Good Afternoon,

I am going to be talking with my mechanic about installing the Dinan Elite tuner on my 2015 F56 S. Any advice or thoughts from anyone who has a Dinan Elite installed on their Mini would be appreciated.

Thank you,
Bob

 

You don't need to pay a mechanic!

 

Totally Agree! Waste of time and money! Buy the kit and install it yourself, it takes about 20 minutes then another 10 minutes to tie the wires to other wires. I did it to my 2015 F56 JCW along with a JCW Pro Exhaust and all I can say is “AMAZING”! Music to my ears, power galore! My car had 20k miles when I installed it, when I sold it to get my 2021 F56 JCW, it had 35k miles and it ran super strong! Highly Recommend!! Enjoy, Jose

 

You'll love the difference it makes. The early units had some issues, but the bugs have been worked out and the power delivery is OEM-like. You can do it yourself, but you need to be able to read and clear codes just in case.

 

If they have worked out the bugs, how many old ones are still out in the wild waiting to be sold.
You can't tell, as the part number stayed the same.

 

Evolve ECU remap. No box/cables and healthy Torque and HP boosts

 

If you order from Dinan, you will get the latest. Buying a used kit, you may get stuck with the buggy first version.

My 2017 M240i had the Elite .v1 tuner installed by my dealership when the first became available. I was throwing a code that didn't affect performance but would take a few restarts to clear, and the recur. Dinan eventually pulled all the .V1 kits from the market and replaced them with the .V2. I had my dealership swap mine out during the car's warranty period and have not had an issue since.

Something of note. In my case the .v2 was a different unit with different (less) connections than the first version. Many have said (BMW owners that had the "sport" tune and went to the .".v1 Elite" and then to the ".v2 Elite" because of codes thrown) that it was basically Dinan's "Sport" tuner with a 4 year piggyback warranty.. Not sure how the revised version of the Dinan Elite is for the 4 cyl BMW motor in your Mini, You may save yourself a bunch of money and just buy the Dinan "Sport" rather than the Elite. .The Sport has 1 year warranty and since your car is out of "Factory Warranty", paying for the piggyback Dinan warranty doesn't make much financial sense.

Just my perspective.

My .v2 Elite is plenty fast compared to stock.. The BMW owners who have had the Dinan Sport to start with, then the .v1 Elite and finally the .v2 Elite say there is a drop in performance (.v1 to .v2) but is very similar to the "Sport". I noticed the drop also, but it's not huge and the car is still exceptionally fast.

 

The "V2" is a BMW only product.
The Elite for Minis still has 6 connectors, and the same part number.
I returned mine after 3 weeks. (3 years ago)

 

I received a new unit from Dinan with a 2020 production date. So far, it has been flawless ... great power delivery and no codes.

They have come a long way in just a few years. They swapped my old unit out in Dec even though is was over a year old. In fact they shipped me the new unit (with harness) overnight. I was very impressed. Also, the didn't want the old one back, but requested that I destroy it, which I did.

Based on my experience with the new unit, I would highly recommend it. That said, I would only buy it from Dinan to ensure it has the latest coding.

 

Do you have plans to upgrade the exhaust on your new JCW? If so, what are you installing? Just bought a 21 JCW and want a little more sound and pop from the exhaust, but I am also totally new to this.

 

From what I understand there is a particulate filter on the exhaust that cuts down a lot of pops and bangs. The question is can we just remove the filter or do we need a new exhaust altogether.

 

Here’s some info for 2020/21 F56 JCW...

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...sway-bars.html

so for your 2020 f56 JCW there’s no filter in our cars, only in the UK and outside of the USA. I have a 2021 F56 JCW and just did the JCW Pro Exhaust and Suspension along with a bunch of other upgrades and the only thing stopping you from going to a ECU Tune or ECU Piggyback is that BMW/Mini locked up the ECU and someone needs to break it in order to go forward. As of yesterday, Dinan is a few weeks away from their ECU Tune that will be able to be done at a Dinan Dealership. Stay tuned, I’m on a list to go once it’s released and will talk about it once it’s ready and installed. As far as the exhaust sounds, I highly recommend the JCW Pro Exhaust, only issue is that you can’t use the tune that comes with it. Clearly the sounds are there and exciting, trust me it’s worth it! Enjoy, Jose

 

Hmmm...good to know. I have a F54 JCW and for that model I thought there was a filter...it does seem that the car lost that pop based on what some people have said. I guess I'll see first-hand when my car arrives.

 

I hear the pops and gurgles and have zero regrets to moving to a ‘21 F56 JCW. It’s unfortunate that the dealerships are not installing these exhausts on our cars, plus all of the accessories that are not available but fit our cars. Crazy! Jose

 

Totally agree; I am very surprised to see how limited the accessories are for the 21 JCW and definitely would not mind more pops with mine!

 

Good Morning Jose,

Can you comment on the advantage of Dinan ECU tune compared to the Dinan ECU Piggyback? Do you have any links to information about the Dinan ECU tune?

Thank you,
Bob

 

Not specifically related to the Dinan tune, but I had my JCW Coupe's ECU tuned in Tempe AZ (I think it was a "Manic" tune) and the guy who did it said most of his customers already had tried a piggyback device. In fact he had a few laying around that people had left there. I think my tune was $500 in 2017.

 

I have a 2018 F56 Cooper S with the JCW power tune and exhaust with the Bluetooth exhaust flap. I installed the Dinan Elite about 2 years ago. Dinan makes one Elite for the S and one for the JCW. Dinan told me that I needed to use the JCW version of the Elite because I have the JCW tune. I am very happy with the Dinan Elite - was simple to install and delivers a big boost in power and is very smooth and factory like. The only drawback is that the yellow check engine light is on most of the time. From time to time the light will not stay on after I start the car up but usually within a week the light is back to staying on all the time. I haven't followed up with Dinan on that issue. But I recommend the Elite, it makes the car for me.

 

This is the same problem that I experienced. Great power delivery and no driving issues, but frequent CELs. I checked with Dinan early last year and they advised me that they were aware of the issue and were working on a software fix for the problem, but it was not available at that time.

Early this year I checked with them again and they overnighted a new kit (module and harness). The new unit has a 2020 production date and it is perfect - great power, very smooth and no CELs. I'd recommend checking with them.

 

I installed the elite on my '17 F57 about 3 years ago. The performance is great and, to date, I have never had a CEL. My car also has the JCW tuning kit so I get lots of pops and bangs.