S6 Coolant Dumped on Highway - APR Tuned

[hubris]

I thought I would share this since I have not heard of any similar issues on the forum. I share this story both to disseminate information about potential coolant issues (perhaps there is a trend?) and also to illustrate the work involved if you break down while tuned. I don't think the tune caused this mechanical failure, and my SA at Audi agreed.

I was using cruise control on the interstate, doing about 73-75 mph, when I received a dash warning that my coolant level was low - shut engine off and check coolant. The engine had not experienced any significant load for the last 30 minutes, all highway miles. I pulled onto the shoulder immediately and saw a steady stream of pink coolant running out! The coolant bottle was nearly empty. Oh boy. Mind you, I had an APR tune on the vehicle... so I couldn't simply have it towed to the dealer unless I wanted a nice TD1! The vehicle was towed to the local tuning shop (35 miles away, $185), de-tuned, and then towed to the Audi dealer (another 20 miles away). This ordeal took about 4 hours. Audi found that the clamp on the upper front radiator hose lost spring tension and required replacement. Awful odd. 24k miles on the car.

The experience was not a pleasant one and is making me reconsider having the car re-tuned any time soon. This is the second time I needed the tune removed in the last 2 months for the dealer to work on it. Other appt was for an oil temp sensor, both front wheel hub bearings, and a rear strut..... Now that is assuming you care about TD1. I do care, given how many warranty repairs have been performed in the short amount of time I have owned this vehicle, and seemingly none are related to the tune.

[mjfloyd1]

I don't see an ecu tune affecting radiator hose spring clamp tension. Seems like just a fluke issue. A pain to unfash and re flash but that's the choice that you made.

[Barritia]

This is why I went Unitronic. Remove the tune your self on the side of the road.

[flyfishing]

how does the unitronic work? i want a tune but dont want to wait forever for warranty to expire and dont want to void it!

[MadAboutCars]

how does the unitronic work? i want a tune but dont want to wait forever for warranty to expire and dont want to void it!

You flash it yourself from your laptop, but you still need a cable and an Internet connection. There is also a Velos Designwerks tune that uses a hand programmer and I don't think it needs an Internet connection. Your stock ECU software is stored in the device.

[Barritia]

As Mad says you flash it your self with a cable and laptop. I leave the cable in the car and have a surface pro on me at all times. I use my phones internet on the surface pro so can flash anywhere.

[VVG]

I thought I would share this since I have not heard of any similar issues on the forum. I share this story both to disseminate information about potential coolant issues (perhaps there is a trend?) and also to illustrate the work involved if you break down while tuned. I don't think the tune caused this mechanical failure, and my SA at Audi agreed.

I was using cruise control on the interstate, doing about 73-75 mph, when I received a dash warning that my coolant level was low - shut engine off and check coolant. The engine had not experienced any significant load for the last 30 minutes, all highway miles. I pulled onto the shoulder immediately and saw a steady stream of pink coolant running out! The coolant bottle was nearly empty. Oh boy. Mind you, I had an APR tune on the vehicle... so I couldn't simply have it towed to the dealer unless I wanted a nice TD1! The vehicle was towed to the local tuning shop (35 miles away, $185), de-tuned, and then towed to the Audi dealer (another 20 miles away). This ordeal took about 4 hours. Audi found that the clamp on the upper front radiator hose lost spring tension and required replacement. Awful odd. 24k miles on the car.

The experience was not a pleasant one and is making me reconsider having the car re-tuned any time soon. This is the second time I needed the tune removed in the last 2 months for the dealer to work on it. Other appt was for an oil temp sensor, both front wheel hub bearings, and a rear strut..... Now that is assuming you care about TD1. I do care, given how many warranty repairs have been performed in the short amount of time I have owned this vehicle, and seemingly none are related to the tune.

It was a coolant leak. Couldn't you just have told your dealer to fix the leak and not to scan your ECU? Whenever I go in for service, I specifically tell them not to do anything that will lead to an ECU scan, intentionally or unintentionally. So far, so good. I have thought about the tuning issue also. Moreso now that my car is starting to get few miles and things may start to go wrong, however, the car the drives SO much better with the tune. And it's not just about the absolute amount of power. I just find the overall throttle response, even in low speed driving to be vastly improved. I have gone back to stock mode on a number of occasions and I last about a week at most. No way I could go back.

[hubris]

It was a coolant leak. Couldn't you just have told your dealer to fix the leak and not to scan your ECU? Whenever I go in for service, I specifically tell them not to do anything that will lead to an ECU scan, intentionally or unintentionally. So far, so good. I have thought about the tuning issue also. Moreso now that my car is starting to get few miles and things may start to go wrong, however, the car the drives SO much better with the tune. And it's not just about the absolute amount of power. I just find the overall throttle response, even in low speed driving to be vastly improved. I have gone back to stock mode on a number of occasions and I last about a week at most. No way I could go back.

Yes, sometimes the dealer is agreeable to not scanning (such as when they performed my exhaust install, which was out of pocket). But given that this issue completely disabled the car, and the potential that there was a serious issue underlying, I think they wanted to be safe and have it clean when it came in. If it was something more than a clamp, I have heard in the past that they HAVE to perform GFS just to get warranty reimbursement. Not sure how true that is. But come to think of it, they have wanted to plug it in any time warranty work is done.

Oh yes, I wholly agree that the car is infinitely more enjoyable with the tune. As you said, it just improves general driveability and responsiveness. I am missing it already. I may just wait for APR's stage 2 release since we are thinking that may be awhile off. I'll also wait a couple weeks after the tune is released... you know, guinea pig update process and all

I don't see an ecu tune affecting radiator hose spring clamp tension. Seems like just a fluke issue. A pain to unfash and re flash but that's the choice that you made.

Sure, it seems to be a fluke issue since I have heard of nothing similar on this forum. And as I said I don't believe it was the tune, either. My SA at Audi and the tuning shop shared that sentiment. I just wanted to share so that others could fully consider potential implications of tuning with APR. I considered the implications prior to tuning, too - just didn't think I would have the vehicle serviced as often as has been necessary.

This is why I went Unitronic. Remove the tune your self on the side of the road.

In regards to Unitronic, Velos and some other companies offering at home tuning, that carries risks and benefits of its own. If the car is tuned, I will continue to stick with APR despite the inconvenience due to the significant budget, marketing and R&D that is invested into their products. The entire presentation gives me the perception that it is a more polished product. It is also the most widely used so there is some confidence in numbers.

[Barritia]

There's a lot of people running unitronic tunes. I have seen vastly less issues with my S6 tune than APR's. Infact I have not heard of one issue with the unitronic tune. There's so many company's who allow you to upload the tune your self that APR must be taking a massive hit in sales. I keep seeing them go on about software crashes and battery's going flat and it not completing correctly. I can tell you from personal experience they can't do anymore to fix these issues. In the honest truth unitronic can do more to fix them. My laptop crashed when I first done my tune. Stalled at 2% and car wouldn't start. Unitronic remotely connected to my car via my laptop and sorted the issue. APR can't do that. They can't do anything remotely. They need to get with the times and realize people want ease of use. No way I would deal with the hassle of driving to the dealer any time I feel the need to take my car into Audi.

[2000S4]

So you guys have had good luck avoiding TD1 with flashing the car back to stock?

[Packy]

That's why I'm not allowed to tune until warrantee is up (wife). At less than a year my DSG developed a leak and started shifting VERY hard and erratic. AOA had them send all kinds of pics since mine was the first apparently to have such a problem.
Causally, I said "I guess it's a good thing it wasn't tuned or this wouldn't be free". He told me correct.

15 months to go. counting down the days. LOL Saw a RS turbo conversion kit for $10k for 640hp... :)

Side note, the small issues on these things are quite annoying. I just had to have the gas door release replaced.

[Barritia]

So you guys have had good luck avoiding TD1 with flashing the car back to stock?

My cars been in a couple times now and no TD1 but I have removed the tune each time. It's in again soon fur it's next service. Tune will be removed then too.

[2000S4]

That's why I'm not allowed to tune until warrantee is up (wife). At less than a year my DSG developed a leak and started shifting VERY hard and erratic. AOA had them send all kinds of pics since mine was the first apparently to have such a problem.
Causally, I said "I guess it's a good thing it wasn't tuned or this wouldn't be free". He told me correct.

15 months to go. counting down the days. LOL Saw a RS turbo conversion kit for $10k for 640hp... :)

Side note, the small issues on these things are quite annoying. I just had to have the gas door release replaced.

What did they find wrong with the tranny?
My car is starting to develop some hard downshifts from 2-1 and sometimes jerks

[Dguth]

I don't see why APR doesn't offer a device where you can switch tunes on the fly. 93, 91 or go back to stock tune. Maybe they do but I'm just not aware. I come from the Jeep platform where you have the Diablosport device. You can load, upgrade and change tunes on the fly as well as use the device to watch critical vehicle diagnostics, log passes and even measure 0-60 and quarter mile times. Way ahead in my opinion versus this having to go back to a dealer for a flash. Ridiculous in today's technology abilities in my opinion and very far behind other tuner program capabilities.


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[LINDW4LL]

OP, it sucks to have to re-flash but better safe than sorry. I think it's bad luck that you've had to do it twice in two months.

Pro tip: it may be worth looking into a AAA membership. In addition to many other benefits, they offer a limited number of free tows. Prices vary slightly between states, but for WI/IL It's ~$90/yr for the "Plus" plan which gives you up to four (4) 100-mi. tows for free. The ~ $120/yr Premier plan gives you one (1) 200-mi. tow and up to three (3) 100-mi. tows.

It was a coolant leak. Couldn't you just have told your dealer to fix the leak and not to scan your ECU? Whenever I go in for service, I specifically tell them not to do anything that will lead to an ECU scan, intentionally or unintentionally. So far, so good.

That works fine for normal service, but it's been stated by some that dealers are required to scan the car before performing any powertrain-related warranty work, or else they will not be reimbursed by Audi.

[Barritia]

Nitro tire fill have a great warranty for stuff like tows.

[VVG]

I don't see why APR doesn't offer a device where you can switch tunes on the fly. 93, 91 or go back to stock tune. Maybe they do but I'm just not aware. I come from the Jeep platform where you have the Diablosport device. You can load, upgrade and change tunes on the fly as well as use the device to watch critical vehicle diagnostics, log passes and even measure 0-60 and quarter mile times. Way ahead in my opinion versus this having to go back to a dealer for a flash. Ridiculous in today's technology abilities in my opinion and very far behind other tuner program capabilities.


Sent from my iPhone using Audizine mobile app

You do know that APR does offer this, right? You can switch between multiple programs including bone stock, log data, and manage fault codes all through your smartphone. However, all this still requires your ECU to be "programmed". We are talking about removing all the programming from your ECU and returning it to the actual stock factory file so that the tune will completely be gone from the ECU memory.

[Dguth]

You do know that APR does offer this, right? You can switch between multiple programs including bone stock, log data, and manage fault codes all through your smartphone. However, all this still requires your ECU to be "programmed". We are talking about removing all the programming from your ECU and returning it to the actual stock factory file so that the tune will completely be gone from the ECU memory.

Did not realize this. Would like to get that option. I'll look into it. Thanks!


Sent from my iPhone using Audizine mobile app

[Packy]

What did they find wrong with the tranny?
My car is starting to develop some hard downshifts from 2-1 and sometimes jerks

It just had a leak. oil pan If I recall. when the fluid started getting low it wasn't generating enough pressure to maintain shifting. There is also another TCU update as well as a new ECU update. If yours isn't tuned tell them of the shifting issues and also complain about the throttle delays, lack of response and general lethargic powertrain. Also inquire about the climate control update. Don't know what it does, but there is one.