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As a side note, the last thing my Audi specialist told me before I drove off was that there was no break in period required. He said that all the break in procedures for the engine were performed at the factory prior to shipping. Now this guy is a transplant from Audi Germany and I trust him. Strangely I was told the same thing on another car we bought for my wife this weekend.
Now the manual specifically calls out a break in procedure. I wonder why the two sets of instructions.
So what say you forum? Break in period or nay?
I was told the same thing. I pressed my rep at the time of delivery, citing that other current Audis (e.g. 2015 S3) have a breakin period specified in their manuals, to which he said "only the RS models actually require a break-in, all others are run in at the factory."
Of course, I doubted this and immediately looked and found the same excerpt you posted in my new car's online manual when I got home and followed it pretty religiously.
Generally speaking I will always go with what the manual says on things like this, if for no other reason than "my dealer said so" is not the sort of tangible thing I can hold up and wave at a judge if I find myself one day staring down the barrel of a $14000 engine replacement bill and Audi tries to deny me my warranty. Also, while I have no information to support this, I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if there's an "max break-in RPM violated" event that gets written into some log file deep in the ECU that Audi could instruct the dealer to go look at if they really wanted to not be on the hook for an expensive claim. (They can't lock you out of reving the car during break-in outright because a if you had to avoid a car that is about to t-bone or rear-end you and you suddenly didn't have the power you "should," that's a differnet liability issue, but they definitely could log an event for "well you ripped it to redline right off the dealer's lot so no warranty for you" purposes if they wanted to).
Now... if I were buying this car specifically to race or tune it, that's a different discussion because I'd be on voiding the warranty anyway. (Not saying I'd do anything different necessarily...just that it's a diff discussion.)
In any case, I'm at 1250mi or so now and everything feels a lot more settled in and smoothed out...both transmission and engine. (It is definitely not a placebo effect either, I promise). A few things about the engine & trans felt rough around the edge all the way up to about 1100, but the last ~150mi have been butter.
I honestly feel the entire break in period might be overblown.
I remember buying a sport bike years ago and the dealer told me to break it in the same way I intend to drive it. ***** out!
So that is how I have broke in every vehicle since. Right or wrong it's worked for me.
I received my DTUk tune box this past Friday and just installed it a few hours ago. So far I have tested the most aggressive setting on all three maps. It definitely makes a difference. You can feel the additional power and torque. I found maps 2 & 3 a little choppy. I may have had the setting too aggressive though. Map 1 seems to apply the power most linearly.
I am going to make contact with DTUK tomorrow and see if I can get some more information about how each setting applies the power.The instructions say that all 3 maps have the same net power, it just applies them differently based on personal preference. I'll report back tomorrow.
Installation was simple enough and took about 10 minutes. I am going to make a better looking mount instead of the silly zip tie they provide, but it will take me a little while to design it in between everything else I've got going on.
I spoke at great length with Andrew from DTUK. He is a wealth of knowledge on both the tuning process DTUK uses as well as the B9 platform as he dailys a B9 S4. I've taken what I learned about both the tuning platform and the available maps and settings. I am now taking a different approach to the product.
My instinct, as usual, is to take the product and turn it all the way up and see if it blows my hair back (what's left of it). While I did not have any negative effects from running the most aggressive map, I did experience some drivability issues.
What I experienced was certainly a lot of power, but also so less than smooth shifting. When using the dynamic transmission setting as well as S mode, you could feel the boost coming on strong and then a shift with no real rev matching. The shifts and acceleration was very notchy. Kind of like a saw blade.
After a verbal flogging from Andrew, I turned the boost back to one of the stock levels and am retesting. He would have me tell you emphatically to start conservatively and go up from there. The minus settings are still very quick. I am now on Map 2, boost setting 0. So far on the drive to work this morning, the car was much more composed. The shifts were smooth and the power still present.
I'll continue working with Andrew to make sure I move correctly through the map progression and settings to get the best results. I also have a dyno test set up in a couple weeks or so to get actual numbers on this car.
I can say, coming from a long tuning and modifying background, that this is probably the best option for a tune for those that are not planning any mechanical modifications like intake, exhaust, downpipe, etc. This runs separate from the ECU and does not break any physical Audi seals.
07-18-2017, 01:08 PM
