polley 916 Report post Posted August 16, 2011 Just finished a e36 manual conversion, and wondering what is involved with recoding the ECU. Car is a 1996 323i. Car seems to run perfectly fine apart from the revs shooting up a little bit when changing gears and the auto transmission error light is illuminated. I've found sammys document on recoding the ECU: https://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0AaUN4XDu...zl4Zg&hl=en Does this fix the transmission error light? Is there any need to remove the transmission computer? Is this scanner suitable for modification? http://www.trademe.co.nz/motors/car-parts-...n-399003455.htm Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
BM WORLD 1286 Report post Posted August 16, 2011 i just pull the trans light bulb out on mine . you can remove the auto trans ecu , will make no difference except make the car lighter. i haven't recoded mine , have had no problems etc. i think ross at bm workshop will do the recode pretty cheap Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
polley 916 Report post Posted August 16, 2011 Do you find yours sort of holds revs between gear changes? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
BM WORLD 1286 Report post Posted August 16, 2011 Do you find yours sort of holds revs between gear changes? maybe a little , but i have a pretty pretty light early m20 flywheel (about 6.5kg) so it does drop down ok for me what flywheel are you using?? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
polley 916 Report post Posted August 16, 2011 Standard dual mass. Will most probably convert to single mass if I replace the clutch later on. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
1rotty 40 Report post Posted August 16, 2011 With your old man at the wheel do u think a new clutch is likely...or is he a secret hoon lol. Hope the box is algood mate Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
polley 916 Report post Posted August 16, 2011 With your old man at the wheel do u think a new clutch is likely...or is he a secret hoon lol. Hope the box is algood mate Bit of a secret hoon, I might try and get him to go along to a track day once the car is sorted out. The clutch should be fine, but it was stuck to the pressure plate and when it finally came off a bit of clutch material had separated from the clutch and was stuck to the pressure plate. I cleaned up the pressure plate etc, but not sure how the missing material will effect the life of the clutch, it is only a little bit but will not be surprised if it needs replacing later on, however it held fine the other night. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
KwS 2429 Report post Posted August 16, 2011 my 323i E36 conversion holds revs a little bit before dropping. Ive just gotten used to it, in saying that i also have a M20 flywheel, and i imagine the dual mass would be terrible at holding revs anyway. Cleaning my idle controller made a big difference too. I have bulb removed, trans comp still in place. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
leithcm 0 Report post Posted August 17, 2011 There was a thread started by Sammcj on June 21 2010 with title "DIY Reprogram ECU After Auto to Manual Conversion - Success!!" (not sure how to imbed the link). In this he described getting the idle to be about 600 rpm instead of the auto 750 or so, plus the slight engine rev's pick-up during gear changes was eliminated. Yours is a 1996 E36 323, Sammcj was a 1996 E36 328 - so not that much different, I am picking. One of these days I am probably going to do an auto -> manual conversion so I printed the thread out, and it certainly looks as though it will work! Might be worth you having a look at this! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
KwS 2429 Report post Posted August 17, 2011 tbh, imo there is very little if any need to bother doing a recode. Other than the idle being a little higher than a factory manual car, most people would never notice. After the idle valve clean, and with the lightweight flywheel the rev holding thing is barely noticeable. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
polley 916 Report post Posted August 17, 2011 Might give it a miss then, it's $150 for the carsoft scanner and then a bunch of dicking around getting it to work. Will try cleaning the ICV and see what difference it makes. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
hybrid 1044 Report post Posted August 19, 2011 SammyJ's intructions only cover updating the dealer code which has nothing to do with the programming of the control modules. Unfortunately there is a lot of miss information flying around the net around this. Including the coding for the e46 gearboxes. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
barf 0 Report post Posted September 8, 2011 soz for diggin up an old thread, though i'd mention that the spark map is significantly different in AT compared to MT tunes, the VE table may be different too. there is more advance at idle and off-idle for the torque converter, less "tip-in" and there is no low-MAP advance for smooth gear changes. the standard BMW tune leaves a lot of room for improvement on top of all that, using a Megasquirt II here for our E36 MT conversion project. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
hybrid 1044 Report post Posted September 8, 2011 Correct, this is why it is important to recode the options and complete DME recoding including updating the DME with the manual binaries. The software behalves a lot different because of the loadings of the torque converter on an auto car and idling requirements, which are obviously different to a manual. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
KwS 2429 Report post Posted September 8, 2011 Could you just swap the whole ECU out for a factory manual one? All this recoding thing sounds like a load of arse and a lot of effort, for gains that thus far arent proven. If it was just a matter of rocking into somewhere, they load a new coding on the ecu and away you go, i'd be keen (but it doesnt appear to be that easy?) Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Jono51 59 Report post Posted September 8, 2011 Could you just swap the whole ECU out for a factory manual one? All this recoding thing sounds like a load of arse and a lot of effort, for gains that thus far arent proven. If it was just a matter of rocking into somewhere, they load a new coding on the ecu and away you go, i'd be keen (but it doesnt appear to be that easy?) yes you can, but you need everything to go with it ,such as EWS Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
*Glenn* 855 Report post Posted September 8, 2011 yes you can, but you need everything to go with it ,such as EWS You can realign the DME to the EWS on an E36 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Jono51 59 Report post Posted September 8, 2011 You can realign the DME to the EWS on an E36 Hi Glenn, yeah i realise that , but they don't have the gear to do it and he was probably hopeing for a quick plug in and drive off Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
westy 614 Report post Posted September 9, 2011 Could you just drive the car normally on the auto ECU? Yes. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
hybrid 1044 Report post Posted September 9, 2011 Could you just swap the whole ECU out for a factory manual one? Yerp .. to do that all you need the DME(ECU) EWS and Key that all go with the car or as others say, align the DME to the EWS. Coding isn't easy if your doing it from scratch .. it takes a lot of research and know how to perform it properly unfortunately. Its actually fairly simple once your all setup and takes no more than 10-30mins. Things to consider are Cruise Control, Clutch switches, EGS, DME binaries and also recreating your GM and SA codes. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
KwS 2429 Report post Posted September 9, 2011 Yes. Im already running my conversion on the auto ecu. Theres a couple of small things like the revs holding between gears etc that are known issues, if it was easy to recode then i would do it. Otherwise its not worth the effort when the car is already awesome as it is. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
KwS 2429 Report post Posted October 25, 2011 After plenty more driving since getting converted, im kinda thinking i'd like the revs to drop quicker between shifts. Has anyone done a recode on an early 323i with success? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
