[jmflukeiii]

Originally Posted by GrayFoxM3

Thanks, AMO and jm,

All sounds like good advice. I'll just try to relax. Past rides have been less car, so less complex. I should just be enjoying the new sophistication, huh?

So, now how about a fun question? What's the story about "upgraded" software? I've found a few sources like DINAN which you appear to have, jmflukeiii. Do they all do about the same thing and, other than $$$, why pick one over the other? Or... why pick one at all? Sounds like they could make some improvement in the overall driveability of the car, if not a great deal of performance improvement. How do these affect the warranty? If you tune, then have some drive train issue, how does the dealer service affect the tune?

On my G8 GT, I tuned the car myself with a SuperChips programmer, then reset to the factory tune before service work. Otherwise the service techs would trash the tune and the programmer would be useless until a $200 "refresh" was done. Kept everything kosher from the dealer's point of view, too. Know of anyone that's bought a second ECU to hold the aftermarket tune and kept the stock one to flip back and forth as necessary?

Any other reasonably priced, good value mods to make initially? Blowers and the like will have to wait a bit. If there are already threads on this stuff, please point in the right direction. Thanks!

Well, for me, I only like to put Dinan stuff on a BMW. I think they do a good job of blending their products with BMW original driveability.... I've heavily modded cars before and they always feel kind of "strapped together", not like they do when they first show up in your hands. With Dinan, I personally feel its a different story, it only amplifies BMWs original intentions with the vehicle as opposed to imposing their own intentions upon it, if that makes sense.

So that's one reason; other than that, Dinan got rid of the check engine light that comes from me removing the cats (with Dinan's mid-pipes) as well as throttle remapping and bumping the rev limiter up 200k to 8600. Their HP gains are modest in comparison to some of the other tuners (9hp), however, I thoroughly believe Dinan's claims as opposed to some of the other manufacturers (just read some of the posts around here.... you'll see what I mean). And check out Dinan's site and read some of Steve Dinan's writings; obviously a smart guy and explains logically the reasoning behind the changes they make to the car.

I'm not saying you have to go with Dinan and nothing else works; I just personally believe that Dinan produces a product that better coincides and co-exists with BMWs existing product. Plus, my dealership has no issues with Dinan products being on a car (they tried to sell me them 2 minutes after buying the vehicle).