Engine Drivetrain 1st Gen Cooper S Most liked posts in thread: ECU Options for R53?

why not just get a dyno tune from one of the many vendors in the Mini market. THey are able to rewrite our ECU's that way its right where everything needs to be as to oppose someone guessing how your car should be setup based on what mods you have.

Just my $.02 though,

Steve

 

Much better to get a custom tune.

 

Most of us know why a custom tune is better, however, for the OP and others that follow...

Changing the ECU parameters on a MINI is no simple feat. There are a few basic methods and each has pros and cons.

Piggy Back Module

Tools such as the Uni-Chip have pretty much proven to be infective in the long run. These work by intercepting the data going to the ECU and "fooling" the ECU to work in a manner desired. There are many problems with this route. First and foremost these use "canned" tunes that are not optimal for all mods. They are based on common mod combos and have to broad enough to cover all. Another limiting factor is the MINI ECU adaptability feature. In time the ECU works around the false data and pretty much negates the viability of the tool. Most of these are not plug and play either, they require grafting the looms making it harder to go back to to stock.

Canned Tunes

The most popular of these was MTH along with the Shark Injector. The issue here are they are pretty much one size fits all. They optimize a few things, maybe increase the rev limit but in the grand scheme of things are very mild in order to fit across all possible mod combination's.

Custom Tune

While a custom tune is best for getting the most out of the combination of mods on your car it too is not without foibles. Unless you live near one of the very few outlets that perform these you need to wait till a "Tuning party" is in your neck of the woods. If you make changes after the tune or have issues once the tuner has left the area you are very much on your own.

Remote Custom Tune

These are still new and the jury is still out.

Stand Alone ECU

For engine control the best bang for the very high buck. However the largest drawback is the MINI Body Control Module (BCM) is integrated with the ECU. Say goodbye to Tach, Speedo, Gas Gauge, Auto AC etc etc with a standalone. Best used in a full on track car.

There are still things in development that could change my views as stated above.

 

Personal experience. I had the JCW flash on my 06 JCW. Then I had the MTH which was an improvement. Then i had it dyno tuned by RMW which of course brought out every last bit the car had.

I was reminded of that this weekend. Couple of months ago the dealer flashed me back to stock (bastards) while trying to find the source of the constant SES lights (turned out to be bad MAP-T sensor). An accident soon after... to make a long story short I finally got my car back and linked up with Jan to get my tune back. Oh what a difference. I highly recommend it.

 

ARRRGH. This sucks!

I wanted to come into this thread and see "stand-alone, ftmfw".

Screw the tach and speedo... Stand-alone instrumentation will fix.

What I want is a stand-alone that will bypass the SES and pass OBD-II in NC. I'd trade my A/C and radio for that in a frakkin heartbeat.

 

Custom Tunes start at around $350 + dyno time.

No one in the Dallas/Ft Worth area that I know of does a custom tune. We've always had to fly in a tuner for a weekend.

There are a few good shops around town. My car is worked on by Will at Bob's Tire and Auto in Lewisville. An easy jaunt from Denton as they are jsut over the bridge right on 35E.

If you have yet to check out Metroplex MINI We are a very active club. For some odd reason they voted me as VP...

 

A custom tune will definetly get the most out of your car. But if you mod it after the tune you will need to retune it. That's why when I do a custom tune for people I encourage them to get ALL their mods first, so they don't pay me to retune it later. We can do smaller "quicktunes" which will improve the drivability, but keep you from running lean if you were to add some mods later. Also something like that can be done on a remote unit that you can keep to re upload if the dealer deletes it. Hope that helps.

 

A tune alone won't help with your CEL. You'll need a simulator that translates the signal from the rear O2 sensor so that your ECU will think there's still a cat in place. You can buy them from a lot of places or try the DIY path: http://www.mkiv.com/techarticles/oxygen_sensor_simulator/index.html (this is for a Supra application).

 

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqRVFvVf9G8"]YouTube - Mynes EMS (MEMS) for MINI Cooper-S R53 ***Long DEMO***[/ame] is the only Standalone that has a BCM but MEMS has been in development for a few years and its in the final stages of development.

 

Yeah, but that video is from like October of last year and there have been no updates since. Sorry, show me things that are really on the market, not things that are still vaporware.

 

Whatever happened to the Hydro ECU? I remember hearing rumors of it about to hit the market when I first got my MINI and then nothing. Did it also turn into vaporware? Also, I remember Haltech having a piggyback unit that came on the market about a year ago that worked for our cars. Normally I'd be wary of piggybacks but Haltech has a decent reputation so hopefully they know what they were doing with this one.

 

Yeah an 02 sim is a cheap fix for your check engine light.

If your looking to improve your 1/8 mile times. Don't forget to think about better tires, and taking weight off the car. These will make big differences too. The tune will help make power, but you will be limited by what you can get to the ground still.

 

I guess it would be too much to ask, but how did they get around the EWS system? Unless they somehow extracted that info from the stock unit then uploaded it to the MEMS unit. Rolling code tables, etc., funky stuff.

Hats off for at least getting the car to run with anything other than the stock unit.


Back on topic: I agree with everyone about the custom tune. Get your mods done and then get Way to tune it up.

 

Alta had a few of these and were working with a few folks that bought them. Turned out to be a bit problematical and I guess Alta bailed. Hydra still does list the MINI R53 ECU on their site for $2200 with a notation it disables cruise and DSC. I was offered one a few times at an attractive price but I won't give up cruise control. Far to many wide open spaces here in TX where it saves my leg.

 

Interested to see you mention Bob's Tire. Jan at RMW had recommended him for some head work. Have you had any issues? Any limitations on the work they can do, and are they reasonable?

 

Pretty much all the work on my car has been done there, or at MINICorsa when I visit SoCal now and again.

No real issue, patience is the key if a lot of work is going to be done, they are sometimes a little "flexible" when creating deadlines. Prices are reasonable and if you are a Metroplex Member there is a discount.