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Carly - any disadvantages?

Specific discussion about the E89 2009 Z4 (sDrive35is, sDrive35i, sDrive30i, sDrive23i)
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AndyO
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Carly - any disadvantages?

Post by AndyO » Thu Jun 22, 2017 6:00 pm

Are there any negative impacts to using Carly for making all those great changes?
First time Z4 owner in Cheshire.
2011 E89 Z4 sDrive23i M Sport Auto. Black Sapphire. 19" 326M wheels. Purchased May 2017 (for pleasure).
2004 E83 X3 2.5i Sport Auto. Bluewater Metallic. Purchased June 2018 (for practicality).

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Carly - any disadvantages?

Post by Andyarmra » Thu Jun 22, 2017 8:23 pm

AndyO wrote: Thu Jun 22, 2017 6:00 pm Are there any negative impacts to using Carly for making all those great changes?
I've not found any so far and hope not to find any! :thumbsup:
2011 Deep Sea Blue sDrive30i Z4 Highline, 19" 326 Double spoke, M sport, Cream Leather, F & R PDC, Heated Seats, pro nav and SmartTop. Previous cars: 3.0 V6 A4 Audi Quattro and Nissan 200 SX S14a touring. :driving:

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Carly - any disadvantages?

Post by MACK » Thu Jun 22, 2017 8:52 pm

AndyO wrote: Thu Jun 22, 2017 6:00 pm Are there any negative impacts to using Carly for making all those great changes?
No not really, other than being circa £40-70 poorer, depending on if you need the cable/bluetooth interface or have a suitable one already.
The only thing I can think of is there is a remote chance of damaging which ever module your coding etc but this the same risk you have when you use any software to do this sort of thing.
As long as you make sure the car battery is properly charged and there's plenty of juice in your phone/tablet you should be fine. Carly's the easiest, quickest and most user friendly software I have used on a BMW so its a pretty safe bet really.
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Carly - any disadvantages?

Post by Yorkie Z » Thu Jun 22, 2017 8:56 pm

What can you actually do with Carly?
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AndyO
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Carly - any disadvantages?

Post by AndyO » Thu Jun 22, 2017 9:17 pm

Yorkie Z wrote: Thu Jun 22, 2017 8:56 pm What can you actually do with Carly?
See this thread...

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=97778
First time Z4 owner in Cheshire.
2011 E89 Z4 sDrive23i M Sport Auto. Black Sapphire. 19" 326M wheels. Purchased May 2017 (for pleasure).
2004 E83 X3 2.5i Sport Auto. Bluewater Metallic. Purchased June 2018 (for practicality).

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Carly - any disadvantages?

Post by AndyO » Thu Jun 22, 2017 9:21 pm

MACK wrote: Thu Jun 22, 2017 8:52 pm
AndyO wrote: Thu Jun 22, 2017 6:00 pm Are there any negative impacts to using Carly for making all those great changes?
No not really, other than being circa £40-70 poorer, depending on if you need the cable/bluetooth interface or have a suitable one already.
The only thing I can think of is there is a remote chance of damaging which ever module your coding etc but this the same risk you have when you use any software to do this sort of thing.
As long as you make sure the car battery is properly charged and there's plenty of juice in your phone/tablet you should be fine. Carly's the easiest, quickest and most user friendly software I have used on a BMW so its a pretty safe bet really.
Thanks. It was this kind of thing I was worried about. Could it damage anything? But I'll take on board your advice.
First time Z4 owner in Cheshire.
2011 E89 Z4 sDrive23i M Sport Auto. Black Sapphire. 19" 326M wheels. Purchased May 2017 (for pleasure).
2004 E83 X3 2.5i Sport Auto. Bluewater Metallic. Purchased June 2018 (for practicality).

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Carly - any disadvantages?

Post by R.E92 » Thu Jun 22, 2017 9:37 pm

Quite a high failure rate of FRM modules using Carly. Also high cost compared to using the BMW ISTA software which can program the same functions and more for free.

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Carly - any disadvantages?

Post by AndyO » Thu Jun 22, 2017 10:09 pm

R.E92 wrote: Thu Jun 22, 2017 9:37 pm Quite a high failure rate of FRM modules using Carly. Also high cost compared to using the BMW ISTA software which can program the same functions and more for free.
OK. So now I'm confused. What are FRM modules and what happens if they fail? Not heard of ISTA, but I'm new so will do some Googling.
First time Z4 owner in Cheshire.
2011 E89 Z4 sDrive23i M Sport Auto. Black Sapphire. 19" 326M wheels. Purchased May 2017 (for pleasure).
2004 E83 X3 2.5i Sport Auto. Bluewater Metallic. Purchased June 2018 (for practicality).

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Carly - any disadvantages?

Post by Chris_D » Thu Jun 22, 2017 10:25 pm

AndyO wrote: Thu Jun 22, 2017 10:09 pm
R.E92 wrote: Thu Jun 22, 2017 9:37 pm Quite a high failure rate of FRM modules using Carly. Also high cost compared to using the BMW ISTA software which can program the same functions and more for free.
OK. So now I'm confused. What are FRM modules and what happens if they fail? Not heard of ISTA, but I'm new so will do some Googling.
I'd be interested to hear about the origin of any data relating to failure rates of any modules using carly...

Imo, no disbenefits to using carly for code scanning, coding and monitoring purposes. Has only been useful in my experience, esp for helping to diagnose and sort an engine temperature issue. 100% ROI.
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Carly - any disadvantages?

Post by R.E92 » Thu Jun 22, 2017 10:46 pm

FRM is the acronym for the footwell module that controls most of the accessory equipment.

It's the only unit in the car I'm aware of that you can screw up purely by normal coding. Seems to have a firmware bug that causes it to semi-brick itself. It fails with other coding tools too but for some reason Carly users brick this more than others.

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Carly - any disadvantages?

Post by Chris_D » Thu Jun 22, 2017 11:01 pm

R.E92 wrote: Thu Jun 22, 2017 10:46 pm FRM is the acronym for the footwell module that controls most of the accessory equipment.

It's the only unit in the car I'm aware of that you can screw up purely by normal coding. Seems to have a firmware bug that causes it to semi-brick itself. It fails with other coding tools too but for some reason Carly users brick this more than others.
Can you quantify this, via links, references? As it's the first i've heard.
I've been coding each of the 3 available modules on my e85 many times over the past 10 months without issue.
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Carly - any disadvantages?

Post by R.E92 » Fri Jun 23, 2017 10:57 am

Chris_D wrote: Thu Jun 22, 2017 11:01 pm
R.E92 wrote: Thu Jun 22, 2017 10:46 pm FRM is the acronym for the footwell module that controls most of the accessory equipment.

It's the only unit in the car I'm aware of that you can screw up purely by normal coding. Seems to have a firmware bug that causes it to semi-brick itself. It fails with other coding tools too but for some reason Carly users brick this more than others.
Can you quantify this, via links, references? As it's the first i've heard.
I've been coding each of the 3 available modules on my e85 many times over the past 10 months without issue.
E85 FRM module is not the same as the E89 FRM module. Not all FRM modules are susceptible to the fault but there is a known bug with the FRM module used on cars in the E89 chassis which includes the E9x 3 series.

Here's the Carly blurb on the issue; http://support.mycarly.com/knowledge-ba ... g-frm-ecu/

E90post has plenty of higher level technical discussion this issue and some discussion on why Carly seems to suffer more than other coding applications from bricked FRM modules.

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Carly - any disadvantages?

Post by Ducklakeview » Fri Jun 23, 2017 11:38 am

I'm sure I've read of FRM modules being fried by BMW themselves as part of an update....


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Carly - any disadvantages?

Post by robertd33 » Tue Jul 04, 2017 11:32 pm

R.E92 wrote: Thu Jun 22, 2017 9:37 pm the BMW ISTA software which can program the same functions and more for free.
and where/how is this supposed to happen?
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Carly - any disadvantages?

Post by suttz83 » Wed Jul 05, 2017 10:56 am

Hi

I'm interested in this as i am about to purchase a z4 E89 and I have just purchased the Carly app and connector.

I have just used that link to read what Carly has to say regarding this issue of the FRM module. I must say it's seems pretty straight forward and like how they have gone about it. The Carly system will carry out a pre check to see if the module is one of the effected ones or if it has a high possibility it could all go wrong. If it suspects it will then it won't allow you to code or alter anything without giving you proper warnings prior. If something is telling you there is a high chance of it being 'bricked' as they call it then it would seem foolish to continue with any coding on it.

The whole kit including app has cost around £110 so I'm hoping it's going to be a useful tool in the coming ownership of the z4. Its hard for me to say if there is any disadvantages at this stage as I haven't used it but at this point the only thing I'm not liking is the fact you have to spend more money in-app to use some of the features such as, idrive coding, battery registration, DVD/TV on move, service reset etc.

Hopefully when I'm up and running it will show me that its other uses make up for this.

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