[s-cars] TO Socket -or- NOT to Socket

[Ned Ritchie]

Considering the hundreds of chips that we installed in the S4 cars only a
handful were placed in sockets, and only at the request of the owner.  To
this day we still follow this procedure when installing chips.

At the Olympus Rally here in Washington several years ago Jon Woodner's
highly modified engine was cutting in and out, but would restart.  I opened
his computer to find that the chip had almost worked its way out of the
socket.  After pushing it back in and tying in down Jon when on to complete
the race, but did not finish as high in the standings as he had hoped.

Researching I came upon the term "chip creep" which is a phenomenon where
the chip actually over time works its way out of the socket.  It's kind of
like holding onto a slippery pit.  The harder you squeeze the pit the
farther out it will shoot.

My suggestion is to insist that your chips be either soldered in place or
placed in sockets of the type that physically hold the chip in place.  When
Audi used sockets they always used some physical means to hold them in
place.  Even in their rally cars there was a small zip tie holding the chip
in place.

Ned Ritchie
www.IntendedAcceleration.com
Still soldering Audi Chips

-----Original Message-----
From: s-car-list-bounces at audifans.com
[mailto:s-car-list-bounces at audifans.com] On Behalf Of Robert Myers
Sent: Tuesday, March 01, 2005 11:19 AM
To: chris chambers; Harold McComas; Scar
Subject: Re: [s-cars] Re:Differences between RS2 manifold and stock?
(update)

At 01:13 PM 3/1/2005, chris chambers wrote:
>If you don't have a socketed ECU then you don't have a modded one.

Until a few days ago, Chris, I would have agreed with your statement.  This 
last week, while doing mods on an ECU I was told by the customer that his 
ECU had been chipped.  Well, it sure didn't look chipped.  The chips were 
clearly marked with the Audi part numbers for the OEM chips.  (I have a 
small box full of them.)  I desoldered the chips, put in sockets and a 3 
bar VMAP, and new RS2 chips.  Then I read the just removed chips and 
compared the code they contained with the code from OEM chips.  The 
contained code was definitely not the OEM code.  Also, there were signs of 
flux on the board which has not been the case with other unmodified 
ECUs.  This ECU has had chips replaced and it was not socketed.  The PT was 
a Bosch 2.5 bar PT which was part of the OEM package.  The chips were, at 
best, a mild mod but a mod they were.

I could agree with a statement saying that if sockets are installed then 
the ECU has been chipped.  That, of course, doesn't guarantee that the 
upgraded chips are still present but the were at one time.


Bob
Http://Chips-Ur-S.com
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