audi49

I have a '98 A4 1.8T. I know that chipping to 180HP is whimpy to many, but I'm not comfortable taking it to 200HP+. I want to keep may car a long time. For those of you who have chipped with this lower boost Neuspeed chip, please let me know what your experience is regarding 1)noticeable power/torque improvements, 2)changes in engine noise, smoothness, etc., 3)and problems whatsoever?

Thanks!

Tom

fastdream

It worked fine for me. I put it in the car @55k miles and it made a huge difference.

After about a year I started experiencing "pinging" pretty badly...after which I coincidentally traded the car in. I was in the process of troubleshooting the ping when I wound up getting a 99 instead.

I don't blame the pinging on the chip. I'm certain it was a direct result of a couple of bad habits and poor maintenance. For one thing I wasn't allowing the oil to cycle after running it hard; as I'd run the car like a maniac all the way to my parking spot, then kill the engine immediately. Very stupid thing to do and I'm sure that a hot summer in Texas driving it like that was the main reason. Also, I believe I screwed up with my oil changes, as I was running what I now consider to be a too light weight of oil during that same hot summer, especially for a middle-aged turbo charged engine.

Go for a chip upgrade, though I wouldn't necessarily advise you to take a 0.8 bar chip versus a 1+ bar chip and consider yourself safe for the long haul. I would advise you to stick to a stringent maintenance schedule, and treat the car well. I doubt you will experience more or less breakage with whatever ECU upgrade you decide to install, as I feel the longevity of your car will depend entirely upon the way you drive it and maintain it. I guess the k03 may go sooner than it otherwise would, but they are relatively cheap and are usually not catastrophic to the the engine when they go.

So if you're up for a chip at all, I would personally go with a fun 1+ bar chip.

I currently have a 99 A4 with the APR 1 bar upgrade. It's very nice, and when I run it hard I make sure I give it plenty of cool down time.

Gambba

Remembering that the same basic engine is used up to 225 Bhp in the S3 and TT admittedly with a different turbo and exhaust, but other than this nothing else changes.
Most of the chips offered are running around the 200 mark on the 1.8T motor, add a free flow exhaust and I don't see what your problem is, I haven't heard many bad chip stories

e048156

Hey Tom,

Did you make the upgrade?

Regards,
C.R.