The thing many people see coming is that factory ECU's will become more sensitive to any anomalies and less "willing" to tolerate even a simple single sensor boost plug-in add-on. Some say that in the near future, cars will be programmed to hit the tilt button if there is any attempt to re-flash, or even adjust parameters through magic box trickery.

Think about the business model. MINI can sell the basic BMW X1 drivetrain in a JCW and add a stiff price premium for what is a basic low hp BMW engine that they put in the least expensive BMWs. The BMW 4 banger version of the engine used in many of their cars is just under 250HP. JCW never saw that engine.

So, it's not a very far stretch to imagine the day when car manufacturers totally lock down the tuning and require their dealers to sniff out consumer's attempts to tweak.

As it is, cars "remember" if the seat belts were fastened or how fast the car was going when the brakes were applied prior to air bag deployment and, with GPS, if they want, they will know everywhere you go or have been. "You say you never tracked the car? Our records indicate that the GPS on your car says you did 20 laps at Laguna Seca on May the 3rd." Scary, but possible.

If you want more performance, the manufacturers will sell it to you, on their terms. The emphasis going forward will be on emissions and fuel economy for the mass market. Performance that will be available will be at an ever-stiffer price premium. And it will be available on halo cars or packaged vehicles where, if you want the grunt, you gotta buy the heated leather seats and whatever else is tacked on to pack the price upward.

 

I found this paragraph in the 2018 MINI warranty book.

"This warranty shall be null and void if the vehicle has
been declared a total loss or sold for salvage
purposes, or if the vehicle has been used in any
competitive event."

So does this mean that if we auto crossed the car the warranty could be voided by MINI?

 

Or what if the “competitive event” is a car show? You win the blue ribbon for best wheels and void your warranty. 😉

 

Jeez ... does anyone care about better performance anymore?

Installed the Elite on my 2017 JCW today and am really impressed based on first drive experience. I think it will get better as the car learns driving style again. Having to reset all of my settings after the battery disconnect was a bit of a pain, but that only took a few minutes. Biggest issue was when I (as always) put it in sports mode, it defaulted to drivetrain and chassis ... i normally keep mine in drivetrain only ... much better balance in my mind.

 

It's all about risk vs. reward. My warranty is up in a month or so and my car has a whopping 36k miles on it in the 4 years since its production. Odds are nothing is going to go wrong with it in those last few months so I've jumped the gun a bit and had it RPM tuned. If it was brand new, yeah, no thanks. I'm not gonna go crazy with mods and risk a 4 year warranty on a $30k+ car. I just don't have that kind of money if something were to go wrong. Besides, if you're seeking pure performance just get a liter bike. It'll run laps around pretty much anything for a tiny fraction of the cost of a car that even comes close.

 

Idk about you guys but I'm beyond excited to see how much it will transform the new clubman and the gp3, theyll be absolute monsters

 

I got my replacement Dinan module yesterday...much better. I could tell as soon as I pulled out of the parking lot. I'm still wondering about the QC as they seem to have some failure rates. But as of now, pleased.

As the previous post said, I wonder what kind of gains the GP engine will be getting. Of course like everyone I am wondering about final specs.

 

So much for thinking all was well. CEL came on when I started the car this morning, so took it to my independent shop for a scan. Scan showed manifold sensor pressure fault ... readings showed low pressure. We checked all of the connections and they all appeared to be good, so we cleared the fault . The light went off and didn't come back on until later in the day when I restarted the car. CEL came back on an is staying lit.

I've contacted Dinan about this, but being a holiday weekend, I doubt I will hear anything until next week.

I will say that the power increase is very noticeable, especially in the mid range. Driveability seems to be fine, but with a long road trip coming up in a week I may have to return it to stock for a while.

 

In the old days when I installed headers on my L78 396 Chevelle and checked the dwell on my points in the distributor I NEVER got a fault code anywhere & life was good! I just can’t handle the electronic gadgetry today! Couldn’t help it, sorry. I hope you get it lined out. I do have a Dinan chip in my ‘88 M5’s ecu however. :-)

 

I'm not trying to hijack this thread, but I'm curious about top speeds per gear with the Elite tune. Specifically in 3rd gear. The reason I ask is because I just finished up last month with my RPM stage ll flash tune by Mario. Before my tune, with just my power mods alone (Mini Pro Exhaust, Forge FMIC, MarioKart downpipe, and 100 octane fuel) my top speed in 3rd gear before "redlining" and powering down, was about 50-55 mph. AFTER my tune I am pulling extremely strong in 3rd gear all the way up to 84 mph.

 

Unless you changed your gearing also, I don't see how you could increase the max speed you could reach per gear.

 

I actually really don't know, but isn't that the goal of any tune? With a large increase in HP and torque aren't you supposed to get increased speed as you move through the gears? I'm not trying to be a smart *** at all....I simply don't know! The only thing I do know is I went from a max speed in 3rd gear from around 50-55 mph to 84 mph. Now with that being said I'm not seeing any real difference in first and second gear.

 

You might get to the 55mph faster with more hp, but you won't be able to go faster than 55 if you were hitting the redline before.

 

Well the only reason I know my top speeds/gear is because I was actually charting them. Again I am not an expert by any means when it comes to anything under the hood. The reason I was "charting" my top speeds/gear was because I was trying to maximize my shift points as I get ready to take my car to the track for a few quarter mile runs. Right now I'm playing around with going up to around 5000 rpm's in third gear, or do an early shift from 3rd to 4th. The Jury is still out.

 

I think you are missing a few cogs...lol. The time it takes to reach top speed in a gear will change but the top speed will be the same at redline unless you did some gearing changes or ran HUGE TIRES in place of stock size.

 

Oh ya man I am totally missing a few cogs! I've stated on many threads that I know very little about what goes on under the hood. I'm an idiot! The only things I do very well is drive, and detail. Double D's! I normally stay out of threads like these!

 

Did you disconnect the negative battery terminal before you did the install? Seems quite a chore to get to the battery on my 2016 JCW. I would like to bypass this step but won’t do so if there’s a chance I’ll do harm to the engine-ECU. Thanks

 

When I was watching the authorized dealer do the install, they did not disconnect the battery.

 

You should disconnect negative lead whenever you do electrical work.

I never do, but that is stupid on my part.

It is pretty simple to get at the back of the battery and undo the negative cable.

https://www.newtis.info/tisv2/a/en/f...der/1VncEZCLzI

If you self install and somehow short the unit out, good luck on getting DINAN to cover it unless you hold fast to a lie.

 

Got the replacement unit from Diana and I am really impressed with the change in driveability, smoothness and power delivery. No CELs or other issues. Dinan's tech support was very responsive and helpful. So far I love the difference.

 

Well ... it was good for about 300 miles and since then, it has been throwing CELs like a Christmas tree. Codes have been P12A5 or P12A8 (both pressure sensor faults) and one time both. Driveability and performance is fine and I love the extra power. Sometimes, they self-clear and at other times I have to clear them myself. Dinan told me that they are aware of the problem and are working on a firmware upgrade, but do not have an expected release date. As for taking it back, they said there's nothing else they can do until the upgrade arrives as I have the latest version. A bit frustrating ... enough so that I am considering removing it until the new version is available.

 

You have a bypass plug, yes? Why not apply that, and go back to OEM until the firmware upgrade is available?

Cheers,

Charlie

 

This is really distressing news. Assuming there is no sensor malfunction within your MINI (not Dinan software or hardware), then your story is an indication of how far Dinan has drifted from where they used to be.

Three years ago I had a ton of questions prior to plugging in a Dinan Sport. I got written responses to my long list of questions and I had a couple of conversations with a tech at Dinan who was extremely knowledgeable and very reassuring (Dinan was still in Northern California at the time).

We used to get product updates and responses from Dinan to questions posted on NAM.

The notion that "we know there's an issue with our firmware but can't tell you what we're gonna do about it or when," is not exactly the response we want to see from a company that built its reputation on providing top flight tuner tech for BMW enthusiasts.

Oh how the mighty fall.

I think I'd be working my way up the chain at Dinan. Were I the head hancho, I'd want to know that our customers were being told that we shipped funky stuff and now hurry up and wait until maybe we get around to fixing it.

Please keep us posted.

 

The bypass doesn't always work as the harness itself is at fault in some cases. I would recommend trying it if they haven't already but I wouldn't be shocked if the issues persisted.

 

I plan to install the bypass this weekend. The first time this happened, I was getting ready for a road trip, so I installed the bypass and cleared the codes. From that point (over 5,000 miles) I had no codes until I installed the new module. Based on that, I think it's safe to assume the harness and sensors are good. Fingers crossed ... hope that works this time.

I just hate to lose the power, but better to be safe.