Alpine | M3/M4 F8X Motor Tuning - Full OBDII Flashing OEM Like

[Alex@Alpine]

Holiday coupon code H18 for you guys who have been waiting. http://www.alpinemss.com/product_p/FMT4.htm

[Brake_Late]

Dope

[EricSMG]

Originally Posted by Alex@Alpine

Holiday coupon code H18 for you guys who have been waiting. http://www.alpinemss.com/product_p/FMT4.htm

Alex - great pricing.

Questions:

Can you turn off burbles completely, all modes?
Can you turn off rev matching (manual), all modes?
Can you include CS EDC coding?

Do any of the above change/alter pricing?

Thanks.

[Alex@Alpine]

Originally Posted by EricSMG

Alex - great pricing.

Questions:

Can you turn off burbles completely, all modes?
Can you turn off rev matching (manual), all modes?
Can you include CS EDC coding?

Do any of the above change/alter pricing?

Thanks.

Yes, I can turn off burbles and rev match in all modes. Just add coding to the purchase if you like to code CS options. Thank you

[satinghostrider]

Guys, just purchased my tune with Alex.
Have a competition 20818 F80 M3 ZCP II Competition Package. Stock car other than MPE and upgraded charge pipes. Stock cats fully intact.

Just wondering, would CS or Stage 2 be a better tune? I street drive most of the time and for the other times I am doing high speed drives and gruelling long B-Road drives across the border. I want the explosive mid to high end pull without it tapering off as you go higher into the rpm. Not looking for the max power just something reliable and consistent. Can't decide between CS or Stage 2.

[DS_BMW]

Originally Posted by satinghostrider

Guys, just purchased my tune with Alex.
Have a competition 20818 F80 M3 ZCP II Competition Package. Stock car other than MPE and upgraded charge pipes. Stock cats fully intact.

Just wondering, would CS or Stage 2 be a better tune? I street drive most of the time and for the other times I am doing high speed drives and gruelling long B-Road drives across the border. I want the explosive mid to high end pull without it tapering off as you go higher into the rpm. Not looking for the max power just something reliable and consistent. Can't decide between CS or Stage 2.

Go with GTS.

[MrSmartyPants]

Originally Posted by satinghostrider

Guys, just purchased my tune with Alex.
Have a competition 20818 F80 M3 ZCP II Competition Package. Stock car other than MPE and upgraded charge pipes. Stock cats fully intact.

Just wondering, would CS or Stage 2 be a better tune? I street drive most of the time and for the other times I am doing high speed drives and gruelling long B-Road drives across the border. I want the explosive mid to high end pull without it tapering off as you go higher into the rpm. Not looking for the max power just something reliable and consistent. Can't decide between CS or Stage 2.

Since Alex is awesome he will send you both maps anyway. You can try them out and decide which you prefer. No need to hem and haw, just try them.

[Chris N]

Originally Posted by brianplee

Just worked with Alex to remove CS/GTS coding he did a year ago to take my car in for scheduled dealer servicing. And, to restore the coding after service.
Alex is a pleasure to work with!

This was my only concern in getting mine coded. I hope mine works just as smoothly.

[Brake_Late]

It's so good 🔥

[satinghostrider]

Just got my car tuned by Alex with some coding work! Alex really took his time to guide me through the setup and the rest was fairly easy. All I can say is just follow his instructions carefully and you won't do anything wrong since he's doing most of the work via remote. And he seems very fluid with exactly what to do.

Ok I did Stage 2 & DCT + CS EDC. It's hard to believe how Gear 2 feels like accelerating on ice towards the end of the gear. The car hooks and handles very well with Stage 2. Alex explained Stage 2 runs a little richer for temperate countries like where I am which is good to keep the temps cooler and I have noticed the oil gauge needle sitting slightly lower after a spirited drive. May not be very obvious to most but for me I could tell. I think the stock ECU isn't well optimized for temperate climates. It gets very sluggish in hot weather. I still have yet to evaluate the car completely in hot weather so I'll update here accordingly.

I think Stage 2 suits the competition package extremely well. It puts the power down at the limit of what the competition package is actually capable of. It should have been out of the factory this way. DCT transmission is immensely fast and precise and the way the car delivers the power is incredibly linear. I do B road drives and for me handling and reliability was priority followed by power. The tune seems to be exactly what I wanted. Flash and forget with no worries of the car being pushed too hard when driving hard.

I will evaluate the car abit more when I can get more seat time but first impressions are beyond expectations and Alex is here to help. The tune is very much OEM and I'm even surprised D mode works much better with the car not being so lazy under 3.5k rpm compared to stock. I had the tuned exhaust and burbles on my ZCP and I think it's just nice without sounding absurd. I hope to get my MPE installed soon and I don't think I'll make any adjustments to the burbles as it's quite close to OEM other than a slightly longer duration of the burbling.

One thing I hope Alex can improve is a summary of the work done after the coding and tuning just so that the requests have all been fully checked out and nothing is left out since some customers may have many coding requests.

Alex, thank you for the sublime tune and my questions which you have patiently answered and explained. Anyone thinking twice about this tune, you're not going to regret. You're in good hands!

[Brake_Late]

[HankyPants]

Hi All. Posting on here because I just purchased the tune with the great holiday pricing (test the code out for yourself on his site, was a serious discount) and am EXTREMELY happy. Alex deserves--well clearly has earned--the great reputation he has on these boards. First a huge thank you to Alex who makes himself readily available to support his product. All the posts on here praising him are completely legit and I second and even third them all. Honestly I can't imagine how you could get better service and individualized attention unless you lived near one of these tuners and could get to their shop directly. That's not an option for me as no tuners or shops around me, this system worked perfectly.

My findings will just repeat what others have said about his tunes. Purchased on Friday and cable was on my doorstep literally across the country the following morning. I have a 2018 6MT ZCP with MPE as the only "mod" for sound. Arranged to get 2 files from Alex (done via text/email) as I'm one of those few who really don't care so much for the burbles. Files are stage 1 (CS like) and stage 2 (GTS like) and have them set up with 1. Economy no burbles, rev matching on, 2. Sport no burbles, rev matching off, 3. Sport+ quieter burbles of shorter duration than stock, rev matching off. Kept startup roar and cold start standard on both.

Watched the video and it laid out steps to do the initial tune in a fairly straightforward manner. FYI the video mentioned unplugging or disabling exhaust valve controllers if they are CAN-based...I have the CG VSC2 valve controller which plugs directly into the stock valves and lets me control them through the homelink buttons on my mirror and that does not need to be unplugged. Quick text to Alex cleared that up immediately.

I then ran into a problem with the cable not being recognized by the software (turns out my fault). I was in the process of checking all connections and restarting the car/computer and Alex texts to ask how its going since he knows I'm in the process of doing this. Mentioned that I was troubleshooting the cable and he immediately has me install team viewer (supplied on a usb stick in the package) and very efficiently troubleshoots it for me. Turns out I'm a bit of a knucklehead and am running the software from a Mac laptop through Parallels on Windows 7 and had the virtual machine configured improperly. Once that was figured out the process went smoothly-- but from this I can say it is clear to me Alex is prepared to do some serious troubleshooting no matter what your needs are. Stage 2 flash took maybe 12 minutes once we got past the configuration issue I created. Alex also created the stock flash file from my car's info and put them on my desktop for me, along with my modified Stage 1 and Stage 2 maps.

Its winter here. It snowed yesterday. I have winter tires on. 25 mile drive Stage 2 - AMAZING. I will only ever use a butt dyno on this car but wow, stage 2 has extra power everywhere. Down low, mid-, and keeps going up top. Kept DSC on at all times because snow tires. It just wants to go. Completely smooth. I've seen the dyno curves and it pretty much matches the stock ZCP curve but pushes it up a bit. Car behaves the same. nothing jerky. Completely controllable. Would be completely drivable in snow as well. I appreciated the quieter burbles...although when you get on it they just go back to normal loudness...so I can see how people here say his "standard" stage 2 burbles are louder than stock as well probably just by nature of the tune.

Then went home and "fast flashed" the Stage 1 map. It took 2 minutes once hooked up. No problems did it myself. Went for a ride. Again buttery smooth completely stock characteristics of acceleration that is completely controllable, nothing jerky, nothing laggy. You can definitely feel the extra power in Stage 1, especially in the mid-range RPMs and speeds...the speeds most of us drive daily on regular roads so you seem to feel it more in the usable speed range (if that makes sense). Car is just more alive, this one isn't about power, just noticeably quicker all around. Turns it into a happy Labrador at the door ready to go play fetch, if the stock tune is the same dog sitting there looking at you *hoping* you'll want to go out and play.

Anyway I'm EXTREMELY happy with the tune. Stage 2 from stock is really noticable. Really smooth. Very drivable...as drivable as the car is stock (albeit these cars stock are still under-tired). Stage 1 is just spiffy and I will be leaving it on Stage 1 for the winter. Thrilled I can now go into sport mode which kills the burbles but lets me heel-toe and blip for myself, or I can turn them back on if I like and still have rev matching off. If you are considering doing this, you cannot go wrong with Alex...his person is invested in what he does and he cares.

[Brake_Late]

[ShoNufff]

First off I want to say thank you to Alex for this tune. He's very professional and communicative. Always replies back to texts and emails same day if you have any questions or issues. At first I was very skeptical on getting a tune on a bone stock car, but with Alex's good reviews and pricing, I chose the Alpine stage 2 w/ no upgraded down pipes. The things I love the most about this tune is there's no jerkyness in 1st gear or any gears, drives smooth and power is felt when you want it. I just can't believe how much better it is to drive in sport + with this tune than it was stock. I can't compare to other tunes out there because I did not try anybody else. This review is strictly from my experience with the Alpine tune and Alex being an awesome tuner. If you're on the borderline of pulling the trigger on this tune, do it. One main thing I always look at is how safe the tune is and how reliable my vehicle will be with the tune. The shop I take my cars to for dyno's said that this tune is definitely well done and safe. Adds fuel where it needs to be, not going all out to get the most power. But I posted a baseline dyno, a corrected and uncorrected dyno sheets, all SAE. Bone stock with just the Alpine stage 2 tune, no mods or upgraded dps.

[RoundelM3]

Just installed my Alpine flash tune and am overwhelmingly pleased. The entire purchase and installation procedure was very straightforward and easy to follow. The results are incredibly good - it all works the way it should, no issues, and the car is measurably quicker. Burbles are great, too. SO glad I went this way for a "mild" tune. With S2 and GTS DCT/Diff, I've got everything I want/need, nothing I don't, and an easy way to flash back to stock for dealer visits and then quickly back to S2.

Alex also includes a full VM setup for remote flashing/coding. Very pleased at how thorough and well-thought-out this company's products are. Hats off to Alex at Alpine!

[Brake_Late]

⚡️⚡️🏎🏎🏎⚡️⚡️

[sleeprequired]

Posting in appreciation of the work Alex has done on my car. I’ve had a couple of time maps done and they’re both brilliant. One has a totally linear throttle in all modes and one is the stock stage 2 with stock throttle settings.

I’be run the linear throttle tune in all modes and it’s FANTASTIC. Only been running the stock stage 2 with factory throttle in all modes for a few days and loving that too.

Can anyone post a link to the video of how to clear the current tune and swap?

I’ve got no idea because Alex has done it for me but I’d like to be able to do it myself as well.

[ruley74]

Originally Posted by sleeprequired

Posting in appreciation of the work Alex has done on my car. I’ve had a couple of time maps done and they’re both brilliant. One has a totally linear throttle in all modes and one is the stock stage 2 with stock throttle settings.

I’be run the linear throttle tune in all modes and it’s FANTASTIC. Only been running the stock stage 2 with factory throttle in all modes for a few days and loving that too.

Can anyone post a link to the video of how to clear the current tune and swap?

I’ve got no idea because Alex has done it for me but I’d like to be able to do it myself as well.

I haven't seen a video on swapping maps but I have done a couple of time. it's easy as,
Connect to car as normal and start program and obtain OBD connection, go into diagnostics and read/save coding data, back to main screen, select program ECU, select you map you wish to load, wait for it to load and when it says turn ignition off turn it off, wait a second and turn it back on, go back to diagnostics, write coding data, clear adaptations, close program, turn car off, disconnect, turn car on and it's now got a new map!

Happy to take a call if you wish, PM if you need clarification.

Cheers,

[sleeprequired]

Originally Posted by ruley74

I haven't seen a video on swapping maps but I have done a couple of time. it's easy as,
Connect to car as normal and start program and obtain OBD connection, go into diagnostics and read/save coding data, back to main screen, select program ECU, select you map you wish to load, wait for it to load and when it says turn ignition off turn it off, wait a second and turn it back on, go back to diagnostics, write coding data, clear adaptations, close program, turn car off, disconnect, turn car on and it's now got a new map!

Happy to take a call if you wish, PM if you need clarification.

Cheers,

i already have a folder with the coding data when Alex has done it before. do you overwrite the existing one, save a new one?

In my folder i have "M Coding Data" as well as the tune files, should i use that, or overwrite or save a new one?

[satinghostrider]

I got my Stage 2 and I was just wondering how much of a difference is there to the 2+ catted version? I mean the Stage 2 has already blown the socks off me and I would like to know more about those who have the S2+ version.

I plan to run the S2 during long road trips when fuel octane availability might not be the best and S2+ when driving locally as we have widespread access to 98 across the island.

Appreciate some thoughts on this. I also hope to get some video tutorial on the changing of maps as I did not receive any link to this. It would be good to alternate between 2 maps as needed instead of troubling Alex all the time. Also, the AMS app seems to have expired on my PC past 12/31/2018.

[ruley74]

Originally Posted by sleeprequired

i already have a folder with the coding data when Alex has done it before. do you overwrite the existing one, save a new one?

In my folder i have "M Coding Data" as well as the tune files, should i use that, or overwrite or save a new one?

I created another and used that however I would hazard a guess the one saved by Alex would be ok.

[HMM]

Of course I miss the coupon code...

This seems exactly what I'm looking for; no rev match and a little more power without having to have the burbles (just not a fan).