E30 Sport Mode How-To

[TooTall90]

You know how all the new cars have that fancy 'sport mode' switch that when activated changes the cars behavior (stiffer suspension, higher revs etc.)? pretty cool huh?

well now you too can have that same technology in your E30. sorta. i was browsing around and found this write up on how to wire the stock ECU to switch between 2 chips (link below). i know many members here have a MarkD or some other sort of performance chip installed, and using this write up you can change between the performance chip and the stock one with the flick of a switch. it would be especially helpful if you find yourself in a location with lower octane gas or something, or just want to play "mr.me too" with our more modern brethren.

A lot of you guys may not be confortable with going in your ECU and soldering/wiring things up, but i figure if you get some spare parts to practice with you should be safe. maybe some one with experience like our very own George Graves might want to go through himself and give us a more detailed writeup

CLICK HERE FOR THE WRITE UP

this is not my work so that is why i am not copy and pasting. scroll down pass the airbox modification section. I am not responsible is you mess your car up while performing this DIY. im done talking now.

[TooTall90]

fuuuuuuu- Mods feel free to move this to the How-to section. its 4am and i need to get to sleep

[b3albakii]

did u try that on ur car ??

[george graves]

our very own George Graves might want to go through himself and give us a more detailed writeup

It looks like they are stacking the two chips on top of each other and then using the switch to switch power to the chip. That's a little crazy. Not sure why they had some resistors in there - I can't think right now what they are trying to do with that.

Not much I can really say - I don't know those chips at all. It's a better question for Mark D - he'd know.

I'd be worried that the un-powered chip would be have some of it's I/O pins pulled to ground when off or something, and bad things would happen - most likely a ruined chip - not much beyond that I would think.

[NC325iC]

not only that but switching chips means you have to relearn every time you flip the switch

[Todd Black 88]

Just get a miller WAR chip. Then you can switch between 3 different maps on the fly. Maybe its more than 3, i cant remember.

[Philo]

not only that but switching chips means you have to relearn every time you flip the switch

This. It takes a few miles for the ECU to re-learn a new chip. The car will hardly ever be running as well as it can if you are always flipping back and forth. Also, this seems like a waste of time and money. Most aftermarket chips are superior to stock chips in every way, so switching back to stock doesn't make sense.

But if you really want to fit in with these guys. . . .

[TooTall90]

i have not done this on my own car but i thought some of might like a cheap alternative to the WAR chip. not only ythat but i thought it was pretty interesting.

as far as the ecu having to relearn the chips every time, if i were to do this on my car i would not use it on the everyday basis, more like for long trips (better gas mileage?) or places that dont have higher octane pump gas like i mentioned before.

[daniel]

i have not done this on my own car but i thought some of might like a cheap alternative to the WAR chip. not only ythat but i thought it was pretty interesting.

as far as the ecu having to relearn the chips every time, if i were to do this on my car i would not use it on the everyday basis, more like for long trips (better gas mileage?) or places that dont have higher octane pump gas like i mentioned before.

you'd be surprised. i got much better gas mileage on my first e30 (325e) after putting in the upgraded chip. the stock chip doesn't really have any advantages except maybe being able to run on lower octane fuel.