crypto

It seems there was a permanent price drop of the Dinan Stage II for the 535's. It's now holding steady at $1799. According to Dinan it will no longer go on sale for 20% off (at least not for a while). You can probably get it a little bit cheaper if you finagle it with the dealer/installer (to get closer to ~1750-1760 price at least). Question to anyone that's purchased it... have you got this for a good deal cheaper or is this about what you paid (assuming 20% off sale from the former $2199 price)?

I've never heard anything bad about the Dinan ECU flashes other than price. It's obviously a lot more expensive than the JB3/JB4, Cobb AccessPORT, and a few others, but I have a ton of warranty left on my car and really want that piece of mind that comes with the Dinan flash. It seems they put in a lot of time engineering their solution so it puts out a lot of performance and really shouldn't ever cause anything to go wrong with your car.. and if it does they will take care of it as long as you're within their warranty constraints.

With that said and my reasoning does anyone see a reason not to go with the Dinan Stage II? Is there some sort of other solution now that will do a matching warranty type deal?

Persian_535i

Dinan, most overrated company ever.

crypto

As much as that helps in this decision making process, I must say I think you're being a bit dramatic.

Persian_535i

Overpriced for the amount of HP/Torque you receive, if you want a better tune that you can remove/reinstall through your obdII then I would just wait for the new version of the Cobb to come out. Supposedly it is going to blow any other tune available at the moment away and there has been nothing but great comments and remarks about it on the e90 forums.

corey

No doubt there's Cobb, JB4, etc, that have higher gains and are more customizable and less expensive than Dinan, but your warranty goes out the window with them. For my decision, the most important factor was warranty coverage 1st, performance 2nd, and price 3rd. The only way to maintain warranty was to go with Dinan so factors 2 & 3 didn't matter. Sure there is some performance sacrifice but coupled with an exhaust & scoops, I can still reach a nearly 400hp level or so. Given that my car was a new purchase with its entire warranty available I went with Dinan based on my needs. Had I bought a used car less perhaps the decision would have been different. They are all great tuners, over-rated or not, and all provide an amazing driving experience.

Persian_535i

Agreed warranty is always the biggest factor, but almost every tune now days has a device or option to clear codes before you take your vehicle in for warranty work. As long as you are smart this really shouldn't be a concern. Like I said I've taken my vehicle in 3-4 times while having my JB4 and have cleared the codes and removed it before every visit and never has been any issues. With even easier user friendly DIY tunes now days like the Cobb where you don't have to get into your vehicles ECU and remove and attach a piggyback, where you can plug it in your OBII I really don't see an excuse.
The only way I see someone getting caught with one of these tunes if they are bright enough to put a sticker in their engine bay saying JB4 performance.

crypto

Or you actually blow out a turbo/key part of your car. That will result in them doing some hard core research as to why it happened and they'll likely find some sort of data to support an add-on that modified boost/other stuff in the vehicle. You're also committing warranty fraud when you do that, which may not be that big of a deal.. but something else to keep in mind.

corey

The dealer by my house is not a Dinan shop. I blew a bank of injectors. The local dealer wanted to charge me thousands for all sorts of new parts, diagnostic fee, it was insane. When I questioned them they said while there were no codes, they ran a torque map and saw it was flashed. I immediately limped my car to the Dinan-authorized BMW dealer and they handled it under warranty. Sure you can clear codes and the like, but dealers now resort to different tactics to investigate.

Persian_535i

I've never heard of BMW running a torque map to test for a flash, that is news to me and very well might be true. Also if your car was tuned with a Dinan I'd figure they would have the tune available for them to look at immediately since Dinan doesn't exactly hide their tunes, why would they need to run a torque map to figure out that it is flashed. Sounds a lil weird to me.

gummysDad

As someone who owns a Cobb [Persian, they're coming out with a new one?] and loves it, if I bought my car new, I would have gone with the Dinan. For about $1k, give or take, its insurance & piece of mind in case anything happens with these damn tempermental turbo engines.

Corey - did you dealer ever give any reason why the a whole bank of injectors went, kinda scary. None of the out of the tunes really stress the engine to levels that should blow anything. Also, you mentioned a scoop, do you have an RPI? Do you feel it makes a noticable difference? Says it makes an additional 7hp or something at 65mpg...