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      01-10-2015, 07:26 PM   #1
pdawg
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RaceChip Ultimate F15 X5 35i Installation DIY

I thought I would share how to install the RaceChip Ultimate on the F15 N55 engine since the instructions included are severely lacking.

I'm going to consolidate some pics from other posters as it's similar to other piggy back installs.

In the box you will get the RaceChip module and 2 wiring Harnesses:



The reason for 2 harnesses is because there are 2 types of connectors used in F15 vehicles, depending on when yours was manufactured. The weird thing is the ones that don't fit actually have the same grooves as the OE plugs, so don't rely on that as an indication of which harness to use. The correct harness will "click" in. On my 2015 the Purple harness was the correct one.
*NOTE: They come shipped with the Dummy plugs connected to the harness (they are wrapped in heat shrink. Take these off before attempting to plug into the RaceChip module).

The Harness has 2 "Y" connectors (4 connections total). One for the MAP Sensor pictured here:



This requires you to remove the air filter box using a flat screwdriver to loosen up the hose clamp and Torx T25 for the 6 screws on the airbox. It will look like this:



Close up of the MAP sensor behind air box:



and the other for the TMAP sensor pictured here:



Here are both plugs in relation to the engine bay:



At each location you simply plug the appropriate "Y" plug into the engine connector and the other intercepts the factory plug. Now you simply plug the harness into the RaceChip module and zip tie everything securely.

At this point you should start the car and drive it around. If everything seems OK and no engine light comes on now you can move on the increasing the power.

This is where the manual make a little more sense. However, being that the manual talks in generic terms it will mention that on the S2 dial "0" is factory and turning it to "1" is a 22.5% (or so) increase in power. That's fine if yours is shipped with an initial setting of "0", but mine was shipped on an initial setting of "B". Bottom line is when increasing your tune, it is recommended to turn one click on the dial from your factory setting and then drive the car to allow it to adapt.

opasha posted this procedure which I would recommend to obtain the best setting for your individual vehicle:

(1) open up the box using a T10 torx screw driver.
(2) look for the dial marked "S2". The dial will have alphabetical and numerical markings. The most important thing to remember is that position "8" is the minimum power/torque setting and position "7" the maximum. Each notch clockwise, according to RaceChip, adds another 1.5% of power/torque.
(3) leave dial "S1" alone i.e. don't make any adjustment to it.
(4) look at dial "S2" and see what the default factory setting is.
(5) to tune the box for increases in power/torque, turn the dial "S2" clockwise one notch at a time.
(6) after each step increase, start and drive the car a bit to check if there are issues or not.
(7) if step (6) was ok, drive normally for sufficient kilometers (say 50 ~ 100) to let the ECU adapt.
(8) if there were no issues after covering sufficient kilometers, take the car for a stress drive before increasing another notch in dial "S2". By stress drive, I mean the engine should reach 6000 rpm. What I did was to switch to manual and ran in 4th gear.
(9) if step (8) was ok, repeat from step (5).
(10) eventually, you will reach a setting in dial "S2" when the drive becomes less smooth and or according to RaceChip, the CEL may pop up. When this happens, turn the dial two notches anti-clockwise and that will be the position for best power/torque for your car."


That's it. If you have any questions just reply or shoot me a PM.


I would also like to thank opasha and r33 for their pics and posted information used in this post.

Last edited by pdawg; 01-10-2015 at 07:54 PM..
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      01-10-2015, 07:32 PM   #2
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Great write up, my friend! This is very helpful to the community. Just to add, for the 50i, I had the same stock settings S1=1 and S2=B for the chip. My harness was also the pink/purple (8720) one used for my two MAP sensors. Note, these also fit into the MAF sensors so good thing you noted that so people don't plug into the MAF.
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      01-12-2015, 09:36 AM   #3
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Does the RC throw any codes when you bring it in for service? What if they do a firmware update? will that knock the "bridge" out?
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      01-12-2015, 10:25 AM   #4
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If I bring it in for service, the piggy back is coming off. Alternatively you can just install the dummy plug, which will not alter signals. Firmware updates would not talk to the racechip.
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      01-20-2015, 09:16 PM   #5
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Great write up pdawg showing this to a fellow F15 35i owner from the bimmerfest board!
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      01-21-2015, 02:31 PM   #6
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Quote:
Originally Posted by opasha View Post
Great write up, my friend! This is very helpful to the community. Just to add, for the 50i, I had the same stock settings S1=1 and S2=B for the chip. My harness was also the pink/purple (8720) one used for my two MAP sensors. Note, these also fit into the MAF sensors so good thing you noted that so people don't plug into the MAF.
FYI - According to the new Racechip Guide on Page 9, if your chip was shipped with B1 as the stock setting, they now state the following:

Performance Level 1: D1
Performance Level 2: E2

Happy testing.
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      01-21-2015, 03:08 PM   #7
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Trojanlaw View Post
FYI - According to the new Racechip Guide on Page 9, if your chip was shipped with B1 as the stock setting, they now state the following:

Performance Level 1: D1
Performance Level 2: E2

Happy testing.
I wonder if this update is just a generic rule of thumb now. It seems they just added two bumps in performance level 1 (the basic rule of thumb in our thread discussions before we started going big and beyond with our crazy tests in the F15 tune thread). I'm guessing level 2 is based off of those crazy tests. When I called Paul about the S1 setting, he said to absolutely not change the S1, but this was a long time ago when I first got the chip and knew nothing of its capabilities and decided to play it safe and stick with S1=1, S2=C. My stock was S1=1, S2=B. However, now I'm more confident in trying the D setting. thedragonseven mentioned that to me a long time ago as well because he was running D1 on his M6.
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      01-21-2015, 10:23 PM   #8
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Trojanlaw View Post
FYI - According to the new Racechip Guide on Page 9, if your chip was shipped with B1 as the stock setting, they now state the following:

Performance Level 1: D1
Performance Level 2: E2

Happy testing.
I'm assuming that only applies to Diesels?
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      01-21-2015, 10:35 PM   #9
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Quote:
Originally Posted by pdawg View Post
I'm assuming that only applies to Diesels?
No, this refers to us with 35i and 50i since our stock is S1=1, S2=B.
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      01-21-2015, 10:37 PM   #10
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Quote:
Originally Posted by pdawg View Post
I'm assuming that only applies to Diesels?
For the diesels:

Level 1: E2
Level 2: F3
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      01-21-2015, 10:44 PM   #11
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double post - bimmerpost lag...ugh.
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      01-21-2015, 10:45 PM   #12
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Just so everyone is on the same page regarding these new setting updates. It's all just simple math that they applied in general to all engines.

30/35d: stock comes as S1=0, S2= E

35i/50i: stock comes as S1=1, S2=B

Performance Level 1 - they simply bumped S1 for diesel by 2 and S2 for petrol by 2 - the same tests we all have been doing and discussing - old news.

Performance Level 2 - they simply bumped S1 for diesel by 3 and S2 for petrol by 3 and bumped S2 for diesel by 1 and S1 for petrol by 1.

I hope that makes sense...most likely they've been lurking and following multiple boards and they came up with a safe margin for all engines with the simple math above based on everyone's feedback. If they actually did real world tests, great. Either way...it's pretty straightforward. If you choose to go above and beyond each, that is up to you .
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      01-21-2015, 11:38 PM   #13
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Hmm very cool. I'll Give E/2 a try. 5/1 is doable although it threw a Air flow code (but light went off later) and power isn't as smooth as stock, but definitely more powerful. still drives fine for Mom and the kids on comfort mode.

I'll try S2=E/S1=2 on Saturday or sooner and report back.
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      01-21-2015, 11:57 PM   #14
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Quote:
Originally Posted by pdawg View Post
Hmm very cool. I'll Give E/2 a try. 5/1 is doable although it threw a Air flow code (but light went off later) and power isn't as smooth as stock, but definitely more powerful. still drives fine for Mom and the kids on comfort mode.

I'll try S2=E/S1=2 on Saturday or sooner and report back.
Good deal . I wouldn't ignore the air flow code. That's just your engine's way of saying,'"Let me breathe, boss." Think of it like you're training a fighter. If you push him too hard, he'll get too fatigued and collapse.
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      01-22-2015, 08:50 AM   #15
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Vote for making this sticky!
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      01-22-2015, 02:20 PM   #16
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Trojanlaw View Post
FYI - According to the new Racechip Guide on Page 9, if your chip was shipped with B1 as the stock setting, they now state the following:

Performance Level 1: D1
Performance Level 2: E2

Happy testing.
Oh so the new instructions manual is showing different for Diesel ? but not for Petrol ?

Quote:
Originally Posted by pdawg View Post
Hmm very cool. I'll Give E/2 a try. 5/1 is doable although it threw a Air flow code (but light went off later) and power isn't as smooth as stock, but definitely more powerful. still drives fine for Mom and the kids on comfort mode.

I'll try S2=E/S1=2 on Saturday or sooner and report back.


Quote:
Originally Posted by opasha View Post
Good deal . I wouldn't ignore the air flow code. That's just your engine's way of saying,'"Let me breathe, boss." Think of it like you're training a fighter. If you push him too hard, he'll get too fatigued and collapse.
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      01-22-2015, 02:32 PM   #17
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Rob - the recs are based upon the setting they shipped with. The posts above are for petrol and deisel. The deisel ships at E0 and the petrol at B1. Accordingly, I have posted the recommended settings for both.

The next steps for petrol are D1 then E2

for deisel it's E2 then F3.
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      01-22-2015, 02:53 PM   #18
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Trojanlaw View Post
Rob - the recs are based upon the setting they shipped with. The posts above are for petrol and deisel. The deisel ships at E0 and the petrol at B1. Accordingly, I have posted the recommended settings for both.

The next steps for petrol are D1 then E2

for deisel it's E2 then F3.
Perfect thank you so much, because I have been in contact with RC-USA and Germany in regards to my increments, my RC came in C and I am up to "4" now. So I guess I will go to E2 since I tested D before it was definitely smooth improvement very noticeable and the MPG improvement was phenomenal but switched to E too soon which I also enjoyed. i feel the power in EcoPro as well in F/0/1/2/3/4 , I have not tried 5 yet.

Test with my Torque App I just got thanks to opasha also 0-60.. I know N20 on the X3 is totally different but nobody else knows more about RaceChip than you guys here appreciate all the information being shared here and testing.
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      01-22-2015, 03:32 PM   #19
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What about the statement that the S1 does not need to be adjusted for petrol engines??
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      01-22-2015, 04:54 PM   #20
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ROBNYC View Post
Perfect thank you so much, because I have been in contact with RC-USA and Germany in regards to my increments, my RC came in C and I am up to "4" now. So I guess I will go to E2 since I tested D before it was definitely smooth improvement very noticeable and the MPG improvement was phenomenal but switched to E too soon which I also enjoyed. i feel the power in EcoPro as well in F/0/1/2/3/4 , I have not tried 5 yet.

Test with my Torque App I just got thanks to opasha also 0-60.. I know N20 on the X3 is totally different but nobody else knows more about RaceChip than you guys here appreciate all the information being shared here and testing.
Rob - The chart also had recommendations for C. Please let me know exactly what your stock setting was and I will report back what they recommend. The specs I have posted are for the F15.
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      01-22-2015, 05:00 PM   #21
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Trojanlaw View Post
Rob - The chart also had recommendations for C. Please let me know exactly what your stock setting was and I will report back what they recommend. The specs I have posted are for the F15.
Rob's stock settings for his 28i are S1=1, S2=C . As always, thanks for the updates, JP .
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      01-22-2015, 09:03 PM   #22
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Quote:
Originally Posted by PTY_M View Post
What about the statement that the S1 does not need to be adjusted for petrol engines??
Do you know what the S1 and S2 control?
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