2nd Gen R56 Cooper S Most liked posts in thread: ECU Reprogram

BZ,

I have not heard positive things about the Alta tune. There are several cases of blown engines.

Granted this is a suspect statement. I have no idea of what condition the cars were in 'pre-tune' which could very well be the root cause

Thing I think people loose sight of is that this engine was not designed to be a 300hp flame thrower and trying to make it one is going to cause problems unless you start into some serious serious mods (new heads, cam shafts, etc, etc)

My suggestion?

Please don't take this as snarky, it's not meant to be, learn to drive the car and learn it's capabilities first, do some HPDE's or AutoX's. Find out what you like and what you want to improve.

Once you do that you can figure out where you want to go

Not to pick on you but everyone talks about adding power in your shoes. This cars strength is in it's handling. First stop, suspension (sway bars, X braces, coilovers, etc). Second stop Intercooloer (think you said you have a S) and then a good tune. After that you can play with exhaust. Don't waste your money on a CAI, ROI is pitiful

I have a DimSport tune and very happy with it. Beyond that working with a individual experienced with tuning and doing it with a Dyno. That can get pricey

Best of luck, welcome to the insanity

 

Number 13 is the noisemaker. It sends engine noise into the cabin. Makes you think you're sportier than you are......

 

Went with the Forge and another NM pipe. This was recommended to me some time back. Sometimes I get really anal retentive and have to go through my "process". I could have been on the road with this mod a long time ago.

Kent

 

Excuse me while fall over on the floor laughing...

... send them to BMW and get a tune back.

That has to be one of the funniest things I've heard about a MINI is years.

No offense but MINI has been known to now and then deny warranty coverage for tunes created by others, the also made it pretty darn hard for any of the tuners to access the ECU in the first place. When it comes to things like what you ask you'd have a better shot a walking on the moon yourself. BMW / MINI is so closed minded when it comes to anything beyond their offerings.

It is possible to do remote tuning but it will not be from BMW / MINI and the warranty will be till the taillights cross the threshold of the shop on the way out the door.

 

I think you will find BMW is not too receptive to any kind of change to the system that was EPA tested as it came down the assembly line.

Your best bet is to work with a custom tuner, with one of their packages that let you switch back to OEM tune. Warranty coverage, well that's iffy.....

 

Pretty unlikely that a supercharged car would be in warranty now anyway, unless it's a convertible.

 

If the car in question is Bebop, the MINI in the OP's Garage it would be a 2011 model.

 

If you want a tune, your options are aftermarket.

Alta offers the AccessPort (soon for 2011 models N18 engine), current for the 2007-2010 (2011 JCW) N14 engine.

RMW (Jan) offers tunes for the R56 and R56 JCW and the other turbo models. Not sure he is offering tunes for the N18 engine (2011 MCS, etc). Jan offers tunes loaded on the Dimsport tool or the Alta Access Port (he is a reseller, authorized tuner for Alta).

Many others offer tunes on the R56 N14 engine, Way, Clint and some others.

Don

Nothing comes via BMW other than the JCW tuning kit and I understand it may not be out for the 2011 N18 engine, yet (but soon).

Don't be offended, some of us have rabid humor and tend to look at the MINI world with squinty eyes.

 

It is from personal experience. Given how you could not even buy the JCW for the R53 without buying all the MINI parts for it on the R53 models. There were some people that did get them after putting in the injectors and aftermarket pulley, CAI and exhaust, but that was only because someone at a dealer did them a favor.

BMW and by extension MINI are known for playing hardball with tuned cars. They are not about to create a file just for you.

Besides, there are laws against this. Every auto maker is subject to certain rules set forth by various governmental agencies. Included are things such as emissions over a 100,000 period. The current OEM programming has been tested over 100's of thousands of miles by the car makers at great expense. They do not create on off's for people.

I guess I've been at this so long over so many cars that I've seen the way ECU programming has evolved. The car makers work harder and harder for the most part to make closed systems that will not be reprogrammed easily.

 

I had the same take on that too BZ. It seemed to be a bit rough for the uninitiated. Shake it off. There are many, many good people (including the respondent in question) and tons useful information.

Cheers!
Chris

 

I'm sure no harm was intended.

 

I'm sure too that it wasn't meant in a bad way and once you've been around MINI's awhile you may find yourself laughing at the question. I know I did, just didn't post it.

Btw, welcome to M/A!

Cheers
Mr. Jim

 

BZ, there is something you need to be aware of and it has to do with that MINI key fob you use to start your engine. You know how you hand it over to the MINI SA when you take your car in for service? Well, it's a snitch and you need to be aware of it's capabilities.

Now then, if you are planning to go the route of having a custom tune, well that's cool. And you are wanting to maintain your warranty, well that's also cool. Thinking about jumping back and fourth with the custom and stock tune for warranty purposes? Well, that's where the snitch comes in. You see, the ECU keeps a data log of how your engine is running. It records a bunch of parameters. It also down loads some of the info onto the key fob (don't ask me what the parameter are because I don't know all of them).
As an example..... if your engine starts performing differently as a result of a custom tune, well the MINI SA will be able to know something is up because the stock tune might not allow the generation of that difference in that particular parameter. As an example, let's say you want the rev limit raised over the stock rev limit, this would be an indicator to the S/A that you were running a custom tune. Or let's say you want to play around with the boost before the BOV opens. It all get recorded by the ECU that then blabs it to the key fob, who then snitches to the MINI SA. So even before the warranty question comes up the MINI S/A is going to be a few steps ahead of you.

Anyway my $0.02

 

So much for me trying to be funny...

Please accept my apologies.