Audi say my A6 is chipped but I didn't chip it

[CharlesElliott]

I took my 2012 A6 3.0 TDi in for a service yesterday. I've had the car for one year, bought as an AUC from an Audi dealer last Nov. It has a service plan and warranty.

Since I've had the car I've made a couple of minor changes with VCDS - needle sweep, enable green menu, and the MMI software has been upgraded. It hasn't been chipped/mapped by me at all. In fact, it hasn't been in a garage until the service.

The garage called me mid morning and asked if I knew the car had been chipped. I said no. They asked if they could overwrite it, and I said yes. I asked for more info about what they'd found. They called me back and said that it had been chipped and they really just wanted to let me know. I asked what they were telling me - that they wouldn't honour the warranty? That there was some other issue? They just kept saying that they just wanted to let me know. When I got it back, the 'fault' was in the immediate attention section and they hadn't reverted it. On the sheet that had the costings for optional remediation items, the chipping/tuning was on there but with no cost or option to fix.

I bought the car from a dealer. I haven't chipped it. So either it was chipped when I bought it and the selling dealer knew, or it was chipped and they didn't know, or the new dealer has made a mistake. But as they just plug it in and the computer flags it or not (I believe) it isn't really a dealer decision. I'm unhappy because I now don't know what state the car is in, what map is on it if it really isn't standard etc. There may be warranty implications.

I'm speaking to the servicing dealer tomorrow and will be asking for more info about what they found and if they can tell when it was done. To be honest I would be happy just to put it back to normal but I suspect it won't be that simple. If they can't revert it, I'd almost rather go out and buy APR or Superchips - at least I would actually know what was on it then.

Anyone has any experiences of this and what info they have been able to get?

Charles


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[fest0r]

I would strongly recommend you ask them not to restore or wipe anything until everything is resolved. If you can create a dialog between the current and selling dealership to sort the issue then that’s great, but if it’s wiped it will be much harder to prove it was chipped prior to purchase.

It’s going to depend on what they have found, but from what I have read the TD1 flag can also be applied manually at a technician’s discretion and not just by server checksum comparison. It was a while ago now, but a dealer tried to claim someone on here had misfueled their car and wouldn’t honour a warranty claim (might have been a fuel pump issue) until it was pointed out the car had a factory fitted misfueling device so they are more than capable of making a mistake.

If it is chipped then your claim will be with the selling dealer and an independent inspection and evidence might be required. Hopefully there is some way to date whatever evidence of chipping they think they have found.

You can pay the DVLA as the current owner for previous owner’s details so it might be worth trying to get any info from them. I realise they might not be forthcoming depending on circumstances, but it would greatly help your claim against the selling dealer if they admit to it being chipped while they owned the car.

[CharlesElliott]

The previous owner was an estate agent firm so I'll need to try and track down a name. I'm 99% certain that the first owner was Audi.

I spoke with the servicing dealer today, they said that they couldn't get any information about what update had been done and their equipment couldn't read anymore information. They were going to speak to the supplying dealer and see what they said (to be honest, the servicing dealer has been very good, chasing the supplying dealer on several things). I'm back in there in early Dec for some follow up work so I will try and speak to the Master Tech in person to understand more.

The only possible alternative I can think of is the MMI software and that the message is getting a bit lost in translation between tech and the person I'm speaking to. I did ask if they meant engine tuning and whilst she wasn't definitive, that's certainly the message she has. I wonder if their software has thrown up that they have a record of it having MMI software 770 but it now has 900 and that it wasn't registered with Audi central? But if that was the case, I wouldn't expect to see that flagged as 'engine tuning'.

[Q7quattro]

The previous owner was an estate agent firm so I'll need to try and track down a name. I'm 99% certain that the first owner was Audi.

I spoke with the servicing dealer today, they said that they couldn't get any information about what update had been done and their equipment couldn't read anymore information. They were going to speak to the supplying dealer and see what they said (to be honest, the servicing dealer has been very good, chasing the supplying dealer on several things). I'm back in there in early Dec for some follow up work so I will try and speak to the Master Tech in person to understand more.

The only possible alternative I can think of is the MMI software and that the message is getting a bit lost in translation between tech and the person I'm speaking to. I did ask if they meant engine tuning and whilst she wasn't definitive, that's certainly the message she has. I wonder if their software has thrown up that they have a record of it having MMI software 770 but it now has 900 and that it wasn't registered with Audi central? But if that was the case, I wouldn't expect to see that flagged as 'engine tuning'.

did you get the "chipped" issue resolved? If so what was the outcome in the end ?

[CharlesElliott]

No. Resolving the mechanical bits was rather drawn out for various reasons. The dealer seemed to try very hard but not actually know the process to get things resolved.

Am going to forget about the tuning and see what happens when it gets serviced next. Only really relevant if the engine blows up.

[Q7quattro]

Ok, thx

[Whippy53]

Another reason not to trust estate agents! On the evolutionary scale they're somewhere below the great apes and just above that green slime at the bottom of ponds.