N52 tune for 3 stage intake manifold that meets new CA smog requirement

[mct128i]

A couple of years ago I installed a 3 SIM and in order to fully exploit the manifold upgrade I sent my DME to Turner Motorsports who installed a tune. The results were very pleasing and well worth the effort and cost.

A couple of months ago, the CA smog test was revised and now includes a check to ensure that the OEM or CARB approved DME software is present. I contacted Turner who advised that their performance tune is not CARB approved and I therefore presume my car will fail its next Smog test (due next month).

I see that Bimmerlabs has a "Stock 330i Tune" - does anyone know if this will allow my car to pass the new CA Smog test? I tried contacting Bimmerlabs via their website but haven't heard anything.

I'm open to other suggestions (although not looking to move to a different state LOL) and, since I'm a little apprehensive regarding reprogramming would be interested to know if there is a plug and play device that would allow me to load CARB compliant software on my N52. (I also have an N55 powered 335i which uses the Cobb Accessport and this device will avoid any Smog test issues on that car).

Any helpful suggestions will be greatly appreciated - especially anyone in CA who has faced this issue recently.

Thanks in hopes of some good advice!

Mark

[rjahl]

Originally Posted by mct128i

A couple of years ago I installed a 3 SIM and in order to fully exploit the manifold upgrade I sent my DME to Turner Motorsports who installed a tune. The results were very pleasing and well worth the effort and cost.

A couple of months ago, the CA smog test was revised and now includes a check to ensure that the OEM or CARB approved DME software is present. I contacted Turner who advised that their performance tune is not CARB approved and I therefore presume my car will fail its next Smog test (due next month).

I see that Bimmerlabs has a "Stock 330i Tune" - does anyone know if this will allow my car to pass the new CA Smog test? I tried contacting Bimmerlabs via their website but haven't heard anything.

I'm open to other suggestions (although not looking to move to a different state LOL) and, since I'm a little apprehensive regarding reprogramming would be interested to know if there is a plug and play device that would allow me to load CARB compliant software on my N52. (I also have an N55 powered 335i which uses the Cobb Accessport and this device will avoid any Smog test issues on that car).

Any helpful suggestions will be greatly appreciated - especially anyone in CA who has faced this issue recently.

Thanks in hopes of some good advice!

Mark

I'd be very surprised if any government agency was able to build a database of acceptable calibration files for every car model and every available update possible. It's not that hard but I just don't see it happening.

It's not like the DME is going to broadcast over ODB that's carrying a "tune". There is no Tune flag, It will only provide a CVN number and someone needs to research against all possible BMW files. Think about all the different brand cars, models, versions and updates.

There are ways to get the DME to return "designer" values when the CVN is requested. I don't think anyone has implemented that type of programming for the MSV70/80.

The current Bimmerlabs tune does not modify the CVN request, so if someone looked hard enough they can detect the tune.

[mct128i]

rjahl - thanks for your comments.

I did some research and found some good information here:

https://www.thedrive.com/cars-101/41...tune-flash-faq

From this article it seems that CA smog tests conducted since 2015 have been recording ECU data in order to create a database of OEM/legal tunes and this along with data submittted by manufacturers will form the basis of determining whether an ECU software modification has been made.

According to the same article, the CA smog test reads the Calibration Verification Number (CVN) and Calibration ID. The CVN acts as a checksum and this will change whenever a modification has been made.

I'm still hoping I can find a convenient way of loading CA smog compliant software that will also allow me to exploit the benefits of the 3 SIM - since this setup is stock and entirely legal in certain BMW's (E90 330i, X3 Si, Z4 Si), I have to believe there is a solution.

[RaddDroid7]

Would love to know as well, Was looking to get a tune soon ! N51 Here

[Nimrodical1]

So could a guy have 2 ecu’s one with a tune and one that was stock and simply swap the ecu’s for smog testing?
Used stock ecu’s seem to be affordable on eBay.
I just watched a guy swap his out on YouTube and it seemed like even a nimrod could do it as long as there isn’t some technological issue that a nimrod doesn’t understand?

[stevodotorg]

I too am interested in this thread. Curious of anyones experience with the modified DME and getting smogged