ECU Remapping - BMW 330D M-Sport E90 Auto - Project

Why remap the BMW 330D ?

We get to sit in many passengers seats to see how the customer's car goes after  ECU remap. Some cars have that "pushed into the seat" feeling that lasts. The BMW 330D is one that does not dissapoint.

Before the remap power is at 231 bhp...

So yes 231bhp is a fair bit of power and 500NM or torque can pull you along OK. However as with most  factory programmed turbo diesels the throttle is not as keen as one would like and the spread of power just a little thin.

So how did we tackle this beast? Well to remap the BMW 330D the new M-Flash was perfect. It could easily remap the EDC16 ECU through the diagnostic socket. The M-Flash allows us to run the standard programming and a choice of another two states of tune. We have chosen to have a "normal" stage 1 remap and for those dry days a "race" style remap.

Our highly engineered stage one remap massively boosts power to 305bhp with 680Nm of torque with a throttle that responds when you press it. Power is delivered super smooth with the power band widened to match. The way the speed flies up on the speedo compared to standard is frightening.

The "race" remap pushes everything just that little bit further. You can feel that the harshness of the further increased throttle response. Bang the throttle, the autobox drops a few gears, and all hell breaks loose as the rear wheels (with brand new tyres) struggle for traction in the damp. Power is hitting the 310 bhp with 680+ Nm of torque.  This really is fun now. We just need a vacant runway now so we can video the way the speed goes from 0 to ???.

Next the brakes and the wheels...

Well the wheels had slight damage from kurbing and also had suffered a poor refurb by a past owner so we booked in for refurbishment.

For our 18" wheels including a metallic finish each one costs just £60 including all the tyre fitting work. The transformation of the wheels is nothing short of breath-taking - much better than we ever imagined - and all in a single day - amazing. 

The brakes are pretty big as standard so we chose to just replace for new items as the original ones had too much rust visible for our liking. The non braking surfaces were all painted in VHT aluminium paint so they stay looking new and pretty. The calipers were cleaned and painted in silver engine lacquer.

DPF removal now completed ....

Well we removed the DPF from the BMW 330d - not because this one failed - but it is our long term DPF removal test car. Twelve months into the test and the car is still perfect and pulls even stronger.

DPF removal required opening of part of the exhaust to extract the DPF block then reprogramming of the ECU again to removal all the DPF regeneration cycles and other DPF functions. So if you are having DPF problems perhaps removal is a better option than the expensive dealer replacements.