I have my car back(2019 4 door hardtop S) from the dealer after having the JCW Pro Tune kit installed. I went this route as I have 2 years of warranty left and wanted to keep that intact. I will get more aggressive with the car once the warranty has expired.

Overall impression..... First I am disappointed in the sound. On the closed setting it sounds the same as the factory exhaust. Can't hear it over the radio. With the flap open it's there but pretty mild for a "track only" setting. I really expected it to me MUCH louder. As to power it's a noticeable improvement but not anything to wow you. I did get a fancy new engine cover with a JCW badge and it now says dual power. Can someone tell me what dual power I now have?

Like I said it was the only option I had to stay warranty compliant. I guess at the end of the day I expected better sound and a bit more power out of a JCW kit. The torque improvement is most notable. For the $1600(dealer claims that was giving me a deal) I'm not sure it's worth the cash even considering the warranty consideration.

Anyone else sprung for the JCW pro tune kit?

 

Did they program the tune, or just install the exhaust?

You mean "Twin Power Turbo" stamped on the engine cover? Thats the term for MINI twin scroll turbo charger. We all have that even non JCW

2 years on warranty? Drive it like you stole it!!! Its under warranty!!

Mini exhausts "burn in" after a bit. The GP3 exhaust on my S sounds louder the more I drive.

 

Nope, the new cover says "Dual Power". with a serial numbered JCW tag underneath it. I got the pro kit so the exhaust with remote and the engine tune flash.

I bought the car certified used so I got the year of remaining factory warranty and the another year of certified warranty. Pretty good deal on a 3 year old car. Hence the reason I went with the expensive JCW kit to keep warranty intact.

I am really hoping the exhaust will gain some volume with time. Its pretty sad that with the radio at a moderate volume and the window cracked you can't even hear it. To hear it I have to turn the radio almost off and the AC to the lowest setting.

Anyone know a way to disable the flap so it just stays open? I think its kinda dumb that it closes every time you shut the car off. How long do the batteries in the remote last? I see it flashes continually every 5-10 seconds when the flap is open.

 

You may want to run the car in "sport" mode w/ the exhaust flaps open. I usually keep mine in normal mode, but when I do swap to "sport" the exhaust really rattles and burbles nicely. If your car is an automatic, when decelerating, try using the paddles to drop to a lower gear to get more aggressive exhaust sounds. When I activate my exhaust flap, I can hear the exhaust note drop an octave or two. As you say, it's not a particularly noisy exhaust even when open and the car is driven normally. I will keep mine open only to eek out maybe .1 of a MPG increase. LOL

You can do a site search, there is a way to disconnect a wire in the boot with the flap open and it will stay open after you disconnect the wire. .

 

For 1600 bucks, that's enough to get snappy with catless DP, FMIC, and a stage 2 tune. Puts the car at 250 whp and 290 wtq. Not a big fan of any sound at all myself, but sleeper power is what's hidden under the hood; and at 1600 bucks, that's bang for every buck spent. I wouldn't hand that money to a JCW kit for the sound and a badge with only unsubstantial ponies added.

 

Thats true, SPORT+ mode and foot to the floor you'll hear the exhaust.
The OP doesnt want to drive aggressively until the warranty runs out in 2 years.

 

I really think JCW exhaust + tuning kit gave nice sound.
lots of reviews say the best sounding exhaust and I kinda agree. Surprised you're not happy with sound in sport mode.

In terms of tune kit, it's really not much since it's Mini's own tune. so in my case, I switched to BM3 tune and left exhaust bubble as is (from stock JCW tune). I'm quite happy with it.

However, if you want to make your exhaust more aggressive, get a BM3 tune. You will get more aggressive tune and you can change your exhaust bubble and other noise setup as you like it.

 

I like my JCW Pro kit.

It's nice to be able to silence it for when you're driving though small town USA and don't want to draw attention to yourself. But otherwise, I use Sport mode and open flap all the time.
And while you can get more aggressive exhausts and tunes, the JCW gives good value for both plus keeps you in warranty.

 

Agreed, in normal mode it will be as quiet as stock, even with valve open, you have to be in sport mode for it to make the burble, you should hear snaps over radio once warmed up, you will also know that tune was applied correctly as the Driving excitement meter will now show 240HP as max instead of 200
You can use Bimmercode or other tools to set it to start in Sport mode all the time too (which also means you get the Shift sync all the time for manuals)

 

Did they do the :tune" or just the exhaust.

 

Unrelated, but my JCW remote seems to be not working properly.

The battery seems fine. If I double-click it, it doesn't do anything. Just lights up while it is being pressed. Sometimes, if I keep trying, it'll open the flap. I've also seen that if I hold down the button, it'll blink. If I hold it until it stops blinking, then double press, it may open the flap. Basically, lots of inconsistency.

Has anyone else experienced the same issue, or know how to fix it?
I would prefer to not have to bring it to the dealership, but maybe it's a faulty remote or something.

 

My 2015 worked perfectly. A quick two presses, and it would blink a few times, open the flap and periodically continue to blink until I shut the car off. My 2019 is wonky, acts much like yours. Double tap and I get nothing, then I'll rapidly press it 6 or more times and it may start to work or not. Eventually, it will but only after playing with it for a while. It seems to work better after the car has been running for a bit. I'm betting it's the blue tooth not connecting immediately.

 

I had very similar issue and took it to the dealer and they found faulty module and repaired at no cost (purchased + installed from dealership and happened 11th months of installation).

I'm sure dealer can run some test at some fee and they maybe able to tell you whats wrong.

 

Good idea, I may run mine to the dealership before Summer ends. Still under warranty to July 2023. Car was ordered with the kit and was a port install, so a part of the 4 year coverage. I rarely use it so it wasn't a big deal. However, if it can be repaired I'll visit my dealership. Thanks.

 

$1,600 installed by a dealer seems reasonable, Does you car have Green-mid-sport modes (I have a 2018 not sure if that changed)? Mine is rumbly in green, not much difference in mid and pops louder in sport, I was expecting more sound as well but overall not disappointed . Do you know if your car has the Active Sound? Try disabling that, might hear the exhaust better. I've been unsuccessful at getting a Cat bypass fabricated for the Pro exhaust, that might help with adding some sound as it would be a straight pipe. Batteries are CR2032, I would change them max 2 years. Back in the 80's I had a battery leak and destroy something so I'm mentally scarred.

 

Mine also seemed to start around 11 months or so. I can get around it, but I'll schedule something with the dealership since it's not working as it should. Hopefully, it'll be covered or not an expensive repair/replacement.

 

As an update, it completely stopped working (if you held down the button on the remote, it'd blink, but never connect). I brought my Mini in today. The paperwork said it was a dead battery in the control module. They fixed it with no charge so that's great! (I did buy and install it through them.)

 

That's a great outcome. I have never looked at my controller to see how a battery is installed. I probably should just in case.

 

It's been just over 2 months now with the kit on my car so I thought I would give an update on my impressions. Mine was the "pro" kit with exhaust and tune.

It has "burned in" some as other members mentioned. Has gotten a little louder. It's still not loud and not what I was expecting having had a number of after markets systems on cars and trucks. You can hear it under acceleration and slightly flat if you have the radio really low or off. In normal mode there are no pops or bangs. I 90% of the time drive in normal so I really don't notice the exhaust sound. Power wise it is noticeable. It made a nice difference especially on the torque side. One thing I really noticed is it made the difference between sport and normal modes huge. After the kit and tune it feels like 2 different cars between normal and sport mode. If you run it in sport you get the pops and bangs on hard acceleration and always on decel. It will also without trying to hard chirp the tires into 2nd and 3rd gears. I also saw a slight increase in fuel milage. I average between 32-33 mpg running 93 octane daily driving. I have not yet had any issues with the magic button.

Overall it accomplished what I wanted. It gave me a little more sound and power and kept me warranty compliant. It's not cheap. I think I ended up at $1600 with install. I would only recommend to someone trying to stay warranty compliant with a strict dealer like I have. As others have said if warranty isn't a factor there are better options that offer better ROI. I see others on here posting about doing full exhaust and full tunes on new cars and scratch my head. As a CPA I can't see paying the new car price (including the warranty) and voiding the warranty right out of the gate. Especially knowing what BMW parts and service cost. But to each their own. Are there dealers out there doing warranty work after you put a full tune into a car? I know there are some post on here about dealers selling the piggyback tuners, like the NM Engineering ones, and signing off on those as warranty compliant.