be no labor charged, just the straight $1595 + tax.

Well at the last moment I backed out of this great deal. Why you many ask? Well, the fact that the car would automatically be tagged TD1 just by the fact that it was a Stasis flash done at an Audi dealer didn't sit well with me. I started feeling like it was better to go GIAC or other just to avoid the automatic TD1 flag that was guaranteed by doing it at an Audi dealership, Stasis warranty coverage or not.

I also did a lot of searches on this forum and others on AudiWorld as well as Audizine and the internet. What I came up with was very few mechanical warranty issues from any tune, Stasis or otherwise but what I found a LOT of was stories of people being offered a lot less money from Audi dealerships, even ones that did the flash for them, when it was time to trade in. Some others even recounted private sales where they were offered less because "the car MUST have been driven harder" because of the flash.

One other clincher was I plan on hanging on to my A7 longer than the 2.5 years left on it's warranty. After a car is marked TD1 it can NEVER be CPO'd either by the current owner or the next owner or by a dealership for that matter, basically uninsurable as far as extended Audi warranty's go, unless of course a third party shady warranty is something one might consider.

I looked at what I was going to gain: A big **** eating grin and a lot of seat of the pants fun and a vehicle that would approach the powertrain performance of an S7 for about a 1/10th of the cost. Not bad at all.

Then I looked at what the flash MIGHT cost me: Over $1700 up front including tax, no Audi powertrain warranty anymore, Stasis warranty but possible subjection to finger pointing between Stasis and Audi in the event of a claim, no ability to CPO...ever, almost certain lower trade in value, possible lower private sale offers and very last and least likely, damage to my A7's powertrain.

While it was a painful decision to cancel my flash today, I think it was the right move for me and only me. I just couldn't get past what I was likely to give up versus what I was certain to gain...just couldn't make it work in the end.

I'm sure on an enthusiast site such as this, many will think my decision was too cerebral and not emotive or "enthusiast" enough and that's probably a fair point. Think I'm just gonna throw the $1700 I had planned on the flash at some new wheels, probably some Vossen's to help ease the "cerebral" headache I now have.

Just thought I'd share one point of view on the subject.

Last edited by tridentnyc; 05-15-2013 at 08:34 PM.
Old 05-15-2013, 09:23 PM
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Originally Posted by tridentnyc
I'd like to add something to this thread: I was one day...one day!... away from having my car flashed at Bell Audi of Edison New Jersey. After much back and forth I was going to take advantage of a special they were running. Stasis would be at Bell on Friday and the flash would be done the same day. Bell would pick up and return my car and as part of the special there would be no labor charged, just the straight $1595 + tax.

Well at the last moment I backed out of this great deal. Why you many ask? Well, the fact that the car would automatically be tagged TD1 just by the fact that it was a Stasis flash done at an Audi dealer didn't sit well with me. I started feeling like it was better to go GIAC or other just to avoid the automatic TD1 flag that was guaranteed by doing it at an Audi dealership, Stasis warranty coverage or not.

I also did a lot of searches on this forum and others on AudiWorld as well as Audizine and the internet. What I came up with was very few mechanical warranty issues from any tune, Stasis or otherwise but what I found a LOT of was stories of people being offered a lot less money from Audi dealerships, even ones that did the flash for them, when it was time to trade in. Some others even recounted private sales where they were offered less because "the car MUST have been driven harder" because of the flash.

One other clincher was I plan on hanging on to my A7 longer than the 2.5 years left on it's warranty. After a car is marked TD1 it can NEVER be CPO'd either by the current owner or the next owner or by a dealership for that matter, basically uninsurable as far as extended Audi warranty's go, unless of course a third party shady warranty is something one might consider.

I looked at what I was going to gain: A big **** eating grin and a lot of seat of the pants fun and a vehicle that would approach the powertrain performance of an S7 for about a 1/10th of the cost. Not bad at all.

Then I looked at what the flash MIGHT cost me: Over $1700 up front including tax, no Audi powertrain warranty anymore, Stasis warranty but possible subjection to finger pointing between Stasis and Audi in the event of a claim, no ability to CPO...ever, almost certain lower trade in value, possible lower private sale offers and very last and least likely, damage to my A7's powertrain.

While it was a painful decision to cancel my flash today, I think it was the right move for me and only me. I just couldn't get past what I was likely to give up versus what I was certain to gain...just couldn't make it work in the end.

I'm sure on an enthusiast site such as this, many will think my decision was too cerebral and not emotive or "enthusiast" enough and that's probably a fair point. Think I'm just gonna throw the $1700 I had planned on the flash at some new wheels, probably some Vossen's to help ease the "cerebral" headache I now have.

Just thought I'd share one point of view on the subject.
Your points are valid, but lets be realistic:
1 you can have the car tuned even at the dealership and not having the car automatically flagged, if you say that is part of the deal, or simply going the GIAC route (which I have and I love)
2 the odds of something going wrong with the powertrain are very very slim, if that was the case, Stasis would not be in business anymore, they sell a tune (retail) at 1500 and they have to pay for cars with broken trannys or engines.
3 Dealers will always try to find excuses to give you less for your car, as you said, even if they offered those products.
4 I don't think the private sale price will be affected by the tune, not everybody is in the forums and have an idea what a TD1 or tune is, an the people who knows would see it as a plus.
5 In my mind aftermarket warranties are a waste of money.

It all depends who do you sell your car to, even your vossen wheels could be seen as an excuse for lower trade in value, if you sell it to a car enthusiast he will see the pros of it, for me a tune is a must, not for every car, but for supercharged and turbocharged engines, is just so easy to get tons of power and have a totally different car.
Old 05-16-2013, 10:05 AM
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Originally Posted by feralc
Your points are valid, but lets be realistic:
1 you can have the car tuned even at the dealership and not having the car automatically flagged, if you say that is part of the deal, or simply going the GIAC route (which I have and I love)
I also think your points are valid Feralc, there is no right or wrong here, just ones level of comfort I guess. As a point of interest, I emailed the service rep that had been handling my flash and this was his response to your point #1 from above. Just putting this out there to add to the conversation, not to dispute your point in any way.

By the way, was there a performance reason or some other as to why you went GIAC instead of Stasis? Is it possible to revert the ECU completely back to stock using the GIAC handheld controller and then back again or is that something Audi would pick up on anyway? Thanks much!

Dealer response below:

It wouldn't be flagged during this service visit, but at your next
maintenance or repair it would definitely be flagged. This is not the
dealers doing, but the design of Audi's warranty systems and the
requirements they put on dealers to be reimbursed for warranty repairs,
through normal scheduled diagnostic scans(required for all warranty
repairs/maintenance) Audi catches it and attaches to VIN.
Old 05-16-2013, 11:25 AM
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It's a good view.

My take is that cars are such a waste of money, I just don't consider resale. The dealer chokes you every time on a trade-in, I'd give a car away before I'd do that.

For example.
There's an A7 Prestige with like 10k miles for sale right now on Autotrader.com for...36k. I couldn't believe it, I thought the car was wrecked. Nope, he sent me pics. It's in mint condition.

So there you go.


Originally Posted by tridentnyc
I'd like to add something to this thread: I was one day...one day!... away from having my car flashed at Bell Audi of Edison New Jersey. After much back and forth I was going to take advantage of a special they were running. Stasis would be at Bell on Friday and the flash would be done the same day. Bell would pick up and return my car and as part of the special there would be no labor charged, just the straight $1595 + tax.

Well at the last moment I backed out of this great deal. Why you many ask? Well, the fact that the car would automatically be tagged TD1 just by the fact that it was a Stasis flash done at an Audi dealer didn't sit well with me. I started feeling like it was better to go GIAC or other just to avoid the automatic TD1 flag that was guaranteed by doing it at an Audi dealership, Stasis warranty coverage or not.

I also did a lot of searches on this forum and others on AudiWorld as well as Audizine and the internet. What I came up with was very few mechanical warranty issues from any tune, Stasis or otherwise but what I found a LOT of was stories of people being offered a lot less money from Audi dealerships, even ones that did the flash for them, when it was time to trade in. Some others even recounted private sales where they were offered less because "the car MUST have been driven harder" because of the flash.

One other clincher was I plan on hanging on to my A7 longer than the 2.5 years left on it's warranty. After a car is marked TD1 it can NEVER be CPO'd either by the current owner or the next owner or by a dealership for that matter, basically uninsurable as far as extended Audi warranty's go, unless of course a third party shady warranty is something one might consider.

I looked at what I was going to gain: A big **** eating grin and a lot of seat of the pants fun and a vehicle that would approach the powertrain performance of an S7 for about a 1/10th of the cost. Not bad at all.

Then I looked at what the flash MIGHT cost me: Over $1700 up front including tax, no Audi powertrain warranty anymore, Stasis warranty but possible subjection to finger pointing between Stasis and Audi in the event of a claim, no ability to CPO...ever, almost certain lower trade in value, possible lower private sale offers and very last and least likely, damage to my A7's powertrain.

While it was a painful decision to cancel my flash today, I think it was the right move for me and only me. I just couldn't get past what I was likely to give up versus what I was certain to gain...just couldn't make it work in the end.

I'm sure on an enthusiast site such as this, many will think my decision was too cerebral and not emotive or "enthusiast" enough and that's probably a fair point. Think I'm just gonna throw the $1700 I had planned on the flash at some new wheels, probably some Vossen's to help ease the "cerebral" headache I now have.

Just thought I'd share one point of view on the subject.
Old 05-16-2013, 11:38 AM
  #29  
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Originally Posted by tridentnyc

Dealer response below:

It wouldn't be flagged during this service visit, but at your next
maintenance or repair it would definitely be flagged. This is not the
dealers doing, but the design of Audi's warranty systems and the
requirements they put on dealers to be reimbursed for warranty repairs,
through normal scheduled diagnostic scans(required for all warranty
repairs/maintenance) Audi catches it and attaches to VIN.
Well, my Audi/Stasis dealer finally e-mailed me back and this is what they said..

"We do not flag your vehicle so the only way for Audi to know is something
breaks (which should covered by Stasis) or you tell them."

Regards,
Bret Beasy
Parts Advisor
Audi Melbourne
P:321-215-9065 F:321-956-1959
E:bbeasy@audimelbourne.com

I don't know if he's blowing smoke up my *** just to make a sale or not. I'm going to get the flash on my lease anyway.. because after watching that youtube video with the Revo(Stasis)tuned S4 and RS4..that kind of sleeper fun is just too good to pass up!
Old 05-16-2013, 07:49 PM
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Ok, this is probably the most egregious flip flop since Geowrge H.W. Bush's "read my lips, no new taxes pledge"!

Today I flip flopped my way right back to my Stasis tune. I read some of the replies from Feralc and Gangee and decided I liked their point of view way better than my own...so I said screw it!

Tomorrow I'll be the proud new owner of a Stasis flashed A7 and I'm super stoked about it. Got tired of the right brain (or is it the left?) winning out in all manner of things lately and it pissed me off.

So, count me in the ECU tune club, can't wait to share my thoughts and seat of the pants experience.

Ya know, with a flip flop this breathtaking in it's audacity, I figure I have a future in politics! Thanks for setting me straight guys!

Last edited by tridentnyc; 05-16-2013 at 07:59 PM.


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