OK...Ive looked everywhere and I'd appreciate some help. I want to know what program the tuners are using to tune the ecu??? I heard from a service rep that BMW can see all the codes and what they are doing but the actually mechanics at MINI cannot. Is it possible to download or purchase a program that allows you to tune the car just like EVOtech, MTH, GIAC, etc? If anyone is able to help me out I'd appreciate it...

Thanks,
Luca

 

Cartune is used to download and upload the ECU for MTH. If thats what you mean. As far as the actual code goes, I'm not 100% sure what program they use, but it could be something as simple as notepad (trust me, notepad can do a million and one things).

 

Just be careful and don't try putting a F00NST program in a G00NST DME or vice versa.

 

Whatever interface a tuner uses - it's usually not for sale/distribution, and if so - usually only works with their 'files'. Why do you want to know?

 

Well I want to know because I service rep asked me if I could find out for him so he could start screwing around with the ecu and do some tuning custom for some of their race cars that have to be constantly modified. Redline, speed limiter, timing, a/f, etc etc. Anyways, anymore info appreciated.

 

You're not going to find anything that's even remotely affordable that will let you alter Redline, speed limiter, timing, a/f, etc. In terms of pricing, package prices are roughly comparable to what you paid for your MINI.

 

MTH does that for you. And its only $350-400 for Tuner package + 12 months of updates. That or you could look at some of the computers that run $18,000.00 that can do similar things.

 

I understand that a program like that would be very expensive and I know that MTH, at least in my opinion, is probably one of the best solutions to ecu tuning. However, this service rep doesnt want a program that will adjust the ecu for you, he wants a program that will allow you to see the raw codes....im guessing its in forms of number and some coding language? Anyways, thats what he wants, something that will allow him to see the raw ecu coding and ultimately be able to alter it.

 

It's relatively easy and inexpensive to change binary or hex digits in the code and put it into the ECU, using Cartune and Notepad. Your car will most likely not start after you do that, unless you understand what the values mean. They are not self-explanatory and not documented anywhere that is remotely inexpensive. There's 60 kb of data in the commonly-modified portions. You'd have a better chance of a million monkeys typing out the complete works of Shakespeare than you would of obtaining your tuning objectives by randomly changing those numbers.

If you want to find out what the values mean, with maps and explanations and whatnot, here are a couple companies who can sell you the tools. Expect to pay about $10,000 for the hardware/software package plus $5,000 for the description file for each specific ECU:

http://www.evc.de/

http://www.dimsport.com/

 

Anyone got tickets to the monkeys doing Shakespeare, that'd be funny.

 

I see Mickey Dolens as King Lear.