Someone Kill this debate once and for all

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#1
Okay ladies and gents....Tune + warranty = ???

Someone please solve this mystery once and for all. Ive heard both sides and I really cant decide! Will tuning void warranty? What if you remap before going in for service? Can they detect?
 

AlltrackMike

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#2
Yes tuning your Audi will void your warranty only for related issues. Dealers will also flag your car if they find out that its tuned from a scan tool.

The Magnuson?Moss Warranty Act protects you against other areas of your car which wasn't affected by the tune to still be covered under warranty.
 
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#3
Audi's TD1 system automatically flag cars if they are tuned and reject warranty. That's the reason I'm waiting to get the APR tune for my car until my warranty expires.

 
OP
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Thread Starter #4
and what about a catback or a turbo back? what implications on the warranty will bolt ons have?
 
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#5
I called an APR dealer and they told me that yes it will void the warranty if its flagged for a tune. Safe bet is to wait for your warranty to expire before tuning. Bolt-ons are be much more warranty friendly.
 

Brad_B

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#6
I would like to resurrect some of these old APR discussions and hopefully there is some updated info out there.

I talked to my local Audi dealer about APR tuning specifically. I talked to several different people starting with all people, the finance manager (who was a sales rep when I bought my Q5), the service tech, and the service manager. The finance manager may sound unusual, but he has (leases) a 2015 S3 and has done some mods but no performance mods. He was very familiar with APR and had been considering it heavily but his lease was the primary obstacle (makes sense, I would not mod a leased vehicle). He was clearly interested in me trying an APR mod to see if it was worth him considering.

Anyway, as expected the responses from each varied from "you will probably be ok" (finance manager), "it is risky" (service tech), to "no way you are screwed" (service manager). Even the service manager acknowledged that non propulsion related components would remain covered, but major powertrain items (specifically transmission, turbo, etc) would be voided. This matches the Magnusson-Moss act mentioned by S3Mike (thanks for the legal aspect).

The only real example they could give me was a recent customer of theirs (not S3, and I cannot remember exactly what make) did a mod (not APR) and blew out his transmission at ~20k miles. Yikes, that would suck, but it does make me wonder how he drove it.

They all said that the associated hardware mods (intake, intercooler, and exhaust) would not be warranty problem, but clearly any ECU adjustments would jeopardize any warranty.

I think the answer is pretty clear...do ECU mods at your own peril especially related to powertrain issues. So the real question(s) become: (1) do you want to wait for your warranty to expire, (2) how reputable/stable is the ECU mod, and (3) how much of the risk is based on how you drive?

I would love to hear of practical experience with APR mods specifically, any other ECU mod issues, or any other ideas.
 

S3Fan

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#7
Great post Brad and I agree. While tuning gives you the most bang for the buck performance, it does come with an added high dollar risk. As our cars get older and passed their warranty, I can see more people adding tunes for their cars.
 

jfglass

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#8
Ok, here's what my dealer said. THEY will do the APR tune. If something breaks while under warranty, they will remove the tune, effect the repair, then reinstall the tune. BUT, if tuned and I go to another dealer for repair, the warranty will be voided. The VW dealer next door advertises APR tunes for VWs!
 
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#9
Ok, here's what my dealer said. THEY will do the APR tune. If something breaks while under warranty, they will remove the tune, effect the repair, then reinstall the tune. BUT, if tuned and I go to another dealer for repair, the warranty will be voided. The VW dealer next door advertises APR tunes for VWs!
Yup that sounds about right, I do wish that all dealers carry APR just to make things easier.
 

mrflash

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#10
Does anyone know if warranty will be voided if one go for a power box like the m-cantronic from mTm?
This is just a box you install on your car and can be removed before you go to a audi dealer.
Could audi detect such a tune?

oh and I am new to this forum and I am about to sell my A4 B8 and get a S3 2017

regards
 

AlltrackMike

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#11
As far as I've been reading, you are safe with a piggy-back system versus a ecu tune. The discussion is that this is not detectable by Audi so you won't get flagged for TD1.

Does anyone know if warranty will be voided if one go for a power box like the m-cantronic from mTm?
This is just a box you install on your car and can be removed before you go to a audi dealer.
Could audi detect such a tune?

oh and I am new to this forum and I am about to sell my A4 B8 and get a S3 2017

regards
 

elmagoo

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#12
I know this is an older thread, but I wanted to post this here as well (I just posted this to a different APR thread here) :)

Having had experience with APR tuning, and also having just got a used 2017 S3, I figured it'd be worth chiming in :)

I had a 2015 Golf R w/DSG that I just handed back in (it was a lease). I put both the APR Stage I high torque tune on it (91 octane as that's all I can get here in Los Angeles), as well as the TCU tune before 800 miles were put on the car. After 3 years and 33,000 miles, no issues, and I was as happy as a clam! Before getting into performance details, I wanted to address the warranty question. Yes if you go to a dealer for service, and the tune is currently installed on the car, it will get flagged and your powertrain warranty will be void. Hence what you do is take the car back to your tuner, have them re-flash everything back to stock, and then you go to the dealer to get your warranty service, and the dealer will have no idea that the car was ever tuned in the first place. After the warranty work, take it back to the tuner shop and have them re-flash it. So the main downside to a tune is that if you do end up needing warranty work, you'll have to make 2 additional stops, as well as pay for the flashing (which for the tuner shop I go to would be $50 a flash).

Now of course if you drive your car foolishly, and you go into the shop with some crazy blow out, you'll raise suspicion. But this is no different than tracking your car and taking it back to the shop, and then trying to convince them that whatever happened was in the course of normal driving. A lot of the stories I've heard about warranty or tuning related issues are due to the fact that there are a lot of people that want their golf to beat a Ferrari, and they don't understand the concept of properly upgrading to those levels of performance and what they can do to an engine if not done correctly (i.e. slap a larger turbo and intercooler on it and tune it with nothing else). I daily drove mine, and while I drove it very hard, I wasn't racing it constantly, or running it flat out for hours at a time, or doing launch control sprints at every stop light (I think I did about 10 - 15 LC starts over the course of 3 years). I did the occasional canyon run, as well as zipped around traffic and such, but I never tracked or dragged it. The engine and transmission in these cars are built like a tank.

Also APR has a new program called APR Plus (www.goaprplus.com) that provides a powertrain warranty for your car with their Stage I tune and bolt ons. Meaning they take over the remaining powertrain warranty for your car, but you can't go above APR Stage I (i.e. no downpipe, or turbos and the like). It's $400 more than the standard Stage I tune (from what I can tell), and comes with the same Stage I HP, but about 18ftlbs of torque less. But you can add their air intake and intercooler as well for a jump, and still be in warranty. This is the route I'm planning on going with the S3 :)

One thing to consider is that it's very much worth it to get the TCU tune as well as it works in tandem with the ECU tune. It also protects the DSG due to the way they tuned the shifting parameters (it's listed on their site if you want to read the technical specifics :)

As for the performance, it transforms the car! 0-60 in the VW went to about 4 seconds flat, and I've seen videos of cars with Stage I only running mid to low 12's in the quarter mile. There's so much torque and punch that makes the car a beast at just about any speed. Maneuvering around traffic is effortless, and it makes the car an absolute sleeper. It's very easy to drive every day, with no jerkiness or finickiness that one might expect from high performance tuned cars. I miss it like crazy right now, but the financials aren't right just yet as I want to have several things done to the car all at once :).

That's about it, hope the information is helpful! :)
 

AlltrackMike

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#13
Very helpful post, thanks for sharing [MENTION=865]elmagoo[/MENTION]
 

jfglass

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#14
Still haven't jumped into the tune. In general, I've found the stock set up is as street-worthy as I need. in the past two days I've pulled a new corvette to 90mph (1 car length; used lauch control, the vette rolled up) and a new M4 (2 car lengths in the rain) to 100mph, all under relatively safe conditions (multi-lane, little or no traffic) from traffic lights. Ain't quatrro wonderful! Perhaps they were just surprised, but whatever, I was ahead! Irresponsible? Maybe? But I love my S3!
 


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