Chip

iTrader: (3)

They're a big company with expensive overheads, but they DO deliver the goods IME.

Ive never actually known any customer of their's not be happy with the service and the products, and unlike a lot of firms they do actually test everything they do properly, not just bolt on random shit.

They arent cheap, but you are paying for good facilities, and proven development.

I personally wouldnt use them, as Id sooner do stuff myself as I enjoy working on cars, but if a friend/colleague wanted a remap on a car, no fuss, and for it to work ok, I wouldnt think twice about recomending them.

Is your ONLY reason for slagging them off all the time really the fact you think they charge too much for a remap Jim?

angel45

Jim had a bad experience with them over he's car as discussed in Germany with him

Jim Galbally

chip, thats not the reason i wont go back there

it was the reason that the guy in the waiting room with me at the time wouldnt tho, he was most unimpressed with the 650quid remap that was not as described (ie JUST a superchips map flashed on and a quick powerrun)

thats almost DOUBLE what i think it's worth. r&d or not (which SUPERCHIPS would have done)

Steven_RW

Quick question.

TOny Ryan states: The standard injectors ran out at 328bhp (pretty much std brake hp - 343 ps = something in the 330's bhp wise.)

Efe has paid for a stage 3 kit for his csl. Cams, remap and exhaust. 390 something bhp. Does this mean a csl has bigger injectors than an ordinary M3?

I have an exhaust on mine and think it just makes it louder rather than faster. The main thing that makes a difference to the power of my car is the fuel it runs. It is SUPER sensitive to the quality of fuel. Tesco 99 can be great (however often isn't) but it tends to have been sitting in the fuel station for a while round my way (so it is very hit or miss whether its a good tank), V power is good as it is used by more people therefore fresher and you are more likely to get a really good tank. The difference in power is very clear on the road, with on a good day, the car wanting to rev very cleanly right through the power band and egging u on for 8k. On a bad day, you can feel the power drop off.

Having not tested it on the rollers, I can't say that it is 100% the fuel - But I am very confident that is the problem as the rest of the car is perfect.

Cheers!

RW

angel45

Steve have you tried BP ultimate?

pa_sjo

£5000 for a cam and exhaust change is daylight robbery!!!

Steven_RW

Hi there - yes I have tried BP ultimate as that is the closest fuel station to my work in Edinburgh. I would say it was the worst of all the fuels I have tried. When I drive in there with V power in the tank the car is feeling great and very crisp in its desire to rev (sometimes I get caught out and need to fill up close to work and am forced to take BP Ultimate) and as soon as I put BP ultimate in, the car feels flat. Its hard to describe the exact symptoms. Just that it feels less crisp, less desire to rev RIGHT to the red line. Normally when I drop fourth on the motorway the car hungers to go to 8000 rpm and therefore right to 140. When the fuel isn't perfect the car suggests changing gear earlier as being atleast as quick.

What are your experiences? I might have an "overly sensitive knock sensor" on the car for some reason. Interestingly with the correct ECU reading equipment (my father sells such stuff). I can see the exact % that the timing is retarded for each cylinder. I have yet to sit with it in the car and do a before and after test with the fuel but I will one day when I get a chance.

Cheers

Steven RW

Steven_RW

Just to confirm - the exhausts on M3's are not cheap. I replaced the backbox and main section leading up to the cats and that cost something like £1500 (cant recall exactly) if you were to replace the cats too, that would be another £750 ish.

Cheers

RW

pa_sjo

Yes, but we're talking aftermarket!

Jim Galbally

miltek exhausts do cost about 2k

pa_sjo

Why though? Do they take four times as long to make as other cars?

angel45

Never tried anything else but BP ultimate, but I know what you're saying about the car feeling flat @ time with BP, going to start using Vpower for a while as i had the same thing whilst I was in Germany where the car wasn't revving cleanly @ all

Jim Galbally

you didnt do what i did and kept filling up with 95ron fuel by accident did you?
WHY they use red for normal shit i don't know

Tony Ryan

I was surprised how quickly the std injectors ran out of fuelling capability and we changed them for KMS' own 400 cc units as theyre cheap enough . My engine ran cleanly on tesco 99 all the way past 8200 rpm , weve set shift lights at 7800 , soft cut at 8000 and hard cut limiters at 8200 rpm on the ecu , i bashed the cats out of the exhaust but in every other way its a completely std unit , im personally still very unconvinced about roadcars with a chip and filter making anyhting like whats been claimed , i will also put the car on the rollers and see whats happening to fine tune it in the car - i expect some interesting results as well then .

Jim Galbally

i accume the KMS isnt using fully sequential injection?

Tony Ryan

what do you mean ?

Steven_RW

Just to confirm - I was talking about the price of an aftermarket system, not a std one which is also stainless and wouldn't need replacing unless u crashed it.

Jim - why wouldn't it be sequential? I can hardly think of an ecu that people would put on their car that WOULDN'T be sequential, pointless going back in technology.

Tony - I don't believe chip/filter claims whatsoever.

As said - I think tesco 99 is the best fuel - however it is hard to get a clean tankful that hasn't been lying about in a tesco petrol station tank for months as not many people use it up here. Easier to find a fresher tank of V-power which works well.

Did u put up a power graph?

Cheers

RW

Jim Galbally

RW, some of the cheaper ECUs (for example emerald i ran) would not do sequential injection on a 6cyl engine as it only had 4 injector drivers

Steven_RW

Is that right Jim? Didn't know that.

I wouldn't put anything on my car that wasn't fully sequential. Can't work out why i would want to go backwards in technology.

Cheers

RW

AlexF

Sequential is great for emissions but about the same for power as batch is....

Rich_w

No experience of Thorney. Though as said below most of their customers are pretty happy. Particularly on mtorque.co.uk (formally bm3w.co.uk) And they did sort out Top Gears diesel 24hr Britcar when their guy had no clue about the details of modern BMW (can bus)

link to story

Anyhow, having seen Bexleys workmanship, (on my car) and seen how "2 weeks" becomes several months, and how htey like to take customers cars for extended road tests for no real reason. They are not someone I would recommend to a friend. Which is all the more strange given you seem to have used them a few times and seem happy.

Jim Galbally

theyre certainly not the quickest in the world, but i get a non-bullshit service with no hidden bits and peices and at a reasonable price.

as for road tests, why would they care about ragging customer cars? all the see day in day out every day is M3s?

my experiences with thorney:

Visit1:
3.5hrs to fit front brakes + brake lines - i was watching the whole time and can assure you nowhere near that ammount of time was spent on this.
1.5hrs do diagnose - Damaged topmounts,Damaged RTABs, Play in track rod [Fault was noise when turning left]
Total Cost £374 in labour

also totally unhappy about the wait as i hung around all day waiting - was told they had someone call in sick so gave them the benefit of the doubt.

can't seem to find my 2nd invoice but from memory (ie may be mistakes)

by the way i was booed in for monday morning, all work should have been completed then but they forgot to order the parts, ended up leaving the car with them for 1 week, went to pick car up 1week later and work had not STARTED. waited all day to collect car whilst work was carried out

Supply+Fit RTABs (they incorrect parts fitted, std E36 not M3)
Suply+Fit Rear Top Mounts
Supply+Fit pair of track rods
4WA/Full Geo Set up (which was miles out <100miles later when checked elsewhere)
Supply+Fit Pair of lamdas (was told mine were reading "a bit rich" and could be the cause of my stored fault code related to MAF, both not actually possible, doubt i needed these, made ZERO difference to running problem)

all of that came to about 1200quid, about twice what i was told to expect. they also wanted to charge me for 1 week hire car rental, after i said that wasn't on (as delay was 100% their fault) they dropped this.

so, car was dropped off with 2 faults, 1 poor running on low throttle, 2 noise when turning left.

when i collected it both faults were still present

turns out they did correctly diagnose the noise, it was split RTABs however since they replaced them with sub-standard cmponents the problem did not get resolved. after this was diagnosed by bexley motorworks and correct RTABs fitted the problem resolved itself.

now to be fair i never did return to them for them to try and put this all right, but i was extremely dissalousioned with them and wanted no further dealings basically the level of customer service i received was TERRIBLE. The price did not reflect the level of workmanship. i did have work carried out incorrectly (RTABs) and i beleive that unnecessary parts were fitted to my car due to poor fault finding processes (lambdas).

also whilst i was there the other 3 customers i was with had similar experiences and were also very unhappy. based on general word of mouth from other people in the scene this seems to be quite common

that being said their unit is fantastic, if the service was anything like their premesis it would be A1!