Geo

background: hwy 101, steady 45mph, check engine light comes on and car seems like running on three cyl. audi provides tow, etc.
shop pulls the plugs for compression check, to discover #3 has disintegrated, electrode and porcelain missing. bad news. worse news: pull head to discover electrode has migrated to all cylinders, scoring same and pitting piston tops. verdict: new motor needed.(at 66k, no warranty)

my questions: is probable cause TAP stage II chip and pre-detonation? (not blaming them, i bought it) but is there a reason other than minor performance differences to choose other chips? also, what is verdict on MTM, which is the chip this shop installs. are plugs typically replaced at 50k warranty? i never checked. (my own fault for not replacing myself.)shell premium is my only gas, 90% from same station. redline oil, changed 200 mi before this incident, and every 5k.
i 'enjoy' the added boost now and then, but my normal driving is 40 mi each way commute. never on the track, and not a lot of redline runs. my 'hard driving' is more suspension than motor, even then on public roads.
any other comments or observations welcome.

xr4tic

Turbo motors are hard on plugs, especially overboosted ones.

I think AWE said they had some complete new 1.8T crate motors that were less than $3K, so that may be an option.

paul cormier

Not sure what the cause was but I suspect chipping and high engine temps. I tried some chips earlier in the cars life that really pinged hard. I get none of this now with the APR. However, I switched to colder Beru UltraX plugs and I'll be changing them more often than recommended. Probably every 15K. My car ate the stock plug poreclain and electrode at about 27K. No new engine though. Just new turbo as it eventually got through to the exhaust turbine and wacked the blades causing annoying whooo-whooo freight train sound. Sorry to hear your care took it so badly.

dingster

Like what xr4tic said, AWE has brand new 1.8ts for something like 2500(with turbo but no ECU) Call them for more details, www.awe-tuning.com. They're very professional guys.

Geo

thanks for the comments. hoping for more, perhaps on MTM?

Žob

buy anything from them

CharlieGSanD

oh yeah!

TimA4

pinging or loss of power. Then again, you should have changed plugs at 30K at the most. We have not heard of many, if any, melt down cases at all with the more popular chips (GIAC, APRS, Wett) or with MTM. Good luck with your fixes.

Tim

Lucas_Gchips

If you had a plug let go, how did it end up in other cylinders?
Was it something else that caused the plug to go?
You need to look further into it...

Geo

plugs replaced at 30k, under warranty, but i had not changed them at 60k, my fault there - damn!