Tuned and Leased -- TD1 Fears - Should I keep, or trade-in?

[drew4392]

This is my second tuned, leased S4, and I'm a bit concerned as of late.

First S4 was a '12 and had a Stasis tune. I think it had one minor issue, but at the time, things were a bit more lenient and the dealer worked with Stasis on the repair.

I now have a '14, with a Stage 2 and a bunch of other mods, and I'm a bit more concerned this time around. It seems despite our efforts to revert to stock form, some of us are getting tagged TD1. It seems the tuner dealers aren't quite as bullish as they once were when it comes to their claims of a tune being undetectable.

I have 15,000 miles. No issues, and similar to my '12 MY, seems rock-solid.

Having said that, my concern is something happens, my tuner dealer is unsuccessful at getting car to stock form (computer-wise), I get flagged, and a potentially very expensive repair falls on my lap. In the future, I don't think I'll be doing flash tunes as they are too vulnerable in today's world.

My options are:

Trade my car in for a S3 (closest performance to my modded S4 with only a piggyback) and eat about $1k in negative equity

Roll the dice and keep my car until lease is up (April, '17), and part out at that time


What do you guys think? If I do keep, and something happens, what are my options for a contingency plan (in any)?

Thanks for bending an ear.

[drew4392]

And please, no 'you have to pay to play' or 'you should have thought of this before' rhetoric. I know that.

Thanks again in advance.

[wangshuo1989]

I'll keep it. B8.5 is very reliable now, and I wouldn't worry about it having big problems in a few years, even with a tune.

[sergzz]

I'm in the same boat as you and I'm leaning towards keeping my s4


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[chaos2984]

keep it. Its fine. Im sure your not beating on it from sundown to sun up every day. It will be fine. I wouldn't worry to much. And again a TD1 isn't a line in the sand anyways. Its just a flag that says "take extra caution" and make sure that the tune didn't cause the failure. example. A tune doesn't effect if a camshaft sensor goes bad. All it means is that if they can determine that the tune caused said failure then they can deny you warranty. Its the same with any aftermarket part on a car.

[drew4392]

Good points, all. Thanks. From all that I've experienced with the B8 (and especially the B8.5), they are bulletproof. Having said that, I don't beat it up. I actually drive it far less aggressively than I probably should.

Also, it probably is true that for as many negative stories out there about flashing back to stock and resetting counter and still getting dinged, there are probably many more success stories. I'll poke around more on that topic, but I wonder why there is the variance. Are there different methods dealers use to detect? Can they go to a 'deeper' level if the suspect something? If the tuner dealer methodology is all the same, I wonder why the variance at the audi dealers.

[Dr GP]

BTW, a dealer can take a tuned car,even a TDI designated car, flash it back to oem specs and sell it t as CPO'd. Hippocrates

[MrFunk]

Pay to play... or stay stock.
You shouldn't have wasted your $ tuning if in the first place if this is the sort of thing that you're concerned with. Also - I never understood the point in modding a rental (I mean leased) cas ... but seems plenty here do it.

FWIT there are TONS of tuned S4's out there rolling with high miles. These tunes are not causing issues to cars. My dealership tuned my car and is tuner friendly... it's the same conversation as always - find a tuner friendly dealership that is going to treat you fairly if you have an issue. If the mod causes the issue then be prepared to pay for the repair - it's only fair.

You're already modded so don't loose sleep over it. it's not to a big deal.

[SportVier]

BTW, a dealer can take a tuned car,even a TDI designated car, flash it back to oem specs and sell it t as CPO'd. Hippocrates

OP, don't sell the S4, but if you do, get a manual Golf R not an S3. Hatch and 3 pedals. Winner.

[Deviruchi]

Pay to play... or stay stock.
You shouldn't have wasted your $ tuning if in the first place if this is the sort of thing that you're concerned with. Also - I never understood the point in modding a rental (I mean leased) cas ... but seems plenty here do it.

FWIT there are TONS of tuned S4's out there rolling with high miles. These tunes are not causing issues to cars. My dealership tuned my car and is tuner friendly... it's the same conversation as always - find a tuner friendly dealership that is going to treat you fairly if you have an issue. If the mod causes the issue then be prepared to pay for the repair - it's only fair.

You're already modded so don't loose sleep over it. it's not to a big deal.

I have yet to meet a tuner friendly Audi Dealer, least when it comes to engine management. Took mine in, they noticed the intake and exhaust. Direct question from the service manager: "You didn't get it tuned, did you? OK good."

[Shawn_ozz]

I'm kinda on the other side of this story. I'm in the market for a used 2013-2014 s4. I want to make for damn sure I don't buy one already flagged. The car I'm looking at was previously leased and traded into an infinity dealer with 17k miles. I contacted the dealer it was leased from they side it was clear at the 15k service and still has the the remainder of the full warranty and even the care plan for the next 3 services.

My next issue is I want to do awe/apr intake, eurocode headers and miltek exhaust first. These parts have no bearing on the ecu but can the dealer manually flag the car? I know I'll want to stage 2 before 50k. Has anyone Bought a used ecu/tcu to install and tune just to have the originals for when u get a service?

[GT-R & S4]

Coming from two GT-R's, the stock S4 was not going to provide anywhere near the performance I was accustomed to, so I went with the Stage II upgrade (including DSG), just three months after owning the vehicle, ha-ha. It's still no where near GT-R territory, but it's great for a DD. I've also since changed intakes, exhaust, and downpipes. My Audi service advisor knows about my modifications, and to say they are aware of it, is academic. There are a number of Audi service departments that people would classify as, "mod friendly", but to me that just means they don't scan my vehicle without my permission first, and don't give me a hard time over it. That gives me the opportunity to have the vehicle flashed back to stock settings first if I have to bring it in for service or a problem. But if you have a major problem with your engine or transmission, I'm sure any, "mod friendly", Audi service department will try to find fault with your mod first. Then the onus is on you to prove your mod didn't contribute to the issue. This has been covered groups of times on this web forum already, so I won't go further into that. But I will say that I'm very confident in my tune, and if I ever did have an issue, I would go to that tuner first, for them to resolve the problem, that is if the problem was due to their tune. I like my tune, and the only reason I have to go to an Audi service department is for my pre-purchased maintenance plan, at 15K, 25K, 35K, and 45K miles service. If I could have done it all over again, I would NOT have purchased an Audi Care plan, and instead, just had my tuner do the service. Cheaper, and more attention to detail in my opinion. Unfortunately I realized this too late, and Audi won't let you cancel your Audi Care plan, so it stays with the vehicle. Anyway, keep the S4 or go with something else that provides the most performance so you can really enjoy the vehicle. We buy these vehicles to enjoy the performance, otherwise, we might as well buy a Prius or Camry.

[chaos2984]

I have yet to meet a tuner friendly Audi Dealer, least when it comes to engine management. Took mine in, they noticed the intake and exhaust. Direct question from the service manager: "You didn't get it tuned, did you? OK good."

Its because that Audi checks the software automatically and its out of the dealers hands. When they hook the Diag scan tool up it takes an image of the ecm and all computers and sends them off to audi HQ and its checked there. The dealer doesn't want to do something shady and get caught then after they gave you the warranty repair, they will have to pay audi for the claim.

But as far as the flash counter goes. If you push the issue it will tumble like a house of cards. They have no proof that you had a performance tune on it. They can't deny you warranty if you push the issue. All they can tell is the ecm was flashed is all not what it had in it. It was like this when i worked for chevy. We had to prove the software on the ecm was not a factory calibration. It has to stand up in a court of law.

[MrFunk]

Coming from two GT-R's, the stock S4 was not going to provide anywhere near the performance I was accustomed to, so I went with the Stage II upgrade (including DSG), just three months after owning the vehicle, ha-ha. It's still no where near GT-R territory, but it's great for a DD. I've also since changed intakes, exhaust, and downpipes. My Audi service advisor knows about my modifications, and to say they are aware of it, is academic. There are a number of Audi service departments that people would classify as, "mod friendly", but to me that just means they don't scan my vehicle without my permission first, and don't give me a hard time over it. That gives me the opportunity to have the vehicle flashed back to stock settings first if I have to bring it in for service or a problem. But if you have a major problem with your engine or transmission, I'm sure any, "mod friendly", Audi service department will try to find fault with your mod first. Then the onus is on you to prove your mod didn't contribute to the issue. This has been covered groups of times on this web forum already, so I won't go further into that. But I will say that I'm very confident in my tune, and if I ever did have an issue, I would go to that tuner first, for them to resolve the problem, that is if the problem was due to their tune. I like my tune, and the only reason I have to go to an Audi service department is for my pre-purchased maintenance plan, at 15K, 25K, 35K, and 45K miles service. If I could have done it all over again, I would NOT have purchased an Audi Care plan, and instead, just had my tuner do the service. Cheaper, and more attention to detail in my opinion. Unfortunately I realized this too late, and Audi won't let you cancel your Audi Care plan, so it stays with the vehicle. Anyway, keep the S4 or go with something else that provides the most performance so you can really enjoy the vehicle. We buy these vehicles to enjoy the performance, otherwise, we might as well buy a Prius or Camry.

I classify "mod friendly" as they are the ones installing and providing me with my mods. My dealership sold me my AWE exhaust and did my GIAC tuning... they are an AWE/APR/GIAC dealership! They have flashed me back to stock before plugging it in to the Audi network also!

[Thurston]

I classify "mod friendly" as they are the ones installing and providing me with my mods. My dealership sold me my AWE exhaust and did my GIAC tuning... they are an AWE/APR/GIAC dealership! They have flashed me back to stock before plugging it in to the Audi network also!

there are a handful of audi dealers that will tune but i pity the individual who confuses this as a cool "mod friendly" dealer that will somehow hide that failed sport diff from there big brother at audi of america and try and get it covered under warranty because in my opinion it won't happen. Audi of Nashville tunes w/ ApR but don't get it confused, that's where the friendliness stops. Of course if you define mod friendly like mrfunk then yeah, hell yeah you've got a friendly dealer i guess.

[PCHS4]

I'm kinda on the other side of this story. I'm in the market for a used 2013-2014 s4. I want to make for damn sure I don't buy one already flagged. The car I'm looking at was previously leased and traded into an infinity dealer with 17k miles. I contacted the dealer it was leased from they side it was clear at the 15k service and still has the the remainder of the full warranty and even the care plan for the next 3 services.

My next issue is I want to do awe/apr intake, eurocode headers and miltek exhaust first. These parts have no bearing on the ecu but can the dealer manually flag the car? I know I'll want to stage 2 before 50k. Has anyone Bought a used ecu/tcu to install and tune just to have the originals for when u get a service?

Things might have changed, but I run Eurocode headers for a while now on my '11 S4, and no dealer has flagged me. Been to 3 different dealerships, 1 in Arizona, and 2 in LA. I know this because the Audi dealers I have been to have been cool and I ask them if I have a TD1 and ask them to please avoid giving me one.

BTW, I had an APR exhaust before I went to the Eurocode/Milltek resonated, have ridden and drove in cars with other exhausts, and this combo is the best I have heard IMO. If your state does only OBD testing there is a way to pass without Cats. Good luck.

[Shawn_ozz]

Things might have changed, but I run Eurocode headers for a while now on my '11 S4, and no dealer has flagged me. Been to 3 different dealerships, 1 in Arizona, and 2 in LA. I know this because the Audi dealers I have been to have been cool and I ask them if I have a TD1 and ask them to please avoid giving me one.

BTW, I had an APR exhaust before I went to the Eurocode/Milltek resonated, have ridden and drove in cars with other exhausts, and this combo is the best I have heard IMO. If your state does only OBD testing there is a way to pass without Cats. Good luck.

Awesome. I'm going in the morning to hopefully buy one. My county doesn't have smog yet just physical/drive inspections. For my 25k service I'll ask the service guys and see how they deal with aftermarket parts. I've never rode in one but listened to lots of YouTube and really think the euro/milltek sound the best by far