[ILikeBimmers]

Hi everyone, newbie here.

I was hoping to find a tuning shop faciliating FEMTO cloning/unlocking in-person close to the north-western area of Chicago. I'm aware that the price would probably be fairly high for something like this.

I've been able to find some places offering a "FEMTO service" but they're in totally different states. I tried explicitly searching for "Illinois" on google, but no dice.

I'm looking into to FEMTO cloning/unlocking for a G42 2023 M240 and I'm thinking of minimizing downtime and risk by having a shop perform the removal of the ECU, as well as the insurance/support/etc. when sending it over to finland. I'm thinking of going with MHD, b/c the universal adapter works with xHP, but I may go with a custom tune at some point. Haven't really looked into the ECU to purchase for FEMTO cloning, but based on information floating around it seems if you buy a pre-2020 one you can update it without it relocking (?). Seems you can just do the pre-2020 bench unlock even if that previous statement is untrue.

Most of the information I've been able to gather about ECU tuning post 2020 bmw's have come from various posts here, so I thought this might be a good place to ask.

Also apparently BMW removed the pops and bangs from the ECU map for newer cars and that's kind of sad.

[Rdurty2]

Your choices are going be very limited, and chances are you will have to ship your ECU out of state to a tuner that will handle shipping to Femto

The best service (and what I would choose without hesitation), in my opinion, would be to go with https://europerformancecenter.com They actually hand deliver the ECU's to Femto. Meaning the guy gets on a plane with a bunch of ecu's, flies from the US to Finland, waits for them to be unlocked, then flies back.

Any other US tuner is slapping on a shipping label and mailing it out to Femto

One thing to keep in mind that if you get your ECU unlocked and BMW updates your software either Over the Air or in person then the ECU will be locked again and guess what....you need to ship it back out to Femto to get it unlocked again. Meaning another $1,500.

[ILikeBimmers]

Thanks for the info!

Yeah I was suspecting that the ECU removal and reseating was probably going to end up being a DIY kind of thing. I've seen a lot of guys saying to disable all the iDrive OTA and dealership update stuff. Apparently a cloned DME sourced pre 2020, can be bench unlocked (non-FEMTO) if something like this happens, and this is probably what I'd go with to keep a stock ECU just in case, but I'm going to have to find more information on what ECU would work with my car.

[Rdurty2]

Originally Posted by ILikeBimmers

Thanks for the info!

Yeah I was suspecting that the ECU removal and reseating was probably going to end up being a DIY kind of thing. I've seen a lot of guys saying to disable all the iDrive OTA and dealership update stuff. Apparently a cloned DME sourced pre 2020, can be bench unlocked (non-FEMTO) if something like this happens, and this is probably what I'd go with to keep a stock ECU just in case, but I'm going to have to find more information on what ECU would work with my car.

I don't know much about the cloning part, but I was always under the assumption that even if you had a cloned ecu that in order to swap them you needed to leverage a BMW dealership to actually do the swap as it needed their computers. I could be 100% wrong though

[mike@x-ph.com]

Check with Femto on who they recommend that are close to your area

[JNevs32]

Originally Posted by ILikeBimmers

Hi everyone, newbie here.

I was hoping to find a tuning shop faciliating FEMTO cloning/unlocking in-person close to the north-western area of Chicago. I'm aware that the price would probably be fairly high for something like this.

I've been able to find some places offering a "FEMTO service" but they're in totally different states. I tried explicitly searching for "Illinois" on google, but no dice.

I'm looking into to FEMTO cloning/unlocking for a G42 2023 M240 and I'm thinking of minimizing downtime and risk by having a shop perform the removal of the ECU, as well as the insurance/support/etc. when sending it over to finland. I'm thinking of going with MHD, b/c the universal adapter works with xHP, but I may go with a custom tune at some point. Haven't really looked into the ECU to purchase for FEMTO cloning, but based on information floating around it seems if you buy a pre-2020 one you can update it without it relocking (?). Seems you can just do the pre-2020 bench unlock even if that previous statement is untrue.

Most of the information I've been able to gather about ECU tuning post 2020 bmw's have come from various posts here, so I thought this might be a good place to ask.

Also apparently BMW removed the pops and bangs from the ECU map for newer cars and that's kind of sad.

Performance Eurowerks in Elk Grove does this. They installed my AA downpipe, Dinan Intake, and JB4. They recommended against the JB4, but I still had them install it until I decide to have them ship my ECU to FEMTO. They are super knowledgeable guys and have shipped many ECUs. They also have their own dyno and can provide you with a custom tune. If you do decide to use them for this service, let me know how it goes.

https://www.performanceeurowerks.com/

[MorendiSLO]

I do that kind of service
The Best way is to use DHL express for shipping
It comes to Femto next day and next day back.

Shipped out X6M ecu-s today for unlock 🚀

[ILikeBimmers]

Originally Posted by JNevs32

Performance Eurowerks in Elk Grove does this. They installed my AA downpipe, Dinan Intake, and JB4. They recommended against the JB4, but I still had them install it until I decide to have them ship my ECU to FEMTO. They are super knowledgeable guys and have shipped many ECUs. They also have their own dyno and can provide you with a custom tune. If you do decide to use them for this service, let me know how it goes.

https://www.performanceeurowerks.com/

I was aware of this performance shop, but they didn't seem to have any FEMTO related stuff on their page. I Just got off the phone with them today and it looks like they're just slapping on a DHL shipping label, but they don't help with ECU removal cause they don't overnight cars. They're quoting me around 1.5K which seems around standard, but they're saying it's a 4-5 week turnaround, which seems a bit long.

At this point I'm kind of preparing myself to do the ECU removal myself. Based on what I've seen online it seems somewhat idiot proof, and you're probably in bigger danger of accidentally closing the trunk with the battery unplugged than anything.

[MorendiSLO]

Removing the ECU is 5min job..
Just dont forget to take a picture what color cable goes to which connector on ecu.

I dont disconect the battery and had no problems with it.

if you sent DHL express as i do, you will have your ecu back in 3-4 days all together

it a easy job....

Originally Posted by ILikeBimmers

I was aware of this performance shop, but they didn't seem to have any FEMTO related stuff on their page. I Just got off the phone with them today and it looks like they're just slapping on a DHL shipping label, but they don't help with ECU removal cause they don't overnight cars. They're quoting me around 1.5K which seems around standard, but they're saying it's a 4-5 week turnaround, which seems a bit long.

At this point I'm kind of preparing myself to do the ECU removal myself. Based on what I've seen online it seems somewhat idiot proof, and you're probably in bigger danger of accidentally closing the trunk with the battery unplugged than anything.

[M240SLC]

Originally Posted by MorendiSLO

Removing the ECU is 5min job..
Just dont forget to take a picture what color cable goes to which connector on ecu.

I dont disconect the battery and had no problems with it.

if you sent DHL express as i do, you will have your ecu back in 3-4 days all together

it a easy job....

3-4 days from/to the US is a bit unrealistic. DHL probably could overnight from Chicago to Helsinki, but it might cost as much as the unlock itself.

[MorendiSLO]

Originally Posted by M240SLC

3-4 days from/to the US is a bit unrealistic. DHL probably could overnight from Chicago to Helsinki, but it might cost as much as the unlock itself.

I pay over 300e for shippment