[Ghost88]

Hey guys,

Was hoping for some advice my car is current in with BMW at the moment have some warranty work done. There as however a flag with DME tampering. I believed the previous owner mapped the car with bm3 and when selling returned it to stock. It's been something I've been working with BMW U.K. on as I've only had the car a few weeks. I have so far asked the car to be reprogrammed back to complete stock however the dealer it's in are having issues.

Does anyone have the knowledge to tell me what needs to be done to clear this code completely.

What do I need to ask them to do an istep upgrade or a ISTA upgrade?

I understand there are 4 layers to the dme so what bit does the tampering code sit under?

Bosch/Infineon bootloader, can only be applied at the factory that makes the DME

BMW Bootloader, the bootloader that allows BMW tools to program the DME via OBD / dealer tools

DME Software

EEPROM data ( VIN, adaptations, mileage, runtime etc)

It's been with bmw 3 days now and I need the car back but they really don't seem to know what's going on with what the SA is feeding me back.

Any advice / help would be massively appreciated as it's now getting incredibly frustrating.

[David1]

It isn't just the DME. BMW corporate has it flagged so wherever you go BMW knows it has been tampered with.

[Maynard]

Did you buy it through the BMW dealership, or private party/non-BMW dealership sale?

[Ghost88]

Originally Posted by David1

It isn't just the DME. BMW corporate has it flagged so wherever you go BMW knows it has been tampered with.

I already know this, bmw have said if they can return it to stock they are still honouring the warranty.

What I'm asking for is has a bmw ever been able to restore it back and wipe the code that's the question.

[Ghost88]

Originally Posted by Maynard

Did you buy it through the BMW dealership, or private party/non-BMW dealership sale?

It's still got approved used warranty but it was purchased through a bmw specialist.

[Maynard]

I'd think that if the seller was with BMW and had access to a scanner tool, then you have a case for them to make it right (restore your warranty), since they didn't disclose such a significant issue up front. But if not, you may be SOL on it - or left to the dealership discretion of whether to honor any of the engine warranty. Best of luck getting it sorted.

[Enabled]

Originally Posted by Ghost88

I already know this, bmw have said if they can return it to stock they are still honouring the warranty.

What I'm asking for is has a bmw ever been able to restore it back and wipe the code that's the question.

The dealer techs will not know how, and nor will their ISTA system.


Of the ones that can do it at BMW would be the engineers or the staff doing the PUMA cases.
However, these are the same people that invalidate warranties.

[doughboy]

ISTA is the dealer software tool they use (ISTA-D diagnostics ISTA-P programming)

I-step is the "version" control for the car, like a status level for all modules. If they just updated the car to latest I-step like they do every day that should just sort it. (press the big "update" button if they can manage that)

Really the selling trader has messed up and sold you a faulty / tampered product. You should be able to return the car as mis-sold / defective.

But.... I had the tamper code after a failed BM3 flash last year. (I found it myself with my own ISTA-D - I never go to BMW)

Worryingly the BM3 code reader couldn't see it but ISTA could. So an unsuspecting BM3 user could think it was OK when BMW would see the tamper code.

The code still stuck even when I flashed back to stock. I had to follow a procedure from PTF to reflash to stock again, then the tamper code just reset and I could clear it from fault memory with ISTA, it's never come back since even with the car mapped.

It's not related to being stock or not stock it's about some checksums etc in the DME software not being correct. You can be stock or mapped and still have tamper code.

Your car could still be mapped for all you know right?

If you update the DME to latest version you will lose OBD tuning ability. Up to you depends what you want.

BMW could just update the car to latest I-step and if a DME update is scheduled it will just overwrite it and put back to stock (as happens with people all the time when their maps are overwitten like this).

Problem is your issue in not on the "normal" list of things for BMW techs so they are stumped...

[Rondogger]

Hi! Stupid question perhaps, but how does someone get their own “ISTA-D?