LCP

(Anonymized by me)

Unfortunately after towing the car to the dealer and spending a few hours
with the techs on their 1551 and 5051, and APR w/ Uve from VAG.COM
Friday night - there seems to be no current solution for chipping a car with
Immobiliser 3! We have a "K" ECU in my TTQR and apparently it's one of
the first with the new immobiliser, meaning the old "way" of clearing the
ECU to work with any car is not good enough any more. When displaying the
ECU's serial # under the Instrument cluster (1551) or Dash Insert (5051) the
ECU just displayed all X's at first, then once we were able to retrieve the
serial # along with the car's VIN - we entered Audi's "secret code", their
manual actually stipulates "secret code" - both tools came back with
"Operation is not possible at this time" - or something to that effect. We
(or they, really) tried it several times..then Uve walked us through the way
that has always worked, to no avail.

- The new ECU's have a serial # which is tied in memory to the car's VIN.
Old ECU's were clearable or at least resetable but even with everyone's help
we were unsuccessful. Uve commented this is the 3rd car they've heard of
(other's were a TT180CQ and an A6 2.7) that had the problem but the first
two only had access to the VAG.COM so no one was sure if the factory tools
would allow it...it seems to our detriment that they don't.

So, we have a month old 225TTR with <500mi on it sitting dead at the
dealer...the only resolution seems to be obtaining a brand new ECU that is
not yet coded and let it bind to the car's VIN...

Mach V Dan

Can someone explain this in English? And who posted it?

Larrytt

I have no idea who posted it.

The newer TT's have an immobilizer built into the ECU. It is supposed to prevent theft by killing the cars electonics if the car is broken into and attempted to be started without one of the 4 currently coded keys for the car. People that want to chip their cars and purchase a spare ECU are finding that the spare ECU does not work in the TT's with the immobilizer electronics.

If you chip you stock ECU you can screw yourself if you ever need to put the stock ECU back in the car.

So far nobody has been able to change ECU's in a TT with immobiliser software in it. I am not even talking about a chipped ECU. If you go to an Audi dealer and buy a new ECU and put it into your TT the car won't work! As his post says, they even followed the Audi procedure for recalibrating the ECU to the car and it still does not work.

It must be another Audi software/electrical bug! The ECU is referred to as a 'K' since I believe that is the version of the box.

Quattromaniac

They tried the same thing and got all XXX's with my 225 TTR (this is with a chipped "K" box) But then popped in my old "AT" ECU and the car started fine. Not sure exactly what the tech did when he put the old ECU back in though.

JamesCorell

I don't know how yet, I'll know more after lunch, but now that it's public I'll be sure to detail what I find.

The techs and Service Manager had to call the tech line, I do know that much.

The email was really a thank you to our local dealer, certainly not a criticism of APR!

carfanattic

I think Audi is searching for a possibility to prevent us from chipping our cars

LCP

Good to hear that it's fixed. I posted it anonymously since I didn't ask you if it was o.k. to do so

JamesCorell

Answers are in for chipping "K" box....
Posted by JameSavant on 2001-01-23 15:15:24:
All processes are the same, aligning the ECU to the car is performed in exactly the same fashion with exactly the same codes. The difference is (according to last weeks Audi Tech training session in Atlanta) the ECU needs time to bind to the car. As it looks, 72hrs are needed with the new ECU in the car and the battery connected PRIOR to attempting alignment.

Not so difficult a proposition but definitely not convenient either. I'm not sure what Audi expects customers to do while waiting for their CAR and ECU to mate...enjoy their loaner Camry's I guess. I'm sure a workaround will develop.

Jimmy Pribble

72 hours to mate?!!!! What are these things, pandas?

///Mike@Boston Audi

their cars then claiming it is stock by swapping ECUs? This seems like a well planned move by Audi.