[s-cars] [NurSC] Optimized garret chip... should I be scared

Sat Dec 6 05:35:16 PST 2008

As well said by others, Garrett/GIAC is well establised/respected. Was one
of the ground floor 'new generation' Audi tuners for 1.8T/2.7T etc. that
came out in late '90's. I believe he does OEM for other tuners too so if you
get a 'Joes Superspeed Audi Chip' it may be their work.

They run a flash loading system (in fact smart enough to tm
"Flashloader")now, although they used to do hard chips, so maybe no signs of
ECU intrusion.  With that and a PC and a VAG-COM cable you the owner can
then use a 'switcher' program to swap between stock and modded programs (and
a 'valet' crippled mode). Pretty nice system.

I'm with you though - the 'optimized' sounds like a load.  I'd be virtually
certain that the mech is not doing any remapping himself.  However what it
may mean is that GIAC dealers have access to a range of revisions for
different gas & slightly richer/leaner, and he played around with GIAC maps
to get one that seemed to work well with this car. Almost every chip tuner
that sells what looks like a single 'product' does this - aka although they
list a 2000 S4 chip behind the scenes there's actually 10 maps for 2.7T's.
The local tuner might be pretending to his customers that he is doing custom
map brainiac stuff when what he's actuallly doing is running a map, checking
EGT/CO/Dyno/whatever and then trying another GIAC map.  That's still a
value, it's just not quite really custom remapping exactly.

I've been through the map revision swapping process myself and it's true if
the 'base' code isn't perfect for your car, you can get a bit better
performance and/or drivability by working the maps. On the PES G2 SC I think
I ended up with 3 chips I tried and the leaner chip was the winner for me.

---- current ----
1995.5 S6 Avant
---- past lives ----
2006 A4 2.0TQA
1998 A6Q 2.8 PES G2
1989 200TQA SJM
1990 CQ
1997 A4 1.8TQ Wett
1987 4kCSQ

John J. Cunningham
jc at j2c3.com
US Mobile +1 (617) 750-5025
Main / Global +1 (978) 633-3510
China Mobile: +86 (0) 136 6080 9560

> -----Original Message-----
> From: s-car-list-bounces at audifans.com
> [mailto:s-car-list-bounces at audifans.com] On Behalf Of Vincent Fregeac
> Sent: Friday, December 05, 2008 18:24 PM
> To: s-car-list at audifans.com
> Subject: [s-cars] [NurSC] Optimized garret chip... should I be scared
>
> Hi,
>
>
>
> Tomorrow morning, I'm going to test drive, and may be buy a
> 2000 S4TT with an < optimized > garret chip. Basically, the
> owner installed a garret chip, brought the car to a guy
> specialized in VAG turbo engine, and had it custom-mapped.
> Resulting output: an estimated 337hp calculated from
> acceleration before-after the custom-map. The car is tempting
> since it comes with real RS4 wheels (plus a set of 16" Audi
> mags for winter), a custom cat-back double-2.5" exhaust (I
> hope it doesn't sound too ricy) and is told to be immaculate
> except for the driver carpet (The owner must be some kind of
> AR to mention_that_).
>
>
>
> I don't know about garret chips, but I know some chips, like
> TAP, are not really nice to the engine. Should I be worried
> about garrets?
>
>
>
> On the plus side, the guy has a full log book, including gas
> receipt, always filled his S4 with 94 octane (there's may be
> one gas station out of 20 that carry 94 around here, super is
> 91 usually), and still has the log book of his previous car (
> a Golf 1.8T) that run 2 years on an chip optimized by the
> same specialist. Also, he just bought a new V8 S4 so the
> reason he sells the car _may_ not be he ruined the engine,
> the turbos and everything inbetween.
>
>
>
> I know I'm in for a Samco set (the fact that he didn't blow
> off the stock intake hoses with a 337hp chip already tells he
> was not really "using" his chip), and a reinforced intake V.
>
>
>
> The questions are:
>
> -          What should I look for signs the engine didn't
> like the 337hp
> custom map?
>
> -          The owner said the engine was pushed to 337hp by
> enriching the
> air/gas mix at high hps to protect the internals. It sounds
> weird to me as a 35% hp increase is usually beyond the
> capability of stock injectors, even more if you plan to run
> rich (but I know almost nothing about the 2.7T injectors
> capabilities). So, is there any truth in this?
>
> -          What should I plan as safety mods if I want to
> keep the 337hp
> custom-mapped chip?
>
> -          The chip was installed in April. Is 8 months
> enough to ruin an
> engine or turbos with 337 hp?
>
>
>
> In case you ask: Yes, I plan to chat with the specialist who
> custom-mapped the chip before I make my final decision to see
> if what he tells me sounds "reasonable".
>
>
>
> TIA.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Vincent who may feel a little less slow despite the new urR8 LMS F
>
>
>
> P.S.: Sorry for the WOB about an S4TT but I trust you guys
> much more than the AW forums
>
> _______________________________________________
> S-CAR-List mailing list
> S-CAR-List at audifans.com
> http://www.audifans.com/mailman/listinfo/s-car-list