Dinan Transmission Chip

[Cooljust]

Anyone have the Dinan chip on their 540ia? I hate the current shift points and wonder if this is a useful and noticeable upgrade?

[dcrothers]

I have the chip in my 2000 540it. I'm not convinced i like it. It's great when getting on the highway and want rapid acceleration, however in town it can be a little annoying. Shifts can be kind of sudden and abrupt at initial accel. My wife hates it. It requires you be really gentle with the pedal.

[rf900rkw]

What do you not like about the shift points? I find the stock shift points well matched to the dynamics of the engine, and sport mode too late in traffic. It might also help to ID the car beyond "Frank's car".

[Cooljust]

I feel the car shifts way too soon, even in sport mode. I bought the car with the expectation of swapping the transmission to a manual and that's still in the works but in the meantime I'd like for her to be a little less civilized. Regarding "Frank's car" it's a 98 540ia that I bought from a local forum member. He actually lives about 5 miles from me and I've never seen the car around before... 206k miles, fully loaded with 4:3 nav, wood trim, Motorola phone in the arm rest etc.

[Cooljust]

I should also mention the 540 is not my daily driver. She's a garage queen/project that I only take out on the weekends so driving in traffic isn't something I'm worried about.

[rf900rkw]

Okay. A 98 will be a 5HP24, likely without Steptronic. There isn't much you can do except a reprogram.

[Dking078]

I have it in my car, and it really doesn't do much. I don't see why some people LOVE it. :

Some of what DINAN claims it does on their "ad" is what the car already does. (ie. shifting down to 3rd while stopping.)

The only gains I got from the SW was the "No-auto up shift" only in manual mode, slightly firmer shifting, and a 6300RPM redline only when in Manual mode.

I didn't notice a dam thing with the shift points (Then again my rebuilt trans sucks.. but not for long as it's getting another)... Heck, the shift points are already dynamic to say the least because it should vary with your amount of throttle input.

Was it worth the $400 (installed)? Depends.. I find it useful since I like to spend time in the canyons & have paddles, other than that, DD'ing with it pretty useless.

[Cooljust]

Dking, what model and year do you have?

[whiteghost1]

My story:

After discovering that the tranny chip was practically useless on my 750iL, then reading how lots of e39 540ia owners raving how they liked the Dinan tranny tune - I decided to try it again on my 99 540ia. I waited till Dinan had one of their 15-20% off sales, just in case the lackluster results were the same.......

Usually I am pleased with Dinan's products, but in the case of my e39 tranny reflash, I was somewhat disappointed again. Here are my reasons:

First, which we discovered during the Dinan tranny reflash, is that the reflash will potentially not take to the EGS if you have had a transmission software update by a program which is not dealer BMW. These tranny software updates are often used by BMW indy shops due to their availability & costs. The Dinan dealer which I dealt with spent almost 19hrs trying to figure out why the Dinan tranny performance software would not take to my EGS. They tried another EGS, checked the wiring, sending my original EGS to Dinan for benchflashing, etc....... They were even trying to convince me to replace my DME, is that might be the root of my problems.

Got the benchflashed EGS back from Dinan and they said I'm good to go. Installed it in the car, nothing. The car doesn't recognize the EGS and will not run.
Finally Dinan said "hey, the reason why this is not working is this car has had an aftermarket software update at sometime during it's life" = DUH!
Too bad it took almost 19hrs of diagnostic for Dinan to tell us that.......
The solution to this problem is that I had a BMW dealer do a stock tranny software update, and then finally the Dinan tranny flash took to my EGS.

Driving = Yes the shift points are slightly higher, yes the shifts are firmer (but barely) so for those two reasons it was worth it being that I bought it on sale. The installation fiasco aside of course.

Second, what I didn't know, which no one has surprisingly mentioned or what Dinan doesn't advertise is that at WOT the Dinan shift points are at redline. Fine. But the new Dinan tranny 'redline' is under the assumption that you have at least the stage 1 engine tune which has an increased redline of +300rpm. So if you have a stock DME tune, you are hitting the rev-limiter (and 'misfiring') for in my case 2-3secs as the tranny EGS is holding the car in gear waiting for the engine to hit the new +300 redline. This really sucks as you either have to hold WOT bouncing off of the rev-limiter till it shifts, or you have to back off the throttle enough so the car will shift gears = so either way when you really need that passing power you loose out big time.

After all of the install problems I called Dinan asking about this new shifting problem, his answer was I should of never done the Dinan tranny flash in the first place. Nice. Great after sale support .

I should note that my DME has already been reflashed for performance, but opted out of increasing the redline as I did not see the need (being an automatic) at the time. My answer to this is now I have to send my existing DME w/stock redline to be reflashed again, with a higher redline so the car will run/shift properly under WOT.

Just my experience, your mileage may vary.

[Cooljust]

^^ Awesome write-up...thanks! I think I'll pass.

[filon102]

I think the tune only works if your car is actually boosted/producing more power than what came stock. Mainly just increasing main line pressure to firm the shifts up so you wont have to rebuild the trans every few months.

Going from 3 pedal 540i, to 2 pedal 540it... it sucks lol

Anybody had experience with ESS Trans Flash?

http://www.esstuning.com/products/E3...-Software.html

[ninetyseven1]

anyone selling one of these chips to fit the 5hp30 trans in an early 97' 540i?

[1stoutm5]

Same story even with my step-tronic 540ia, the trans just upshifts too fast causing it to feel luggy, then giving a bit more throttle downshifts a gear then back forth back forth.. supper annoying around town. Sport mode is better but then im killing my MPG's for no reason.

[Reefin Dude]

do the flappy paddle mod. have any shift point you want. one of the best mods i have done. i have it so that i can go in and out of M mode just be pressing both paddles at the same time. cost would be about the same. the most expensive bit getting the correct steering wheel and clock spring.

G~

[henrit]

the "No-auto up shift" only in manual mode

Maybe it's not the right place, but haven't found any matches on the internet.

Is there a possibility to flash the Steptronic transmission on e39 540i other than this Dinan chip, to get the "no-auto up shift" in manual mode? I can live with the slow gearchange of the automatic gearbox but the auto upshifts are incredibly annoying when enjoying a "quiet" drive.

[geargrinder]

Zombie revival.

Read up on the pros/cons of using the Alpina flash. It isn't 100% 'no auto upshift' manual but it is 'no auto upshift until redline' apparently.

https://www.bimmerforums.com/forum/s...x-CU-EGS-Flash

Read the whole thread.

[StephenVA]

Meanwhile us poor little 6 bangers are enjoying the Dinan stage one tune that includes the trans software. Works great

[ninetyseven1]

Meanwhile us poor little 6 bangers are enjoying the Dinan stage one tune that includes the trans software. Works great

Just installed mine in my 97 540. Car sounds different, exhaust sounds a bit deeper with this new trans chip! car runs a bit rougher but has crisper, smoother and faster shifts in any mode. Harder and faster shifting is supposed to be healthier for the trans and make the clutches last longer inside, although i did think i smelled a bit of clutch material after i first installed it. Works great though.

[jicaino]

I have it on my very mildly hopped up 540iA. I love it. I like it better than stock and better than the Alpina, and I have the Alpina DME clone. Mine's a strage 3 tranny tune, confirmed by Dinan. I got it as a partout EGS from a donor car so I spent like 200 bucks for the entire thing.

[StephenVA]

This software update/enhancement/flash is a great buy for the inline crowd especially auto boxes. The later four speed units appear to be the best fit as I have not seen/read or experienced a three speed auto with the software ('98-2000-528i)