[F36 435d]

F10 535d Remap Review

Hello Everyone,

Here is my review on the remap I have recently had installed and how it performs in comparison to a tuning box on my 2013 313ps Bmw 535d.
The 535d is rapid in standard form, it already has masses of torque and it doesn’t need tuning, but if the car has more potential and you are into the adrenalin of acceleration and speed then why not?

How did the tuning box perform in the time I had it ?
I bought a twin channel Boost & Common Rail digital tuning box from a high end Tuning Box Company at a high cost. They are relatively easy to fit, just the boost plug can be a bit fiddly especially if you have big hands/fingers. The tuning box didn’t make a massive difference to the performance of the, just a slight increase. It gave me an engine management light in the high setting so I reduced the setting, anyway after a year gone by trying all the different settings the box after a period of time would give an engine management light whatever setting it were in, low or high. So that’s when I decided to remove the box. Since the box has been removed I have not had any engine lights, My car did not like the box fitted to it. I decided then I would go for a custom remap on the rolling road.

How did it perform on the Dyno before and after the remap ?
Bmw quote the car as 313ps (308 bhp) & 630nm. The cars results on the Dyno:
Standard: 299.5 BHP & 666nm
Remapped: 368.9 BHP & 789nm
This was running on a mix of Bp Ultimate Diesel & Shell V Power Diesel if that makes any difference.

Who did I use for the Remap and why?
Many people go for the big name tuners however I took it somewhere different. After reading many excellent reviews, I took it to Unicorn Motor Developments in Stockport. Rick has a brilliant reputation and he specialises in Bmws. I have never heard a bad word about him so I trusted him with my car. He is a very friendly, knowledgeable fellar and knows exactly what he is doing. Firstly he checked the car over, made sure it were safe and suitable for a remap, by scanning the car for fault code etc… The car was run on the rolling road and he did all his magic. After the new map was uploaded to the car he was constantly adjusting it to make sure it was perfect and suited to the car. All in all the car took 4 hours for a full custom rolling road remap. The ECU were removed for it to be remapped.

Has the remap made a big difference to standard?
Very Big. I have covered just 750 miles with the remap on different types of roads. In normal day to day driving you notice a small difference. It’s when you put your foot down you can feel the big difference. You can feel the extra power and you are at a much higher speed than you expected to be at. It leaves a big smile on your face. It gives a much bigger difference than the tuning box did. I feel that the car now has a smoother power delivery.
In Sport + and the gear lever in S, the 0-60 time has reduced from 5.5 seconds to 4.68. If I put it into Sport + and the traction is off I get no wheelspin at all no matter how hard I accelerate, that is with 3mm 275/35/19 Bridgestones. With normal driving in comfort/sport the car is a little more tail happy but not as much as I expected it to be. I have not yet tested the difference in fuel economy however i will post when i have.

Before the warranty police turn up, yes it has invalidated my warranty on the Engine,Drivetrain etc… however certain warranties still apply for example if my door handle stops working then it can be repaired under Bmw warranty. However I trust that the car is reliable hence the reason I took the risk of invalidating my warranty, I have had 3 Bmws before and never had a single reliability issue. If I wanted an unreliable vehicle I would’ve bought a Range Rover.

Overall, I am very pleased with the remap and I would highly recommend Unicorn Motor Developments to tune your Bmw.
If anybody has any questions then please do not hesitate

[Hasser]

nice write up - how does it sound though?

that's the next step - if you haven't already done it - exhaust

[F36 435d]

Im not sure the wife would be to happy about that

[MrPogle]

I'm certainly not the Warranty Police but at the risk of sounding like the Reliability Police....

Doesn't your car have the ZF8HP70 gearbox?

If so, it's only rated to 700nm. Is 789nm considered "within acceptable limits"? I was toying with having mine remapped but being already close to the rated spec has put me off a bit.

Also, did you tell your insurance company? If so, what was the result and who are they?

Cheers

[F36 435d]

Yes it does, I have done lots of research on the gearbox. The gearbox has a limit of 700nm. Obviously the more power you put through it, the more strain it will have. If you put 705nm through it, it isnt going to break. 700nm is what the gearbox Manufacture (ZF) claim as the safe limit. There is a margin over 700nm what the gearbox is capable of taking. There are many remapped Bmws exceeding the 700nm limit. At around 800nm or even more and they have covered many of miles and never had any problems. In day to day normal driving back and forward to work I dont use all the power the car has and it probably wont exceed 700nm anyway so the full amount of power is not being used every time i drive the car. I also do not Launch the car and i always make sure the car is warmed up fully before it is driven hard. I also plan to service the gearbox and 40,000 miles, (Currently at 26,500 miles) I never use the car round tracks or for drag racing etc... So i do have confidence that the gearbox should be good for a long while.

[Hasser]

Originally Posted by F10 535d

Im not sure the wife would be to happy about that

i changed my exhaust to a super sprint and had to change back to quieten it down - so took off the super sprint and got the MPE

[F36 435d]

As far as i am awake there is no MPE for the 535d ? Correct me if i am wrong.

[Hasser]

Originally Posted by F10 535d

As far as i am awake there is no MPE for the 535d ? Correct me if i am wrong.

correct nothing shows on realoem. for exhaust for 535d.

[F36 435d]

To add to what i were saying in the previous post about the 700nm torque limit. I have recently coded the Sports Display and i have been studying the torque usage. Just driving normally back and forward to work on the motorway and normal roads the maximum amount of torque i have used is 550nm, so it isnt regular you are using over 700nm. Also, i highly doubt the massive number of tuning companies would be willing to put your car at risk, they must have confidence in the gearbox otherwise they would have unhappy customers no ?

[MrPogle]

Fair enough.

Re your sports displays, though. Surely they are not measuring anything they are just reporting from a map of throttle openings and revs which has been created for your engine. Don't you need to add 20% to your 550nm to make up for the fact that your engine produces more torque than the sports meters think?

[F36 435d]

I never thought of that. However on the KW sports display it reaches 240KW, Which is equivalent to 320 bhp. My car standard is claimed 308 bhp, but it actually ran 299 standard on the rollers. So it would not reach the 240kw mark. Also when you put your foot down the KW and NM are at the maximum and when you let off the power there is a small delay in the dials reducing from the maximum which suggests it is outputting more power. The scale isnt big enough to actually tell if it works in co operation with the new performance but im pretty sure it does.

[mcdokika]

Originally Posted by F10 535d

F10 535d Remap Review

Hello Everyone,

Here is my review on the remap I have recently had installed and how it performs in comparison to a tuning box on my 2013 313ps Bmw 535d.
The 535d is rapid in standard form, it already has masses of torque and it doesn’t need tuning, but if the car has more potential and you are into the adrenalin of acceleration and speed then why not?

How did the tuning box perform in the time I had it ?
I bought a twin channel Boost & Common Rail digital tuning box from a high end Tuning Box Company at a high cost. They are relatively easy to fit, just the boost plug can be a bit fiddly especially if you have big hands/fingers. The tuning box didn’t make a massive difference to the performance of the, just a slight increase. It gave me an engine management light in the high setting so I reduced the setting, anyway after a year gone by trying all the different settings the box after a period of time would give an engine management light whatever setting it were in, low or high. So that’s when I decided to remove the box. Since the box has been removed I have not had any engine lights, My car did not like the box fitted to it. I decided then I would go for a custom remap on the rolling road.

How did it perform on the Dyno before and after the remap ?
Bmw quote the car as 313ps (308 bhp) & 630nm. The cars results on the Dyno:
Standard: 299.5 BHP & 666nm
Remapped: 368.9 BHP & 789nm
This was running on a mix of Bp Ultimate Diesel & Shell V Power Diesel if that makes any difference.

Who did I use for the Remap and why?
Many people go for the big name tuners however I took it somewhere different. After reading many excellent reviews, I took it to Unicorn Motor Developments in Stockport. Rick has a brilliant reputation and he specialises in Bmws. I have never heard a bad word about him so I trusted him with my car. He is a very friendly, knowledgeable fellar and knows exactly what he is doing. Firstly he checked the car over, made sure it were safe and suitable for a remap, by scanning the car for fault code etc… The car was run on the rolling road and he did all his magic. After the new map was uploaded to the car he was constantly adjusting it to make sure it was perfect and suited to the car. All in all the car took 4 hours for a full custom rolling road remap. The ECU were removed for it to be remapped.

Has the remap made a big difference to standard?
Very Big. I have covered just 750 miles with the remap on different types of roads. In normal day to day driving you notice a small difference. It’s when you put your foot down you can feel the big difference. You can feel the extra power and you are at a much higher speed than you expected to be at. It leaves a big smile on your face. It gives a much bigger difference than the tuning box did. I feel that the car now has a smoother power delivery.
In Sport + and the gear lever in S, the 0-60 time has reduced from 5.5 seconds to 4.68. If I put it into Sport + and the traction is off I get no wheelspin at all no matter how hard I accelerate, that is with 3mm 275/35/19 Bridgestones. With normal driving in comfort/sport the car is a little more tail happy but not as much as I expected it to be. I have not yet tested the difference in fuel economy however i will post when i have.

Before the warranty police turn up, yes it has invalidated my warranty on the Engine,Drivetrain etc… however certain warranties still apply for example if my door handle stops working then it can be repaired under Bmw warranty. However I trust that the car is reliable hence the reason I took the risk of invalidating my warranty, I have had 3 Bmws before and never had a single reliability issue. If I wanted an unreliable vehicle I would’ve bought a Range Rover.

Overall, I am very pleased with the remap and I would highly recommend Unicorn Motor Developments to tune your Bmw.
If anybody has any questions then please do not hesitate

"WARRANTY POLICE!! "

I loved this

Nice writing, happy that you are pleased with your car.

[Hasser]

Originally Posted by F10 535d

I never thought of that. However on the KW sports display it reaches 240KW, Which is equivalent to 320 bhp. My car standard is claimed 308 bhp, but it actually ran 299 standard on the rollers. So it would not reach the 240kw mark. Also when you put your foot down the KW and NM are at the maximum and when you let off the power there is a small delay in the dials reducing from the maximum which suggests it is outputting more power. The scale isnt big enough to actually tell if it works in co operation with the new performance but im pretty sure it does.

on this, I put a BMS JB stage 1 on my activehybrid 5.

The sports dials run up to 450nm as stock torque figure is 400nm from the engine - I regularly see the dial push up to limit and hold there with the JB running.

[F36 435d]

Glad you enjoyed the read, Thanks for the reply Hasser
Im enjoying the extra performance of the car, it does a consistent 0-60 time of 4.6 from 5.5. In Sport +, also no wheel spin the traction control is off.
The wife drove it for the first time since the remap the other day and when she got home she told me that the car is ridiculously quick and noticeably quicker when accelerating and apprently i am ridiculous for getting it remapped ! "Spending all that money"

I got the Engine Oil changed on Saturday, It has been 1 year/7000 miles since it has been done. I prefer to change it every year rather than every 2 years. I also got the air filter, pollen filter, microfilter changed. All Bmw genuine parts. The car has only done 26,500 miles. But i like it to keep on top of it and look after it, keep it well maintained.

[MrPogle]

There was you concerned about The Warranty Police and you get pulled by The Spending Police

The only way to truly waste money is to never spend it.

[morellomax]

OP - the reported reduction in the 0-60 time seems huge for the measured increases in bhp and torque. Did you actually record 5.5s as the original 0-60 time ? 5.5s is the official 0-62 (not 0-60) time for the 313ps version I think ?

[F36 435d]

Very true MrPogle ! Yet she spends money in ways which i think is stupid too !
Yes, I measured it before hand and got 5.4/5.5, it has made a massive difference. I weren't expecting it to make such a difference, i were expecting it to be about 5 seconds and i were pleasantly surprised when i got consistent readings of 4.6 seconds.
However, It isnt all about the 0-60 times etc... the car does feel a lot better and pulls much stronger throughout.

[oinkster77]

Getting delivery of Eisenmann Race boxes next week, should sound nicer, had one on my E60 and it sounded great in my opinion (as great as a diesel can be of course)

[makkan00]

Originally Posted by F36 435d

Very true MrPogle ! Yet she spends money in ways which i think is stupid too !
Yes, I measured it before hand and got 5.4/5.5, it has made a massive difference. I weren't expecting it to make such a difference, i were expecting it to be about 5 seconds and i were pleasantly surprised when i got consistent readings of 4.6 seconds.
However, It isnt all about the 0-60 times etc... the car does feel a lot better and pulls much stronger throughout.

Nice write up.
If you have bmw apps activated then use bmw m Laptimer to record official and accurate readings.

[F36 435d]

I now have a 435d, i part exchanged the 535d. And i have had the 435d remapped with the same company. Fantastic results yet again.

[BMWales]

am thinking of going down this route with my 525d 6cyl-N57 engine 204HP.
Does it need fitting professionally or do I buy off net and install myself?
Is there any recommendations for companies to use/avoid?
Should I look at any upgrades or expect excessive wear of gearbox (sport auto) etc (obviously dependant on driving style!).
was there any difference in gearbox between 525 & 530 as otherwise I should have large safety margin already built in.

[ASIMALI123]

Who done the map if you don't mind me asking?