Audi Q3 Tuning

"Thanks for reading my Q3 tuning guide."

The Q3 is a great addition to the Audi portfolio and proves to be a very capable SUV. It offers stunning performance and handling, boasts great build quality and offers many practicalities that the similarly sized A3 doesn't.

From a tuning point of view it is a great car to work from with some excellent engine options from Audi.

1.4L TFSI I4 (replaced with the 1.5 TFSi), the very powerful 2.0 TFSI I4 and a couple of very refined clean burning diesels namely the 2.0 TDI diesel I4 and the larger 2.5 TFSI I5.

Let's take a look at engine mods and handling improvements for the Q3 in our tuning guide, we have also written some detailed engine specific guides for many Audi engines and are frantically adding more.

The only thing holding you back in your Q3 project is time, money and your imagination If you do your planning then you can create an awesome Q3 but don't be fooled there are lots of sports upgrades out there that will simply not suit it read our unbiased guides first.

Handling/Suspension upgrades

Improving the handling for lots of DIY modders first priority in your Q3 tuning project.

If you set the toe out to around 1.5 degrees on the front, and add slight negative camber then cornering will greatly improve.

Drop the car by as much as 21mm - 31 mm and fit sports stiffer dampers, bigger drops will need other modifications in most instances.

The standard Q3 suspension setup is actually generally pretty good and well thought out, especially on the sline models.

Our aim in Q3 engine tuning should be to increase peak power and Torque at the top end.

The best power gains come from larger engine sizes. The more you start with the bigger the return on investment so engine swaps are good value mods for small engined cars.

Power mods.

This list of the stages and sports parts are usually fitted by our members, decide how far you want to go before you get going.

We have a detailed guide for the following engine

2.0 TFSI tuning guide

More will be added in due course.

Getting the correct grade of uprated parts for your planned usage of the car is essential. Stage 3 competition upgrades just won't work well on the road hard to control in slow traffic.

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Stages of Tune

Stage 1 mods: Alloy wheels, Lighter flywheel, Remap, Panel air filter, Sports exhaust, Suspension upgrade (drop 30-40mm).

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

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

Peak power is nice in motorsport but for a drivable and fun car you need a long power band and perhaps extending the rev range.

The whole point of our hints is to give a little insight into the world of modifying upgrades and point you in the right direction, our forum is best place to go if you need more detailed advice and tips on your modified car project, the best tuning parts and all aspects of modding cars.One of the biggest mechanical tuning upgrades you can do on your NASP engine is to fit a fast road cam .

The exhaust and intake durations play a large part in your cars power band, but be careful here, getting this wrong can upset the idle and make the car hard to drive in traffic. You'd need to follow a camshaft upgrade with other mods and finish with a performance chip to fully realise your gains.

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

If you find you get flat spots and power surges after your performance parts you should check the fuelling and try a higher octane fuel as well. Higher capacity injectors will enable you to supply sufficient fuel to the engine.

Intake and Exhaust Tuning.

The next area for modification is the intake and exhaust. Induction kits only help to add power if your air intake is restricted!

If you have heavily modified your engine and it's need for air INCREASES DRAMATICALLY then an induction kit is the answer and will help remove this restriction.

For most 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 supplying cold air.

Sports exhausts equal out the flow of air through the engine. But if your exhaust pipe is too big, ie: over 2.5 inches bore, you will lose a lot of your flow rate and end up losing power and torque.

Getting a professionally flowed (ported and polished) head with larger valves can fully release the engines power. In nearly all cases of Q3 tuning your clutch will start to suffer and this needs to be uprated - read our article on clutches for more information. The best mods we recommend for your Q3 are a remap especially on a turbo, a fast road camshaft and sports exhaust, with a good air intake.

Remaps offer large power gains on all turbo charged cars. On NASP engines the benefits are doubtful. However a remap on a NASP engine will help unleash the potential if you have done a lot of mods.

We've also come across some owners experimenting with twincharging conversions and making some impressively high power gains.

The most phenomenal power gains for NASP engines usually involve the addition of forced induction. Superchargers are usually easier to add than turbos. Turbos increase power in increasing proportion to th engine speed and this can make mapping difficult.

The nice directly proportional boost and rpm characteristics of the supercharger make them easier to map. Adding forced induction will often require a lower compression ratio or water injection.

Handling/Suspension upgrades

Handling modifications are often a priority for the Q3.

Setting a tiny bit of negative camber at the front and a few degrees of toe out, will dramatically improve your Q3 in handling and cornering.

We would go to a maximum drop of 30mm - 35 mm on most models. You risk rubbing on the arches if you go lower than this.

The S line suspension is a little harsh and there are many aftermarket suspension options that are superior.

Alloy wheel upgrades.

Because alloys are less heavy they improve performance and they help to cool the brake disks. The downside to large alloy wheels on your Q3 is that you alter your effective final drive ratio so this will have a negative effect on performance.

Although some people have fitted larger wheels without problems we would stick to a 18 inch rim size as the maximum but we prefer the drive you get on 17's.

There is a more updated version of this Audi Q3 Tuning article on TorqueCars.com.

For more information on Tuning your car please join us in our friendly forum where you can discuss Q3 options in more detail with our 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.

We need your help improving this article, so please send us your feedback in the comments box below and pass on any tips, points or facts we have wrong or have not covered.

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