I'd like to thank both Kim Collins at QSTuning and Scott Evered at AMD for their assistance in resolving this.

Kim initially highlighted the problem when running his dyno day for us. My car reported only 333bhp. Despite my car being tuned by a UK competitor he provided input and assitance when he was called by Scott at AMD. After speaking to Kim Scott managed to fit me in to their busy schedule today. Scott had all the background from Kim and my car was put on the AMD dyno and their investigation started.

I was relieved that the problem was still in existance and it wasn't an intermittent problem.

After strapping the car on the dyno it stayed there for 3 hours whilst various things were checked and the car run (not continuously!!!).

The problem was tracked down to s/w in the ECU. Phew I was so relieved it wasn't anything to do with expensive phsical bits of metal!! Apparently the ECU had lost all the parameters so the engine didn't really have any figures to compare it's sensor readings against so it was protecting itself and backing off power.

My car had these parameters ( I think they were called the "ready" parameters) restored and then whilst it was there the latest ECU s/w was loaded as was a slight change on the map. (This is my understanding of the explanation so don't flame me if I've got it wrong!!)

The car is now smoother with the power delivery and it seems back on song although I haven't done too many miles with it yet.

The fact that AMD spent three hours with the car and then didn't accept any payment shows the service they give and one of the reasons for their UK reputation.

The only bad news is I still don't have an independant dyno graph. Interestingly whilst at AMD I was told how they have both AMD and QSTuning had exchanged cars and run them on each others dynos. The differences were insignificant (just a few bhp) which again increases my confidence in the AMD power claims.

Today my peak figure was 385bhp but since the car had been run about 6 or 7 times it was starting to suffer from heat soak and warmer intake temps.

So I end the day really happy......not just because my car's back to the way it should be but also because I went to the hospital with my wife today (remember my co-driver from the Euro road trip videos?!!) Woohoo!! The scan showed a healthy kicking 5.5cm baby Scotty. Fingers crossed for the next 6 months :-D

 

I've always been interested in how these tuners are going to upgrade the ecm's here in the US.

 

If you don't have a problem like I had then I guess you don't need the ECU s/w upgraded. I not sure if it's meant to be a dealer thing.

The map change isn't a new version or anything like that. In fact I think it's just the right one to match the ECU s/w version. When I asked is it also a new map I didn't get a yes just a " very tiny bit different".

Don't panic about missing out on something as I don't believe you are. I'm probably just catching up with whats on some of the news cars than mine anyhow.

 

Too much d-mn drama with AMD's software.

 

That Kim Collins had a 750HP UR Quattro - Does he still have it?

 

(or two)....they are incredible.

 

bads news if the readiness codes are not
"ready" here in the U.S. you would not pass
the OBD II in the state inspections, hmmm

 

Re: 385hp with just the chip? Or with what other mods?

 

My understanding is it was to do with the ECU itself not the AMD map/chip.

 

I remember you used to come on here and tell us that you could feel the difference with the AMD chip etc. Do you know how long you've had this issue? Did you have even less power before the AMD chip?

I remember you were quite convinced about the chip producing power...