gtt

I am ready to chip my 180 TT. Have Borla and want to hear any issues regarding running 91 octane with Garrett, APR or others. Planning on a new ECU and chip and want the best program for local fuel.

xr4tic

and ask the question "If I find my car starts detonating with your chip, what will you do about it?" Make sure you mention you're in California, and only have 91 octane available.

You might be better off asking the question via email. Then you have a record of it. Pay with a credit card, and if anything goes wrong, and they don't fix it, you can contact your credit card company and challenge the charge.

As for the octane part, in Michigan (where our stuff contains 10% ethanol), I've noticed a big difference between 92 octane and 94 octane. My car just loves 94 octane, and I can't imagine trying to run on 91 octane.

gtt

I got one answer a while ago from APR that it should work but that's hardly the strong endorsement of their product for 91 octane. Also waiting on email from Garrett who supposedly will respond about the issue, now going on 3 weeks. CA is a big market and expect something to be tailored for it. Waiting till I get the answer I want before making any decisions. Spare ecu is not a warrantied item so that part would be a waste of additional money if the chip was not acceptable.

LCP

...and runs rich at WOT, so even on oxygenated 93 octane in Houston, it runs fine, but NOTE that the engine does run more timing advance when using non-oxygenated 93 octane, and will likely be able to do the same when comparing 91 octane to 93 octane, especially in warm weather.

gtt

that the current software is fully compatible with the "relabeled" 91 octane." Nice to know my two top picks are OK so far.

gtt

reply from APR said 91 will be OK.

lja36

well, what do you really expect to hear from someone who sells chips? "no, don't
buy the product because 91 isn't good enough"... not that i'm suggesting that this
is the case, but a chip can still be 100% working when your car is pinging itself
to death. i.e. it has cut back timing fully and cutting boost as well because the
fuel is crap...

the 92 here in WA is iffy... texaco and chevron 92 have higher MON values that the
modified 1.8T likes... the other brands have more MTBE and oxy crap with lower MON
values and the car hates it... takes 2 gallons of toluene before it is running at full
advance. remember that just because the R+M/2 value is the same it doesn't mean
that the MON value is the same... turbo cars want MON.

lja36

the way computerized advance works is that it will continually try to run maximum
advance until the knock sensors pick up pinging then it will start cutting back to the
lower setting...

"tuned to run on 91" means that the chip has maps for ignition retard... nothing more.
it doesn't guarantee that it will not run out of ignition retard and start pinging.

how much ping is tolerable? well the 1.8 is a tough engine, so it's really your call.
i would not chip if all i could get is 91... and those 180 bhp engines are really tuned
for 93 R+M/2 or 98 RON if you go look at the european specs. so even stock the TT
is running ignition retard for 91...

gtt

Appreciate the candid response....the type of clarification I was/am seeking.

pointby

I went from a pinging Wett 1.0 bar chip, which Wett fixed at no charge with a .8 bar replacement chip. That fixed the pinging but the .8 bar is too close in performance to stock. Upgraded to the AWE 1.1 bar K04 kit and no more pinging.