How well do K03's hold up when car is chipped?

[AudiOso]

I was talking to a buddy of mine who's an Audi partsman and the subject of chipping a 1.8T came up. He said that his techs at the dealership he works for advised him against chipping his son's A4. They told him that the K03's bearings don't hold up well with the increased boost. I was wondering what folks around here have experienced with their cars. Anyone running chipped for high miles now? (meaning 20k+ miles)

I want to chip my car, but I don't want the headaches of a blown turbo, and no, I'm not planning on a BT. It's a commuter car with nice suspension that's going to get an exhaust. The chip is an option only if it isn't going to wreck the car's reliability.

[vinny.dtw]

90k miles with apr 1/1+. Turbo trouble free. zero shaft play when i took it out at 100k miles. Just do it.

[Papachristou]

i have 88k on my car, chipped since 40k with 1+ running 22-24lbs boost and it still pulls as hard as the day i chipped it.

moral of the story - DO IT!

keep in mind my audi dealership didnt know how to unlock a jam nut and didnt change my oil filter on a oil change. they dont know shit about modding


a test pipe will help keep your EGTs and oil temps at the turbo down so that helps its life

[gullatec]

90k miles with apr 1/1+. Turbo trouble free. zero shaft play when i took it out at 100k miles. Just do it.

vinny, thank you for changing your avatar. no more bug spray on my screen!

[old guy]

I chipped at 1,200 miles. I went 1+ at 70K miles. I replaced my turbo for excessive shaft wear last week at 105K miles.

[trueno429]

if ur ganna get a chip and a exhaust get a testpipe as well..it'll sound beautiful.

[old guy]

And +2 on the bug spray.

[vinny.dtw]

just for that i may put it back up. :D

[old guy]

[Turbo1A4]

i have 1+ with 70,000 no porblems at all

[Papachristou]

come on fletch! we all know you beat that poor car to death!

[MikTip]

K04 uses the same shaft as the K03...

[Spinnetti]

Stage 1+ APR.... turbo blew at 60k miles, 20k of that chipped.

BT now for 20k miles, and no problems.

[old guy]

come on fletch! we all know you beat that poor car to death!

Ha ha! Actually I generally don't beat on it too much. I'm sure my son gave it a work out for the six or so months he drove it. However, my favorite thing is the pull from 75 or 80 mph. It feels so nice up to 100 or so. Probably the worst thing for wear on a K03 turbo but what the hell!

[Capt. Obvious]

And even if you do wear out the turbo, you can find good used K03's for super cheap all over the place!

If you can't do the turbo replacement yourself (quite easy to do actually), have a good local shop do it for you instead of getting gouged by the dealer.

[old guy]

And even if you do wear out the turbo, you can find good used K03's for super cheap all over the place!

If you can't do the turbo replacement yourself (quite easy to do actually), have a good local shop do it for you instead of getting gouged by the dealer.

I picked up a new one with the install kit and shipped for $850 from Purems. Took a day off last week when it came in and installed it. Pretty straight forward job, no special tools required. Could have saved a few hundred $$ going used but for $850 it wasn't worth taking a chance.

Edit: Come to think of it , it was week before last, but who's counting?

[gdawg'05a4]

Flashed at 14,500 miles.
Bigger injectors at 82,000 miles
Currently at 108,xxx miles

So it's been running higher boost for 94k miles. I drive pretty spiritedly so it gets a workout. Car still runs great and pulls hard.

[evola4]

I had GIAC flash my car about 50,000 miles ago and haven't had any problems with the turbo. Works great!

[AudiA4Turbo22]

i have put 20k since chip and maybe 15k since 1+ i know it aint much but i boost 100x more than the average person my car sweats its weight

[AudiOso]

Thanks guys... I appreciate all the info!

[Papachristou]

Ha ha! Actually I generally don't beat on it too much. I'm sure my son gave it a work out for the six or so months he drove it. However, my favorite thing is the pull from 75 or 80 mph. It feels so nice up to 100 or so. Probably the worst thing for wear on a K03 turbo but what the hell!

lol.... yeah the pull from 80+ is the best no doubt! i was on the interstate and took a 350z and grand prix gxp (AWD handling helped too ) they both gave me thumbs up when we got off the interstate.. its slow off the line but it pulls good up top!

i was really suprised the 350 was barely gaining on me at 100+ the gxp and i were at a dead even pull... once we got into traffic though it was all over for them

[PhunkFX]

how is the gas mileage with those 1+ chips? Much worse?

[widgget]

it's better, but most of the time you want to drive with a lead foot because it's more fun. but apples to apples, the millage is better if you are chipped.

i replaced my K03 about 10k after getting chipped (APR 1+), the bearings went.

[festerfm]

over the summer i was getting like 26 combined. not so much right now, down to like 21-22

[Jeff]

I do 20psi+ on my B5 Avant on a K03 that now has close to 80k. Bearing and shaftplay is still within spec, though I do start to see some hairline cracks in the turbine from the abuse. It's a K03...and it is what it is. Used replacements cost ~$100.

[AudiOso]

it's better, but most of the time you want to drive with a lead foot because it's more fun. but apples to apples, the millage is better if you are chipped.

i replaced my K03 about 10k after getting chipped (APR 1+), the bearings went.

Two questions for you: 1) How many miles did your snail have on it before the bearings quit? 2) How does your Tip behave in D with the Stage 1+ setup? I was told by Chris Gigon at APR not to go Stage 1+ on a Tip car. From what I've read in this forum the car constantly hunts between 3-4-5 on the highway when you hit inclines. I don't want a car that I can't just throw in drive and go.

[widgget]

Two questions for you: 1) How many miles did your snail have on it before the bearings quit? 2) How does your Tip behave in D with the Stage 1+ setup? I was told by Chris Gigon at APR not to go Stage 1+ on a Tip car. From what I've read in this forum the car constantly hunts between 3-4-5 on the highway when you hit inclines. I don't want a car that I can't just throw in drive and go.

65k when it went, this was right after i got the car though and i don't know how well the previous owner took care of it.

Anything besides stock is going to suck in D or S since the TCU (Transmission Control Unit) isn't upgraded with the ECU it doesn't know to expect the different power band and does not respond correctly. If i need to have both hands I would go to S, D just isn't usable in my opinion, but that's my opinion ;)
You can use vagcom to modify the "shift strategy" which helps a little but not all to much. I always shift it "manually" because i can't stand the way it does it in the to "auto" modes.

Don't let this scare you off too much though, the 1+ was allot more fun then stock, and worse case your talking cheap money (less then the chip and EFI's) if you need to throw a used K03 in it, i just had the bug for more so i went bigger after that happened.

[Hotel Guy]

how is the gas mileage with those 1+ chips? Much worse?

Might have been from Old Guy, but Ive heard that its worse when you're 1+, despite what your display tells you. Makes sense with the larger injectors and all.

[widgget]

Might have been from Old Guy, but Ive heard that its worse when you're 1+, despite what your display tells you. Makes sense with the larger injectors and all.

Yes the display will be off since you can't adjusting it enough to account for the new EFI's.
Oldguy knows his stuff, and i'm not going to argue with him if it's comming from his mouth (or keyboard), but until then i'm goign to argue.

Manually logging millage has shown in the past better MPG on chipped cars. most people like to go heavy on the peddle after getting chipped which will lower the MPG, but apples to apples you use less when chipped. There was a side by side comparison a ways back on here or audiforums.com. Even cars running 550cc EFIs aren't that much worse off, it's only under hard acceleration that the gas starts to disappear. while cruzing your in vacuum, not boosting.

someone was just talking about this today.... might have been in the "400+hp cross country road trip" thread.

[Jeff]

Two questions for you: 1) How many miles did your snail have on it before the bearings quit? 2) How does your Tip behave in D with the Stage 1+ setup? I was told by Chris Gigon at APR not to go Stage 1+ on a Tip car. From what I've read in this forum the car constantly hunts between 3-4-5 on the highway when you hit inclines. I don't want a car that I can't just throw in drive and go.

My GF has a 2000 Tip. Though it's not a B6, nor does she have a 1+ setup, her car also has an gear-hunting issue. It wasn't until I put in a TCU chip (aka "tip chip"), that really helped with the shifts and alleviate the hunting issues. Because the TCU is another control unit on it's own that controls how the tranny shifts, when the TCU sees a higher torque request from the ECU and car, it will want to downshift into a lower gear. But in reality, the higher torque request is simply from having a more aggressive ECU file. A TCU upgrade or reflash will help this.

[Papachristou]

you can adjust your center MFA gas mileage (which i have done) and its pretty close, i checked it manually before and after and its about the same.. i usually wind up with worse though because its so much funner!

[widgget]

My GF has a 2000 Tip. Though it's not a B6, nor does she have a 1+ setup, her car also has an gear-hunting issue. It wasn't until I put in a TCU chip (aka "tip chip"), that really helped with the shifts and alleviate the hunting issues. Because the TCU is another control unit on it's own that controls how the tranny shifts, when the TCU sees a higher torque request from the ECU and car, it will want to downshift into a lower gear. But in reality, the higher torque request is simply from having a more aggressive ECU file. A TCU upgrade or reflash will help this.

you can get a GIAC "tip chip" (TCU flash) for the B5, but there is no such software for the B6. The only transmission upgrades you can really do to a tiptronic transmission on a B6 are mechanical. this will increase the amount of power that the transmission can safely handle AND make your shifts quicker (that 1 second lag after you manual shift will go away) but will not do anything about the gear hunting issues.

shift it yourself and you won't have any gear hunting issues

[gdawg'05a4]

They did do a TIP chip for the B6 but only MY 2002 1.8T.

http://giacusa.com/programs.php?mpid=224

[widgget]

They did do a TIP chip for the B6 but only MY 2002 1.8T.

http://giacusa.com/programs.php?mpid=224

I was unaware of that, thank you.

that only helps 1/4th of the B6's with a tiptronic tranny though, 2003, 2004, & 2005's are still sh*t out of luck.
* the OP has a 2003

[gdawg'05a4]

Yup, np. Too bad they only made it for one year on the B6.

[AudiOso]

Yeah... it's a bummer

[Jeff]

you can get a GIAC "tip chip" (TCU flash) for the B5, but there is no such software for the B6. The only transmission upgrades you can really do to a tiptronic transmission on a B6 are mechanical. this will increase the amount of power that the transmission can safely handle AND make your shifts quicker (that 1 second lag after you manual shift will go away) but will not do anything about the gear hunting issues.

shift it yourself and you won't have any gear hunting issues

Actually it IS a GIAC "tip chip". I did not want to mention tuner names for obvious reasons.

The tip chip had to be physically removed from the TCU box and soldered in after it was bench-flashed. But on the GF's car, it actually did fix the gear-hunting issue.