[MHP]

Originally Posted by foosh

Andy,

I'm going to trust at face-value that you are very good at what you do, and that you are thorough in your programming for the purpose of this post. However, there are a couple of minor clarifications to your claims (and I've only quoted those parts of your post pertinent to those), that I think are important for all potential tune customers to note.

foosh, thanks for pointing out the necessary clarifications I'll be glad to answer them.

1) You may not have to worry about "legal and emissions issues," because you can put language in your sales agreement like "off road use only." However, your customers will have to worry about such things if they live in a state where emissions are checked.

Unless you remove your cats or swap to off-road grind cams it's simply not possible to fail emissions due to our ECU tune. What we do is make the engine a more efficient pump and by doing so the emissions output is actually lessened. That's why you also see a subsequent fuel economy gain of 1.5-2.0mpg on the highway after a quality E90 ECU tune. A more efficient engine=More WOT Power, Better Part Throttle Fuel Economy, and Less Emissions.

2) BMW dealers may not have the equipment to detect one of your tunes, but BMW "corporate" does, and they are ones who will have to approve an engine repair or replacement warranty claim, so it's not completely accurate to say, "warranty is a non issue."

As you stated, dealers do not, however BMW USA does have the necessary tools that is correct. That being said, if a customer were to encounter a warranty related issue which may call into question the source of the ECU file, they simply need to send the controller back to us to flash back to stock and no one will be any wiser. We do not trigger flash counters and calculate our own checksums so there will be no issues going this route.

Otherwise we advise anyone post flash to always tell their service advisors not to update the ECU in any way, as they are happy with the factory tune they are currently running.

Granted, a responsible tune is highly unlikely to cause an engine problem during a warranty period, but overall longevity in comparison to OEM is an unknown. However, if an engine melts down for another reason, there is a very big warranty question mark for a car with a modified ECU because the ECU is probably going to be downloaded by the dealer and sent for analysis by BMW in Germany, as a requirement before approving a warranty claim.

No question if there is a major engine issue it would be prudent for the owner to send the ECU back to whoever flashed it for a stock file to be put back on. With that being said you won't last long in this business if you blow up a motor and it takes quite a bit of hamfisted idiocy to blow up a stock longblock N/A motor.

Thanks for taking the time to ask questions that help clarify things for others, please let me know if there's anything else that requires further explanation.


Thanks!