I just arranged to have this done to my 2012 JCW. I hear it will take it from 208hp to 250hp! excited!

 

ECU is currently in Florida at Renntech; I was able to get it to them earlier than I expected. Waiting to hear back and it should be back to me tomorrow. Can't wait to see how it comes out.

 

I'll bet your gonna love it. I do. I see you have the vip exhaust I'll be curious to see how you exhaust tone changes.

 

Does anyone know if there is a shop anywhere in the Pacific Northwest that can do an ECU tune?

 

Renntech modified ECU showed up this morning and dropped it back in my All4. Feels the way it should have, throttle response is a lot better. The Renntech tune is focused on the Sports button, and when you hit that button you can definitely feel the car feel sporty. I was using the "Driving Excitement" part of the MINI Connected app, but I have a feeling that's not working correctly. It seems to tap out at 184HP, and I suspect I'm going a bit higher than that.

Next step is to head back to the Dyno and get some runs in.

 

I promised I would update people when I found an FMIC solution for the R60. Here is my experience with Forge's FMIC for the R56:

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...ml#post3575171

 

If you don't mind me asking, where did you have this done? I'm having mine done on Monday and i'm very excited about it

 

I actually pulled my ECU and UPS'ed it next day to Florida to get it done directly at Renntech. They overnighted it back to me in a quick turn around. Sent it out late Thursday, they fixed 'er up on Friday and I had it back in my hands on Saturday.

Where are you going for an ECU tune? I was having difficulties finding someone in Colorado.

 

Peak Eurosport in Wheat Ridge. Call and speak to Torri 303-421-0365

 

I've had work done there before. Are they going to go with the NM tune?

 

They're going to remove it and ship it off, then reinstall it once it comes back a few days later and test it

 

Hi All,

Fairly new to the forum...I am looking into getting a 2012 CM as my next vehicle soon and plan to mod it out of the gate.

Are there tuning companies that give you the ability to flash/tune the ECU through the OBD2 port instead of having to ship the ECU to them. If not, how do you handle dealership visits (specially for warranty repairs) without the ability to reflash the ECU back to stock?

Do any SoCal forum members know who are the mod friendly dealerships in Southern California within a 25 mile radius of the Inland Empire?

Thanks,

 

Yep, I am the OP and I used ECU Tuning Group in Santa Monica. They are awesome at what they do and will come to you if you are in SoCal. PM me for the cell phone number of their tuner there...he'll take good care of you.

http://ecutuninggroup.com/

Only BMW/MINI will do the ECU Tune through the OBDII.

ETG Tuning group will re-flash the ECU if the dealership needs to update the firmware. That's rare and they will notify you on the work order if they do mess with the ECU.

 

Mine tapped out at 184 HP on the mini connected too. I was told that is as high as it will go.

 

At least I'm not crazy. That's quite annoying, and seems kind of arbitrary. I'll have to see if there's something else I can find until I can get time at the dyno.

 

I'm not very impressed by the tuning available for the CM Turbo. On both tuners discussed here their descriptions are vague at best. Merely hp/tq numbers and a brief sentence on throttle response and MPG. In the past 5 years of BMW turbo tuning, the tuning properties were heavily detailed and the tuners had a HUGE presence in the forums. They would even get into arguments which would elevate the overall project success because they would have to get better and live up to their claims.

Alta is the biggest presence here on NAM but they have tremendously slipped in their development of the 2011+ Mini turbo engines.

We want more detailed information, interaction, and accountability!

Aaron

 

I've had a bit more time on the car with the ECU tune, and have to say its nice having that little bit of extra power under the hood. Throttle response is tighter and overall you can feel the pickup under acceleration.

This past weekend went up into the mountains and was having some issues keeping speed under load--trying to keep 70MPH uphill the car would jump all around and behave quite twitchy wanting to either go faster or decelerate quite a bit.

I didn't think about it until after the trip, but I'm wondering if the sprintbooster might be causing this twitch problem (since the ECU tune also should have throttle mods to it, the SB might be making it too sensitive). I've just disabled the SB and will see what happens in the next few days/weeks.

 

I'd definitely say ditch the SprintBooster, but it might also be the altitude. The thinner air might be affecting throwing off the car now that the air:fuel ratio has been changed, etc. If you live in Boulder, "mountains" for you probably means ~10,000 feet, which could be messing with things.

 

I'm looking forward to see what the outcome will be.

aaron

 

Try removing the Sprintbooster.

Last Saturday I drove through the Cajon Pass to get to Victorville for the exhaust job and it was smooth and peppy. Not once did the car downshift which surprised me, I'm so used to the downshifting driving my truck up it that it was noticeable in the CM that it didn't.

 

Correct me if I'm wrong... the NM tune is $500 and works all the time. The Renntech tune is $980 and only works when in sport mode. ECU tuning group costs even more? All outfits accept an ECU shipped out to them directly or through a distributor. All add an extra 10-15%. So any opinions whether the Renntech is worth the extra $500? I think I'd rather have the tune be there all the time, I just don't like the CELs I get at low RPMs on the piggyback I'm using.

I've had the strange bucking a half dozen times with a stock tune on the CMS at high altitudes, and was hoping the the NM tune wouldn't have the same. I personally can't see how the SprintBooster would be a factor on that issue. Regardless, has anyone ever had any CELs with any of these tunes?

I understand the folks with a CMS tune is still a pretty small club, but was looking to see if there was a consensus yet on the best choice to support.

 

One more question. I'm at almost 50,000 miles and mentioned the high altitude bucking to my MINI dealer, and he said they can do a SW update to address it. If that fix is in an area that all the ECU tuners don't mess with, should I go ahead and have the dealer try the updated load before I ship the ECU off to NM, RennTech, or ETG? I guess I'm asking if the tuners are just patching a few areas in ECU memory (timing, fuel, boost tables), or if they just have a standard full CMS stage 1 and stage 2 memory image and replace the whole image in the customer box, in which in case I may as well just ship the ECU to one of them without bothering to do the all-day reload with the dealer.

 

Doug,

I was the first one to have the RENNTech tune for an ALL4... I drove down to Florida from Connecticut just to have it done. Also in non-sport mode we get a mild tune upgrade where Sport Mode bumps it up to the full tune. No CEL's and yes they only correct certain aspects of the ECU, so have it updated, send it out and then NEVER EVER let the dealer touch the ECU after that... Otherwise you'll be sending it back out for a re-tune.

Kyle

 

Thanks! That's the answer I was hoping for.

 

I'll reinforce what kconner says, the ECU tune from Renntech is primarily in the Sport Mode, but there is definitely some work done in the "normal" mode of the car. Throttle response is a bit tighter and the car feels more like it should. Hit the Sport button and it really makes the car feel like it should if you've hit a button named "Sport".

My problems were at high altitude with a major load on the car (kayaks on the roof, with a bunch of camping gear for the weekend). After putting a few more miles on the car I believe the real problem I had was surging due to the SprintBooster reacting to a "stock" throttle response added to the modified throttle response from the ECU tune. Too much surge under load going uphill and CEL pops up due to the engine feeling too warm. I've since disabled the SprintBooster and notice that in normal driving conditions the car is behaving more friendly.