Cost of a spare ECU?

[AchtungF80]

Has anyone ever priced out the cost of a spare N54 ECU for the 135i. This way if something were to go wrong due to a mod, you can just swap in the spare/unmolested ECU.

Yeah I know you can easily remove a tune, but an unmolested ECU is without question even safer I think.

[akak1997]

you can't just swap ECU w/o getting the dealership involved. IIRC, they've to do some programming for the new ECU to work, it's not as pnp as you think.

btw, your title say "spaCe" ECU. I thought you want the space shuttle's ECU on your car :P

[Zinister]

The VIN is burned into the DME, so IIRC, plugging in another DME won't work.

[holo777]

The question has come up before, and I think a BMW Service or parts guy said it takes the dealers GM's signature to get a new ECU out of BMW.

[Mad Dragon]

It takes authorization from BMW to get a DME.

[lambammm]

yea i doubt BMW wants a buncha "spare" ECUs floating around. oh well.

[AchtungF80]

Originally Posted by Mad Dragon

It takes authorization from BMW to get a DME.

So then this would be useless??

http://www.ecstuning.com/stage/edpd/...ngine=N54+3.0l

[Neo187H]

Originally Posted by Mad Dragon

It takes authorization from BMW to get a DME.

For a warranty claim correct? I can't imagine they would make you go through the pre-authorization hoops in order to get a CP control module?

[Mad Dragon]

If it's on the TC actions list, it doesn't matter. We have to get authorization for customer pay transmissions.

[SoCalTech]

That's weird. I've seen PuMA ask a fellow technician why they were asking for authorization on a CP DME. They even made it a point to put "no" in the approved box so it wouldn't be mistaken that they were authorizing a warranty replacement.