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      11-22-2017, 12:00 AM   #1
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Newbie here with questions about mods :)

Hello fellow bimmer Drivers, I recently purchased my second beem (2014 428i f32), and I would like some advice/tips on my thoughts.

I just bought a BMS Stage 1 Tune chip and am planning to install it when it arrives in the mail. Any precautions I should take? Is it worth it? Will it damage my engine? Will it void my warranty? Is dyno necessary? (I barley know what that is)

I also would like to install the injen Air intake, but I've been told that it would have negative affects, because the Germans' intake is already so good.

I looked all over these forums and youtube to see a genuine review about the BMS stage 1 for the 428I n20 engine, but I couldn't really find any helpful threads or videos.

Don't mean to offend anyone due to my ignorance either, just looking for some friendly advice.
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      11-22-2017, 12:11 AM   #2
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Welcome! I am not the expert, but based on what I have seen and read, the air intake won't add anything but noise. The power in these cars are gained by tuning, which you already are doing. You can also try Bimmerfest, thought this site seems to have more tuner centric people. Good luck.
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      11-22-2017, 04:36 AM   #3
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There is one important thing that I have learned over many years of car ownership and adding performance products: there are usually consequences when deviating from stock, sometimes unintended and problematic.

BMW puts a lot of thought and experimentation into their designs, but there are a lot of competing demands: performance, cost, safety and environmental regulations, reliability, and profit are a few. They must compromise one area to satisfy another. Generally, BMW does a pretty good job maintaining performance with their compromises. However, when you modify your bimmer with a different component, you are making a change to one of BMW's compromises. Will it be a good change?

Sometimes enthusiast changes are benign, such as changes to appearance or improving the quality of a component. Charge pipes come to mind. BMW uses plastic charge pipes on many of its engines; probably as a way to save money. Unfortunately, they sometimes break off at the intake manifold. So many enthusiasts replace their plastic charge pipes with aluminium. These aftermarket pipes don't deviate much from the original design, so don't cause any problems that I'm aware of.

Sometimes changes introduce unintended problems. For instance, I ran into many unforeseen problems when I installed a supercharger into my E36 M3 many years ago. I installed a proven, well designed Dinan supercharger system. It added huge torque and power to my M3. I really enjoyed it and I don't regret adding it. I expected it to be problem free though because it was from a very respected aftermarket manufacturer. However, that was not the case; reliability suffered because I deviated from BMWs original design. The intake system would cause all sorts of idling and acceleration issues because the MAF is very sensitive to turbulence and over-oiled filters. It became very sensitive to the smallest vacuum leak, prone to heat soak, and silicone charge tubes would sometimes pop out unexpectedly. The power steering reservoir became almost impossible to check because of components in the way. There was much more, but you get the picture.

So, any time that you want to mod your bimmer, you should try to determine what the consequences will be. Will it affect your ability to pass emissions testing? Will it affect your warranty? Will it contribute to the failure of another component? Will it cause or contribute to ECU faults? Will it actually perform as advertised?

The best teacher is experience, but that is often at the cost of a lot of time and money. Getting information from the experiences of others from forums such as this is another good way to learn, as long as you understand that some people will pass themselves as more knowledgeable than they really are (post count is not a good indicator of experience), and the vendors here need to run their business.

You are correct in being concerned with changing your tune and intake. These changes will affect your warranty and (if applicable) your ability to pass emissions. In California, just about any changes to your tune and intake or exhaust systems will cause immediate emissions failure, unless the changes receive a CARB exemption. Many states don't have rigorous emissions testing, so check yours. Factory and aftermarket warranties will deny claims that are directly or indirectly caused by modifications. They will often attempt to deny claims that are not caused by modifications too, so be aware. The Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act provides specific consumer protections, but may require litigation to enjoy them.

Your BMW performs great from the factory, so don't modify it unless you are prepared to thoroughly research each mod and select those that meet your needs, you have enough money to throw at it, or if you feel lucky.
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      11-22-2017, 11:02 AM   #4
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Lots of good verbiage here in the advice.

Shorter words: unless specifically mentioned, any modification to a car's normal operation will have the potential to void your warranty, and cause it to fail some or all emissions testing. Dinan does the work to certify their tunes for emissions, but they have removed their warranty on at least their clip-on tune. I have no idea about BMS, JB and others.

Remember: manufacturers have to certify their engines for a number of years (2/24K for emissions, 8/80K for some federally mandated components), so they are pretty conservative in their factory tune. BMW has offered some certified Performance Packs (PPK) that add some HP/Torque, so the potential is there for a bit more.

There's a thread on another forum in the E46 section: guy has run dynos before and after installing a CAI, and proves that it actually hurt performance (that is a non-turbo older car.) YMMV.
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      11-22-2017, 08:02 PM   #5
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Quote:
Originally Posted by lkstaack View Post
There is one important thing that I have learned over many years of car ownership and adding performance products: there are usually consequences when deviating from stock, sometimes unintended and problematic.

BMW puts a lot of thought and experimentation into their designs, but there are a lot of competing demands: performance, cost, safety and environmental regulations, reliability, and profit are a few. They must compromise one area to satisfy another. Generally, BMW does a pretty good job maintaining performance with their compromises. However, when you modify your bimmer with a different component, you are making a change to one of BMW's compromises. Will it be a good change?

Sometimes enthusiast changes are benign, such as changes to appearance or improving the quality of a component. Charge pipes come to mind. BMW uses plastic charge pipes on many of its engines; probably as a way to save money. Unfortunately, they sometimes break off at the intake manifold. So many enthusiasts replace their plastic charge pipes with aluminium. These aftermarket pipes don't deviate much from the original design, so don't cause any problems that I'm aware of.

Sometimes changes introduce unintended problems. For instance, I ran into many unforeseen problems when I installed a supercharger into my E36 M3 many years ago. I installed a proven, well designed Dinan supercharger system. It added huge torque and power to my M3. I really enjoyed it and I don't regret adding it. I expected it to be problem free though because it was from a very respected aftermarket manufacturer. However, that was not the case; reliability suffered because I deviated from BMWs original design. The intake system would cause all sorts of idling and acceleration issues because the MAF is very sensitive to turbulence and over-oiled filters. It became very sensitive to the smallest vacuum leak, prone to heat soak, and silicone charge tubes would sometimes pop out unexpectedly. The power steering reservoir became almost impossible to check because of components in the way. There was much more, but you get the picture.

So, any time that you want to mod your bimmer, you should try to determine what the consequences will be. Will it affect your ability to pass emissions testing? Will it affect your warranty? Will it contribute to the failure of another component? Will it cause or contribute to ECU faults? Will it actually perform as advertised?

The best teacher is experience, but that is often at the cost of a lot of time and money. Getting information from the experiences of others from forums such as this is another good way to learn, as long as you understand that some people will pass themselves as more knowledgeable than they really are (post count is not a good indicator of experience), and the vendors here need to run their business.

You are correct in being concerned with changing your tune and intake. These changes will affect your warranty and (if applicable) your ability to pass emissions. In California, just about any changes to your tune and intake or exhaust systems will cause immediate emissions failure, unless the changes receive a CARB exemption. Many states don't have rigorous emissions testing, so check yours. Factory and aftermarket warranties will deny claims that are directly or indirectly caused by modifications. They will often attempt to deny claims that are not caused by modifications too, so be aware. The Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act provides specific consumer protections, but may require litigation to enjoy them.

Your BMW performs great from the factory, so don't modify it unless you are prepared to thoroughly research each mod and select those that meet your needs, you have enough money to throw at it, or if you feel lucky.

Wouldn't I just be able to unplug the chip and it would be like it was never there? and if you happen to know what a flash tune is, would I need to do this?


Thank you for all your help
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      11-22-2017, 09:06 PM   #6
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Quote:
Originally Posted by avivo View Post
Wouldn't I just be able to unplug the chip and it would be like it was never there?
Not if you damage the engine in the meantime by pushing it beyond its design limits.
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      11-23-2017, 12:00 AM   #7
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Congrats on the tune OP!

It is 100% safe, you do not need to do anything. Install it and enjoy

Get the Injen, it will sound and look great.
Wont cause any issues
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      11-23-2017, 10:26 AM   #8
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Quote:
Originally Posted by avivo View Post
Wouldn't I just be able to unplug the chip and it would be like it was never there? and if you happen to know what a flash tune is, would I need to do this?


Thank you for all your help
You know that the BMS Stage 1 isn't a chip, right? It is a piggyback harness that retrieves sensor data from the stock sensors, directs it to the harness CPU that sends the modified data to the ECU. It is the typical way that tunes for current model BMWs are shared because flash tunes are too hard to mass produce. And yes, you can easily revert to stock by disconnecting it. However, there will be costs associated with installing and uninstalling the harness if you are unable to do it yourself.

I strongly recommend that you research all that you can on this harness. I know nothing about it. You may find, like some JB4 owners, that it can cause malfunction codes. There is usually a simple solution to fixing these codes. Simple for those familiar with BMWs, I mean. For all others, it means a trip to the shop. As I mentioned earlier, you must be prepared to learn all you can about any particular mod, or be prepared to throw money at it.
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