Sale: DINAN ECU Tunes for 135i --> 50% off

[kid_kilo]

Just got the s2 tune on an 135is, all smiles now when i drive it. Like the response I get from the car now, went to EAS in anahiem in california, went with my bro and he got the stg3 on n54, both of us are pleased

[Gangplank]

Originally Posted by Esteban

Hope everyone's ok. Curious, what happened?

The urgency with the S2 tune was the 1/2 price sale, which is supposed to be over at the end of Feb. Who knows, maybe if it sells well (and I think it is) they'll extend it, or even better make it the permanent price.

Nothing too serious & "no vehicles were damaged in the making of this message." I imagine (hope) Dinan will put it on sale again sometime down the road. I'm gonna be patient...

[c1pher]

Who knows, it may become a permanent sale. I think they do reduce the price on offering when there is less demand.

[Esteban]

Originally Posted by MGM135is

Who knows, it may become a permanent sale. I think they do reduce the price on offering when there is less demand.

I think sales was slow on E-series tunes and most people didn't want to pay full price. Because of the half price offer I'm sure sales has picked up now and 50% off is better than no sale at all for Dinan. I think they will make more money if they keep it at that price. At least people are buying it. I'll bet it's selling even better for the E9x cars.

[Track rat]

Originally Posted by MGM135is

Being hq'd in California, I am certain they did not take your particular situation into consideration. I am assuming if you can afford to keep your car stored in a heated garage over the winter without need of driving it every day, a sale doesn't make much difference to you lol. Maybe five people who won't be able to take advantage of the sale?

It's a very common thing for "enthusiast" style cars to be put away in the winter.
In my case I have a company car that does all my DD duties. The 1'er is my weekend warrior.

Storage is through a local roofer who escapes down to Florida for 3 ish months. Being a car guy he opens up his shop for storage. The catch is because he leaves the cars have to be there until he comes back. He charges $50 a month.

So my car gets to avoid the salt, I save about $600 in insurance. It is really a nice option, for nice cars to avoid the worst winter offers.

[scythe1969]

Well, my 1er got the S2 treatment today, courtesy of Bullet Performance. Apparently there were quite a few other 1 series owners getting the tune done while my car was there, for as much talk as there is with this being a 'dead technology', looks like price was a major motivator overall...

First some background; my car is a 2012 6MT N55, which was stock when I took possession. When I first got the car, there was a faint whisper of burble on deceleration. When I setup the golf tee mod, this became a bit more pronounced, but nothing like the PPK videos I've seen. Then I got the PE and the burbles became obvious and during WOT, I now had 'pops' in between shifts.

After I flashed Stage 1 via a Cobb access port, everything got a little louder and now I added turbo whine on spool. I felt pretty happy about where the car was and I definitely enjoyed the sounds it made.

The Cobb S1 was a noticeable improvement when I first installed it. After a while the throttle response wasn't as sensitive and the linear acceleration I used to have seemed to favor sudden input (flooring it) and the top end of the range more than the bottom. That became a little annoying after a while and is the primary reason why I was entertaining the idea of a PTF custom tune.

When the conversations started up about losing exhaust notes with DS2 I was also curious, but I was willing to sacrifice a little of the noise, for something that delivered a more linear feel and a boost in power. I can confirm that the Dinan tune has reduced my exhaust noises probably to the same level that I had before the PE install. But the trade off is a bit more power than the Cobb tune. So, was DS2 worth it? In a word yes.

In summary, DS2 beats stock, hands down, and it does feel faster than Cobb S1 in spite of minor numbers gain. Also, the throttle response feels more like the cable driven pedal in my E30 M3 (of course, this may change after a time), the extra torque is definitely an improvement over the Cobb S1 and as other posters have mentioned, there is a very strong band of power in the mid rev range.

Post tune, my car doesn't have the issue with the A/C being on, which is good, and the car's idling is locked in at 600rpm without any hiccups. This was probably a bigger issue for me than the exhaust sounds...

So, would I recommend it at full price - probably not. I agree that there are cheaper ways to get the bigger numbers, but the downside seems that there is always some 'tweaking' that can be done to get it 'perfect'.

Is the tune worth it's current price? Definitely. That being said, I'll be listing my access port and hopefully selling it in the near future.

In closing, I have a quick question for those of you 'in the know'... Cobb states that with N55s, Traction Control reduces the power ratings of their tunes and recommends that it should always be turned off for optimal performance. Does the Dinan tune suffer from the same issue? Feedback is always appreciated...

[c1pher]

Originally Posted by scythe1969

Well, my 1er got the S2 treatment today, courtesy of Bullet Performance. Apparently there were quite a few other 1 series owners getting the tune done while my car was there, for as much talk as there is with this being a 'dead technology', looks like price was a major motivator overall...

I don't understand why this is a dead technology. What does that mean?

[c1pher]

Originally Posted by Track rat

It's a very common thing for "enthusiast" style cars to be put away in the winter.
In my case I have a company car that does all my DD duties. The 1'er is my weekend warrior.

Storage is through a local roofer who escapes down to Florida for 3 ish months. Being a car guy he opens up his shop for storage. The catch is because he leaves the cars have to be there until he comes back. He charges $50 a month.

So my car gets to avoid the salt, I save about $600 in insurance. It is really a nice option, for nice cars to avoid the worst winter offers.

I realize this. I'm just saying how many people who store their cars over Winter have a 135i and are also interested in a tune. A lot of the guys I know who do this are doing SCCA and can't tune your car to meet class requirements. It's a very small subset of people.

[Esteban]

Originally Posted by MGM135is

I don't understand why this is a dead technology. What does that mean?

It's not dead. It's alive and kicking -- check out this thread.

[MightyMouseTech]

Originally Posted by MGM135is

I realize this. I'm just saying how many people who store their cars over Winter have a 135i and are also interested in a tune. A lot of the guys I know who do this are doing SCCA and can't tune your car to meet class requirements. It's a very small subset of people.

Come to Ottawa, Canada. Everybody stores their nice cars.

[Cmoney135i]

Originally Posted by ALva135i

I am also considering doing the Dinan Stage 2, $554 total with labor, I recently had my waterpump and thermostat done last week and 2 months ago did my oil cooler and housing gasket. I have a KN filter and resonator with Cat delete, and alsmot 85K miles on it, but I am reluctant because it will increase boost significantly, I have original turbos with no issues and car runs great, is it worth it at this stage with these many miles, or would I be openning up a can of worms?

Hey man all 135I come with the extra oil cooler. Just look inside your passenger side front wheel well you will see it. I got s2 it only raises the boost by 4 psi or so at peak, just do it man you won't regret it.

[Nj135is]

Not sure if anyone had similar experience, but had install done on my 135is dct middle of last week. 1st impression was that I was underwhelmed. Felt as if responsiveness was LESS and didn't really feel improvement (if anything a decrease) in the low end. On this past Sunday, and car felt a little different - I did make some pulls at around 70 and it did feel powerful , but not sure if much more than previous. Hit it in second gear and it did feel "kinda" good.
Brought it back to my bmw dealer who installed it to check it out - they are reaching out to Dinan to see if there's an issue with software. service manger himself indicated he didn't feel what he otherwise would've expected and he's done several of these installs. Even went as far to flash back to factory, drive, the dinan flash and drive again. He indicated he did one on a base 135(not "is") and indicated it felt like a different car.
I've heard that it takes time for the tune to "break in" but the dinan specialist at dealer said it doesn't.

Anyone have any input / suggestions? Thanks all.

[c1pher]

I am not sure what is happening in your case. I felt the difference immediately and especially in sport mode, I feel like I have a wave of torque almost instantly available that is pushing on me. Putting the transmission in sport too just adds icining on the cake.

[c1pher]

Originally Posted by MightyMouseTech

Come to Ottawa, Canada. Everybody stores their nice cars.

Again, I think you're not reading what I'm saying. While I realize many, many people do this, how many are 135i owners. It's not like it's a Ford Mustang and a million were built. The 135i is a fairly low production car.

[c1pher]

Interesting comments about the author's M2 reminds him of his 135is with Dinan:
https://www.bmwcca.org/news/roundel-weekly-my-turn-21
Poor man's M2 (if you get meatier tires)?

[Esteban]

Originally Posted by MGM135is

Interesting comments about the author's M2 reminds him of his 135is with Dinan:
https://www.bmwcca.org/news/roundel-weekly-my-turn-21
Poor man's M2 (if you get meatier tires)?

He must be referring to our Dinan stage 2 here since there's no stage 1 for the N55 135is. Nice compliment.

The closest thing to the power of the M2 was my previous 135is with DINAN Stage 1 engine management.

[tock172]

Originally Posted by Esteban

He must be referring to our Dinan stage 2 here since there's no stage 1 for the N55 135is. Nice compliment.

I believe they made a Stage 1 tune for the N55 years ago, but I could be wrong.

[Esteban]

Originally Posted by tock172

I believe they made a Stage 1 tune for the N55 years ago, but I could be wrong.

Honestly, I don't think so because I've been looking at their website for years and I don't remember ever seeing a stage 1 for the N55. I think they went right to stage 2, but maybe I'm the one who's wrong. Won't be the first time.

[tock172]

Originally Posted by Esteban

Honestly, I don't think so because I've been looking at their website for years and I don't remember ever seeing a stage 1 for the N55. I think they went right to stage 2, but maybe I'm the one who's wrong. Won't be the first time.

I think I remember seeing one, but I can't say for certain now. Oh well

[methodz]

Sale is over but it looks like they lowered the price overall. By a couple hundred bucks for the n55 s2 at least.

[c1pher]

Really glad I got it done when I did then. Kind of surprised they went with $1003 instead of $999. Is $4 really all that important lol? Still I would go with Dinan again even at $1003. Very happy.

[zx10guy]

You forgot the 50 cents.