brookssteve

Not sure if this is even possible but hear me out...

Can you have 2 different ECUs for 1 car?
1 ecu with tuned maps that may cause a flag at the dealership
1 ecu bone stock that wouldn't raise suspicion of a tune

If there is any warranty work needed or dealership maintenance one could swap in the stock ecu for the trek to the dealership and back then swap the ecu back out for the one with all the party tricks?

I'm a newb to this delightful world of Audi obsessiveness and want to have my cake (warranty) and eat it too (have a performance tune).

Any thoughts would be great.

Joe85STi

No way of having two ECUs in these cars. Each ECU is paired to the car via the vin number and I'm pretty sure no one has cracked that. You can still get a tune which the top tuners (APR and AWE) are able to due through the OBD port. If you need to go to the dealer for work, stop by your tuner shop and get flashed back to stock. You can flash back when the car is done and only have to pay for labor (~30 minutes)

DrGP

AutoSpeed has a tune in which you can select a tune, including stock, using an iPhone app.

snagitseven

I could be mistaken but I thought since Audi changed their policy, once a non-OEM ECU is installed, it permanently creates a TD1 flag that pops up the next time the car is scanned at the dealer. If that's true, flashing back wouldn't solve the issue. One would expect Audi engineers would have figured a way to counteract any TD1 workarounds.

Joe85STi

Both APR and AWE tunes get programmed onto the factory ECU already in your car. When they first came out, the ECU had to be removed from the car and "bench" flashed. They can now tune your ECU through the OBD port and thus leaving no physical evidence of tampering with the ECU.

These tunes can come with many modes (stock, 91, 93, 100 [octanes], valet etc.). Putting the tune into stock mode will not hide it from the dealer that the car has been tuned and can then lead to a TD1 if the car gets plugged in. You can however go back to your tuner shop before bringing the car to the dealer and have them flash the car back to stock, meaning no more tune.

The problem with this is counters and what not but APR (not sure if AWE) downloads your original ECU counter and other information and saves it for you so when/if you flash back to stock, they turn it is essentially undetectable that you were ever tuned.

As far as I know, there is no way to put any other ECU in your car other than the one that came with it without audi doing it. All tunes out now are bench flashed or port flashed onto your original ECU. If you are still concerned about TD1 warranty issues, stasis offers their own warranty for anything that audi denies due to TD1. I've heard that it's not exactly painless getting stasis to honer this soooo choose wisely.

snagitseven

You're correct - I was thinking of the old ECU swap process. After Googling for awhile I've come to understand that, performance/option differences aside, with APR, their dealer should be able to reflash the ECU back to stock unlike Stasis. On the other hand, Stastis, unlike APR, has their own warranty that theoretically would cover things Audi would not assuming the mod was the cause. It would seem that neither option is without its challenges.