You read the subject correctly...I had a tuned chip for my '96 E36 M3 OBD-II car this weekend. Before the details, let me take care of the following:

First a big thanks, to Gary Bossert who hooked me up with Wetterauer Automotive Engineering this weekend. What would you do if some called you and said, "Do you want an OBD-II chip for your M3 for free?" Well, that was a no brainer.

Second, I beg forgiveness from Jim Conforti, BMW chip tuner extrodinaire. Jim, I had a chance and went for it...it was fun. Hopefully, your OBD-II chip will come out soon. I have seen the light.

Third, for all you NEWBIES on the digest with '96 and new M3's THERE ARE NO PERFORMANCE CHIPS FOR YOUR CAR SO STOP ASKING THE FRIGGIN' DIGEST EVERY TWO DAYS! NO, THE OPEN AIR ELEMENT CONE FILTERS WILL NOT HELP YOUR CAR AT ALL! TRUST US ON THIS! There...that felt good.

The place: Rally Motorsport, Hackensack, NJ The time: This past weekend
What: Wetterauer Automotive Engineering in town tuning some Audi A4's

Needless to say, I'm impressed with the amount of HP that can be extracted from a A4 1.8T. From 135hp stock (DynoJet wheel horsepower) to around 170hp (at the wheels) just with a chip. Damn, that's easy. They dropped a different turbo and was able to get about 180hp (at the wheels) but about 220 ft. lbs. torque (at the wheels). They did 43 runs with this little A4 1.8T all with different chips. I've never seen Jim C burn a chip, but it has to be wild with this guy Frank burning a different chip every 2 minutes. His friggin' laptop was crankin'! There's more to that story, but I'll save it for the Audi-Doodie Digest.

My '96 M3 is bone stock except for the mud flaps and '97 cup holders. On the dyno, my car is about 225hp stock. I was a little bummed, expecting more, but what the hell. Anyhow, Frank Wetterauer, President and chip tuner guru, cranked out about 7 different versions of M3 chips (all dyno'd) and they all made more hp and torque. More importantly, the best one produced a whopping 13 ft. lbs. (at the wheel) increase between 4000-5500 rpm. It felt like the V-Tec kind of power with the difference in torque in that range! WOW WEE! Oh, yeah, they were able to get another 11 hp (peak, at the wheels). It's cool to have the "butt dyno" feel it, but even cooler to get the numbers off a real dyno. I have no idea the accuracy of a DynoJet, but I can say it was measuring two different chips.

So, Ben, you ask, "Why are you a dummy and ask for the stock chip put back into your car?" Well, since they only had my car on the dyno for about 2 hours (compared to the 10 hours of the Audi) they were not able to turn the "check engine" light off (a problem Jim C has mentioned before) in time before their flight back. They left the "socket" so that I can plug in a chip when it's finished so that I don't have to send the ECU anywhere to have it installed. Since my car is still under warranty, I don't want to alarm the dealership if I show up with the "check engine" light on. Somehow, although is was on for my road test, the light being on didn't affect engine performance (ie. limp home mode) but I was corrected in that not all fault codes backs the engine down in power.

Frank is on his way home to Germany to sit down with the US OBD-II codes to "crack" the "check engine" light issue. Apparently, when they develop chips (they have over 2000 programs for 300 cars, mostly in Europe), they go for power first and then do the other stuff (like cracking the OBD-II stuff). They successfully done it (like others) on the Audi OBD-II and they are confident that they'll have the BMW crack when he spends some time with it.

I am not a chip expert, tuning expert, or claim to be. I am the messager of all of the BMW links, pizza lover, and all around honest guy (I'd like to think). No flames if you don't like what you've read, and if I've gotten you curiosity up, why don't you go to the Wetterauer site at www.chip-tuning.com. Email spitts_at_chip-tuning.com if you want a chip for your '96 and up E36 M3...maybe they'll come out with the chip faster that way. You'll know that it was developed on a real dyno, on a real, bone stock US E36 M3.

Anyhow, thanks for the bandwidth. I'm going to recover from my Central Park Cat. 3-4 bike race crash on my road bike now (friggin' squirrly NY bike riders)...

Ben
'96 M3 Alpine White - Back to bone stock, but modified for an hour. '88 M3 Alpine White - See the new graphics at www.cyberwar.com/~pstern