APR chipped ecu blew up!

[JC AVANT]

So I had my car chipped about a month ago with an APR chip with three programs. Stock/91oct/100oct. I am driving down the street last week and my car just dies at an intersection. I am right infront of a major bus stop and my car is dead, not going anywhere. So a bumb helps me push my car around the corner and out of the way. I happened to have a case of beer in the car so I gave him a couple for the help. That was the happiest bumb I have ever seen. Sorry, getting off the subject. Anyway, I end up spending $100 having my car towed to my mechanic. Well he is telling me that my check engine light is not coming on so it has to be the E.C.U. So I take my ecu to the only APR dealer that is in my area which is a ways away. He plugs it into the programer and says everything is fine. I'm like ok are you sure. Take it back to my mechanic and it still isn't working. Then I get a loaner ecu from the APR dealer and put it in my car. Tada, works like a charm but stock (lame). Then I have to go all the way back to the APR dealer and they have to send my E.C.U. to APR so they can take care of it. So now I am driving around with the loaner stock ecu bored out of my mind and still no word on when I am getting my chipped one back. Has anyone had a similar issue. If so, does APR give and kind of compensation for my pain in the ass and money spent in towing and driving back and forth from the dealer. It is about 20 miles each way to the dealer. I should have got GIAC.

[littlewhite]

I dont think u will get anything from APR.
Now go on with GIAC and enjoy

[EVIL-AUDI]

I had my X chip go bad on my a few times but I always have a spare with me. AWE and Garrett have been nothing but 100% helpful in getting me back up and running.

[RedRocket]

Sorry for your luck bro but, no one compensates for anything. If you decided to go with something aftermarket then you have to take that risk. My Borla has left me high and dry a few times and I still paid to ship that huge M-Fu(ker all the way from Toronto to California.

IMO I don't think it's nice to put down a company before you find out what went wrong with your chip in the first place. Sometimes circuits on the ECU burn out too. (happened to me once) If one of the pins was out of the APR chip, would it make sense that the APR programmer thingy would have detected that?

Personally I do not have a preference between APR and Giac, I've owned both, but don't Diss APR, they have pioneered lots of stuff for our Audis.

[skene]

You should just wait to see what has happened.... what I don't understand is why your local dealer could not just replace the chip for you if it did indeed die.

[JMG]

I'm a GIAC customer but APR is still very reputable. Probably jsut a fluke or somthing. Hopefully you will be up and running in no time.

[DDQ]

Saying it "blew up" is a bit extreme.

Sorry to hear that though, sounds like a PIA.

[DarkkstaR]

never had a problem, I'm sure you'll be taken care of tho.

[98a4]

Blew up? Lil dramatic?

It isnt your ecu, its your ECM if they replaced it with stock. ECM is about 35$ for the chip. My APR went out a few weeks ago. My APR distrub. (APTuning) replaced it with a stock programed ECM and gave me a re-flashed APR ECM in a bag. Works fine...

APR is quality, ECM's and ECU's go bad...stock ones, chipped ones, it happens... nothing to be pissed about. APR has great products and depending on your local APR dealer you will get it replaced. Or atleast updated, and reflashed ECM... (APR's free lifetime upgrades)

[Hassmeister]

I wouldn't blame APR directly (not that I really care for them), any ECU Stock or modded can go T.U. anytime. I have a GIAC and haven't had any problems with it, but I did have another companies .08 bar chip in when I first modded and the chip lost bits of memory and my car stalled. So we did the DTC's and found the chip was losing memory. Sent the ECU off and they replaced the chip.
In your case I would have gone to APR first, instead of the dealer just MHO. Good luck on getting the $100 back and whatever charge you got for tech time. I hope they are good to you.

[JC AVANT]

Originally posted by RedRocket
Sorry for your luck bro but, no one compensates for anything. If you decided to go with something aftermarket then you have to take that risk. My Borla has left me high and dry a few times and I still paid to ship that huge M-Fu(ker all the way from Toronto to California.

IMO I don't think it's nice to put down a company before you find out what went wrong with your chip in the first place. Sometimes circuits on the ECU burn out too. (happened to me once) If one of the pins was out of the APR chip, would it make sense that the APR programmer thingy would have detected that?

Personally I do not have a preference between APR and Giac, I've owned both, but don't Diss APR, they have pioneered lots of stuff for our Audis.

You don't think it is nice to put a company down. I don't know if you noticed that I have had this chip for less than a month. I spent almost $900 including the extra programs and installation and it is not working already. Yes I did find out what happened. The chip modual blew and burned out several pins on my ecu. To make things even better. APR is out of chips and I will not be getting mine back for at least 10 days. They say, depending on when they get more chips in stock.

[JC AVANT]

Originally posted by skene
You should just wait to see what has happened.... what I don't understand is why your local dealer could not just replace the chip for you if it did indeed die.

That is what I would like to know. Driving out there was a complete waste of time.

[skene]

What I would have initially done is check the ECU for any bad soldering joints. I used to solder chips on and I have seen every type of soldering job there is....
some soldering jobs were to say the least... half a_sed

[voodooA4]

croike...this doesn't happen too often does it? I just got an APR chip...

skene, is there anything telltale I should look for on the soldering?

[VtAudi]

Program glitch or an actual pin or connection is severed. Microchips have micron size connections.

[RedRocket]

Originally posted by JC AVANT
You don't think it is nice to put a company down. I don't know if you noticed that I have had this chip for less than a month. I spent almost $900 including the extra programs and installation and it is not working already. Yes I did find out what happened. The chip modual blew and burned out several pins on my ecu. To make things even better. APR is out of chips and I will not be getting mine back for at least 10 days. They say, depending on when they get more chips in stock.

Ya I hear ya. Humm, so the chip modual blew? As in overheated? That's not good. If that's what happened, I can't believe a dealer looked at it and said it's fine. What did they just look at the outside? Was it the "chip" chip that blew or another one? If it was the actual chip that malfunctioned, I'd expect them to do something about it. What else did they say other than you have to wait 10 days? I had my apr chip for 3 years and they have always been helpful and responsive.

[Hassmeister]

Maybe all the good people that were there defected and went to Revo?

[cj-S4]

I am sure APR will take care of your problem. They gave you a loaner ECU thats a pretty good customer service thing there. As far as reimbursment for your towing and PITA,, no one would reimburse you for that GIAC, APR, REVO whoever. Its the price we pay to play,, the only other thing to do is leave it 100% stock and let the dealer rape us for repairs to stock systems after the waranty runs dry.

[98a4]

Originally posted by cj-S4
I am sure APR will take care of your problem. They gave you a loaner ECU thats a pretty good customer service thing there. As far as reimbursment for your towing and PITA,, no one would reimburse you for that GIAC, APR, REVO whoever. Its the price we pay to play,, the only other thing to do is leave it 100% stock and let the dealer rape us for repairs to stock systems after the waranty runs dry.

Well said

I had my chip for 15months before the problem... That tells you right away it was a hardware problem not software.

[JC AVANT]

Originally posted by RedRocket
Ya I hear ya. Humm, so the chip modual blew? As in overheated? That's not good. If that's what happened, I can't believe a dealer looked at it and said it's fine. What did they just look at the outside? Was it the "chip" chip that blew or another one? If it was the actual chip that malfunctioned, I'd expect them to do something about it. What else did they say other than you have to wait 10 days? I had my apr chip for 3 years and they have always been helpful and responsive.

I getting everything in the third person. APR tells the dealer and then the dealer tells me. So I guess they have replaced my ECU and are waiting to get in more chips for my ECU. I am baffled why the APR dealer couldn't see this when I first took the ECU to them. I am really worried because I have only had the chip in for one month (one really fun month) and it died. I don't want to have the feeling that this could happen at any time and my car is not dependable. I am on the road a lot and I need my car to be reliable. When I did research before buying the chip this type of problem was nothing that I can across. I guess all I can do is wait it out and see.

[RedRocket]

Originally posted by JC AVANT
I getting everything in the third person. APR tells the dealer and then the dealer tells me. So I guess they have replaced my ECU and are waiting to get in more chips for my ECU. I am baffled why the APR dealer couldn't see this when I first took the ECU to them. I am really worried because I have only had the chip in for one month (one really fun month) and it died. I don't want to have the feeling that this could happen at any time and my car is not dependable. I am on the road a lot and I need my car to be reliable. When I did research before buying the chip this type of problem was nothing that I can across. I guess all I can do is wait it out and see.

Give it time you'll trust it again

[4ingDrive]

Originally posted by JC AVANT

The chip modual blew and burned out several pins on my ecu.

If several pins on your ecu were in fact damaged then it was an installation error. Your chip cannot pass enough current to damage pins or board traces.

[4ingDrive]

I forgot to mention my car failed to start today and it was due to a bad solder connection by my local GIAC dealer.