i hear lots of talk about shift kits for the a4's. What do these do? Do they change the shift points or something?

 

they firm up the shifts, supposedly increase tranny life (depends on your situation), and not sure if they change shift points, if you got a 4th gen, i think you gotta reprogram it to change the shift points

 

It depends on which brand you buy as to what it does. If you buy a B&M, prepare for rediculously hard shifts. If you buy a TransGo, you get the option to adjust the shifts to your liking, and the kit itself is setup to fix many of the 4L60-E's quirks.