[potato]

Hi F20 Buddies,
I want to do the chiptunning for my F20 118i. Anyone can share the experience or recommendation on selection of product as there are over five products available in HK market. It will be great if anyone tested his ride on dyno run for sharing.....Seems product vendors post a lot of figures which seems attractive and the price among product varies a lot.

I did have experience on using ODB flashing for my golf V Gti before and the effect is really obvious and worth for money from driving aspect.... But i have no idea on external chiptunning...Just hesitate the effect will follow the figures given by product vendors indeed the factory computer still existing to do limitation on signal input.

Please comment...

Cheers.

[Fanis]

I would go with any reputable tuner, like: Schnitzer, Hartge, Kelleners and I would avoid the generic ones. I have no real test data for the 118i, so cannot comment any further.

Here you can see a video with two 116i, one stock and the other with Hartge tuning...the difference is quite obvious. Both cars have same specs and automatic transmission. Sorry that I do not have more info on the 118i.

[Cateye]

Go for Kellener sport, AC, Hartge or JB4.. either ones are good. Jus plug and play. Its better not to ecu tune as these tuners may not give any warranty on their tunning. Currently I am using Hartge on my M135. Mid range is much different from stock..
BTW there is a fb on BMW F20 in HK. There's also a group buy for Hartge. . Join us there...

[westphone]

Here's another video. There's a thread somewhere about chip tuning maybe you want to check out.

[potato]

I have checked the fb for Hartge for 118i, the px now is 1xxxx HKD instead of 6xxx before. Hartge is my choice when considering AC, and kellener from px to performance prospectus. However, I would also like to know those cheaper product like racechip, tmc, etc which is talking about 6xxx HKD only.

Also, some products have more sensors and some got fewer, any implication on product effectiveness ?

[Cateye]

I feel that it's more important for the developer to under go extensive product testing before selling it. Hartge is one of them. Just like in the VAG where some tunes are very cheap. Some cost double. The R&D out in to produce a reliable product,. My Hartge comes with 7 sensors.. iirc tmc only 3 sensor.

[BMW_M2]

The bigger brands are more reliable, the cheaper ones are good for a quick fix if you don't set the more extreme setting.

Hartge, the group admin Sam of the HK 118i Group is doing a group buy atm. Please contact him for details
AC box you can buy at BMW HK and comes with warranty but costs HK$25K.
TMC you can get it less than HK$4k.

[potato]

May I have your sharing on Hartge ? How do you comment on the improvement of power ? extend the power range ? say more power after 100km ?
Also, what is the difference on oil consumption between before and after ? Obvious increase ?
Btw, since i just bought warranty from BMW HK till 2015 (cost me $3x,xxx), do i need to uninstall the "chip" before going back to BMWHK for warranty services ? Can uninstall by ourself ?
Finally, I just got friend installed Racechip Ultimate and the comment is very good. Any comment on this product ?
Btw, any other items you guys modified got very good performance ? Please share...

[potato]

Just an update. Finally, I installed Racechip Ultimate for my 118i Sport with my friend. The overall respsonse and power range improved, especially after 100Km/h. The acceleration kept sharply until 160km/h. This even obvious in my friend 118i M as he step up the Racechip to settings "3" which is 6 steps (total 10 steps for adjustment) further from the default "B".
More, when i use the ECO-PRO mode, i still enjoy original oil saving setting. I think this is merit why external chipping is better than OBD flashing on performance tunning. The stock computer provide buffer for performance tunning but at the same time protect the engine by factory coding....

[Anguslamb]

I'm driving a X1 in HK with N20 machine. Am also considering chiptune a bit. May I know where u made your tuning and does it fit X1 as well? Million thx.

[potato]

As checked from Racechip web, there is a model for E84 X1.
I installed it at San Po Kong which recommended by my friend.

You can write to dickschiu at gmail for further details. Enjoy your chip tunning...

[Tbsfc]

Hi potato,
I also looking for external box for chip tunning. Why u choose racechip instead of Hartge or AC ?
Is the effect on racechip obvious? Will it affect the stock warranty from BMW hk?
Cheers!

[potato]

I got one friend installed hartge and another one installed Racechip. Both comment that after installed the box, the power range of F20 118i extended and the throttle delay improved.

We tested on some highway before, it seems Racechip one response faster from 0-100km but the distance of separation indeed is within a car length. The performance overall is quite simular although the figures are better in Racechip.

in view of this, i choose a cheaper one.

After chip tunning, if you run it in eco-pro mode, the improvement is not obvious unless u give a so-called "floor oil". i think the stock CPU do much restriction under eco-pro mode for the reason of less oil consumption.

However, if running the F20 in normal or sport mode, the effect of improvement is obvious. For stock warranty, i think if we detached the box before sending back the car to BMW HK for servicing, no clue can be traced as the excuse to reject or void the warranty.

For the steps to detach it, I think Racechip is much easier and can be completed within 30 mins as 3 sensors can be reached without the need to special tools. For Hartge, the total sensors are 6 instead.

Both boxes can achieve obvious performance improvement in my test on friend's 118i.

[dape90]

Originally Posted by potato

I got one friend installed hartge and another one installed Racechip. Both comment that after installed the box, the power range of F20 118i extended and the throttle delay improved.

We tested on some highway before, it seems Racechip one response faster from 0-100km but the distance of separation indeed is within a car length. The performance overall is quite simular although the figures are better in Racechip.

in view of this, i choose a cheaper one.

After chip tunning, if you run it in eco-pro mode, the improvement is not obvious unless u give a so-called "floor oil". i think the stock CPU do much restriction under eco-pro mode for the reason of less oil consumption.

However, if running the F20 in normal or sport mode, the effect of improvement is obvious. For stock warranty, i think if we detached the box before sending back the car to BMW HK for servicing, no clue can be traced as the excuse to reject or void the warranty.

For the steps to detach it, I think Racechip is much easier and can be completed within 30 mins as 3 sensors can be reached without the need to special tools. For Hartge, the total sensors are 6 instead.

Both boxes can achieve obvious performance improvement in my test on friend's 118i.

What fuel was your friend running? Normal or high octane?

Cheers

D

[potato]

Both friends use shell Vpower. We arranged to use same fuel before testing.

[ovekvam]

Originally Posted by potato

Both friends use shell Vpower. We arranged to use same fuel before testing.

Is that normal octane Vpower or high octane Vpower?

[potato]

In hk, only one type of vpower offered by shell. I guess should be 98%+ octane.
Any reason on asking ocante value??

[ovekvam]

Originally Posted by potato

In hk, only one type of vpower offered by shell. I guess should be 98%+ octane.
Any reason on asking ocante value??

We get it in 95 octane as well here. And octane affects the performance.

[nordschleife]

We did 0-100km/h with Hartge, TMC, Racechip, and Swiss chiptech using torque pro getting data from the OBD, best is from Hartge with 6.360s. It seems that Hartge increase power in all the range whereas others only dropped at high rpm. It is obvious which one is more reliable and safe by looking at how many sensors the "box" connect with.

[Tbsfc]

Hi guys,
I finally installed Racechip ultimate last Sat. The performance and response is awesome especially when kicked down the oil petal suddenly.
I will tune it up further to see how diff it is after i adapted the current performance.
Anyway, thanks for u guys sharing.

Cheers.

[dape90]

Originally Posted by Tbsfc

Hi guys,
I finally installed Racechip ultimate last Sat. The performance and response is awesome especially when kicked down the oil petal suddenly.
I will tune it up further to see how diff it is after i adapted the current performance.
Anyway, thanks for u guys sharing.

Cheers.

Can you do another update after you have tuned the Racechip up further?

Really interested to see your results as I am seriously considering one of these.

Thanks

D

[Tbsfc]

Further update on stepping up the Racechip Ult, I tried to step it up 5 levels upper. No error code prompt.

The response of my 118i signficantly changed. The most noticeable change is the extension of power range after 120km/h.

We roughly did a measure for 0-100 acceleration with my friend, it took 6.3 sec to achieve. I think even it is not a very precise testing, the improvement to me as a general user is good enough !

That's my sharing. Thanks !