[stevie996]

Hi,

My car has been in the dealers since 8.30 this morning for an I-pod connection and re-programme because of an ELV problem.

Car not ready until tomorrow.

Steve

[DaveC]

Par for the course. The stealers had mine for 2 days.

When you get it back and check the bill you'll find they had charged you £9.00 to reset the tyre pressure indicators - amongst a whole list of other resets (steering angle sensor also £9 etc).

Thats one hell of a lot to press a button. If I'd noticed it in the dealers I would have queried it.

[stevie996]

Hi Dave,

Thanks for the response.

Mines being done uder warranty because of the electronic steering lock problem.

Did the i-drive colour/graphics change after the re-programme?

Steve

[DaveC]

I'd answer that question .... if I had idrive.

[greatbm]

Originally Posted by stevie996

Hi,

My car has been in the dealers since 8.30 this morning for an I-pod connection and re-programme because of an ELV problem.

Car not ready until tomorrow.

Steve

Re-prog seems to be a minimum of 2 hours if all goes well. Full car electronics has to be re-programmed for 1 setting or component change.

[NFS]

Originally Posted by stevie996

Hi,

My car has been in the dealers since 8.30 this morning for an I-pod connection and re-programme because of an ELV problem.

Car not ready until tomorrow.

Steve

The reprogramming situation seems ridiculous to me.

As I understand it the car can only be updated in 'sleep mode'. So it has to sit in the corner of the workshop, connected to their computers for as long as it takes. If someone so much as opens a door they have to start all over again.

My car was updated a couple of weeks ago and the software only took 2 hours. So even if your dealer had a problem he should be able to get it done today.

The only way this wouldn't be the case is if he wasn't able to start the programming until late afternoon - maybe because he has other cars to programme or work on before yours.

If I were you I would ask when they intend to start programming. If it's not till this afternoon I'd kick up a fuss.

You will get the latest progman with the silver grey idrive screen and improved map colours etc.

It's WAY better than the original version on my 56 plate car.

[G33]

some updates take 12/15 hours, or so ive heard

[Bravecat]

I had mine reprogrammed last week. The dealer told me they do not now exactly how long it will take until they hook it up to their machine. they said it can take anywhere between 1 and 8 hours, sometimes longer and if the program does not take, they have to start over.

The reason they gave for the big difference in time to reprogram, is because they have to connect to Germany for the update software and download speeds vary. They do this to ensure the latest software and what they load matches my car. Not sure how true this is, I would have thought they would have a local copy, or maybe they are using a 56K modem, instead of broadband

They hooked my car up to their machine, and told me it would take 4.5 hours, but no guarantees. It was around midday, so i caught the train home. They did call after 4 hours and said it was ready, so i could have waited and worked from their business suite. Picked up next day and pleased with the update.

It's well worth doing, its faster, better graphics, blends in with the interior of the car (i have brushed alu and black dash), and all the stuff NFS mentioned.

They do need clamp the steering wheel (health and safety i guess), I noticed mine had an indent where the clamp had been, looked awful, i pointed out to service manager and he said i could have a new s/wheel. I said i'd leave it over the w/end to see if the memory effect of the foam meant the indent came out, well it slowly has, to the point it was hardly noticeable, I might leave it.

[DaveC]

They told me that they wouldn't know how long it would take as it depends how many of the cars computers need to be reprogrammed.

[G33]

do u mind asking what progman update u have please or when it came out

[NFS]

Originally Posted by G33

some updates take 12/15 hours, or so ive heard

Originally Posted by Bravecat

The dealer told me they do not now exactly how long it will take until they hook it up to their machine. they said it can take anywhere between 1 and 8 hours, sometimes longer and if the program does not take, they have to start over.

Originally Posted by DaveC

They told me that they wouldn't know how long it would take as it depends how many of the cars computers need to be reprogrammed.

I've heard all these things before, but it does seem a little unlikely to me.

The "download from Germany" concept seems bonkers. Surely the dealer will know if he has the latest software version because of the SIB / TIS systems? Why on earth would he need to download it again every time? And how could it possible take so long to download? Surely the dealer has broadband .. and the file size can't be that big !

I think it's more about the dealers finding space to park a car in the workshop for 2-3 hours and being organised enough to keep their technicians away from it until it's done.

Because the software update process is so fussy, it's a perfect excuse for dealers if they stuff it up. I certainly don't believe the 12/15 hour time.

My entire car was fully reprogrammed from the 06 version in less than 2 hours.

[330cdsport]

This whole re-programming issue seems to be quite a design flaw on BMW's part.
It should be as easy as sticking a usb key or proprietary comms unit into the car and uploading the data in minutes rather than hours - in the same way that we have been updating firmware in the pc world for years ??????

[Serjames]

my understanding is that there is a very low old fashioned "port" that is used on the car to upload the "flash" for want of a better word. This has an extremely LOW bit rate and uses some sort of checking redundancy to ensure data integrity, hence takes FOR EVER !

And indeed the file DOES come directly from Germany I'm told.

Speaking to Kevin Bird Last night they have a new piece of kit that supercedes the GT1. This allows really rapid programming - Plus more diagnostic checking for BMW AG

SO much so that the news on the vine is that ALL cars will now Automatically receive a complete flash update each and EVERY time they go in for service of any kind.

BMW are (apparently) a little pissed off with all the mapping that is happening post purchase and are determined to stop it.

Kevin has also heard they have an ANTI piggy back map coming out soon ? not quite sure how this'll work without some sort of feedback loop, but there may be something in it.

The reason the BIRDS car didn't perform on the DYNO day was we believe because the Dealer tried to "re-flash" the car back to stock for some reason when it was serviced - Has now been rectified I'm told.

My point of view is that BMW seem to be making a rod for their own back here... bit like what happened with INTEL and AMD when they started to LOCK chips.. people STILL found ways around it and they they just erodied their own enthusiast base.

If all the petrol/tractor heads could onyl Re-map AUDI's and not BMW's. which do you think would start selling more ?

And more to the point, we just DO NOT seem to be hearing of "abused cars losing their warrenty" or any of these tunes, petrol or diesel, causing meltdowns ?

So why bother trying to shut them down ? Must cost more than they can hope to save ?

SJ