My New Ride

[DuncanC]

Just wanted to post up an intro thread as I have been lurking the last couple weeks researching the Car I was looking into and ended up buying. Lots of great info on here.

I just upgraded from a 05 A4 3.0L 6M Quattro to a 2006 S4 6M in Imola Yellow.

So far I'm loving everything about the new ride, the power, the handling, the looks are all much improved. The RNS-E is WAY better than the previous nav system.

I love that V8 howl but I'm in the process of letting it speak a little louder. I'm in Canada and imported a US car so I have a couple inspections to pass before the mods really begin but I have been in touch with Danny at Fast Intentions already and am getting them to build me DPs and a Catback so that will be going on in about 2 or 3 weeks. I run BMC filters in both my Honda Bikes (1000RR and 600RR) so I put an order in today for a BMC for the S4. Dunlop Winter Sport 3D's just got ordered up from the Tire Rack today.
Going to run the Factory 18's as Winter wheels as go to a Nice 19" setup next summer after scorching the remainder for the Current 18" Summers i have off.

I need some advice as far as Chipping goes. Both GIAC and Revo are available where I live but I can't decide who to go with. I want to get the most out of the exhaust and intake breathing easier but some of the feedback i read on both chips is so bad I almost wonder why bother...

Any input as far as chipping goes would be much appreciated.

[4Rings3Liters]

Beautiful new car. Just out of curiosity what was the mileage on your A4 when you traded it in and how much did you get for it?

[DuncanC]

It has 53,000Km on it. Didn't trade it. Selling privately. Still have it. Asking $28K Canadian (local market prices for cars are quite a bit higher than the North American average)

[CanuckRS]

congrats on the import...it's super easy to do.

[DuncanC]

Yea. I did the same thing with the A4 just under a year ago. Its hassle free and I would recommend it to anybody looking at buying a high end car in Canada right now.

[channad]

nice! I made a similar upgrade, 05 A4 3.0Q USP to a 08 S4...no mods yet :)

[KryptoniK]

I don't know why people are voting that chipping is a waste of money. I have Revo in my RS4 and had it in my S4 and absolutely love it.

Sure the gains are about 5-10 AWHP, but it also serves as a security feature (which I love and use all the time). You can turn off the throttle on the car from the ECU by just plugging in the Revo tool to the OBD-2 port. So if somoene somehow manages to start your car, they won't be able to accelerate out of idle.

As far as performance goes, you'll get a more refined crisp feeling out of the motor.

-Dave-

[b00st]

waste of money...end of story.

[sakimano]

any problems/pushback trying to sell the US car up here? (I'm in Ontario)

thanks

(sorry for the vicious threadjack!)

I'm not sure about the chip in the V8. Save your sheccles and get a supercharger if you really want to do an insane mod.

It has 53,000Km on it. Didn't trade it. Selling privately. Still have it. Asking $28K Canadian (local market prices for cars are quite a bit higher than the North American average)

[KryptoniK]

waste of money...end of story.

care to support that theory?

[iconoclast]

Sure the gains are about 5-10 AWHP,

what creates the huge difference? secondly is 5hp even noticeable on a 340hp car? lastly revo claims 12-15hp, but no dyno charts... does anyone here have before/after charts on their own car?

[MOFSTEEL]

Damn, the 06's are poppin up like crazy.
Must be from all the lease returns.
Thats the first imola 06 I've seen. Congrats!!

[fitch303]

save the money for a new paint job, you drive a banana. don't get me wrong the car is sweet as hell but why on earth did audi decide yellow was a good color?

[KryptoniK]

what creates the huge difference? secondly is 5hp even noticeable on a 340hp car? lastly revo claims 12-15hp, but no dyno charts... does anyone here have before/after charts on their own car?

yes the numbers I stated are hard numbers from my dyno results...



here are the comparisons from full milltek with stock ECU to full milltek with Revo on my 2008 RS4:





increase of 7 AWHP. also notice how smooth the A/F ratio is on the 2nd chart? if you look at the a dyno chart of a stock ecu, the lines are all over the place north/south of the chart.



in my pervious B7 S4 I have a comparison of completely stock to a full exhaust & Revo:





increase of 19 AWHP from both mods together.




It's no secret that compared to a turbo car, the money to hp gain ratio on the V8's is outrageous. You still shouldnt say the chip is not worth it for that reason. You get plenty from it.. increase in HP (not much), much more responsive/peppy engine, the rev matches seem to go smoother. And don't forget the security bonus you get.

[iconoclast]

nice, thank you for the data.

[FastB7S4]

i said not worth it because gains are minimal for the price and i'd rather not risk voiding my warranty for increased throttle response.

[S4DTM]

I'm not sure about the chip in the V8. Save your sheccles and get a supercharger if you really want to do an insane mod.

You would need a GIAC chip to do the AWE/VF supercharger anyways...so you either pay now and get more responsiveness and little hp gains out of it until that point, or pay more at that point and get the whole schebang...I say chip now

[FastB7S4]

You would need a GIAC chip to do the AWE/VF supercharger anyways...so you either pay now and get more responsiveness and little hp gains out of it until that point, or pay more at that point and get the whole schebang...I say chip now

the chip is designed to work with what you have now. if you get the s/c you're probably going to have to get reflashed with new software to work with the s/c. unless it's included in the cost of the s/c, you'll be paying from it twice.

[STALKER]

any problems/pushback trying to sell the US car up here? (I'm in Ontario)

thanks

(sorry for the vicious threadjack!)

I'm not sure about the chip in the V8. Save your sheccles and get a supercharger if you really want to do an insane mod.

The re sale will be less, I have heard about 20 to 30% less actually.

Did you have to change anything on the Audi to import into Canada? Just how easy was it? TIA.

[sotirakis]

save the money for a new paint job, you drive a banana. don't get me wrong the car is sweet as hell but why on earth did audi decide yellow was a good color?

imola yellow is one of the sickest colors the s4 comes in. i love that color.

[NewImageS4]

save the money for a new paint job, you drive a banana. don't get me wrong the car is sweet as hell but why on earth did audi decide yellow was a good color?

Maybe because not everyone likes black or grey.

Love it or hate it, Imola is here to stay!!



Oh and don't waste your $$ on a chip. Put it towards a cat back you'll be much happier.

[DuncanC]

I love the Imola, thats the reason I jumped on the car instead of selling the A4 first which i would have liked to do. And your are correct it is a lease return. I am most defiantly doing a fullback system, the questions is if its worth doing the Chip as well. I think I probably will end up doing it. Just a matter of picking a brand. As far as push back selling a US origin car here it doesn't seem that many people care at all. A guy I work with just bought a previously imported US car and didn't care at all.
The A4 i had to Vag-com to get the DRL turned on. Just used a $10 ebay cable. This one had a switch on the dash for DRL so there was nothing needed. Passed the inspections no problem.
There really isn't a lot involved in doing the import. Most people assume its a huge ordeal but really its just a matter of buying the car, paying the fee's, fax in a recall letter, get a federal and provincial inspection and your done.

[jerrym]

Maybe because not everyone likes black or grey.

Love it or hate it, Imola is here to stay!!



Oh and don't waste your $$ on a chip. Put it towards a cat back you'll be much happier.

wow.. that is so yellow.. reminds me of a banana.

[NewImageS4]

wow.. that is so yellow.. reminds me of a banana.

Lemme guess, your RS4 is Black.

[S4J]

I am most defiantly doing a fullback system

Who told you you can't do it . Congrats on the car. Beautiful!

[b00st]

care to support that theory?

nope. done it many times before already.

your 7awhp gain is working for you cuz of full exhaust.
he looks to be buying full exhaust...and i've seen my friend
dyno 20-25awhp over me...yet he isn't any faster.

yes you get the increased throttle response. but your not
going to notice a 5-7awhp gain. hence my original statement.

i have seen dynos from stock to just chip yielding 1whp.
you get my placebo effect with the chip and especially with revo
since you can adjust the throttle repsonse which we all know on a
b6 s4 suck donkey balls.

i ran my brothers b6 s4 before mods and after mods...other than
throttle response no gains. we were both evens. revo returned
his chip because we couldn't show any gains. fact remains
that a 5whp difference isn't going to be felt. throttle response will though.

but to each their own. the b6/b7 s4 comes highly tuned out of the box.
after a billion runs against my friend with full exhaust and custom EPL tune.
we were even...after all these test runs. he expected to be faster and to me that sucks when you spend $3600 and all you get is sound and throttle sensitivity.

[sakimano]

no, you mean pay twice...I reckon for $12,000 VF will chip the car. Chipping your car in advance of the supercharger installation would be an iffy justification at best.

You would need a GIAC chip to do the AWE/VF supercharger anyways...so you either pay now and get more responsiveness and little hp gains out of it until that point, or pay more at that point and get the whole schebang...I say chip now

[Beelzeebub]

You would need a GIAC chip to do the AWE/VF supercharger anyways...so you either pay now and get more responsiveness and little hp gains out of it until that point, or pay more at that point and get the whole schebang...I say chip now

the sc kit already comes with its own chip. no need to purchase separate chip.

[akitamike]

For those that did put in a chip, and got "crisper" throttle response (meaning less gas pedal input required to more quickly open the throttle body), did you see your gas mileage take a big dive, or stay about the same, either from stomping on it more b/c it's fun, or even take a dive from granny driving around town? Just curious whether you start getting less than the non-chipped 16-17 average combined that I'm maybe getting.

[Ike]

For those that did put in a chip, and got "crisper" throttle response (meaning less gas pedal input required to more quickly open the throttle body), did you see your gas mileage take a big dive, or stay about the same, either from stomping on it more b/c it's fun, or even take a dive from granny driving around town? Just curious whether you start getting less than the non-chipped 16-17 average combined that I'm maybe getting.

There's a good chance people are getting slightly better gas mileage... Typically a tune to get more powers means leaning out the car a little, hence less fuel. For instance, once my Evo was tuned and in the 340whp range I got better gas mileage than when it was untuned and in the 260whp range.

[WinterRunner]

I have REVO, and I think it's EHhh... Would I do it again to a non turbo car? probibly not. You do get the crisper engine feel, tighter throttle, and 6-8HP, 6-10 Tq, BUt it ran me close to a grand including the switching unit you need to change programs. On the plus side, I did see about 2 MPG increase in gas mileage, and the ECU lockout/kill feature is really nice for shady public parking. If it was 500$ for everything, I'd say it's worth it, but at 600$ for the tune + 300$ for the switcher kit, I dont think it's totally worth it. My 2 cents folks...