[Boost]

Ordered it yesterday, it arrived today, a very well designed system, new map was up and running within 30mins of the courrier leaving my doorstep

However the jury is still out on the results .........


My main reason for choosng Bluefin was the reasonable cost of £390 for a DIY removable map plus the excellent level of service Superchips give in case of problems. OK there maybe slightly more agressive maps elsewhere but you sure pay for it. When it comes down to it I'm just a normal Joe who buys his fruit and veg in Tesco even if they are a few percent nicer down the local organic farm shop. Also Tesco will be more than happy to refund you if there is a maggot in the apple if you know what I mean.

All this is on a 177bhp 320d to get back to cars for a minute.

I spent the afternoon zooming up and down my local roads as much as is possible in the Friday afternoon rush hour traffic, swapping from Bluefin to standard map a few times in various laybys.

I'm pretty sure mpg seems better under normal driving conditions on Bluefin map and then when really pushing it the car feels more responsive and a little more powerful. On a few occasions in 3rd/4th gear I got that nice shove in the back feeling you get from a proper fast car but it certainly wasn't there on tap to call up any time any place.

However the 320d already has a very smooth nicely set up map as standard and gives quite a bit of oomph bearing in mind it is just a 2 litre four pot oil burner, so I am finding the differfence a little underwhelming.

Considering stories I have heard of Superchips remaps transforming little TDi Seat shopping cars into complete torque monsters, the differences in this case are quite subtle.

I think that most of the time, in real world driving ie stuck in a line of traffic or cruising at steady speed on the motorway there will not be much to notice.

Anyway I shall blast round a bit more over the weekend and then decide whether to keep it or send it back. There is a 7 day trial period which is nice so you can get it back and refunded before you've had to pay the credit card bill if needs be.

Gut feeling is I'm taking a car that is already 90% well set up and giving it just a few extra percent without reaching 100% - there may be better things in life to spend 400 beer tokens on. On the other hand it is a damn site better value that 2 months council tax which costs about the same

Also my auto stop start on the engine seems to have packed in now which ever map I use. Hopefully this is just down the the battery having taken a bashing and not holding a full charge or some other simple reason, but we shall see - hmmm.....

[ElegantSpoon]

I think it must be either a faulty sensor somewhere or its to do with the BMW efficient dynamics as their website states:

2007 onwards
Engine type : Turbo-Diesel
Engine size : 1995 cm3
Cylinders : 4
Original bhp : 177
Original nm : 345
BHP increase : 44
NM gain : 103
Lb/Ft gain : 76

40+ HP and 100+ NM should definitely be noticeable. The power curve seems identical to the standard map maybe because the power delivery is so similar its not such a drastic change in power delivery?

Might be worth speaking to them and mentioning the lack of start/stop feature too.

Spoony!

[dxb335d]

You would deffo notice it mate.

Its crude and not really accurate BUT WILL give you an indication if the car is quicker with a straight Bit of road and some standing starts 0-60 with a stop watch.

With and without the map. Perfect your start first.

[ElegantSpoon]

Having googled it theres a couple of posts with people using them on 320D's and one said "the difference is like night and day!"

[Dr Dave]

Perhaps the car was remapped beforehand? (Did you buy new?)

[- Paul -]

Should be a massive difference - i went from 160 to 202 with evolve. As soon as I took it for test drive - mental!

[Boost]

I did a few more runs today and it feels quicker. Most of the benefits seem to come in under full throttle and there was just too much traffic around yesterday for much of that driving. I hoped with the extra torque I would feel a bit more when just wafting around on part throttle.

I have mostly been distracted with the data logging feature. The Bluefin can store 3 minutes worth of live ECU data collected every 100 milliseconds. It logs RPM, Calculated Load, Engine Coolant Temp, Intake Air Temp, Vehicle Speed, Intake Air Flow, Pedal Position, Ignition Advance, Lambda, and Inlet Manifold Pressure (Boost).

SO...I should be able to get some very accurate 0-60 and in gear acceleration times for the different maps.

It seems to work up until the point I download the data to the PC. Instead of getting some pretty graphs and a csv file I seem to have some sort of corrupt gobbledy-gook. Anyone else experienced this?

[ElegantSpoon]

Spot on there Dr Dave! My friend had the same with this Audi A4.

[Boost]

I'm beginning to think this is a case of the power delivery being so smooth and linear that it is a bit deceptive. The stop watch can't lie and it is telling me that 3rd gear 30-70 mph over a few runs has come down on average by about 1 second perhaps a touch more. Does that sound reasonable? (Standard was 8.5 ish, Bluefin was 7.5 ish including a couple of sub 7 runs)

Unfortunately I haven't got the data logs sorted but the auto engine stop-start has resumed its normal function so that is good.

[dxb335d]

very hard to judge rolling runs with a stopwatch, try some standing starts

[ElegantSpoon]

I would think that would be about right 1sec quicker. Are you missing the correct program to open the files on your computer? Whats the file extension?

[Boost]

For the timed runs, I was starting on cruise control set to 30 then just flooring the throttle to try and reduce the variability of a rolling start. As I have a manual box, it is awkward to say the least to time through the gears whilst holding a stop watch, steering and watching both the road and the speedo.

I managed to find where the data files were getting saved on my computer (not the location specified in the manual) and open them up but the tables were generally full of meaningless -1 values for the most part. The only short bit of genuine data I collected looked like the final drive down my cul-de-sac and then parking on the fecking drive typical!

The data log instructions state that you initiate the process then after about 3 minutes it stops with a beep and a message and the file is saved. For me the data logging just goes on and on indefinately with all the live data streaming on the handset display. If I eventually exit the data logging mode manually it doesnt seem to save the data properly.

I'm looking forward to a chat with Superchips next week but I will only have a day or two to experiment before travelling to Italy for a week. As soon as I return I will be driving to the Scottish Highlands which will be a good test if I've kept the map.

[jjbirch]

with that map you should tell in 1st and second the biggest give away is the ornange light on the dashboard flashes alot as more power goes to the back wheels, when i lossed my map i was soo pissed it was like here it comes wait for it then bang the turbo kicked in, but now it pulls hard in the first 4 gears, i would ask for a another map

[Boost]

I guess this is the real deal because I have done a few 0-60s now through 1st/2nd/3rd and it looks like about 1 second or possibly a tad more has come off that too.

I would say this is a very refined/sophisticated map in terms of power delivery, certainly not a fair ground job. In fact the car feels better behaved than standard in some respects, it seems to feel a bit less skittish over the lumps and bumps when cruising as if the torque is being delivered in some sort of more controlled way. It is very smooth and you really just get what you ask for in terms of how far the pedal is pressed and in that respect it feels much more like a petrol than a diesel.

[ElegantSpoon]

Sounds good Next you could do us a video comparing the two 0-60 times

So do you think its worth the £425?

I think I will go for this when I get a Map.

[dxb335d]

Spoonage, lovely sig you have!

[Boost]

If you order by phone and mention seeing a discount for internet forum users they will do it for £391, no further questions asked so don't pay £425.

The car is a certainly nicer to drive and faster by the stopwatch, but it is quite subtle, just feeling to me a more polished version of what it was. The harder you push it the more you feel the extra performance. If you just jumped in and drove across town to the shops or were cruising on the motorway I still think you wouldn't tell much difference to standard, there is no increased sensation of a beast lurking under the bonnet just waiting to be awakened.

The time when you really think wow there is a bit extra here is if you are going steady at about 2000rpm and then open the throttle up hard and it really takes off. Looking at the superchips graphs, this is where the biggest increase in torque is. If accelerating up all through the revs it is a bit less noticable.

My missus tends to short shift a lot even though she drives quite fast and she can't tell any difference at all.

If it was a couple of hundred quid I would definately keep it and if it was £500 I would probably send it back. As it is in the middle I still can't decide. I guess that means I will end up keeping it by default unless anything changes in the next couple of days. For quite a lot of my driving I'm not going to notice much but it is nice knowing there is a bit more on tap when you need it to overtake or whatever.

I rang SC today about the data logging, they said it was just a tool for them to diagnose problems and not for open access use. Why do they include instructions to use it then??

Just to add it is impressive how robust the system is, if you sit there uploading maps all day long listening to the stereo and with the climate control on it doesn't malfunction. I have read certain posts worrying about any little change in voltage during a remap frying the ecu or only being allowed to reflash so many times - it's all rubbish.

[Boost]

The missus has just reported back.....( I sent her on a 60 mile round trip to test fuel economy - well actually she just took it to work.) Average for the trip is just over 50 and we were probably seeing about 46 before. It will be a long time before we claw back all the juice I burned testing 0-60s though!!

[ElegantSpoon]

Thats a good increase in MPG I understand what your saying about the performance. Its the way it mimics the standard map so its less noticeable than other maps but overall I would imagine you get similar results.

[Boost]

It is a good mpg increase, but I wonder if it was assisted slightly by the traffic being good today because the return trip was at at lunchtime not the usual rush hour, but nevertheless it is still certainly better than we have seen before.

Just a final thought on whether my car had any pre-existing map - I assumed not since it was pre-owned by a BMW employee at HQ then sold on through used approved. However I have just remembered that when I first collected it, it did feel quicker than the one I test drove. The sales guy said it might have just felt quicker due to the bigger wheels but I suppose it could have started out as a quick one or had a remap - I wonder........hmmm.

None of this is an exact science is it but, hey - I've had a good bit of fun playing around and learned some new things about my car too in the process.

[- Paul -]

Originally Posted by Boost

It is a good mpg increase, but I wonder if it was assisted slightly by the traffic being good today because the return trip was at at lunchtime not the usual rush hour, but nevertheless it is still certainly better than we have seen before.

Just a final thought on whether my car had any pre-existing map - I assumed not since it was pre-owned by a BMW employee at HQ then sold on through used approved. However I have just remembered that when I first collected it, it did feel quicker than the one I test drove. The sales guy said it might have just felt quicker due to the bigger wheels but I suppose it could have started out as a quick one or had a remap - I wonder........hmmm.

None of this is an exact science is it but, hey - I've had a good bit of fun playing around and learned some new things about my car too in the process.

Doesn't bigger wheels mean slower? A heavier rotating mass

[ElegantSpoon]

Depending on power but yes they can reduce performance.