Hello Everyone,
I was wondering if anyone can give some advice on finding out what chip is in my car and how do I get it checked for performance(proper tune)

Here is what I have(as far as I know) 2001 A4 Quattro 1.8T, K&N Filter, Borla Exhaust. I bought the car in 2009 and I'm not sure the seller even knew it was chipped, it was most likely done by the first owner. I took the car to my tech and that's when we discovered it was chipped but not connected, so they connected it and what an instant increase in power. I asked the tech what kind of chip it was and he said someone would have to get inside and read the software.

All confusing to me. Here is where I'm hoping for some advice, should I take the car to a pro shop for ID of the chip, if not where? Also, how do I know when I need a tune up? I am by no means a tech and have no experience in repairs, etc. Any advice would be appreciated, Thanks!

 

I'm in the same situation. The PO who I bought the car from thought the car wasn't chipped, but it turns out the first owner must have chipped it. I don't know what the tune is or who it's by, but it works reliably and pulls hard so I'm not too concerned. Though it would be nice to know.

I'm curious what you mean by "connected the chip" though.

Did your tech hook up a laptop and activate some hidden program? Did he fiddle with the cruise control stalk?

 

Ok, I went back to my receipts and this is what I found, the VAG showed code P1548(Boost Control), he traced the problem back to a broken connector to the wastegate control, so he repaired it and cleared the code. He then got codes of PO300, PO302,PO303, bad coils on cylinders 2 and 3, he replaced the all 4 coils and sparkplugs and cleared the codes everything checked out. As gar as I know he did not fiddle with anything else.

 

Some tuners mark the ECU with a sticker or magic marker, but if that's not been done you're gonna have a hard time figuring it out.

 

OK, now for the tuning question, how do I know when my car needs a tune up?

 

If you don't know when the plugs, oil, air filters, etc. were replaced last, it needs a tune up. If you know when all that stuff was replaced, but it was when parachute pants were still cool, it needs a tune up. When was the timing belt replaced last? How many miles are on it?

 

The car has 143K miles, plugs were replaced at 120K,Oil was just changed 2 weeks ago, I remove the air filter(K&N) right before the oil change and run it through the dishwasher, T-Belt and water pump was done at 140K, I'm not experiencing any rough idle. When a shop does a tune up on a chipped car, do they mess around with the chip, or do they just do a normal tune up like unmodified cars?

 

Nope, just like unmodified cars. If you're talking about tweaking the tune, that would need to be done by the company who wrote it, if they're even willing to do it.