Thought this could be an interesting topic for any new comers.
Im not 100% sure what its all about myself so ill let the experts chime in.
basically it’s a new initiative from Audi. Historically if your car had a problem, and was tuned, your dealer knew, but Audi didn’t. Then your dealer would make a request to Audi Warranty for clearance on reimbursement under warranty and Audi would either say ‘sure’ or ‘we need to see it ourselves’ and send someone in. I believe that would only be a massive bill or a suspicious situation where Audi felt the need to protect itself. In most cases it worked out for the car owner, but once in a while they would evaluate the damage and say ‘sorry, we’re not paying’. i.e. over-revving the engine causing internals damage etc. That happened to someone on AZ.
Nowadays, in order to submit a work order for a warranty reimbursement, the car must have been scanned before hand, and the new scan system automatically uploads to Audi. If there’s an ECU tune on the car, Audi can see that straight away and will flag the car as TD1, which is their code for a car with a modification that thus voids the car’s powertrain warranty. Bring it in for window regulators? No problem. Bring it in for anything touching the powertrain? Expect a fight.
While your dealer could, in the past, look the other way (or be too dumb to know you were tuned/modded), now it’s out of their hands, so the guys who say ‘my dealer is cool/modfriendly’ don’t have that to fall back on anymore. ECU tune is the only part that Audi can see from the scan, but supposedly exhaust, intake, short shifter even are grounds for partial warranty void.
All I want to know is what the specified vs. actual test is that the system is doing to check for ECU modifications.
I would assume that Audi/VW is not going to easily divulge that information but maybe someone knows someone on the inside that could give some insight?
I’m not overly worried about all of this garbage but it would be interesting to know.
could be something as simple as file size. To the byte.
This TD1 issue has made me rethink doing anything to my car for the foreseeable future. It seems (if people are being honest) the warranty claims on a tuned car are now pretty much black and white as far as Audi is concerned and the tuners just got their asses handed to them on claims of invisible tunes.
I have gone from modding to now leaving it stock and searching for a project car to build and have fun with.
I can see both side of the argument but believe there should be some middle ground. It would be nice if Audi came right out and said what mods would nullify what parts of the warranty. That said I have also seen many people abuse the “warranty” for self inflicted problems and openly and knowlingly being deceptive to the manufacturer.
well the tune should void the engine warranty…I agree with them there. I don’t like it but I understand. That’s the one mod worth doing on most cars, so the buck kinda stops there unfortunately.
Cant agree more. Like you i dont like it… but i understand it.
This brings something else to light. IF your going to get a tune on your car, warranty or not, Its REALLY important NOW more then ever that tuners actually TEST their tune on their OWN cars like JHM.
Look at the cars PES / VF / All other failed S/C tuners fucked up trying to figure out their tune with customer cars who got those fuckup’s fixed under warranty.
Those fucktards are the ones who ruined it for the rest of us.
edit also puts a new light on “custom tunes”. If your going to take the risk and go TD1 … custom “jobber” tunes would be something to avoid for sure!
what’s a custom jobber tune?
french term… meaning a nobody tuning cars in their basement.
a BENsti tune would be a cutom “jobber” tune.
Maestro would be another DIY type tune although there is not as much playing around there.
Should be interesting to see how the tuners respond. I would be interested in knowing how this has affected sales over the last few months.
I also believe that stasis’ current model if they have to cover every little thing that comes up is not sustainable. I also wonder if they take out insurance against catastrophic failure on say their R8 supercharger setups.
Sadly i predict that anyone with problems caused by warranty and a tune on new cars will be left out in the cold.
Audi will say you voided your warranty by tuning
Tuners will says “you should have known this would void your warranty”
Even the ones who claim they had undetectable tunes will shit the bed.
Like you said even if stasis DID have insurance B7 S4 engines are about 15-18k for a long block, newer S4’s must be in the same range and R8 engines must be in the 20k range. Wont be long until the insurance company tells Stasis to go fuck a hat. Any customer after that will be shit out of luck.
again just what im thinking will happen.
Bottom line is i hope ALL customers get a proper settlement.
Is there any way to “cloak” the JHM tune? Or would it be wise to just buy the cable (RS4) so you could flash back to stock prior to having any work done? I am assuming there is no stored history of different flashes, right?
there is a flash counter I believe