ECU Upgrades for Z4 M

[hwkthndr]

How does one chose an upgrade for the ECU? I have found three. ESS, Power Chip and Active Autowerke. Anybody know which one is best? The ads make them all seem great.

[blender]

It's black magic. The ESS is undeniably good quality and a safe bet.

[Lark]

Admittedly, I just have an si, but I opted for the AA and am pleased. I mainly did so based on price and I wanted a reflash, not a piggy back. The piggy backs are cheaper, but I have not heard as many good things about the piggy backs. FWIW.

[crfine88]

Originally Posted by rclem05

It's black magic. The ESS is undeniably good quality and a safe bet.

+1 I trust my ECU with ESS

[onelove]

In reality, the best part of the flash is getting rid of your CEL after installing headers. If you want the most power, get headers first, then a tune (or preferably at the same time).

I have ESS in my car, if I had to do it all over again I would probably go with the Active Autowerks software at it's slightly reduced price.

[tekmoe]

Do you guys have to send in your ECU to have it flashed?

[ZStig]

yeah, unless you buy a portable unit from ESS for $1k

[r4gs]

there's also viezu tuning from the uk tt has distributors nationwide in the states. kind of a all-in-one tune for the s54 engine itself and not really specifically for the z4m.

[VinnieAces]

Eurocharged tuned my Z4M,

they mainly do mercedez but the owner of the company is a fan of bimmers and made himSELF a personal tune for his s54 engine and sold it to me, have not yet had a proper chance to drive the car yet but as soon as i do i can let you know how it is, tune was 500 from a group buy i squeezed in on with many other benz's

[johanness]

^^^ that would scare the @&^%# outta me. I'm staying with AA or ESS

[mfanatic325]

Choose a tune based one:
1) price
2) gains (claimed vs. actual)
3) type of use

I put #3 in there because the type of use that you have in mind for your car will ultimately impact how you're going to be modifying the car; and therefore you may have different goals compared to other people and their cars.

Having said all that, I personally believe all non-custom tunes are the same: relatively conservative, and typically overpriced (not necessarily worth the money to every individual and their needs).

Money best spent might be to go with a full standalone ECU of some sort and get it dyno-tuned by a reputable tuner. Just keep that in mind when you make your final decision.

At the end of the day, you've got choices. You're the buyer, so all the power to ya!
Happy motoring, and stay safe on the roads
Been hearing about too many Zedders crashing and what not, and it's really sad...

[johanness]

Originally Posted by mfanatic325

Money best spent might be to go with a full standalone ECU of some sort and get it dyno-tuned by a reputable tuner. Just keep that in mind when you make your final decision.

That's ideal. But what system allows us to do that?

[Z4Murder]

with the ess handheld, you gotta email them your stock tune that the handheld reads, then they email you back your tuned map specific to those parameters and whatever mods you have. which is pretty close to taking it to a tuner to have them do the same thing ESS will do through email

[onelove]

Originally Posted by mfanatic325

Choose a tune based one:

Money best spent might be to go with a full standalone ECU of some sort and get it dyno-tuned by a reputable tuner. Just keep that in mind when you make your final decision.

At the end of the day, you've got choices. You're the buyer, so all the power to ya!
Happy motoring, and stay safe on the roads
Been hearing about too many Zedders crashing and what not, and it's really sad...

I have yet to see a Z4M on this or any other forum (other than the Fall Line Carbon Fiber coupe) that would require the use of a full standalone. The stock ecu is super advanced and in the right hands can be tuned to handle any changes that 99.5% of end users are going to change on their cars.

To do a proper standalone on this car you'd be looking in the range of 6-10k dollars including tuning (that's using Motec as an example) and the main benefits you'd have out of a NA car would be 10-20hp, but the availability of a ton of data (again why only a high level road course / race car would necessitate this).

<--- uses stand alones on quite a few vehicles and this is definitely not one I would even consider on the list. This idea gets thrown around way to much with very few who actually have a clue what is required, especially in a late model vehicle.

[mfanatic325]

I think I was trying to get the point across that depending on what the OP wants/expects from a ECU tune, a full standalone may be better bang. Otherwise everything else is just so-so and therefore he shouldn't expect too much.
Not sure why I didn't just say that instead
I think cuz it was late, and a full custom tune had been on my mind recently (since I really want a turbo S54 setup for our Z4M's)

[onelove]

Originally Posted by mfanatic325

I think I was trying to get the point across that depending on what the OP wants/expects from a ECU tune, a full standalone may be better bang. Otherwise everything else is just so-so and therefore he shouldn't expect too much.
Not sure why I didn't just say that instead
I think cuz it was late, and a full custom tune had been on my mind recently (since I really want a turbo S54 setup for our Z4M's)

There's a big different between a complete custom tune using the factory EMS and a standalone unit which requires a map to be 100% created and made from scratch, box wired in, accessory sensors specd/located/wired, DBW controllers, etc all come into play when dealing with modern cars and a standalone. If he had a Supra or Civic, that might be a viable suggestion.

[mfanatic325]

Interesting. I came up from an MR2 turbo, so I hadn't experienced any modern-day ECU standalone conversion(s). Good info to know!

[Arxangel]

Originally Posted by hwkthndr

How does one chose an upgrade for the ECU? I have found three. ESS, Power Chip and Active Autowerke. Anybody know which one is best? The ads make them all seem great.

I am going the ESS way. You can get the tune with the hand-held programmer device. At lease here in Europe it costs around 700 euro for the Z4M. But you can store up to 10 maps + stock and you can always revert back to stock and email the tune back for more adjustments if you don't like it.

[Fen335i]

Anyone know why Dinan doesn't offer an ecu tune for the z4m? Its the same engine as what BMW put in the e46 M3 and they offered a tune for that car (I realize the stock exhaust on the M3 and Z4m are slightly different resulting in a 330 vs 333 hp claim). But what else could be so different that the e46 tune wouldn't work in this car??

Anyone know?

[Z4Murder]

Originally Posted by Fen335i

Anyone know why Dinan doesn't offer an ecu tune for the z4m? Its the same engine as what BMW put in the e46 M3 and they offered a tune for that car (I realize the stock exhaust on the M3 and Z4m are slightly different resulting in a 330 vs 333 hp claim). But what else could be so different that the e46 tune wouldn't work in this car??

Anyone know?

The computers are different...

[ZStig]

one is a MAC and the other is a PC. duhh

[mfanatic325]

^ LoL @ Mac vs. PC

Yeah Fen, our cars have different ECU than E46 M3. Our DME is more advanced (capable) and therefore also tougher to crack and work with.
DINAN is typically overpriced and overrated anyhow =P