213E OEM software: The best NA mod...

What I got from this thread is that the 08 builds all have the older software so they will see the most gains when getting the recent update. But my question is after you get the update how should you drive your car? Should we slowly let it adapt or can we drive it hard from the get-go? What's the best and safest way?

Btw my early 08 build is getting updated as we speak and my tech told me I have never had a single update on my car. With that said I was suppose to get my car back the same day I dropped it off but he told me since it's never been updated once it was gonna take about 4 hours. He charged me 0.5 hrs for it

Will all the codings be erased after the update?

DisGuy wrote

What I got from this thread is that the 08 builds all have the older software so they will see the most gains when getting the recent update. But my question is after you get the update how should you drive your car? Should we slowly let it adapt or can we drive it hard from the get-go? What's the best and safest way?

It shouldn't matter. If you drive it hard, it will adapt to that driving style. If you drive it gently and become increasingly more aggressive you will eventually end up with similar results, it will just take longer. But either way, the car adapts in the same manner so you're not going to hurt anything by driving it hard right out of the gate.

bbs_lm wrote

Will all the codings be erased after the update?

It depends - If the dealer does the update, it will likely erase some (or all) of the coding, depending on what revision the car is currently on.

If someone like me performs the update, it will not effect any of the previously coded features (and even if it did, we can put it right back )

Hope this helps

DisGuy wrote

What I got from this thread is that the 08 builds all have the older software so they will see the most gains when getting the recent update. But my question is after you get the update how should you drive your car? Should we slowly let it adapt or can we drive it hard from the get-go? What's the best and safest way?

Drive it hard right away. Exactly what I tell my customers after they get a tune from me. Drive it like you stole it

I have confirmed that as of ISTA/P 47.1.100, the new DME software is 240E.

Yesterday I flashed 240E to my car, which overwrote my Stage II 231E Tune. Programming went without a hitch.

Car fired right up, seemed to have a pretty rough idle (which is not abnormal after flashing). After letting it sit and idle for a few moments, the engine note changed and it sounded like it was running poorly for about 15 seconds. I scanned the car for codes to find a combustion misfire with deterioration fault for each cylinder. No service engine soon light illuminated for this one. I chalk this up to a momentary glitch. Plugs were changed 10K miles ago, and car runs very strong.

After driving the car, I'm sort-of unhappy with the way that it feels. Maybe I'm used to the smoothness/power of my software. Engine note has also noticeably changed, but this is likely due to the fact that my vanos changes were overwritten with the stock file. The car seems much more jerky on the low end and it doesn't feel right. I'm going to drive it around a bit more and see if it smooths out as the adaptations take their course. I also read out the factory 240E file after flashing, and will have some time next week to tune the 240E file and see how it compares to the tuned 231E revisions. I do notice that the car does seem to be a bit smoother with the cold start turned on.

I am incredibly buried with work and am going to do my best to stay on top of this. For all of you that emailed/PMed me, sorry for the slow reply. It's going to take me some time to get back to you. If you call the # in my signature and press 2 for support I'm happy to take phone calls.

Some pictures for you indicating the successful update to 240E, and reading out the stock 240E file:

Stay 'tuned' for more updates

Forgot to mention...

In the US we run software from bmw which references "National Version Korea".

There is also a Japan Spec, China Spec, and Euro EU5 emissions standard factory files, and of course the Euro Spec M3 GTS software for the 4.4L S65 motor.

I am going to check out the differences between all of these revisions and load the EU5 Euro file into my car and see if there is a noticable improvement over the US software. I have all of those revisions stemming back to 160E, but will focus on 220E, 231E, and 240E.

Mike Benvo wrote

Forgot to mention...

In the US we run software from bmw which references "National Version Korea".

There is also a Japan Spec, China Spec, and Euro EU5 emissions standard factory files, and of course the Euro Spec M3 GTS software for the 4.4L S65 motor.

I am going to check out the differences between all of these revisions and load the EU5 Euro file into my car and see if there is a noticable improvement over the US software. I have all of those revisions stemming back to 160E, but will focus on 220E, 231E, and 240E.

Have you find any performance improvements going from 220E to 231E? Thanks in advance.

Zaw wrote

Have you find any performance improvements going from 220E to 231E? Thanks in advance.

To be honest I think that most of this is hype. To update from 220E to 231E is really not worth it. To update from a very old software to 220E or higher is probably worth it.

I have started to poke around a bit on the US Spec version of 240E. The hex code in the file clearly identifies it as such. I have a ton of work to do so I will take a hard look at it next week - identify differences between 231E and 240E, and look at the differences between the different 231E and 240E spec files. For now I'll leave you with a teaser pic which shows the UIF field in the factory file. This file was the same file the factory programming system programmed to my car yesterday. Instead of looking at the one that I read out from my car after the program, I imported the factory data file straight in to take a look. You can see 240E identified in the red box:

Mike Benvo wrote

To be honest I think that most of this is hype. To update from 220E to 231E is really not worth it. To update from a very old software to 220E or higher is probably worth it.

I have started to poke around a bit on the US Spec version of 240E. The hex code in the file clearly identifies it as such. I have a ton of work to do so I will take a hard look at it next week - identify differences between 231E and 240E, and look at the differences between the different 231E and 240E spec files. For now I'll leave you with a teaser pic which shows the UIF field in the factory file. This file was the same file the factory programming system programmed to my car yesterday. Instead of looking at the one that I read out from my car after the program, I imported the factory data file straight in to take a look. You can see 240E identified in the red box:

Interesting stuff here Mike! Can you clarify this bolded statement a bit? What I think you mean is that going from 220E to 231E is probably not worth it. But going from 100E (for example) to 231E is definitely worth it? I just don't want people to think that NONE of these updates are worth it.

PM headed your way (not urgent).

edit: Your box is full.

M3PO wrote

Interesting stuff here Mike! Can you clarify this bolded statement a bit? What I think you mean is that going from 220E to 231E is probably not worth it. But going from 100E (for example) to 231E is definitely worth it? I just don't want people to think that NONE of these updates are worth it.

PM headed your way (not urgent).

edit: Your box is full.

I wouldn't say that any update is 'urgent' unless there is a preexisting issue that may potentially qualify for one.

I cleared a few old PM's, there should be space now, sorry about that.

My car went into limp mode and threw Engine Malfunction/DSC Mulfunction/DBC Malfunction/and Start Off Assistance inactive on start this morning. Running the stock 240E software so far. Seems like a sensor or something may have gone awry. I am going to take it in to the dealer to have them see what's going on with it, so my testing of the software differences is on hold for now.

We noticed 240EE came out around 2-3 weeks ago. There differences are extremely minimal. For some reason the factory decided that less protection was needed for hot engine oil. Other than that it's identical with no real reason to update.

Andrew@ActiveAutowerke wrote

We noticed 240EE came out around 2-3 weeks ago. There differences are extremely minimal. For some reason the factory decided that less protection was needed for hot engine oil. Other than that it's identical with no real reason to update.

I would have to disagree with you on this one.

Taking a quick look at the two files, I see 362 bytes changed between 231E and 240E. Granted much of this is not map data, not identical, but close. A non US revision showed over 5,000 changes as compared to the newest US.

You are correct about the change in oil temp protection... They did raise temperature by 5C at which the RPM is reduced for hot oil temps. A change that I couldn't disagree with more. In my eyes it should reduce the redline sooner. But that's an easy fix

(temp edit on Vanos changes, taking a closer look @ sw revisioins. Looks like the non US 231E I'm looking at has quite a few changes but vanos between US 231E and US 240E is the same)

Part throttle fuel targets have changed slightly also. BMW has changed the axis of the map in a couple places here and richened the mixture above 6K (in certain areas) ever so slightly. They have also made a few changes in the fault code index with reference to how faults are triggered, and a number of changes related to cat function/warm-up too. Finally I see a few changes to ignition control presets. (The changes in this paragraph are between a non US 231E and a US 240E)

I'm off to drop my car off at the dealer now, lovely Fuel Pump Malfunction.. Now it makes sense why the car was running weird the last couple days with the stock 240E calibration.

(edit: idle control valve and fuel pressure sensor, ekp module being replaced @ dealer)

Just programmed one today, first one in the UK.

Sal@Evolve wrote

Just programmed one today, first one in the UK.

It's not the first one in the UK! (edit: maybe you meant the first one you programmed to 240 in the UK)

Did one last week remotely using the ICOM. It was on a 2008 M3.

Good to see you back on here and safely returned from your travels! We missed you and the supercharger development updates

Thanks.

The Euro 240E certainly doesn't have any VANOS changes.

Not many 240E's coming in even though we are doing a lot of cars. Depends who's updated and who's not.

Power output is definitely exactly the same and the calibration changes make the same delta across the RPM.

Sal@Evolve wrote

Thanks.

The Euro 240E certainly doesn't have any VANOS changes.

Not many 240E's coming in even though we are doing a lot of cars. Depends who's updated and who's not.

Power output is definitely exactly the same and the calibration changes make the same delta across the RPM.

I imagine that there may be a noticeable difference in maps between the US and Euro variations?

Mike Benvo seemed to have listed quite a few different changes to the US 240E. Does that translate to potential power gains?

Sal@Evolve wrote

Thanks.

The Euro 240E certainly doesn't have any VANOS changes.

Not many 240E's coming in even though we are doing a lot of cars. Depends who's updated and who's not.

Power output is definitely exactly the same and the calibration changes make the same delta across the RPM.

If you have a chance, PM or email me the software number for what is being programmed over there. I suspect its 7848139?

My car wanted to update to 7848137.

flipm3: My mistake, I loaded in a non US version of 231E so quite a bit looked different.

flipm3 wrote

I imagine that there may be a noticeable difference in maps between the US and Euro variations?

Mike Benvo seemed to have listed quite a few different changes to the US 240E. Does that translate to potential power gains?

Nope.

There are no changes as such.

Mike accidentally looked at the wrong versions.

Happens.

I just bought the Evolve Tune. My car is 2011 July Built, with 040E, then I got 230E and a 230E Tune from Evolve.

I always thought newer cars would have came with newer software? I'm a wee bit surprised.

Before I start asking questions, please allow me to thank everyone for the inputs and details provided. They were all very helpful and motivated me to find out the details of my car.
The results were as expected, meaning I was able to get the software versions and details but got a strong pushback on the request to update the DME software. The argument they used was coming from the opinion and point of view of a BMW master technician. Even so I had a CEL light with reduced emission warnings popping up in March and I had to take it in twice (the problem reappeared after picking up the car and driving for 25 miles). They just stated that the O2 sensors (first time the pre-cat; second occurrence the post cat) were faulty and they replaced them.
But it is hard for me accept, because I work in the software industry and I know that decisions like these can lead to problems in the future. I have seen and experienced several of them. They just delay the decision and the expenses, best for them would be these problems occur outside the 4 year warranty period.
So now enough of the ranting and allow me to publish my findings.
- The production date is 2009-11-19
- The software integration level is E89X-09-09-516 – which means
- The version is from September 2009
- The version date is after the what seems to be mandatory software update date.

My questions are
- Is there data out there which would point to improvements? Those could be horsepower, torque, idling, cold start behavior, warm up time, increase in MPG, etc…
- If not, what would be the recommended software version, I should use?
Reason: I am considering the go on a dyno and use the current version and then with the newer software version.

Why would I do this – Just to provide more data.

Thanks for reading,
Guenther