[Vidgamer]

Originally Posted by PrematureApex

Which ones?

How many do I need to list? ;-)

TDI:
https://www.rawtekinc.com/pages/disc...-road-use-only

GM:
http://www.alphafabindustries.com/pa...uning-services
http://www.gmtuners.com/eprom/custom.htm

Honda:
https://www.hondata.com/downloads/brochure.pdf

I just searched "for off road" tunes for the different car types.

But what about BMW tunes, just as the aforementioned JB4?

http://burgertuning.com/N20_Jb4.html

Hmm.

OK, what about Dinan?
https://www.dinancars.com/product/d4...ries&mid=1233/
Actually, it says it's pending approval from CA? Maybe it is street legal for this one, or at least will be? And their bigger tunes say they're legal. https://www.dinancars.com/the-evolution-of-power/ Go figure!

I think you'll find that the federal regs concentrate on the emissions system. The TDi analogy is a good bit different. This is an OEM cheating on federal certifications.

But every car must conform to federal regulations on the output of various pollutants, including NOx. So, why was VW cheating on the NOx emissions in the first place? Because they have to juggle between regens, Adblue, performance, and economy, and trying to keep NOx down probably causes other problems.

Or to put it another way, it's as if they made their system conform, and then they "tuned" it to have additional performance... with a side-effect that they hoped nobody would notice.

What you're doing with these engine tunes is the same kind of thing. You're putting the engine outside of the parameters it was designed for. Those parameters were set for a reason (and probably largely to fit various criteria, particularly emissions).

There are plenty of aftermarket products, across endless product markets, that wouldn't pass certain specifications put in place for OE manufacturers. Individual states like CA have put laws in place to prevent modification of ECU control parameters. The rest of the country is still largely wide-open. Although open for interpretation, it certainly can be argued that there is nothing illegal about running a tune in most states in this country, so long as the emissions system is in place and functioning. But more generally, I guess I don't thnk there's much reason to make any kind of deal out of it.

I wasn't trying to make a big deal out of it, just pointing out that a lot of mods aren't street legal and probably add pollution, as I thought that was part of the OP's question....

Most states won't detect a problem, so they don't care. That doesn't make it "street legal". Whether or not it's a real problem, hard to say, but I'm not the one claiming to be a "tree-hugger". ;-)

These tunes are not labeled "for off road use only", and they're not illegal, or

See Burger Tuning link above. For competition use only, on a closed road course.

at least enforced as such, in any state sans CA to date as far as I know.

Is it legal just because you get away with it? ;-)

Literally tens of thousands of people are running them. Certainly nothing to worry about, particularly in Texas.

I didn't say you had to worry, unless you're worried about emissions, as the OP originally implied. Oh well.

Yes, you'll be polluting more when you romp on it and use your 400 bhp, but you're also polluting more when you go WOT on the stock tune.

But the WOT was tested by the manufacturer and approved by the government.

That aside, any of these cars fitted with a Dinan, BMS, etc. "tune" and factory cats would still EASILY pass emissions, as far as a sniffer goes. They are are still very, very clean. Not at all like an oil-burner.

I doubt any changes kick in during the idle that you normally have when testing emissions. However, I'd bet if someone ran a test on a vehicle in motion, they could see how far it gets out of bounds. Let's hope they stick with testing factory output.

Yeah, in a straight line, the GTI about splits the difference between an N20 and an N55 X1. Plenty quick for a daily, for sure, just not sure you can honestly call it "fast". It's a 3600 lb. (rwd), 240 hp (more like 255 though) car. It's one of the slower cars BMW sells. Personally, I don't think you can call a stock N55 "fast", but this is a semantic and personal thing anyway, so who really cares... But I will say, I wouldn't ignore power mods. At the levels we're talking about, tunes on either an N20 or N55 make a significant difference. Really, really upping the fun factor of the car. If you're not tuning your N20 because it's plenty fast as it is for you, you may be missing out on a lot of entertainment. For most people, an extra 40-80 bhp is more dramatic than more roll stiffness. Not that I'm saying that's a good thing.

Yeah, I get the impression that the X1 is the cheap entry-level BMW. No respect! ;-) I'm serious, though -- I really haven't gotten to the point yet where I've felt that I needed more power. It just takes off when I step on it. Should be low 6s, 0 to 60. I'd call anything around 6 sec 0-60 fast. You may need 5 sec to call it fast.

It's awful tempting just to get a $300 Dinan box and get another 30hp. It's so freaking easy to get more power out of these things. And cheaper than suspension mods too! Just plug in the box and boom.

I'll end saying a RWD X1 is one of the last good steering BMWs ever made. That's something.