Need TCU asap! Ready to buy...

[lswing]

Apparently my mechanic got a bad chip or something went awry, but upon trying to remove the mtm chip to put the stock back in the board broke. Yea, bummer, any help appreciated!

I'll send the chip back to mtm and have it checked, maybe the wrong one? Mechanic has done many of these, but said after soldering in and plugging everything together the car was unresponsive...

[ben916]

um, that is kinda scary....

[JSRS6]

I bet he put it on backwards.

[ben916]

my MTM TCU chip is still in the package from PAT...
I am more referring to the breaking of the board....

[JSRS6]

Why haven't you installed it yet?

[marklar182]

Either he put it in orientated wrong, or he did not get the solder joints all secured.

I had the same problem when I installed my MTM chip, I just had to apply finger pressure to the top of the IC and hit all the pads again with the soldering iron.

The MTM chip install is NOT for novices. I work with electronics for a living and had issues. Surface mount IC + $1200 TCU = Recipe for disaster.

[JSRS6]

I'm still confused as to how you break a pcb while soldering...at most you pull up a contact if you are a retard(hangover style).

[lswing]

Shit, I know it's bad. He's done a lot of custom computer builds, don't know what exactly happened. Is there a way to put it on backwards, shouldn't the prongs line up? He said he soldered in the mtm, nothing, tried to pull it and f'd something up, have not seen the board yet. Mechanic is a friend who has a great shop, he said his impression was the mtm was doa....yea, now we are looking at about 1k roughly unless i can find one from a junker. Got a line on a car now, any help would be super appreciated obviously. The car was running so damn good too, I just wanted to tighten up the shifts, ah well, sh't happens.

All of you, no clue as to what he did to mess it up, will follow up tomorrow, input is very helpful, wouldn't have bought this car if it wasn't for this forum, thanks Erik and others!...I'm now driving an 90 or so Buick with crusted seats but it has a supercharger! Ridiculous....could I have got the wrong chip from MTM?????

[JSRS6]

The ic has the same number of contacts on each side. So you can put it on the wrong way.

[hahnmgh63]

You can't beat the price of letting Hoppen do it. And if they scew it up it's on them. I sent mine to Hoppen and when I got it back the tranny went into limp mode so I had to send it back and it worked fine on return. At least they honored their mistake and fixed it. All for the sum of $100 back 5 years ago.

[ben916]

if you look CAREFULLY at the chip, there is an orientation mark on the corner... it has to line up on the PC Board

http://i767.photobucket.com/albums/xx318/ben916_rs6/IMAG0606.jpg

in this photo of my MTM TCU chip, it is in the lower right side, kind of a small circle...

[JSRS6]

Yup^^^so why again is it not installed?

[ben916]

10- hup! No answer sir!

[V8weight]

Yup^^^so why again is it not installed?
If history has shown us anything (over 900 posts before actually buying an RS6), Ben likes to study up before diving into such big things....:)

[JSRS6]

Haha, true. But he did already buy it from you...

[MaxRS6]

If history has shown us anything (over 900 posts before actually buying an RS6), Ben likes to study up before diving into such big things....:)



^LOL- I heard during his time in the womb he researched whether to go with the right or left milk machine...he went with the bottle...;)

[JSRS6]

Randy, if I had been drinking milk a minute ago, it would have shot out of my nose! :lovl::lovl::lovl:

[lswing]

They had a TCU at Shoken, just ordered for $500, arrives Monday, Steve thanks for the offer just didn't hear back from you, plus it's good to have it for somebody else one day....I will try and get a picture of the way he put the chip in. Want the MTM chip but a bit scared to try this again. Think I'll get the car running for now and maybe send it off to Hoppen another day....

[marklar182]

Glad you found one.

Just to make sure, you did confirm the original TCU part # is the exact same as the one they are selling you correct?

If you are concerned with the install, test the new TCU and then send it to Hoppen for install.

[lswing]

Yep, confirmed the #, thanks, overnight shipping, back up and running Monday I hope!

[Elevens]

Sucks to have to part with 500 bucks just like that. But in this game of modding, I guess that's the way it goes sometimes. I'll probably be getting rid of my MTM TCU pretty soon, since I have a Viper TCU chip to install. But rather than Desolder the MTM chip and then Solder in the Viper chip I would rather Sell the MTM TCU for $75.00 + Stock TCU. And then Have Pat or maybe myself( after your disaster, I doubt it though) solder in the Viper chip. Anyway good luck with the mod this time around.......

[V8weight]

Sucks to have to part with 500 bucks just like that. But in this game of modding, I guess that's the way it goes sometimes. I'll probably be getting rid of my MTM TCU pretty soon, since I have a Viper TCU chip to install. But rather than Desolder the MTM chip and then Solder in the Viper chip I would rather Sell the MTM TCU for $75.00 + Stock TCU. And then Have Pat or maybe myself( after your disaster, I doubt it though) solder in the Viper chip. Anyway good luck with the mod this time around.......
Your car has to be getting pretty close to done right? Better get on that! Either that or I could just send you my tcu, and you could send yours back to me.

[lswing]

Sucks to have to part with 500 bucks just like that. But in this game of modding, I guess that's the way it goes sometimes. I'll probably be getting rid of my MTM TCU pretty soon, since I have a Viper TCU chip to install. But rather than Desolder the MTM chip and then Solder in the Viper chip I would rather Sell the MTM TCU for $75.00 + Stock TCU. And then Have Pat or maybe myself( after your disaster, I doubt it though) solder in the Viper chip. Anyway good luck with the mod this time around.......

Yep, it sounds a bit riskier than some people have made it out to be. Confirmed that the chip was put in correctly, not sure why it didn't register at all, the TCU never came online for VAGCOM. Mechanic has been building boards from kits for years and never a problem. He admits something could have gone wrong initially, you never know. I hope that it wasn't a bunk MTM chip. I'll contact Hoppen and see if they have a way of testing it. Apparently when he was removing the prongs to pull the mtm chip something caught and broke a connection, I'll take some pics next week.

That said, maybe in a few months I'll buy another TCU and send it over to Hoppen. You mention the Viper chip, why you switching over?

[hahnmgh63]

As I mentioned earlier I had problems with my first MTM chip or install from Hoppen the first time around and had to send it back to them to re-install. I asked Hoppen and they said at the time (about 5 years ago) that they had no way of testing them after the install.

[Elevens]

Yep, it sounds a bit riskier than some people have made it out to be. Confirmed that the chip was put in correctly, not sure why it didn't register at all, the TCU never came online for VAGCOM. Mechanic has been building boards from kits for years and never a problem. He admits something could have gone wrong initially, you never know. I hope that it wasn't a bunk MTM chip. I'll contact Hoppen and see if they have a way of testing it. Apparently when he was removing the prongs to pull the mtm chip something caught and broke a connection, I'll take some pics next week.

That said, maybe in a few months I'll buy another TCU and send it over to Hoppen. You mention the Viper chip, why you switching over?


Just sticking with one Tuner. Rich ( Viper Tuning) is very good in whatever he does whether it be ECU or TCU tuning. Nothing wrong with the MTM TCU chip though and is highly recommended. Pat is also running the Viper chip and is very impressed with it.........................

[lswing]

As I mentioned earlier I had problems with my first MTM chip or install from Hoppen the first time around and had to send it back to them to re-install. I asked Hoppen and they said at the time (about 5 years ago) that they had no way of testing them after the install.

Yea, wish I had some way to test it. I've always heard good stuff about the chip, my guess is something went wrong on the install.