[mike-y]

nice Max.. my car's been getting smoother and smoother as well. I figure it will take 2 tanks of gas to really adapt. I'm halfway through the 2nd tank on the tune right now. When I first put in the tune, I have to say, I was disappointed.. but it keeps getting better, and the acceleration has really smoothed out, and pedal response has gotten better as well. It's not mind blowing, but I am pleased with it now.

I imagine that if I did both manifold + tune at the same time, I'd be much more impressed.


I haven't tried the throttle reset though because I thought that was bogus, so I'm wondering which procedure you did?

[DESI4life10]

Hey Mike,

Glad the tune is getting better for you.
HAve you been able to redline the car once in a while? (apparently that speeds up the tune adaptation)

[MaximusJ]

Mike-y: Put the power On without starting, hold gas pedal for 30 seconds, shut the power off, remove your foot from the gas pedal, wait +/- 120 seconds and start the car.

I'm still experiencing engine shaking at cold startup, but I only got this since I swapped my plugs. I didnt check the gaps so I might do that if the car doesnt adapt up to my standards.

Originally Posted by DESI4life10

Hey Mike,

Glad the tune is getting better for you.
HAve you been able to redline the car once in a while? (apparently that speeds up the tune adaptation)

AA says not to. You should be very gentle on gas when you feel like the acceleration is choppy. But I know its hard to resist.

[DESI4life10]

Hows the adapting coming along?

Maximus, have you been able to determine the engine shake (whether it was in fact the spark plugs)?

[Hedges]

Sweet cannot wait for mine!

[DESI4life10]

Originally Posted by MaximusJ

AA says not to. You should be very gentle on gas when you feel like the acceleration is choppy. But I know its hard to resist.

That makes sense. Though I read it somewhere in regards to flash.

The last thing you want to do is push the car when it isn't 100% stable.

[MaximusJ]

Still shakey this morning :S

[DESI4life10]

Hey Maximus,

Any luck with the shakes?

[MaximusJ]

Less and less of them. Gonna give it another week and if its still shaking, i'm gonna check for the gaps. Also got to use unknown quality gas for the last fills; probably doesnt help either. But I just ran it until I had a very low level of fuel and topped it with vpower.

Also just threw an injection cleaner just to give em and fresh start. Lets see how it goes.

[DESI4life10]

I hear ya.

If it is getting better each day, good chance the car is adapting to all the new changes (or making changes to keep the engine stable, in that case, you may not be running full power?).

I am getting ready to place my order to, just trying to find someone around here that is willing to unlock the vanos and tune the car from there (as opposed to the timing, afr modifications).

[MaximusJ]

I have the choppy acceleration again; came back in force. When flooring the gas pedal and while being at a gear too high, it gives me the feeling you get when your DTC kicks in. I really hate that. I dont know if its related to Ethanol in the Vpower, but i'll give it some more time since i'm desperate and dont know what to try now.

The engine still shakes a bit at startup; sounds more like misfires, but just for the first 30ish seconds after a cold startup. But its getting cold here in the mornings; around 12 degree celcius.

Still no codes or anything to help me pinpoint the issue! And AA doesnt answer to emails so i'm kinda all by myself here. Still not sur if the tune has anything to do with it since it was present before; but the issue is more present then ever right now. The PITA caused by the issue overwhelms the pleasure given by the mods.

I am wondering if the tune could react to Ethanol or anything of the sort. I also tried to know if the tune was optimized for 91 ou 93 oct gas (I've specifically mentionned that we dont have oct 93 gas around here). Never got the answer to that either.

[mike-y]

hmm, sounds like some sort of ignition problem.. I had some bad spark plugs once (well not really bad, I just bought the wrong type for my car), and the car would misfire and stutter under load. Any time I got on it to accelerate it would start stuttering. Swapped back to the factory NGK's and it was fine again.

You mentioned getting new plugs, did you have the problem with the old plugs? Also, did you also replace the coils or no?

Also, have you checked/cleaned your MAF recently? maybe also double check the sensors that plug into the intake arm.

That said, I'm having no such issues with the AA tune, other than not giving as much oomph as I was expecting.

[Jon@Bimmersport Automotive]

Maximus,

Do a smoke test on the vehicle. Simple DIY home made kits with low cost can be done...for example:
http://forums.bimmerforums.com/forum....php?t=1477155

OR use a can of brake cleaner and spray along the sealing points and hoses/tubing while the car is running to see if the car stabilizes - if it does, it would indicate you have a vacuum leak.

All tunes from AA are released based on 91 (but can take advantage of 93 via the ECU itself, not the tune) unless otherwise specified by the purchaser noting 93 octane only.

When we did the 525i I had here, I did not have any shakes upon initial start up or hesitation on any throttle load. Re-check the hardware using the above methods, it is the most logical and time efficient way to start diagnosing this issue. If you hear any sort of popping type of noise - it is a definite sign of a vacuum leak.

Considering the "misfiring" went away after it warmed up a bit, that's the ECU compensating for something....but if the spark was bad, then you would def. feel it all the time (even though these cars are more advanced, basic principles still apply).

[MaximusJ]

Plugs were just changed. I've put some ILZFRAD11 in there; according to realoem.com. The acceleration issue was present before this maintenance, but the misfiring wasnt. That's why i'm guessing about gaps.

Stock coils are still in place.

Will do the smoke test to check for vaccuum leaks but visually, everything seemed to be fine.

[Hedges]

Is this a problem with 3 stage manifold or AA tune itself?

[Jon@Bimmersport Automotive]

Originally Posted by Hedges

Is this a problem with 3 stage manifold or AA tune itself?

It could be an underlying problem not even to do with either (or can be one of the 2). The purpose of the smoke test/leak test is to rule out the chance of an installation error - which could cause this. A common practice and situation in the FI world.

If the smoke test clears, check the running values of each cylinder...then you know if a cylinder is misfiring and since the plugs have been changed, it leads you to a coil or maybe injector (on the cylinder giving the off values) depending on what the values are.

The ethanol in the gas would not affect the car, unless the batch of gas that was from the pump is bad or contaminated. A board member on here had the same symptom from a Shell near me using Vpower 91 (0%ethanol)...his car is stock, however I fill at the same pump everytime as it's next to my house with no problems on my AA S/C E46 M3.

[DESI4life10]

I am very dissapointed with AA customer service. I send them emails as well and get no reply (this was 3 weeks after sending the mail).

I am starting to second guess what kind of business these guys run.

What about putting your old spark plugs back in? I am sure they have enough power to run quite a bit more to determine if the spark plugs were the problem.

shell v-power supposed to be ethanol free (not sure for Quebec). Even so, I would not suspect ethanol being a big issue (california loves ethanol in there fuel, and no complaints yet).

I too would check your installation just to confirm all is conencted properly. Maybe something got disconencted when doing the 3 stage swap.

[Jon@Bimmersport Automotive]

Originally Posted by DESI4life10

I am very dissapointed with AA customer service. I send them emails as well and get no reply (this was 3 weeks after sending the mail).

I am starting to second guess what kind of business these guys run.

What about putting your old spark plugs back in? I am sure they have enough power to run quite a bit more to determine if the spark plugs were the problem.

shell v-power supposed to be ethanol free (not sure for Quebec). Even so, I would not suspect ethanol being a big issue (california loves ethanol in there fuel, and no complaints yet).

I too would check your installation just to confirm all is conencted properly. Maybe something got disconencted when doing the 3 stage swap.

Raj,

Please excuse their delay in response. There is a lot of back end projects going on and the tech team is extremely swamped.

If you like please re-forward to me (and them) what your tech questions were and I'll get answers for you.

Even the forum admins are acting a bit delayed on their end. (see my sponsorship status?)

[DESI4life10]

Originally Posted by Jon@Bimmersport Automotive

Raj,

Please excuse their delay in response. There is a lot of back end projects going on and the tech team is extremely swamped.

If you like please re-forward what your tech questions were and I'll get answers for you.

Even the forum admins are acting a bit delayed on their end. (see my sponsorship status?)

Thanks Jon.

I haven't forgetton about our talk. I am still finalizing the details before getting the parts and talking to you about the tune (with Hedges) and when to schedule the date.

I will send you the tech questions I have.

[Jon@Bimmersport Automotive]

Originally Posted by DESI4life10

Thanks Jon.

I haven't forgetton about our talk. I am still finalizing the details before getting the parts and talking to you about the tune (with Hedges) and when to schedule the date.

I will send you the tech questions I have.

Sounds good...fire them off to bimmersport@rogers.com

Thanks.

[Omar@ActiveAutowerke]

Originally Posted by DESI4life10

I am very dissapointed with AA customer service. I send them emails as well and get no reply (this was 3 weeks after sending the mail).

I am starting to second guess what kind of business these guys run.

What about putting your old spark plugs back in? I am sure they have enough power to run quite a bit more to determine if the spark plugs were the problem.

shell v-power supposed to be ethanol free (not sure for Quebec). Even so, I would not suspect ethanol being a big issue (california loves ethanol in there fuel, and no complaints yet).

I too would check your installation just to confirm all is conencted properly. Maybe something got disconencted when doing the 3 stage swap.

Hey,

Sorry for the trouble. We have been dealing with some email issues on our end. Shoot me an email directly and I will assist you with any additional questions you may have. You can always call us as well if you prefer.

Best Regards,

[MaximusJ]

Originally Posted by Jon@Bimmersport Automotive

OR use a can of brake cleaner and spray along the sealing points and hoses/tubing while the car is running to see if the car stabilizes - if it does, it would indicate you have a vacuum leak.

Considering the "misfiring" went away after it warmed up a bit, that's the ECU compensating for something....but if the spark was bad, then you would def. feel it all the time (even though these cars are more advanced, basic principles still apply).

The problem is that the engine seems to run fine from the outside; you can only feel the little shakes during the first 10 seconds of the morning starts (which are around 14 degrees celcius at the moment) But when starting from the office's inground parking, it starts well at 34 degrees.

What do you mean by stabilize? The engine is constant over the rpm so I dont think I could notice anything from there.