Audi RS Q3 Tuning

"I appreciate you reading my Audi RS Q3 tuning guide."

We loved the Q3 and were impressed with the SQ2 and we got so excited when Audi announced an RS Q3 versions.

Thankfully we were not dissapointed and to be realistic, Audi have thrown upgrades in all the areas we'd like to improve, so RSQ3 is for those wanting to take everything up to the next level and with the exception of a remap, it's going to be an expensive journey.

A car as big and heavy as the RSQ3 shouldn't be this quick and fun to drive, it even beats high performance supercars on the track proving to be a very capable vehicle.

The RS Q3 is a good car tuning project to try. Sit down first and research RS Q3 tuning to save yourself making the usual disastrous mistakes we frequently .

See our video which covers all the principles of tuning your Audi.

Handling/Suspension upgrades

Improving the handling for car enthusiasts first priority in your RS Q3 tuning project.

Brakes on the RSQ3 are fantastic, the 8 pot calipers really help you peel off the speed and you'd have to look at Lamborghini or Porsche carbon ceramic brakes to better this.

Good suspension tweaks that greatly improve handling for the RS Q3 include a couple of degrees negative camber and 1-1.5 degrees of toe in or out on the front wheels. Toe in for stability, or Toe out to improve cornering. It would also pay to improve the brakes, by adding larger discs and or higher friction pads., but in our opinion Audi have done a fine job.

We would just say the suspension is a little harder than perhaps it could be but this does help the handling.

Drop the car optimally somewhere in the region of 22mm - 38 mm. and fit performance stiffer dampers, bigger drops will need other modifications in most instances.

Turning our attention to the engine we need to get a bit more power out of the top end.

To be completely frank and honest, on the more modest engine sizes you are wasting your time spending money on modifications, so if this applies to you get yourself an engine swap then apply the following mods.

Power mods.

These mods modifications are usually installed by our members, decide how far you want to push your car before you start.

• 2480 cc I5 turbo CTSA 306 hp@5200–6700 310 lbft@1500-5200  - 2013-14
• 2480 cc  I5 turbo CZGA 335 hp@5300–6700 332lbft@1600-5300  - 2015-2016
• 2480 cc I5 turbo CZGB 362 hp@5550–6800 343 lbft@1625-5500 - 2016

Getting the best modified upgrades for your planned usage of the car is essential. Stage 3 motor sport parts just won't work well on the road difficult in stop start traffic.

Please watch our video which covers the 5 principles of tuning your car. Be sure to keep up with our latest YouTube content and subscribe.

Best Engine Mods for your car

1. Engine Tunes - engine tuning/remapping provides the most advantage in terms of cost savings,  aftermarket ECUs, and piggyback ECUs are all alternatives.
2. Fast road cams are one of the most significant mechanical changes, but they must be installed by someone who knows what they're doing and they are not always easy to source but you might find a local firm to regrind a stock camshaft.
3. Intake and Exhaust - Note that on their own these mods will NOT ADD POWER in most cases, but they can help enhance power after other mods by removing the restriction.
4. Upgrades to turbochargers and superchargers - forced induction is the most efficient approach to increase air supply, allowing you to burn more fuel and make more power. It is one of the most costly upgrades but provides the best gains.
5. Head work - The goals of porting and flowing the head are to get air flowing into the engine while removing flow restrictions and turbulence.

Typical stage 1 mods often include: Alloy wheels, Engine Tunes/Remapping, Suspension upgrade (drop 22mm - 38 mm.), Panel air filter, Lighter flywheel, Sports exhaust.

Typical stage 2 mods often include: high flow fuel injector, Ported and polished head, Fast road cam, Power/Sport clutch, fuel pump upgrades.

Typical stage 3 mods often include: Competition cam, Internal engine upgrades (pistons/head/valves), Engine balancing, Sports gearbox, Adding or upgrading forced induction (turbo/supercharger).

You really need to keep as much low end torque as possible and aim for a long power band across the rev range rather than a narrow top end power spike.

The whole aim of our tips is to give a starting base of car tuning mods and point you in the right direction, our forum is where you can ask for more detailed advice and tips on your customized car project, the best performance upgrades and all aspects of modding cars.Fast road cams offer one of the biggest bhp gains for your money as far as a stand alone tuning modifications goes on a NA (naturally aspirated) engine.

The intake & exhaust valve durations play a huge role in your cars power band, but be careful here, getting this wrong can upset the idle and make the car difficult to drive in traffic. You'd need to follow a camshaft upgrade with other mods and finish with a tune/remap for the best performance gains.

When pushing up the power you will need to look at to the fuelling. More power needs more fuel.

If you find you experience flat spots and surges after your modified mods you should check the fuelling and try a higher octane fuel as well. Increasing the injectors is another beneficial modification and will deliver sufficient fuel.

If you are increasing your fuelling with bigger injectors you will also need to get a bigger fuel pump to supply it.

Intake and Exhaust Tuning.

Breathing mods are usually next up. Please note that WE DO NOT SEE IMPROVEMENTS WITH INDUCTION KITS, unless you have tuned your car massively and are finding that the standard air intake has become the bottleneck.

For most RS Q3 engines TorqueCars would suggest you just go with a washable panel air filter. On heavily tuned engines and turbo vehicles an induction kit will help release the power providing you address the problem of needing cold air.

Sports exhausts can help balance the flow of gases through the engine. But if your exhaust pipe is too big, ie: over 2.5 inches bore, you will lose much of the exhaust flow rate and end up lacking power and torque.

Polishing and porting the head will allow you to maximise your air/fuel charge. Leave this to a professional though with a proper flow bench and machine tools Your clutch can lose you loads of power as the power goes up if it starts to break and the standard clutches are only ever good for power gains of up to 45%. Fit an uprated clutch to avoid power loss through the transmission. The best mods that we recommend for your RS Q3 are fast road camshaft, remap, induction and exhaust, suspension.

Turbo engines are just pleading to be remapped. You will see phenomenal power gains on most modern turbocharged cars including diesels making a tune/remap one of the most cost effective and phenomenal modifications for your money.Despite the large cost involved adding forced induction to a NA (naturally aspirated) engine will give large power gains. Turbos are usually harder to add than a supercharger. Turbos provide boost in increasing proportion to th engine speed and this can make mapping difficult.

The nice proportional boost and rpm characteristics of the supercharger make them simpler to map. To cope with forced induction you will usually need to decrease the compression ratio of the engine .

Alloy wheel upgrades.

Because alloys are lighter they improve performance and they help to cool the brake disks. We can't go into too much detail here about tires but they are how the car puts the power down on the road so are a critical choice. directional tread pattern tires work well on RS Q3, and make a big difference over budget tires. The downside to large alloys on your RS Q3 is that you're altering your effective final drive ratio and this will have a negative effect on performance.

With this in mind we would advise sticking to a maximum wheel size of 19 inches, although we know some of our members have gone larger than this with no problems.

If you would like to know more, or just get some friendly advice on Tuning your car please join us in our friendly forum where you can discuss RS Q3 options in more detail with our RS Q3 owners. It would also be worth reading our unbiased Audi tuning articles to get a full grasp of the benefits and drawbacks of each modification.

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This article is flagged for an update, so please pass on specific tips below that I can include. All articles, and content was written by me, Waynne Smith TorqueCars founder. Some outlines are just too general so I appreciate your feedback and suggestions. This entry was filed under Audi. You can leave a response below or join our forum to discuss this article and car modification in detail with our members.

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