I have a 2008 Mini Cooper S with no mods. I will be dropping the run flats soon.* Would having a tune on my car be beneficial?* Should I look into other mods first?*I don't have lots of money so I am trying to get the most bang for the buck. I have seen that a tune is able to increase hp and tq but how does that equate to how the car feels?* does a tune affect mpgs? Will it affect the warranty? I don't know much so I appreciate your insight.

 

most bang for buck in this order

1 catless downpipe
2 ecu tune
3 Defenders of speed cold air intake
4 aftermarket intercooler
5 aftermarket exhaust

 

I would just be patient and do the mods that James suggested without the tune. If you got the tune right away, you'd have to get retuned once you bought all the other stuff to really take advantage of it.

 

You'll have to balance "best bang for the buck" against voiding portions of your warranty. I believe that most of the tunes James suggested could impact warranty work (in part it depends on your relationship with your service advisor). If you live in CA, you also need to be concerned with CARB (Air Resources Board) - but you aren't going to need a smog check for a couple more years yet.

If you aren't interested in heavily modding your car, then an ECU tune will give you the best bang for the buck as a standalone, but it still isn't cheap (figure $500-600). As Countryboyshane said, however, if you modify later you will hate having to spend that money again...

I'll be the first to admit I'm not entirely sure which of my mods will affect warranty work - it's just that I don't care.

 

If you get the tune from RMW he can always retune it for small fee or if you get the flash loader unit, prolly free if you just have a generic tune.

 

I would disagree
1 intercooler
2 tune (and get the handheld flash tool so you can remove or reload it as needed)

the aftermarket intakes give you more engine noise
the aftermarket exhausts give you more exhaust noise
both are great for the fun factor, but you will see little real gains, I've purchased, installed, and scrapped a ton of them.
the aftermarket downpipes (even the catted ones) ALL throw CEL's and even the RR o2 sim still doesn't work to fix it.

 

I believe Jan charges ~$50 for re-tune's, but updated tunes are free.
eg. Since my Mini was tuned last summer, he's made leaps and bounds, including unlocking the pop and burble and I know there are VVT changes in the pipeline as well.


Talk with Jan about a tune and get his recommendations before dumping money on aftermarket parts, there's no-one else in the industry with more experience tuning the R56 and seeing what works and what doesn't.

 

$50 + dyno time if applicable is pretty good...