JBD review

[rwalker]

Intro:

I installed the latest version of Burger Motorsports' JBD a couple of weeks ago. Long story short: if you have a BMW <something>35d, do yourself this favor: get a JBD.

Background:

My BMW 35d is the X5 variant. It's primarily my wife's car. I only drive it when the family's together, on road trips, or when it's just me and my daughter heading out for some "active lifestyle" stuff.

I had the previous version on the car for almost a year. I was very happy with:

1. greatly improved throttle response (untuned the X5's a bit of a slug)
2. extra grunt everywhere (especially freeway passes)

My only issue was my inability to run it at 100% without throwing a code. The car was fine and sometimes the code would clear itself, but the dash light was annoying. This is something my wife (the primary driver) really couldn't stomach. She was always on my case to fix it. My approach was to back the JBD down to 60% to stay "clean". This sucked because the car is really at its best with the JBD at 100%, and I really didn't wanna adjust it every time it was my turn to drive. I just wanted it to work.

Now:

The new software completely addresses this issue. It's a godsend, really.

I can climb into the car and access all the JBD has to offer (yep, 100% for 2+ weeks), really drive the wheels off it. My wife's happy because it just works. I think the married among you can relate, this is a big deal.

My daughter's really into 2.5kRPM brake-torque take-offs (she's 6 and likes rollercoasters). I'm personally into high-speed passes on the two lane highways to Palm Springs. The JBD makes these things possible in a two-and-a-half ton car while still posting stock freeway mileage.

Issues:

I have had to be careful not to exceed the car's braking capacity .

-Rob

[JasonG]

Nice, know these things work well on diesels, just cant bring myself to do it on a 60k bmw that's got 52k miles of warranty left....maybe if/when i buy out the lease....you made the comit, congrats and enjoy it.

[Yii]

Originally Posted by rwalker

My daughter's really into 2.5kRPM brake-torque take-offs (she's 6 and likes rollercoasters).

-Rob

Your using the x5 as your daughters rollercoaster lol just thought that was funny.

[Epacy]

What do you mean new software? Was their a new version released that you updated your board?

[deutsch100]

Originally Posted by JasonG

Nice, know these things work well on diesels, just cant bring myself to do it on a 60k bmw that's got 52k miles of warranty left....maybe if/when i buy out the lease....you made the comit, congrats and enjoy it.

Exactly....Can't bring myself to do it on my $70k E70 with only 4000 miles on the odo!!

[rwalker]

Originally Posted by Epacy

What do you mean new software? Was their a new version released that you updated your board?

Yep: N54TECH.COM : BMW N54 / N55 Turbo Performance forum - View Single Post - JB Diesel 335D/X5D

[Epacy]

Originally Posted by rwalker

Yep: N54TECH.COM : BMW N54 / N55 Turbo Performance forum - View Single Post - JB Diesel 335D/X5D

Interesting, figured they would post something on the website.

[JCL]

The link says that they are still testing it, and will wait to sell it (for $7) if there aren't problems.

I think we can expect to see a continual back and forth with BMW tightening up the detection algorithms, and tuners countering with modifications to their products.

[SJCFlyer]

Color me stupid (it's the most used crayon in my box), but are you referring to two different upgrades - the initial upgrade and then the firm ware fix to stop the coding at 100%?

If so, I get the firmware is $7.00...but how much is the original JB upgrade?

[rwalker]

JBDs are currently shipping with the updated software. The $7 upgrade only applies to people who bought a JBD before the software was developed.

So if you buy a JBD today, it's a $279 thing, not a $286 thing.

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