New to the TT realm! Best Performance upgrades to start with?

[BigDaddyDoty]

I am buying a 2008 Audi TT Roadster which is pretty stock, what upgrades do you suggest first? What BRAND should I go with? Looked at Ultronic & APR chips, what's your guys take?

The basic question, where do I go from here?

ECU
TCU
Cold air
Other things I'm not thinking of?

[cschuster]

Stage 1 ECU from anyone, really. 50 extra horsepower makes a huge difference. I don’t think an intake is worth it below stage 3 unless you like the sound. Handling wise, a rear sway bar gets rid of some understeer.

I went with IE - mostly because you can tune from home (no labor charge like APR), and I can use the cable on multiple cars. Very happy at stage 2 ECU and TCU.

[BigDaddyDoty]

Got the TT home finally! A lot of stuff done to it so far. Full detail in and out! Switched the rims off the S4 and did APR Stage 1 ECU. The TCU will be getting stage 1 on Monday. Been questioning, should I get the Dongle that connects to the iPhone App? I am not a tuner by any means!

The next question is car audio. I like the Xtron units but have heard some no so good reviews. Looking for good no-touch calling, which would be the main focus (I'm a Realtor and spend 75% of my day driving) So any good reviews? or a thread already on the subject?

My Audi TT.jpg

[dubgli]

I'm not a big stereo/car audio person, but I have been extremely happy with my Xtrons.

I'm not really sure what else to ask for in a car navigation/ head unit. It has all the features and provisions you would need.

I bought mine used for less than $200 so it's hard to beat that. I think new is 300? 400?

A big requirement aside from hands free is to have a volume knob. I'm not fond of an all touch screen only unit.

- dubgli

[ryan.carver]

@dubgli
On the Xtrons unit. Does your model work correctly with the steering wheel controls and provide information to the DIS? I watched a YouTube video that said these things stop working. And, that would be a no-go for me.

[dubgli]

@dubgli
On the Xtrons unit. Does your model work correctly with the steering wheel controls and provide information to the DIS? I watched a YouTube video that said these things stop working. And, that would be a no-go for me.

Steering wheel controls work perfectly.

What information in the dis? Let's just say, I haven't noticed anything missing on the dis that was enough to bother me. It shows radio stations, sd card music, all the other normal stuff.

Come to think of it, BT streaming music might just show "bluetooth" or something like that. I'll have to check what navigation does, I just use android auto so I'll have to pay attention next time.

For the price, I think it's worth it. Getting my reverse camera installed probably next month or first thing Jan.

- dubgli

[dubgli]

Updates:

So this thread inspired me to drive for a week without android auto and pay closer attention to the dash.

Here is what I learned,

1) steering wheel controls work

2) bluetooth streaming music just shows up as bluetooth on the dash. Comparing to the fact that you couldn't even stream music with the stock unit, I'm okay with this.

3) sd music just says SD on the dash and shows the song timer. No song information.

4) navigation is completely separate now, doesn't show anything on the dash

5) the oddest one of all, I lose my radio presets every 2-3 days. I don't ever use the radio so I'm fine with it, but I'm just curious as to why. Some threads say that my power wires are reverse and everytime I shut the car off it will forget the presets. But mine resets randomly every 2 or 3 days, not related to when I shut the car off. On top of that, I only have one power wire, so nothing to swap. Puzzled - any inputs?


Back to auto android for now.

- dubgli