Re: J.R. - 2003 Audi A4 1.8T
Posted: Sep Thu 03, 2009 5:39 pm
I just pulled my M3 trunk spoiler off...on purpose. I like it better without. Anyone want to buy it now?
K04 Initial Thoughts
I'm now rocking the K04-15 with a custom GIAC file written by Randy Weber at Autobahn Premier Services and Jeff Moss of The Torque Factory.
This particular file was written for a friend's car with the intention of pulling every last ounce of power from the K04 with specific modifications in the car. It would probably be considered an ultra-aggressive file. Later, the file was tweaked after they switched the car to ethanol for even more power gains. However, they got just north of 400ft/lbs of torque and punched a hole through both sides of the engine block...on a K04!
The file was written for 5280 elevation so they dialed me back just a snatch to make up for the 2000' elevation loss. The car is running so much better now from a simply operational standpoint. No more back-firing, slight bogging under heavy load, or issues starting.
The K03 was cracking badly so it was almost toast. The K04? This car's a hellion; wickedly quick! I actually have to work my clutch a bit differently due to the massively increased throttle response. Very fun, amazingly smooth power band, responsive as all get out, and should last the life of the car.
REVO K03 logs vs. GIAC K04 logs
*preface for the following: I am not making any judgement calls about chips, tunes and/or tuners. This may not be representive of other tunes and is ONLY my experience*
I was a bit disheartened when he shared the REVO K03 logs with me: fuel trims, requests vs. actual, lambda readings etc. The numbers were all over the place. Nothing was lined up or balanced well. The car ran fine, but it was pulling way too much timing, it was running WAY too rich, the grams were in an unacceptable range and and the trims for each injector were consistently inconsistent with each other. Lambda values were whack. I mean, it was really a mess. It's no wonder I was exhibiting some of the issues above.
After we got the K04 in with the GIAC file, the numbers were spot on and my trims are now HALF of what they were. I should see a huge jump in fuel efficiency. The car itself is running quite a bit smoother now too.
Needless to say, I'm much more confident with my GIAC file than my REVO file namely because 1) I never logged myself to see what was going on with the K03 file 2) I don't actually know who tuned the car originally or their level of experience and 3) It's a completely custom file written for my car so I know lots of personal man hours, research and logging with my setup has already taken place- with the exception of my FMIC vs. the original car's DSMICs, we are identical down the brand of modifications.
So happy driving!
I have always liked the GIAC files. The only other thing getting crazy reviews on the 1.8t is the new Eurodyne suite. It basically turns your stock ECU into standalone. 