03-22-2019, 09:16 AM | #1 |
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Flash review...long winded beware.
** This isn't an advertisement, or a sales pitch. I'm not affiliated. This is STRICTLY meant as a first hand product review for those interested in product and service. **
So a while back I bought a piggy back chip for my car. Aside from the fact that I constantly had a CEL for "exceeding fuel learning..bla bla..", and if I turned it up too high, it would throw me to limp mode (Just couldn't mash to the floor)... I was tickled to death with it. Or so I thought.... I started speaking with another member (Enabled) about his config, as the numbers really excited me. He put me onto Kermatdi. They recently released a flash tuning module for the 328d. He also explained that he had worked a lot with them on different parameters and tuning, and listening to those details, REALLY peaked my interest. After speaking with Kermatdi a bit, I decided to pull the trigger. The product is NOT a piggy back. It's a flash tuner like SCT, EDGE, or other similar products that plug in via ODB and actually modify the ECU. Currently they only offer one tune though, so you would have the option of basically turning it on or back off. SO the module shows up at my door, and when I go to do the install, it fails. I contact Kerma, and Jason is on it like white on rice. He has me try a couple of things, and they don't work. So he immediately sends me a new template to apply to the module. It's a new product, so I'm not pissed...bugs to be expected. But what IS important is the fact that there was immediate action taken. That speaks volumes. We continued to go back and forth with one thing after another failing. At this point, I won't lie. I was getting frustrated. Not due to the service, that was 5 star...hands down. But feeling like I had a paper weight on my hands. All the while ENABLED is telling me, "No worries, they will get you fixed." Which I was trying to optimistically believe. After a few more attempts, it was discovered that essentially I bought a Friday @ 5:00 car....that one pain in the ass version. It has a different ECU in it, than what is supposed to be for lack of better terms. Oh joy! Now what? I'm expecting to have to box it up and send it back. Nope.... Before I can even start to get irritated, they had contacted a local Diesel shop that had the equipment to do a bench flash to my specific pain in the rear ecu, and put me in contact with them. Within a couple of days, due to scheduling conflict on my part...the car was in, flashed, and out the door. The shop was a Kermatdi vendor, so they refunded some of the cost, as I no longer needed the loader module....it was slick and easy. The module: The hardware is a little rough. But again, it's a first iteration. I have absolutely no doubt that they will improve that pretty quickly. OR, since you pretty much use it then throw it in the glove box...maybe no one will care. But the software interface, what matters, is really nice. Graphics are good, it responds quick, and if you don't have a Friday car like me...should work REALLY well. Again, customer service is 5 star. I can't repeat enough how impressed I was with the response I got. The TUNE... Here is where the rubber meets the road. Here is where I can't state highly enough about the product. I haven't dyno'd the car. Not sure I ever will...who knows. But here are my observations after driving the car for three days. Eco Pro...no longer useless. Dull, mundane throttle response is gone. My eco pro now feels more like comfort mode when it comes to power. But I still have the benefits of eco pro mode. I don't find myself turning it off now. I usually average around 38-39mpg. Yea, I'm not a granny driver anymore in the car. I like to drive pretty spirited. My first partial fill up showed a calculated 42.65mpg. Blew my mind. I've been putting this car through it's paces testing it out...and I STILL pulled 42+?! I just filled up this morning again, so I will see what this round gives me. Especially after I calm it down a bit. The piggy back chip did have one thing that I preferred to some extent. When the boost hit, it was a power surge. And when you are doing a hole shot, I really like that. With this flash, the power is much more linear and deceiving. Not to mention that with the piggy back, all the power was down low and the car really gassed out quickly in the RPM's. Not now. It pulls hard straight up to almost 5k. The new power curve is much more usable, and versatile. One thing I never thought of, was having an EGT gauge to monitor the temps....and running a hot chip, might not be a bad idea. No more CEL's.... I've done WOT test pulls in ECO, Comfort, sport and sport+. Normally from 0-80. (reflecting back to that MPG above...??!!) So far not a single CEL, nor limp mode has been tripped. Which is nice to not have to look at that on the dash of your $50K car...lol. The engine just sounds better. It's not in my head. It's got a smoother, less grungee sound to it. I like it. Thanks to Enabled for a couple things. 1) Putting me onto this company which I had never heard of before to be honest... And of course this tune. 2) Talking me off the ledge of doing that EGR and DPF delete. This tune keeps everything factory, and legal, and I have the benefit of a quiet exhaust....not to mention my silver car doesn't have a black ass.... I will probably be adding more to this thread as the first month goes by. I'm planning on upgrading my intercooler, and that should improve things even more. (Even possible?!!) If anyone is interested: https://www.kermatdi.com/i-2459-bmw-...sh-tuning.html
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2016 Glacier Silver 328d Msport Xdrive wagon - Kerma Tune bench flashed - SOLD
2016 Alpine white 535d Msport - Kerma Tune, CF rear spoiler 1975 Corvette 496 stroker, ridetech suspension, ATSpeed R-man valve body TH400 - in progress. Last edited by graphicjunkie; 03-22-2019 at 11:03 AM.. Reason: added link to item |
03-22-2019, 10:42 AM | #2 |
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Very nice write up. This is a classic example why a remap is better than a tuning/piggy back box.
The only thing I would like to ask is why they did a bench flash? I thought all f30s can be flashed through OBD2. Is it because of your "weird" ECU? |
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03-22-2019, 10:45 AM | #3 | ||
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And just for reference, I went through a lot of frustration with JR/AAR when getting my flash tune from them (mainly with JR, the tuner, the vendor, AAR, was very responsive and excellent). Things like sending me the wrong HW not compatible with my ECU (even after sending them my VIN), no consistency in flashing HW (they no longer loan out flashing tools that work with LCI DDEs, which is BS), sending me broken HW (ethernet adapters that were DOA), and not knowing how their own SW works (I had to figure out that the SW only worked when connected to 2.4GHz WiFi and not 5GHz). I've been really disappointed with JR's after sales support and lack of responsiveness. I've been contemplating trying a different flash tune. Thanks for your writeup. I'll have to look into KermaTDI. For the record the three flashing tools I've used/tried are Alientech Kess v2, Bitbox, and Magic Motorsport Magic Pro. Only the Magic Pro worked for the LCI DDE. It's silly that JR/AAR no longer rent out Magic Pros, especially to existing customers. I tried to get a newer tune update in Jan/Feb and they sent me the Bitbox, which I learned doesn't work... Quote:
Last edited by FaRKle!; 03-22-2019 at 10:59 AM.. |
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03-22-2019, 10:48 AM | #4 |
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Sorry, I meant to specify that. The reason for the bench flash was simply that Kerma didn't currently have the version of software that supported my stupid one off version of the ECU. And the company that they put me in touch with, had the software to be able to bench flash it. So purely a time sensitive thing. Plus, my understanding is that it's extremely expensive to upgrade that software, and if I'm the only poor schmuck that has that version, that wouldn't be cost effective. So I don't blame them if they don't upgrade at all. But I imagine that eventually it will happen. I'm fine either way. Car is out of warranty, so I would never revert back to stock anyway.
As for the intercooler comment...I know it's possible to swap. It was meant more along the lines of possible to make the tune better.
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2016 Glacier Silver 328d Msport Xdrive wagon - Kerma Tune bench flashed - SOLD
2016 Alpine white 535d Msport - Kerma Tune, CF rear spoiler 1975 Corvette 496 stroker, ridetech suspension, ATSpeed R-man valve body TH400 - in progress. Last edited by graphicjunkie; 03-22-2019 at 10:56 AM.. |
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03-22-2019, 10:54 AM | #5 |
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They went as far as contacting BMW with my VIN and getting all the specific information about my car. That was when it was determined that it was a funky ECU with special requirements.
that sucks that you went through that with JR/AAR. Makes me glad that I didn't go that route, as it was one I was thinking about before. Again, I have absolutely NOTHING but praise for how these guys rolled this out, and how they handled the situation.
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2016 Glacier Silver 328d Msport Xdrive wagon - Kerma Tune bench flashed - SOLD
2016 Alpine white 535d Msport - Kerma Tune, CF rear spoiler 1975 Corvette 496 stroker, ridetech suspension, ATSpeed R-man valve body TH400 - in progress. |
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03-22-2019, 11:29 AM | #7 |
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I honestly don't know. It was something they derived at behind the scenes. I was just told that I did NOT have "xyz" as expected, because of my build date. And I could have that skewed...MANY phone calls....
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2016 Glacier Silver 328d Msport Xdrive wagon - Kerma Tune bench flashed - SOLD
2016 Alpine white 535d Msport - Kerma Tune, CF rear spoiler 1975 Corvette 496 stroker, ridetech suspension, ATSpeed R-man valve body TH400 - in progress. |
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03-22-2019, 12:40 PM | #8 |
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Does the Kermatdi kit increase hp/tq equally in all modes (eco, comfort, sport...) or mostly in Eco where it's more of an aggressive throttle map and not really an overall power/ torque increase?
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03-22-2019, 01:00 PM | #9 |
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Equally is not a correct description.
Eco = makes it much more drive-able. Better throttle response, a more power. Comfort = minimal if any turbo lag, better power, more versatile. Sport = crisper, more power, no turbo lag that I can recall at all. Sport+ = same. It's a notable difference in all settings.
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2016 Glacier Silver 328d Msport Xdrive wagon - Kerma Tune bench flashed - SOLD
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03-22-2019, 02:02 PM | #10 |
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He has DDE742 (Bosch EDC17C76) for the LCI versions.
Software/firmware is similar/nearly identical as the pre LCI, but BMW essentially reused the 6-cyl ecu from the N57 535d with software that runs the 4-cyl. I guess with diesels being phased out (thanks VW!), it was a cost savings motive.
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-2014 328d Wagon, 8HP. Self-tuned, 270hp/430ft-lbs.
-2019 M2 Competition MT, Alpine White. Self-tuned 560hp -2016 Mini Cooper S, MT. Many plans. Others: -E36 328is. 2000 Z3 Roady. 2003 VW Jetta TDI Manual. Estoril Z3M Coupe. Last edited by Enabled; 03-22-2019 at 02:11 PM.. |
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03-22-2019, 03:28 PM | #11 | |
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03-23-2019, 03:01 PM | #13 |
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I'm sure it will go smoother, they had done other 328's without the problems...and now they know the solution. Either way, you are absolutely going to love the results!
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2016 Glacier Silver 328d Msport Xdrive wagon - Kerma Tune bench flashed - SOLD
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03-23-2019, 05:17 PM | #14 | |
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03-23-2019, 05:26 PM | #15 |
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Yep, Magicmotorsport is the only device that came out with LCI ecu (DDE742) via OBD.
The other tuning device suppliers are likely working on it. This QPro+ device is an Alientech device very similar in operation to Kess. On the side, I am working on finding how to sideload the tunes via ENET and Esys, but that requires a lot more research on my part. There is a benefit to bench flashing, however... The dealer computer can't tell it has been flashed with other data. Any flash over OBD, the dealer will pick up.
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-2014 328d Wagon, 8HP. Self-tuned, 270hp/430ft-lbs.
-2019 M2 Competition MT, Alpine White. Self-tuned 560hp -2016 Mini Cooper S, MT. Many plans. Others: -E36 328is. 2000 Z3 Roady. 2003 VW Jetta TDI Manual. Estoril Z3M Coupe. |
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03-23-2019, 06:54 PM | #16 |
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My 2015 was built September 2014, so hoping for smooth sailing. I’ve had the car about 6 months so far, this is my first mod along with new wheels and tires. Not expecting this to drive like the N63 X5 I had before but I suspect this will be quite fun in its own way...
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03-23-2019, 11:13 PM | #17 |
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Jeff Robertson (Rocket Chip) in Pa also does tunes great guy
Both Jeff and Kerma were Big in the TDI world.....however I believe Dieselgate didn’t help business......but VW is now selling fixed but back cars so business could improve! Last edited by Tomo366; 03-23-2019 at 11:28 PM.. |
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03-24-2019, 03:19 PM | #18 |
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Just got p3 gauge for monitoring purpose. EGT not functioning which I believe it was supposed to. Nice to have coolant, really want EGT. Any one successful in having EGT through P3?
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03-24-2019, 05:53 PM | #19 |
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Wow. So with Alpines question, I got curious as to what is out there, and if I could help find something.
I came across glowshift. I like the look of their guage, and saw that they had an install video. (They don't have anything specific to our car....so it would be a custom fit. HOWEVER!! They actually RECOMMEND to drill into the manifold IN PLACE. Sorry, I'm hoping anyone going to install an EGT set up knows better....but if not... DO NOT DRILL IN PLACE!! REMOVE your exhaust manifold before drilling. Otherwise, you WILL get metal shavings in your turbo, and you might as well start saving up your duckets now for your replacement turbo. That $50 you might spend on replacement gaskets is cheap compared to a shelled turbo. Just sayin. Alpine, unless you install a probe in the exhaust manifold, I doubt it will work.
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2016 Glacier Silver 328d Msport Xdrive wagon - Kerma Tune bench flashed - SOLD
2016 Alpine white 535d Msport - Kerma Tune, CF rear spoiler 1975 Corvette 496 stroker, ridetech suspension, ATSpeed R-man valve body TH400 - in progress. Last edited by graphicjunkie; 03-24-2019 at 06:03 PM.. |
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03-24-2019, 06:59 PM | #20 |
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I have been monitoring and logging egts during tune buildup using testo for BMW. Basically using the factory diag protocols on factory sensors. There are 3 already on car.
FWIW, this tune keeps all factory egt function and safety routines intact to prevent heat damage.
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-2014 328d Wagon, 8HP. Self-tuned, 270hp/430ft-lbs.
-2019 M2 Competition MT, Alpine White. Self-tuned 560hp -2016 Mini Cooper S, MT. Many plans. Others: -E36 328is. 2000 Z3 Roady. 2003 VW Jetta TDI Manual. Estoril Z3M Coupe. Last edited by Enabled; 03-24-2019 at 07:21 PM.. |
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03-24-2019, 08:07 PM | #21 |
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The Banks I Dash supposedly works for displaying EGT’s someone on here installed one last year
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03-24-2019, 11:52 PM | #22 |
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