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More horses

sammyz

Senior member
Merseyside
Now I've owned my 35I for a few weeks the modding has begun! :)

Stubby aeriel, white leds, exhaust mod, gloss black wheels, part debadged and some black lci side indicators on their way from Germany. Sort of a silver and black thing going on :D Ill get some pics sorted next week.

I've read a lot about remapping these last weeks. There are pages and pages of opinions and 'experts' on chipping these engines. Some people really get very upset if someone disagrees with their opinion on which system to use. In the end I've decided to get a tuning box fitted. I spoke to Pete at Auto tech who fits the Spider system and he is happy to recommend it for my car. He is a guy who's opinion I trust completely and I know he will 'back up' the install should I run into any issues.

The Spider will provide several options controllable from an Android app. Basically:- unit off, eco mode, some more horses, even more horses, even more horses, STAMPEDE. That last setting is actually 'race' . :lol: Spider claim a maximum 380 horses and 499 torques.

I'm told none of the cars safety parameters are compromised with this install. So, should be interesting. Actually, the car is very rapid as standard and the sensible view is that its pointless having any extra power as it will be impossible to fully exploit it on the road :( But who's sensible :evil: :evil:

Getting fitted a week Friday so the drive back from Telford to Liverpool will be interesting! Will keep you informed.
 
This is something I've thought about long & hard & as you say there are numerous reviews all with different opinions, so as you can probably imagine I will be very interested in the results.

Keep us posted.
 
That didn't take long John :lol: :thumbsup:

Like the sound of the varied settings on the engine, though I can guess which one it'll be left on :lol: :thumbsup:

Looking forward to the photos.
 
Look forward to seeing how it goes and what you think after getting it done. Pete's a good guy and only about 1/2 hour's drive away from my place. Quick question - does it have to be an Android phone to do stuff or can it be controlled from inside the car?
 
MHD seems to be the go to platform now for N54 tuning which has overtaken COBB and JB4, this is the way I'm going currently waiting for cables

Will be interested to see how you get on

Evolve are also well respected with N54 tuning

http://e89.zpost.com/forums/showthread.php?t=759661

If your going down the tuning box road I would make sure you go to a rolling road after to ensure your not running lean
 
There is an app to Bluetooth with the module but it's not available for the I phone atm. Otherwise you can control it from the engine bay. I will see if I can get the app on an old phone and use that as a control. It will depend on what I end up with as a default setting.

Paul, will get some photos up next week.
 
There's a reason MHD is the new default. But you're free to skip the research and jump straight to toasting your DCT clutch packs 8)
 
R.E92 said:
There's a reason MHD is the new default. But you're free to skip the research and jump straight to toasting your DCT clutch packs 8)


Well you can feel smug when they explode by the end of August can't you.
 
sammyz said:
I've read a lot about remapping these last weeks. There are pages and pages of opinions and 'experts' on chipping these engines. Some people really get very upset if someone disagrees with their opinion on which system to use. In the end I've decided to get a tuning box fitted. I spoke to Pete at Auto tech who fits the Spider system and he is happy to recommend it for my car. He is a guy who's opinion I trust completely and I know he will 'back up' the install should I run into any issues.
Your car has a clutches in the gearbox which need to be properly controled to allow for the correct amount of slip when changing gear. The problem is a tuning box sits between the sensors and the ECUs then basically lies to the actual values of things like the amount of torque the engine. So every time you change gear the wrong, lower, torque value is reported and this results in excessive clutch slip. Excessive slip is a short cut to burning out the clutch.

Now before anyone starts talking about tuning boxes on BMWs like the M135i, 335i, etc. Those cars use automatic gearboxes which don't use clutches in the same way & so do not have this issue.
 
Basically the tuning boxes prevent the car from seeing the true boost value. The boost value is used to create a load value for the engine. The N54 uses a load based DME.

So you're not only messing with your gearbox, you also mess with the VANOS positions, fuel AFR targets and countless other systems which rely on the LOAD value in the LOAD based DME.

Ignoring all those small details, the biggest thing you will notice is that the car will drive like crap.

But go right ahead. Get a box from Roger down the local garage who's got years of experience with cars and who people rave about ;)
 
:) love experts.

Actually what you say makes a lot of sense and I will ask Auto tech to respond to the points you raise. He's certainly not local as he's 100 miles from me! He has a lot of experience with high performance cars and tuning. I think it will be of interest to see what he says regarding the DCT gearbox.
 
That's the spirit!

Too many just take the word of the people selling things. I've learnt to treat all vendors, especially in the car world with suspicion.

Would be interested to hear his thoughts on this. The maker of the JB4, the most common piggyback unit on BMWs will just advise DCT users to combine the JB4 unit with a flash tune to report true load to the DME but it's becoming increasingly clear that piggyback units are falling out of favour.
 
As a matter of interest what they charging for the tuning box ? , do they have rolling road ?

The advantage of MHD is you can do logs before and after , you could use Torque App to monitor your boost and a few other parameters but thats it

There is a lot of info about MHD Torque Checksums on the Yank forum for DCT cars allowing torque control changes, if you haven't already read about this I would have a nose before parting with any cash

I imagine the MHD will be a lot cheaper than the tuning box and you can flash back to stock yourself

Either way interested to see your results :thumbsup: , Ive not read about many of us here that have flashed the 35i yet

My Cable shack cable has arrived , just waiting on my OTG cable then I'll be going MHD soon after doing some standard logs first

A bit more info here on the MHD

http://www.1addicts.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1143880
 
Tuning box is £375 fitted. No rolling road. I also have a local company offering their own software with rolling road before and after for the same money. I'm in no rush so will see what answers I get back from Auto tech then decide what to do. I can see that the DCT box might suffer if its getting the wrong information on how much torque its dealing with. I assume it reacts to revs as well and they don't change. I know Spider claim all safety parameters within the drive train are not exceeded.
 
Quick update. Long discussion with Auto tech and I'm going with the tuning box. Pete has one fitted to his SLK DCT and no issues after three years.
Having had a look on internet there isn't lots of information on fitting tuning boxes to DCT cars. I understand the concerns with excessive torque but some of the damage inevitably happens with cars carrying huge bhps over 450. Drag racing seems bad for these drivetrains :o
If I was tracking the car regularly I would get a remap but for occasional fast road use and an couple of laps on the track I'm happy to give the Spider a go.

I will update on Friday after fitting. Worst case I will switch it off as I don't like the drive or how much is a reconditioned gearbox :)
 
looking forward to updates , will you be going to a rolling road after your tuning box is fitted so you can post up your graphs ?

£50 we can see your gains and check your fueling :)
 
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