Hyper_545i

Hello All:

I did search and found a lot of posts on the topic, however no concrete information has been recorded. I am looking into an ECU Upgrade for my 2004 545i. Can anyone post any experiences with their ECU reflashes? Who are the reputable tuners/shops everyone is dealing with. I have read about Upsolute, Kelleners, Gintani and DMS. Has anyone actually installed these ECU's? Any problems? Are there published HP numbers credible? I have seen anywhere from 20-30hp stated. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thank You,

Trinity Autosport

Check my sig and click on the link to see my thread. Gintani for SURE! I got real WHP numbers posted. The gain is AWESOME!

http://forums.e60.net/index.php?showtopic=49826

brandsb

I've got Dinan Stage III in conjunction with throttle body and CAI but disappointed with the results. I'm investigating Superchips with Jeff Zusman at Eurobahn. Need to pull the ECU and send it out to him in CA. Among other things they'll tune for octane (93 in Michigan) and optimize Vanos. He won't put a final number on the increase since it will vary with my other mods. I'm also interested in other opinions regarding ECU tuning experiences.

HPLouis

What disappointed you with the Dinan software?

Trinity Autosport

If your thinking about reflashing it try Gintani...check sig for dyno results

brandsb

I'll first qualify my answer by saying I respect and appreciate what Dinan is doing and their products developed for the BMW aftermarket (awesome CAI's, suspensions, etc.). However, this is my second experience with their software and, while I know that there are some improvements, the results aren't that noticeable to me. I believe that a big reason for this is that the software is developed to work universally (e.g. 91 octane in CA, 93 here) AND consider warranty implications, a massive undertaking. Custom 'flashers' aren't similarly encumbered so I'm looking forward to comparing their work and accepting the consequences. I don't want to start a debate here about the merits of Dinan, warranties, etc. as it's apples and oranges.

A fair argument could be made that my 'seat of the pants' is not accurate. However, before I bought the Stage III for my 545 I spoke to Dinan about the anticipated improvements in throttle response (one of my gripes with the 545) and was assured that it would be very noticeable. It wasn't and I ended up buying a SprintBooster which is the single most significant improvement I've made to the vehicle (along with the '20 second' Steptronic recalibration). However, many people would find the SB throttle response too aggressive, so Dinan bridges the gap. Aples and Oranges.