Getting the old girl remapped... I should have learned my lesson by now...

I do hope anyone reading this thread isn't put of remapping.
If you do your homework and use a well establish reputable company with premises you should be fine and if there are any issues they will be able to sort it quickly.
When you think about it logically its like mechanical repairs in that respect. If you were unlucky enough to have a muppet work on your car and make a mess of things you wouldn't suddenly say "that's it I'm not having any mechanical work/mods ever done again!"

To most folks electronic issues/programming/coding and particularly remapping is a dark art we don't understand but to an expert its the same as trusting them with you pride and job for mechanical jobs etc.
 
Maniac said:
It's actually about charging the battery appropriately, as batteries age the charging protocol to get the best from them changes. So essentially the car needs to be 'told' it has a new battery or it may charge it incorrectly.
Click to expand...

Thanks for clearing that up, makes sense.
Sounds like your more clued up on the battery charging/conditioning than the re-mapper was!
 
Maniac said:
Staying with the car as standard, I'm not going through anything like this again. Knowing my luck if I went ahead with the remap a turbo would give out or some other calamity. I'll put my money into keeping the car on form and not faffing with it.
Click to expand...

Partly this is your fault :thumbsup: no different to taking your car to any monkey and they fk it up.
I'm surprised you didn't do more research before you jumped in, because JB4, Cobb and MHD are really the only tuning to be getting involved with on the N54. MHD is now the de-facto standard, coupled with JB4 piggy back - you can do almost anything. It's a shame because you're missing out the cars potential. The car BMW gave you is not what lurks under the bonnet.

If you want the safest possible approach go buy a Cobb AP. You plugin in the battery charger, plugin the device, click "go" and wait 30 minutes - job done. Do it all yourself with no hassle/fears. You can also put it back to stock yourself and if you get any more upgrades it will grow with you. It's proven by thousands of people over the world with various car types.

http://www.cobbtuning.com/products/accessport/bmw-n54-accessport-v3-ap3-bmw-001
 
stuartinzg said:
Maniac said:
Staying with the car as standard, I'm not going through anything like this again. Knowing my luck if I went ahead with the remap a turbo would give out or some other calamity. I'll put my money into keeping the car on form and not faffing with it.
Click to expand...

Partly this is your fault :thumbsup: no different to taking your car to any monkey and they fk it up.
I'm surprised you didn't do more research before you jumped in, because JB4, Cobb and MHD are really the only tuning to be getting involved with on the N54. MHD is now the de-facto standard, coupled with JB4 piggy back - you can do almost anything. It's a shame because you're missing out the cars potential. The car BMW gave you is not what lurks under the bonnet.

If you want the safest possible approach go buy a Cobb AP. You plugin in the battery charger, plugin the device, click "go" and wait 30 minutes - job done. Do it all yourself with no hassle/fears. You can also put it back to stock yourself and if you get any more upgrades it will grow with you. It's proven by thousands of people over the world with various car types.

http://www.cobbtuning.com/products/accessport/bmw-n54-accessport-v3-ap3-bmw-001
Click to expand...

Helpful. Thanks. Not.

Easy to say if you know what you should have done.

Salt. Wound. Hindsight.
 
It's a little Makro cheapie - it's supposed to cycle the battery to charge and discharge in the middle of the safe range ie. Not discharged or fully charge.

I used it on the E85 and that battery is now 12years old and still going but the electronics of the E89 worry me.
 
A decent battery charger is a must if you don't use the car every day especially with AGM batteries as allowing them to continually discharge to a low power state will kill them fairly quickly. I use a CTEK 5.0 which is hooked up to my M135i over winter whilst not in use and the Z3 over summer when not used, great charger and well worth the money. The battery in your Zed should have lasted much longer than it did to be honest. I replaced the Z3s battery a year ago after 13 years but ensured it was always hooked up to a charger to keep it in optimum condition when not used. The latest AGM batteries aren't like batteries of old as they tend to die very quickly without warning.

http://www.ctek.com/gb/en/chargers/MXS%205.0

Glad its getting sorted anyways and would agree if it aint broke leave well alone :)

Tim.
 
stuartinzg said:
Partly this is your fault :thumbsup: no different to taking your car to any monkey and they fk it up.
Click to expand...
Tuner's due diligence to inform the owner of the vehicle of the risks and a list of things that should be checked before they attempt mapping your ECU. When I did a simply price enquiry for remapping my 120dx from a tuner I trust they sent a quote + a list of things that needed to be done/checked before the car got to them. From what I've read this never happened.

I'm surprised you didn't do more research before you jumped in, because JB4, Cobb and MHD are really the only tuning to be getting involved with on the N54. MHD is now the de-facto standard, coupled with JB4 piggy back - you can do almost anything. It's a shame because you're missing out the cars potential. The car BMW gave you is not what lurks under the bonnet.

If you want the safest possible approach go buy a Cobb AP. You plugin in the battery charger, plugin the device, click "go" and wait 30 minutes - job done. Do it all yourself with no hassle/fears. You can also put it back to stock yourself and if you get any more upgrades it will grow with you. It's proven by thousands of people over the world with various car types.

http://www.cobbtuning.com/products/accessport/bmw-n54-accessport-v3-ap3-bmw-001
Click to expand...
Piggybacks are kludges, they're the tool of choice because they're easy to use or are the only way to tune cars when the ECU security hasn't been broken. Having seen what the main engine ECU believes it the state of things & what it tells other ECUs I know that for the same engine output there's a much higher risk of the engine/gearbox lunching it's self when a piggyback ECU is involved. I never want one attached to a car I own!
 
techathy said:
Piggybacks are kludges, they're the tool of choice because they're easy to use or are the only way to tune cars when the ECU security hasn't been broken. Having seen what the main engine ECU believes it the state of things & what it tells other ECUs I know that for the same engine output there's a much higher risk of the engine/gearbox lunching it's self when a piggyback ECU is involved. I never want one attached to a car I own!
Click to expand...

A Cobb isn't a piggyback though. It actually flashes the ECU...
 
ronk said:
It's a little Makro cheapie - it's supposed to cycle the battery to charge and discharge in the middle of the safe range ie. Not discharged or fully charge.

I used it on the E85 and that battery is now 12years old and still going but the electronics of the E89 worry me.
Click to expand...

Hi Ronk .. for the E89 go for the Ctek range, I have the 10 amp version and purchased from Halfords for £89

off topic again .. I know, back to the original thread
 
Maniac said:
stuartinzg said:
Maniac said:
Staying with the car as standard, I'm not going through anything like this again. Knowing my luck if I went ahead with the remap a turbo would give out or some other calamity. I'll put my money into keeping the car on form and not faffing with it.
Click to expand...

Partly this is your fault :thumbsup: no different to taking your car to any monkey and they fk it up.
I'm surprised you didn't do more research before you jumped in, because JB4, Cobb and MHD are really the only tuning to be getting involved with on the N54. MHD is now the de-facto standard, coupled with JB4 piggy back - you can do almost anything. It's a shame because you're missing out the cars potential. The car BMW gave you is not what lurks under the bonnet.

If you want the safest possible approach go buy a Cobb AP. You plugin in the battery charger, plugin the device, click "go" and wait 30 minutes - job done. Do it all yourself with no hassle/fears. You can also put it back to stock yourself and if you get any more upgrades it will grow with you. It's proven by thousands of people over the world with various car types.

http://www.cobbtuning.com/products/accessport/bmw-n54-accessport-v3-ap3-bmw-001
Click to expand...

Helpful. Thanks. Not.

Easy to say if you know what you should have done.

Salt. Wound. Hindsight.
Click to expand...

On the contrary, your car will be fixed for almost no cost except for a bit of stress, so now go and do it properly and enjoy the benefits and be in control yourself.

The whole point of my post was to be helpful, as you managed to escape from this last episode the best you could have hoped for!
 
techathy said:
stuartinzg said:
Partly this is your fault :thumbsup: no different to taking your car to any monkey and they fk it up.
Click to expand...
Tuner's due diligence to inform the owner of the vehicle of the risks and a list of things that should be checked before they attempt mapping your ECU. When I did a simply price enquiry for remapping my 120dx from a tuner I trust they sent a quote + a list of things that needed to be done/checked before the car got to them. From what I've read this never happened.

I'm surprised you didn't do more research before you jumped in, because JB4, Cobb and MHD are really the only tuning to be getting involved with on the N54. MHD is now the de-facto standard, coupled with JB4 piggy back - you can do almost anything. It's a shame because you're missing out the cars potential. The car BMW gave you is not what lurks under the bonnet.

If you want the safest possible approach go buy a Cobb AP. You plugin in the battery charger, plugin the device, click "go" and wait 30 minutes - job done. Do it all yourself with no hassle/fears. You can also put it back to stock yourself and if you get any more upgrades it will grow with you. It's proven by thousands of people over the world with various car types.

http://www.cobbtuning.com/products/accessport/bmw-n54-accessport-v3-ap3-bmw-001
Click to expand...
Piggybacks are kludges, they're the tool of choice because they're easy to use or are the only way to tune cars when the ECU security hasn't been broken. Having seen what the main engine ECU believes it the state of things & what it tells other ECUs I know that for the same engine output there's a much higher risk of the engine/gearbox lunching it's self when a piggyback ECU is involved. I never want one attached to a car I own!
Click to expand...

JB4 is the piggyback, Cobb is an older tech but proven flashing route. All self contained in a neat unit with a cable and device/LCD to show you exactly what is going on.

The preferred route is MHD with Android as the main tuners who provided customer Cobb tunes have moved to MHD.

MHD flashes can be loaded on a car with JB4 and provide many more benefits.

JB4 provides a lot more boost control, 2step, antilag and many more features for larger boost setups (single turbo e85 800+ HP cars run jb4), with MHD flashes able to access more tables than ever before but stay within safe boundaries.

The OTS JB4 maps will not do any damage they are conservative and extensively tested. My only reservation is adding an additional circuit board and plumping into the car.

I will use Cobb or MHD (probably MHD due to ease of flashing and ongoing support/development).
 
stuartinzg said:
JB4 is the piggyback, Cobb is an older tech but proven flashing route. All self contained in a neat unit with a cable and device/LCD to show you exactly what is going on.
Click to expand...
Which is why I left a generic comment not mentioning products. You didn't mention the AC Schnitzer 'remap' but the piggyback comment still applies in full.

The OTS JB4 maps will not do any damage they are conservative and extensively tested. My only reservation is adding an additional circuit board and plumping into the car.
Click to expand...
No one has tested any ECU under the full range of conditions out there, not even the BMW stock ECU has been tested that thoroughly but on its own at least it knows everything there is sensors for. Also, all the testing in the world cannot change the fact that when things go wrong neither the piggyback nor the engine ECU have the full picture of what's happening. This is the fundamental flaw in the piggyback ECUs.
 
stuartinzg said:
The whole point of my post was to be helpful, as you managed to escape from this last episode the best you could have hoped for!
Click to expand...

I realise you were trying to be helpful, but you weren't. Your post read like a smarty pants.
 
There are plenty of reputable companies out there. With good and bad reviews too.

It just happened the OP had a bit of bad luck that can put you off fiddling and only use bmw who also mess up.

Part of life with cars really.

Just get your car back and enjoy it mate.
If you want to tune it etc speak to evolve, simpsons, areeve etc
 
The car is home. Sigh of relief.

New battery in and fine, runs as usual on the short test run home.

I have to say what was a rocky start turned into the chap going out of his way in the end, absorbing all costs for recovery and resolution. Arranging for it start to finish.

Health check on the car however found both front adaptive shocks have a minor leak. Manchester roads. More £s soon but I don't care, she's home! :)
 
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