About them chips - The Unofficial BMW M5 Messageboard (m5board.com)

Pete · 6th March 2004, 00:32

I freely admit to not knowing jack do-do about these things. I've been reading the board and my impression is that the powechip chips seem to be the most preferred.

One question I have is this. Do you have to get your other upgrades, i.e., exhaust, intake mods etc. along with the chip? The reason I ask is I have noticed that places like Dinan have different chips for different mod levels.

So lets say I anticipate that over the course of a few years I plan to do several upgrades. Can I start off buying a chip first that would be compatible with the end result I'm looking for, or would I have to upgrade the chip as the mods come online?

Is the chip the first thing to get or what?

Now back to the chip. How does this all actually work? Does a chip sence, or do the sensors tell it what mods are in the car? Will it automatically make the propper corrections to the car? Like I said, I dont know do-do. I bet its too much to hope for plug and play here.

If and when I do start down the road to modifications I would like to do it in a systematic and logical manner. Basically , I dont want to make any costly mistakes in my plan.

How about these places that you refer to as tuner shops? Are there any good ones in the Denver area? Does one even need a place like this when one installs a chip?

OK I'm ready for my chip 101 beginners class.

MIB · 6th March 2004, 00:38

Hey Pete,

The best way is to decide upfront what exhaust you are going with, and weather you will have headers or not.

Powerchip have at least three chips. The one for a relatively stock beast. One for those that are Tubi equipped. (The finest on the planet).
And then you will need to upgrade the chip with headers.

Headers will vastly change things.

So if you aren't getting headers, either of the two can be done, before or after exhaust.

gsfent · 6th March 2004, 00:38

Pete
I am sure others will chime in. Actually, no chip is changed but the ECU is reprogrammed through the cars diagnostic port (above your left knee). Dinan is one source and many on the board have used Power Chips (PC). Do a search. The ECU is updatable from PC if you make major changes, for a small charge IIRC. The programming change from PC is a noticeable difference. I changed out the Dinan program for the PC and I am very pleased. The PC programming felt like I had sport on all the time and hitting the sport button gives a nice shove in the back. This is all off of the highly calibtated buttometer, no hard numbers. Hope that helps and enjoy, those mods become a $lippery $lope!!!
Regards,
Jerry

Pete · 6th March 2004, 03:34

Thanks guys, you answered a few concerns for me. Nope, no headers for me, I like things a bit quieter than that, but the Tubi...... definite possibility there.