[Gr8 Ape]

So, I recently spent a fair amount on upgrades to my car, and I’m very pleased with the results. But, in terms of bang-for-the-buck, they can’t compare with the $150 I spent on BimmerCode and a related adapter that enabled me to defeat the dreaded automatic start/stop function. I can’t begin to tell you what a relief it is not to have to manually turn it off, invariably after I’ve forgotten to do so at startup. It may be a little thing, but it’s big to me.

(Not that the coding didn’t involve some pain and suffering. When I tried to follow the instruction to shut down all lights and ancillary functions, I blithely turned the light switch to “off”, thinking I’d been successful—only to spend 20+ minutes watching the “Preparing coding…” signal taunt me on my phone. Losing patience, I exited the car to go check online to determine how long coding should take, only to find my daytime running lights were still on. Doh! They needed to be turned off through iDrive.)

[claykin]

It's the simple things... Enjoy.

[NGT2]

I think Bimmercode might be my next adventure. I'm not typically very adventurous on tech stuff, so it makes me a little nervous. As far as turning off auto start/stop, or setting it to start in sport, etc. I assume none of this screws with the warranty in any way… Is that a correct assumption?

[540iSUP]

Originally Posted by NGT2

I think Bimmercode might be my next adventure. I'm not typically very adventurous on tech stuff, so it makes me a little nervous. As far as turning off auto start/stop, or setting it to start in sport, etc. I assume none of this screws with the warranty in any way… Is that a correct assumption?

Don't let BimmerCode scare you. It's super easy, user friendly, and very convenient. Stay out of expert mode and you'll be fine.

[ezaircon4jc]

Originally Posted by NGT2

I think Bimmercode might be my next adventure. I'm not typically very adventurous on tech stuff, so it makes me a little nervous. As far as turning off auto start/stop, or setting it to start in sport, etc. I assume none of this screws with the warranty in any way… Is that a correct assumption?

Yes. I've had my 2012 535i in for warranty work and they didn't care that I coded the sport automatic; among other things. Coding was never an issue, in fact, they were kind of impressed with the coding I did!

[turbobeagle]

I must say that while I’ve tweaked a bunch of stuff through bimmercode, I did not bother with the auto start/stop. I did do it on my F25 (N55), but with the G30 (B58) I find the ASS to be very smooth and the fact that it automatically starts the engine when the car in front starts pulling away (does it do this on cars without radar cruise control?) makes it quite tolerable.

[540iSUP]

Originally Posted by turbobeagle

I must say that while I’ve tweaked a bunch of stuff through bimmercode, I did not bother with the auto start/stop. I did do it on my F25 (N55), but with the G30 (B58) I find the ASS to be very smooth and the fact that it automatically starts the engine when the car in front starts pulling away (does it do this on cars without radar cruise control?) makes it quite tolerable.

No, it does not automatically turn on the car for those of us without radar. I find that feature and Auto H very convenient for traffic.

[SteveinArizona]

For me...the default distance on ACC was driving me nuts. So that was the first thing I changed with Bimmercode. Now it defaults to closest.

[H_T]

I purchased Bimmercode with the OBDlink MX+ adapter to primarily configure the ASS to be off as well.

Used the additional applications to read a another car when I was looking for my son, and discovered the VIN didn't match the car and the odometer was rolled back 100000 miles down to 98k.

[OmahaDB]

I had loaned my son my car while his was in the shop for a few days. Last night he texted me... "I really don't want to give this car back. Do you take checks?"

Anyway, we were driving to pick up his car today and he thinks the BMW drives better than the S600 it replaced. In some respects he's right. It's a over a foot shorter and a lot lighter, and drives like it. I told him one of the things I like the most is the ability to customize and tweak the car with less than a $100 investment in tools. The Mercedes required an elaborate setup with a laptop, some sketchy ripped off dealer software, and a sizeable investment in money and time just to do basic troubleshooting. Virtually no tweaking or customization of settings was possible. Just turning off the parking sensor (frequently interfered with by other vehicles, which causes frequent and very annoying alarms to go off) had to be done manually, every single time you got in the car, and there was no way around it.

Just being able to do little things on the BMW, like have the car remember my start/stop selection after a restart, or turning off the seatbelt chime (we don't need a reminder), or enabling the remote to open AND close the trunk... that in itself is worth something to me, and it makes the ownership experience a lot better.

[OmahaDB]

Originally Posted by H_T

I purchased Bimmercode with the OBDlink MX+ adapter to primarily configure the ASS to be off as well.

Used the additional applications to read a another car when I was looking for my son, and discovered the VIN didn't match the car and the odometer was rolled back 100000 miles down to 98k.

I hope you let the DMV or the Feds know about it.

[H_T]

Originally Posted by OmahaDB

I hope you let the DMV or the Feds know about it.

The guy was the 5th owner, I ran a carfax and it appeared to have happened at the 3rd owner's dealership. He asked me for a copy of the carfax, and was pretty depressed. I emailed it to him and figured he was doing what he needed to do.

[NGT2]

Y'all have mentioned a lot that I didn't even think of. Like default setting for ACC distance control and seat belt chime. I definitely need to get on board with this.

[rts2101]

Seat belt chime. I always wear my seatbelt, but would like to disable the chime for the few seconds between when I start the car and I am backing out of the garage putting the thing on. That's possible in bimmercode (I have the app and the MX+)?

[turbobeagle]

Originally Posted by rts2101

Seat belt chime. I always wear my seatbelt, but would like to disable the chime for the few seconds between when I start the car and I am backing out of the garage putting the thing on. That's possible in bimmercode (I have the app and the MX+)?

Yes.

[rts2101]

Originally Posted by turbobeagle

Yes.

Thanks! Just did the coding for that and it works. During coding I got some strange traction control warning on the dash, but all seems well.

Also, Bimmercode had an update available prior to my doing this, and seemed to have put my car into dignostic mode by itself without me having to push the start button three times fast like I have always had to do in the past.

[RonronEG]

Originally Posted by rts2101

Thanks! Just did the coding for that and it works. During coding I got some strange traction control warning on the dash, but all seems well.

Also, Bimmercode had an update available prior to my doing this, and seemed to have put my car into dignostic mode by itself without me having to push the start button three times fast like I have always had to do in the past.

I'm pretty sure I got the same traction/stability error when I coded the module for the seatbelt chime and default distance for the ACC/TJA. The code cleared after power of and I read it happens to most people when coding that module but at the moment it was definitely a "did I just break it?!" moment.

I think the $39 for Bimmercode was the best value software I've bought for the car. Other features in my top 10- fog lights with parking lights, no initial warning screen, & close windows and sunroof with comfort access.

[rts2101]

Yes...it was a brief moment of panic, but cleared after a power off and on.

For the seat belt chime defeat, I like how after a period of time, you still get the warning on the dash. Like i said, I wear my seat 100% of the time, but nice to know the car will remind driver's other than myself to buckle up.

I'm having to get used to the absolute silence when I 'start' my 530e, but I like it.

[Joe-BMW33]

In terms of the warranty comments and Bimmercode, these are all switches in the BMW software that BMW designed to be enabled and disabled and customized. The dealer will actually turn off ASS for a large fee. Now, if you go into expert mode and start messing with stuff and brick the control unit, I still don't think you could screw up the warranty, but you may have to pay your dealer to flash back to stock. (or use ProTool to do this).

Bimmercode is a must for everyone. There are just some nice tweaks that make the car even more enjoyable. Even something like disabling window interruption when opening the door. Had to reprogram this with BC this weekend. Who wants to sit there and wait for all the windows and sunroof to close before you can get out of the car?