[ckrieg]

I've been going back and forth on what I should tune my car with and have yet to come to a decision. I do really like the warranty that the MPPK and Dinan offer, but I feel a little greedy for more power and less cost that the JB4 offers.
I have had a bad experience with a poor tune on a Subaru that blew up the motor, so I'm a little hesitant to consider BMS' products. (it's was not a BMS tune that I had on the Subaru, obviously)

Here's a little survey to see what kind of results people are having with their tunes. I'm most curious about the JB4 tunes and if anyone has had problems.

If you have or havn't had a good/bad experience, leave it the comments for myself and others to read.

[Jeff@TopGearSolutions]

When people ask which tune I usually ask what do you intend on doing with the vehicle after the tune, if anything?

As you may or may not know, when you lock yourself into a flash tune like Dinan, you can't sell it down the road and you need to continue with their software for any future modifications. You also limit yourself for expansion.

BMS, historically, is a great tune and they specifically cater to BMW's and they are constantly pushing the platforms. I would stay with BMS personally.

[mike@x-ph.com]

When i used to have an F30, i used the BMS tune .
Amazing product

[cryptz]

I just went with this:

http://www.vividracing.com/catalog/2...150784821.html

they claim 61 hp, I honestly haven't been to a dyno with it. I suspect its probably really somewhere between bms stage 1 and the jb4 stage2. the reason I went with it over the jb4 was its just 3 wiring harnesses and you don't have to splice the can wires which supposedly 1 guy on here got busted for.. I had heard not so great things about vivid but I read through a Nissan gtr post where one of their employees named james made right on the OPs concern. when I contacted vivid about the product I ended up by chance with james and he responded to probably 13 of my emails so I really have nothing bad to say but everyone's mileage will vary..

edit:

the gains are pretty significant I will add but again no dyno. no regrets either though

[Krelle]

The less sensors you have control over the less control the tune has...
There is a reason why some tune has 6 connectors. (Those tuners also gives you warranty.
Just a thought
/Krelle

Originally Posted by cryptz

I just went with this:

http://www.vividracing.com/catalog/2...150784821.html

they claim 61 hp, I honestly haven't been to a dyno with it. I suspect its probably really somewhere between bms stage 1 and the jb4 stage2. the reason I went with it over the jb4 was its just 3 wiring harnesses and you don't have to splice the can wires which supposedly 1 guy on here got busted for.. I had heard not so great things about vivid but I read through a Nissan gtr post where one of their employees named james made right on the OPs concern. when I contacted vivid about the product I ended up by chance with james and he responded to probably 13 of my emails so I really have nothing bad to say but everyone's mileage will vary..

edit:

the gains are pretty significant I will add but again no dyno. no regrets either though

[RoundelM3]

Originally Posted by Jeff@TopGearSolutions

When people ask which tune I usually ask what do you intend on doing with the vehicle after the tune, if anything?

As you may or may not know, when you lock yourself into a flash tune like Dinan, you can't sell it down the road and you need to continue with their software for any future modifications. You also limit yourself for expansion.

BMS, historically, is a great tune and they specifically cater to BMW's and they are constantly pushing the platforms. I would stay with BMS personally.

Jeff, that's not entirely true about Dinan. First of all, they don't offer a flash tune for the F30. Secondly, if you have Dinan on an E9x or previous model, there is no "lock-in"; you can have the car flashed back to "stock" software and go from there with whatever no-warranty tune you want - Cobb, Burger, Procede, etc. You can't sell anyone's true flash tune, like Alpina or Eurosoft, so that's not Dinan-specific. Dinan's new D-Tronics piggyback has yet to be proven, but it includes updates for (8AT) transmission and chassis settings as well, and it is covered by their parallel warranty. Caveat Emptor.

[cryptz]

dont the new f series (and possibly older, f series is my first bmw) have flash counts though? to me that makes using a flash based tune a bad idea because you are incrementing that counter for the dealer to see.

[M-Powa!]

I'm overall still a little lost on the BMW tuning world at least for the F30. It seems like the e90 had way more stuff. I know for VW/Audi that we had companies like APR, GIAC, and REVO. Besides Dinan and COBB all the other companies seem like shop run tuning companies. They also seem less complex because from my understanding "tunes" like the berger and AFE ones just intercept the signal and fool the ECU. How well is it really implemented into the car? Won't the dealer see that the car is running out of the stock parameters? Also how reliable is the tune.

At the moment the only tune I would run is the MPPK one. IMHO a little expensive for 20hp though. I would really love to run a COBB tune but seems like they are having issues getting a setup made for the F30 n55.

[cryptz]

the management of the engine is encrypted so not just anyone can make a flash. i saw in the m4 forums that a company claims to have beaten the encryption but the flash process somehow takes 2 weeks (its almost like they have to brute force something) and they still need your car for 2 days after they have your dme for 2 weeks??

a piggy back intercepts all signals (that it is connected to) going to the ecu so the values are within range of normal. the piggy back in turn "over drives" the engine by basically having the engine increase things that it doesnt know its increasing. i honestly dont even know if the piggy backs other than the jb4 increase boost, at some point they cant unless they have a waste gate connection, but it would be like the ecu being capped at 14psi and you tell it its at 12 when its really at 14 and wait until it hits 16 to tell the ecu its at 14.. i am assuming most piggy backs can increase the boost a little without a wastegate connection but i am not sure.

i was told that the only real value the ecu could see that would indicate a tune is speed since the stock ecu is speed limited and always seeing the real speed but i am not aware of any piggyback that overrides the speed limiter.

[M-Powa!]

Originally Posted by cryptz

the management of the engine is encrypted so not just anyone can make a flash. i saw in the m4 forums that a company claims to have beaten the encryption but the flash process somehow takes 2 weeks (its almost like they have to brute force something) and they still need your car for 2 days after they have your dme for 2 weeks??

a piggy back intercepts all signals (that it is connected to) going to the ecu so the values are within range of normal. the piggy back in turn "over drives" the engine by basically having the engine increase things that it doesnt know its increasing. i honestly dont even know if the piggy backs other than the jb4 increase boost, at some point they cant unless they have a waste gate connection, but it would be like the ecu being capped at 14psi and you tell it its at 12 when its really at 14 and wait until it hits 16 to tell the ecu its at 14.. i am assuming most piggy backs can increase the boost a little without a wastegate connection but i am not sure.

i was told that the only real value the ecu could see that would indicate a tune is speed since the stock ecu is speed limited and always seeing the real speed but i am not aware of any piggyback that overrides the speed limiter.

Ahh that helps clear it up. I guess even if they were to make cracking the encryption any easier I still wouldn't bother with flashing the ECU. Considering what you said about the flash count I wouldn't want to be stuck with any one particular tune.

[ckrieg]

Bump for more poll results

[Revms1]

Anyone running Dinan's Dtronics yet that can comment on the results?

[ckrieg]

So far, this is the only person that I've read of having had the D Tronics Dinan tune installed, this is what they said:

Originally Posted by tsims619

First impression: I thought I wasted my money when I first drove off the lot with this thing on. Doubted any changes in numbers, throttle response or any enhance performance period. Well it's been a week since I've had the dinan tune and yes fellow tuners it's butt dyno approve. I guess it took a little bit of learning curve on the computer for the tune to kick it but power delivery in all ranges is instant and you can definitely feel it pull in the high speeds. Always sucking me into my seat which I love. Feels like I have a new car again . Only downside which I'm not sure if it's the tune or how 335 are but first gear(sport auto) is jerky in sport+ as in not as smooth on acceleration as I would like it to be. Other than that no complaints. I will post dyno numbers as soon as I get a chance and hopefully I can get a baseline w/o the tune but the shop(HG Motorsport) has to call dinan to check how to retrieve oem map. Paid just a little more than what I would have for MPPK and with the significant difference in numbers it's an obvious no brainer. Noted that to each their own and everyone will have their opinion but I have also used jb4 when I had the 328 and liked it but not in love with it. The performance and not to forget the most important part maintaining the warranty was money well spent in my book.

Source thread: http://f30.bimmerpost.com/forums/sho...t=dinan&page=4

[tsims619]

Sorry guys I am not able to provide a dyno sheet but for now this is the best that I can provide. Please note that it could be better but I'm trying to find the sweet spot to launch it and minimize wheel spin which I am having trouble with. I initially intended to run a dyno comparo but my work schedule has been crunch and being in the military does not allow for me to take off leisurely. Best regards to everyone who always have their 2cents

[ckrieg]

I'm going to bump this for some updated results.

[mike@x-ph.com]

Originally Posted by ckrieg

I'm going to bump this for some updated results.

I have used the Jb stage 1 for couple years now, no problems at all
Planning on going FBO and getting the JB4 for my 328. Will let you know how it goes

[Fast400]

AC Schnitzer with no problems so far