Alpina B3 transmission flash

[SteveAZ]

My experience with it after having done it myself...

First of all, it is very important to make sure you have a recent version of ediabas. I didn't and wasn't aware of it as INPA worked fine. Consequently my car freaked during the loading process and locked me out of the transmission. My car is also a bit slow to adapt to flashes and such, so even when I did get the TCU to upload correctly the ECU freaked. After a reset of everything I was able to get everything to upload correctly.

At first it seemed like what I had before...after my BMS flash and ISO 17 my shifts had gotten quicker but a bit more abrupt too with a tad bit of a stutter is the best I can describe it. It was definitely starting to bug me and figured I'd have to start playing with the auto shift boost reduction....but it started adapting pretty quickly.

A few pulls in manual and it was feeling much better. Not quite as smooth as what I was gathering from people's posts but definitely felt faster, especially in manual. As has been said, sport mode is pretty crisp and hits 6800 (wish we could change that) every time.

Drive mode is surprisingly mild. Quick shifts that you barely feel and really have to be paying attention, but if just cruising, I'll be in 6th by 40mph. If I punch it in drive, a slight lag (I have the kickdown blocker mod) and then hold on...I kicked it down to from 3rd to 2nd after a corner and it spun all the way through 2nd and well in to 3rd.

Definitely a nice improvement and amazing how it takes a car that is fairly edgy now and makes it very smooth in drive provided you don't jump on it. Honestly don't really care for drive now but will be nice when other people are in the car. Sport is really a good one for around town now and manual won't be used near as much.

The other thing I noticed...in drive I had DTC pressed (option is turned on in JB4) and while it did flash a lot at me...it didn't cut timing near as bad, if at all...I didn't log it but didn't feel like it did. With DTC defeated, when I would spin a lot previously it would get pissed and flash wildly and sometimes kick the override off...didn't do that but need more time to test.

As people have said...you can really mess things up if you don't know what you're doing...but honestly, it's not that hard if you have everything running well and configured properly for coding.

Pig Farmer...if you can't find what you need, PM me and I'll send you some links.

[RnmEvo9]

I just got it done and I am totally loving how smooth it is in D mode.

[1speedbike]

Does it have any discernible effect in M mode? I drive in that mode, shifting myself, 99.9% of the time. I reset the tranny pretty often so the shifts are always very smooth. Does it make the shifts any smoother in M, or does it just affect the way the computer calculates the shift points and the logic it uses in D/DS modes? I just ask because I don't really see it mentioned above, and if it leaves M mode alone, this wouldn't be worth it at all for me. I don't like the way the car decides to act most of the time in D and DS, so I try to avoid it.

[Rodzilla]

Originally Posted by RnmEvo9

I just got it done and I am totally loving how smooth it is in D mode.

Nice!

[RnmEvo9]

Originally Posted by 1speedbike

Does it have any discernible effect in M mode? I drive in that mode, shifting myself, 99.9% of the time. I reset the tranny pretty often so the shifts are always very smooth. Does it make the shifts any smoother in M, or does it just affect the way the computer calculates the shift points and the logic it uses in D/DS modes? I just ask because I don't really see it mentioned above, and if it leaves M mode alone, this wouldn't be worth it at all for me. I don't like the way the car decides to act most of the time in D and DS, so I try to avoid it.

I haven't driven it for that long, but in my short experience in M mode is that it shifts firmer (I really enjoy how it downshifts now). The most obvious difference that I can tell so far is basically D mode. It is ridiculously smooth like if it was a CVT transmission.

I'll report back later this week after I put some more miles on it.

[SteveAZ]

Originally Posted by 1speedbike

Does it have any discernible effect in M mode? I drive in that mode, shifting myself, 99.9% of the time. I reset the tranny pretty often so the shifts are always very smooth. Does it make the shifts any smoother in M, or does it just affect the way the computer calculates the shift points and the logic it uses in D/DS modes? I just ask because I don't really see it mentioned above, and if it leaves M mode alone, this wouldn't be worth it at all for me. I don't like the way the car decides to act most of the time in D and DS, so I try to avoid it.

Initiation....yes....execution...jury is still out on that one.

So as you know there are two variables in manual mode that affect the shift.

The first being the time it takes from when I initiate the shift to when the car actually shifts. The second being how long the transmission takes to actually complete the shift.

I don't have paddles, but almost always drive in manual. The time that it takes for the transmission to react to the fact that I have requested a shift is greatly improved.

Prior to doing this I had flashed my car and saw a noticable difference in the time it took for the transmission to physically shift but was abrupt (I believe there was a line pressure variable changed in the flash but it is a "race" flash). I'm honestly not sure if it's shifting faster yet with this TCU flash. I believe so but we're talking very slight differences and other stuff comes in to play. So to answer that I need to spend a bit more time with it and look at the logs.

[SteveAZ]

Originally Posted by RnmEvo9

I haven't driven it for that long, but in my short experience in M mode is that it shifts firmer (I really enjoy how it downshifts now). The most obvious difference that I can tell so far is basically D mode. It is ridiculously smooth like if it was a CVT transmission.

I'll report back later this week after I put some more miles on it.

I'd agree with that...Drive mode is "ridiculously smooth"...I don't like it but my wife loves it. I just had her drive it by herself and report back.

I didn't notice the "firmer" as much but I already explained why in my previous post. The other thing that will affect that is what your timing does pre and post shift...a car that has "flat line" timing will definitely feel like it shifts "firmer".

[RnmEvo9]

Originally Posted by SteveAZ

I'd agree with that...Drive mode is "ridiculously smooth"...I don't like it but my wife loves it. I just had her drive it by herself and report back.

I didn't notice the "firmer" as much but I already explained why in my previous post. The other thing that will affect that is what your timing does pre and post shift...a car that has "flat line" timing will definitely feel like it shifts "firmer".

I really enjoy drive mode now. The only time I am ever in this mode is when the car is cold. Basically, its a lot easier to stay out of boost as well for me. After the oil temps are up, I always switch to M mode.

As for the flatline, I've always had it, but I'll have to report back and see if its still there with this flash. (I've read on some other site that it cured the flatline issue for them).

[SteveAZ]

Originally Posted by RnmEvo9

I really enjoy drive mode now. The only time I am ever in this mode is when the car is cold. Basically, its a lot easier to stay out of boost as well for me. After the oil temps are up, I always switch to M mode.

As for the flatline, I've always had it, but I'll have to report back and see if its still there with this flash. (I've read on some other site that it cured the flatline issue for them).

Good point...I do the same...but both days I've driven it, I was doing other stuff to the car (checking logs and such) and had let it warm up in the garage so I didn't utilize that.

I've seen talk about it fixing flat line issues too....hope so...it's never been much of an issue for me either so I can't comment on that. I take it all with a grain of salt as a lot of people always think what they've just done is "the best thing ever" and there has been quite a bit of hype over this.

For me the biggest plus with drive mode will be when others are in the car so they don't feel like they just stepped in to a race car or something. Before I had to be pretty careful taking off from the light to make it feel smooth, otherwise it was a slight accelleration that already took off quite a bit quicker than anybody else from the light. Then it would noticably accellerate harder after a couple seconds (no input from me), and then the shift to second that you'd definitely feel. It was actually easier to take off in 2nd (manual) and then put it in drive. If it's just me in the car, I obviously don't care.

It's a great comprimise of both worlds...my wife was starting to get pretty intimidated by the car if she was driving although she rarely needs to.

and as I said..."take this all with a grain of salt"

[JZWBMW]

This is very interesting, I am tuning an auto now that I would like to have some smoother shifts, it is kind of abrupt. I will have to give this a try and the ability to change shift points is important. The auto seems to have a mind of its own, even if I change the shift points in the ecu, the auto seems to shift whenever it wants to, so this could be a good option for the auto cars with tunes.

JZW

[Miko226]

Anybody in South Florida know where i could have this done? and how much it might cost?

[Rodzilla]

Originally Posted by Miko226

Anybody in South Florida know where i could have this done? and how much it might cost?

Check here...

http://www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=807755

[Zombie1]

If I get this done before I do a tune will I have to reload it after the tune?

[Rodzilla]

Originally Posted by Zombie1

If I get this done before I do a tune will I have to reload it after the tune?

ECU tune and TCU are different. Don't think you need to reload.

[Zombie1]

Originally Posted by Rodzilla

ECU tune and TCU are different. Don't think you need to reload.

Just wasn't sure since I read to have your tune maps set to zero before you load

[deletedgone]

Subscribed. Sounds like a real improvement.

Think it's worthwhile on an otherwise stock car?

[SteveAZ]

Originally Posted by Rodzilla

ECU tune and TCU are different. Don't think you need to reload.

I actually started to contemplate this as well and don't have a definitive answer.....yet

My scenerio...

-I did my tranny flash with my Cobb/BMS flash and JB4 installed but disabled (I read you could).
-When doing the trans flash...it flashes the TCU..but it also flashes the ECU!
-So, when I installed my BMS flash, the Cobb backs up my stock ECU program right?
-It then loads the new flash on to the ECU.
-So the backed up ECU flash on my Cobb doesn't have the new ECU flash...right?
-Now if I unistall my BMS flash and the Cobb reinstalls my old ECU flash (pre-alpina)???????????

I'm actually going to be doing this in the next couple days because I want to test another BMS flash...so one way or another...I'll have some answers

[dknl]

OK to share my experience for others looking to do this:

if you have JB4, obviously switch to map 0 and then shut car off and take out key before trying flash. I made mistake of not taking key out after switching maps and the ECU didnt take the flash the first time....kinda scary. Just reflash is all i had to do and it worked fine.

Also, use BMW coding tools to update winfpk and daten files...makes it so much easier.
Make sure you have the full daten 48.1 as indicated in instructions floating around.

If you get error:

VIN is faulty => likely your cable is not connected properly, you have bad cable, or your software is not installed correctly (INPA should have black dots for both battery and engine)

Error about ERROR_ECU_Security_Access_DENIED or something similar (sorry dont have screenshot of actual error) => my issue was resolved with making sure VIN was entered correctly and that JB4 is in Map 0 and car was previously turned car off with key removed before beginning the steps.

No GKE215 to select from when pressing F3 => Update WINFPK using latest BMW coding tools.

GOOD LUCK!

[bromandude]

i offer this for free in houston now...its amazing...here's my buddies car we did tonight.

[submarshall]

Will this work on an 08 AT (non dct)?

[Rodzilla]

Originally Posted by submarshall

Will this work on an 08 AT (non dct)?

Yes. It's for AT tranny's only.

[1-2MANY]

Anyone know of a place to do this in the Dallas area?