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