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      12-02-2015, 08:10 PM   #1
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GSR Technik stage 2 FBO 228i review

Hey guys glad to be back on the forums. Been MIA for a while since SEMA last month as I've been swamped with work and wedding planning. Anyway... I've been holding off on doing this detailed review as I've been trying to resolve the tune issues directly with Matt and Bobby from GSR without making it public but doesn't look like they're willing to help me out so I'm just going to lay out my whole experience.

On the morning of Friday September 18th I removed my ecu and personally dropped it off to the GSR location in Anaheim (which has now been bought out by Trinity autosport). I specifically told Bobby that I was going to be getting the stage 2 flash as I am full bolt ons along with the speed limiter removal (speed limiter was never removed as you will see in my pics and video below). He also mentioned to me if I wanted to flash the car for E85 fuel which I agreed to.









Arrived at GSR




Picked the ECU up later that evening and I installed it back on my car. Took it for a spin and the car felt great. Texted Bobby at 10:29pm and told him everything was great and it felt smoother and quicker than stock. The car sounded louder and back fired more than my previous JB4 setup

On Monday September 21st we touched base again and I mentioned to him that I did an E30 mix (E85 and 91 octane pump gas) Told him that everything was running right and the car felt a bit faster with E85. He said we were going to schedule a dyno session so he can monitor the AFR and add more and more E85 to see how the car is reacting to it (it is now December 2nd and that dyno session never happened).

I've driven the car for about 3,000 miles since then and every so often when I do a WOT pull in 2nd, 3rd and 4th gear I get a hick up type of feeling in the car. I called Bobby and told him the issues the car has been having and he recommended I replace the plugs as I've had these current plugs on the car for about 4,000 miles prior to getting the GSR tune installed.. I swapped plugs and the car did idle smoother but the hick up problem at WOT is still there.

On Monday November 16th I finally decided to do a dyno session and see what kind of numbers I was really putting down. I met up with a well known local BMW tuner at Heads Up Performance as he was dynoing some of his customer cars and was also curious to see what I was putting down. Dyno machine being used is a DynoJet 224xLC. Long story short... the car made 231hp and 288tq I told myself WTF??? that is practically stock numbers.



GSR posted a dyno run of their 228i and my hp and tq numbers look no where near that of their stage 2 that they're advertising...



The car was full bolt on at the time of the dyno session. A week before I had installed a full carbon fiber AWE intake.


So now I'm dissapointed at the hp and tq numbers so I told the dyno guys to see if at least the speed limiter had been removed... we found out that had not been done as the car only topped off at 160. I had previously tried passing the 160 mph mark on an open stretch of highway coming back from SEMA but i thought to myself it was driver error and the dyno machine proved it wrong.




Video of one of the dyno pulls (at 34 seconds you can see a little fireball )


Things only keep getting better... after not being able to get a hold of anyone at GSR, I tried to get the ECU flashed back to stock and well that turned out to not be possible either. The ECU will never be able to be bench flashed again because they put some kind of epoxy to block anyone from physically accessing the pins to boot mode it (I was never aware of this until we opened up the ECU to try to flash it back to stock).


So... overall this is how my GSR experience went. I was never expecting my car to be as fast as it was when I was running the JB4 in past prior to blowing my motor but I was definitely not expecting for my car to be this slow with a stage 2.

There is a lot more I can go into detail about the technical aspects of the actual tune itself but I've said more than enough.

Last edited by e46m3lol; 12-07-2015 at 11:04 PM..
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      12-02-2015, 11:46 PM   #2
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Wow sorry to hear this e46m3lol
Did Matt (Tuner) ever get back to you on anything?
I've heard similar stories from others that the communication from the other guys weren't so good.
Man seriously, drive down there take your car to Matt and just sit there and make sure they flash your car right.

Btw, all the EnzoTuned cars that I go to Drag strip with had jb4 before and ran the 1/4 mile a few days later with each tune and the EnzoTuned was so much faster and consistent in everyway.

I'm happy I went with my local tuner, EnzoPerformance since he has been tuning/racing Exotics for years so his reputation is great.
I knew something didn't sink in right with GSR when I asked BR-Performance if they knew of them.
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Last edited by FSociety; 12-03-2015 at 06:24 AM..
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      12-03-2015, 01:16 AM   #3
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Isn't top speed on a 228i 130mph? Unless you had the track handling package, looks to me like they raised it to 160 but didn't delete the limiter nonetheless.
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      12-03-2015, 04:48 AM   #4
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That looks like JBweld epoxy on the ECU. Can't believe they did that. They took sole ownership of that ECU the second they put that epoxy there. I hope they replace your since they permanently altered yours.
I was planning on using them in the future, but after what they did to your ECU and the fact that they were bought out, I definitely won't be going there.
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      12-03-2015, 05:00 AM   #5
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Reaffirms my opinion that piggyback is much easier to revert back to stock. Not just for warranty purposes but also diagnostic.

GSR Technik caused physical damage to your ECU. This is simply unacceptable and they should replace your ECU.
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      12-03-2015, 08:32 AM   #6
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Quote:
Originally Posted by walile
Reaffirms my opinion that piggyback is much easier to revert back to stock. Not just for warranty purposes but also diagnostic.

GSR Technik caused physical damage to your ECU. This is simply unacceptable and they should replace your ECU.
The ecu tune by Enzo is now flashable through obd so reverting to stock takes a matter of seconds. Certainly more convenient than removing a piggyback.

I agree it's crazy that they sealed the ecu permanently, what were they thinking? Leaving you no option to revert to stock flash? I agree they should pay for a new ecu.
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      12-03-2015, 09:51 AM   #7
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A few thoughts.

Your car is a factory msport right? In that case top speed is limited to 155 stock. If you unlocked the limiter and hit 160 that's more than 155. Maybe that's all the engine can put out? It is just a 4 cylinder so I'm not sure getting much faster should be expected. Am I wrong? Also the speedometer only goes to 160 so how were you able to determine if it were going faster? Just wondering.

Second, did you do a before dyno to compare the delta? (Same day)

And last, I have GSR stage 1. I know what you're talking about with the stutter at WOT. Now I've been curious about this. Correct me if I'm wrong but I thought when stock you can go WOT in any gear even at lower RPMS. The car just picks up acceleration when possible with no stuttering. Which I've always thought was a bad idea with forced injection due to excess strain so it wasn't common practice for me. None the less this observation never showed an indication anything was wrong. Now after getting the tune your described stutter presented itself. My theory is with the extra boost and perhaps some other ECU settings altered, the engine is told to not hold back and pick up and go (perhaps stock has more safeguards?). But mechanically there is an extra strain on the drive train, hence the stutter. Again these are just my thoughts..

I'm not sure if I'm correct or what the real issue is, but I have altered my driving style. I only go WOT in 1st and 2nd (no stuttering at any RPM), unless I'm way up in the RPM band for the higher gears. In doing so everything is dandy and no stuttering. And that also jives with the conventional driving style with forced induction.
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      12-03-2015, 11:27 AM   #8
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My main concern here would be the epoxy.
Everyone that has the GSR tune check your ECUs for epoxy. Is it hard to open up to check?
What happened to being undetectable...

The only speed limiter I know of is for cars that were non-staggered with all seasons.
Due to the speed rating of the tires, you are limited to 130 mph.

Does anyone know how much the injectors can flow?
Running e85 requires 40% more fuel, is it possible you've reached the limit of the injectors?
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      12-03-2015, 12:56 PM   #9
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ocN55 View Post
Isn't top speed on a 228i 130mph? Unless you had the track handling package, looks to me like they raised it to 160 but didn't delete the limiter nonetheless.
130 with All Season RFT's, 155 with performance.
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      12-03-2015, 12:57 PM   #10
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ROBNYC View Post
Wow sorry to hear this e46m3lol
Did Matt (Tuner) ever get back to you on anything?
I've heard similar stories from others that the communication from the other guys weren't so good.
Man seriously, drive down there take your car to Matt and just sit there and make sure they flash your car right.

Btw, all the EnzoTuned cars that I go to Drag strip with had jb4 before and ran the 1/4 mile a few days later with each tune and the EnzoTuned was so much faster and consistent in everyway.

I'm happy I went with my local tuner, EnzoPerformance since he has been tuning/racing Exotics for years so his reputation is great.
I knew something didn't sink in right with GSR when I asked BR-Performance if they knew of them.
This is almost identical to the experience I had when I was preparing to ship my ECU to them. I had to call upper management as I could get no response. When I asked some specific questions regarding returning it to stock and additional configurations, well...it got shaky from there.

I then tracked down Enzo and have never looked back!
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      12-03-2015, 12:58 PM   #11
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Quote:
Originally Posted by e46m3lol View Post
Hey guys glad to be back on the forums. Been MIA for a while since SEMA last month as I've been swamped with work and wedding planning. Anyway... I've been holding off on doing this detailed review as I've been trying to resolve the tune issues directly with Matt and Bobby from GSR without making it public but doesn't look like they're willing to help me out so I'm just going to lay out my whole experience.

On the morning of Friday September 18th I removed my ecu and personally dropped it off to the GSR location in Anaheim (which has now been bought out by Trinity autosport). I specifically told Bobby that I was going to be getting the stage 2 flash as I am full bolt ons along with the speed limiter removal (speed limiter was never removed as you will see in my pics and video below). He also mentioned to me if I wanted to flash the car for E85 fuel which I agreed to.









Arrived at GSR




Picked the ECU up later that evening and I installed it back on my car. Took it for a spin and the car felt great. Texted Bobby at 10:29pm and told him everything was great and it felt smoother and quicker than stock. The car sounded louder and back fired more than my previous JB4 setup

On Monday September 21st we touched base again and I mentioned to him that I did an E30 mix (E85 and 91 octane pump gas) Told him that everything was running right and the car felt a bit faster with E85. He said we were going to schedule a dyno session so he can monitor the AFR and add more and more E85 to see how the car is reacting to it (it is now December 2nd and that dyno session never happened).

I've driven the car for about 3,000 miles since then and every so often when I do a WOT pull in 2nd, 3rd and 4th gear I get a hick up type of feeling in the car. I called Bobby and told him the issues the car has been having and he recommended I replace the plugs as I've had these current plugs on the car for about 4,000 miles prior to getting the GSR tune installed.. I swapped plugs and the car did idle smoother but the hick up problem at WOT is still there.

On Monday November 16th I finally decided to do a dyno session and see what kind of numbers I was really putting down. I met up with a well known local BMW tuner at Heads Up Performance as he was dynoing some of his customer cars and was also curious to see what I was putting down. Dyno machine being used is a DynoJet 224xLC. Long story short... the car made 231hp and 288tq I told myself WTF??? that is practically stock numbers.



GSR posted a dyno run of their 228i and my hp and tq numbers look no where near that of their stage 2 that they're advertising...



The car was full bolt on at the time of the dyno session. A week before I had installed a full carbon fiber AWE intake.


So now I'm dissapointed at the hp and tq numbers so I told the dyno guys to see if at least the speed limiter had been removed... we found out that had not been done as the car only topped off at 160. I had previously tried passing the 160 mph mark on an open stretch of highway coming back from SEMA but i thought to myself it was driver error and the dyno machine proved it wrong.




Video of one of the dyno pulls (at 34 seconds you can see a little fireball )


Things only keep getting better... after not being able to get a hold of anyone at GSR, I tried to get the ECU flashed back to stock and well that turned out to not be possible either. The ECU will never be able to be bench flashed again because they put some kind of epoxy to block anyone from physically accessing the pins to boot mode it (I was never aware of this until we opened up the ECU to try to flash it back to stock).


So... overall this is how my GSR experience went. I was never expecting my car to be as fast as it was when I was running the JB4 in past prior to blowing my motor but I was definitely not expecting for my car to be this slow with a stage 2.

There is a lot more I can go into detail about the technical aspects of the actual tune itself but I've said more than enough.
I'm sorry to hear this...it is exactly what I dreaded after talking to Bobby the few times that I was able to reach him.
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      12-03-2015, 05:04 PM   #12
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Quote:
Originally Posted by MG 228i View Post
My main concern here would be the epoxy.
Everyone that has the GSR tune check your ECUs for epoxy. Is it hard to open up to check?
What happened to being undetectable...
I would really like to check mine as well. Hmm they seemed great at first but after a small issue communication wasn't great but my issue was resolved. I'm starting to second guess my decision to go with this tune.

I'm very sorry to hear about this OP, I hope this gets resolved and everyone here is absolutely correct in saying they should replace that ECU! This is unacceptable.
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      12-03-2015, 05:07 PM   #13
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So if all of ours have epoxy.... What do we do?
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      12-04-2015, 09:56 AM   #14
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Hey guys quick update. I spoke to Matt and Bobby yesterday and I'll be getting the car checked out and dynod on Monday when I get off work. Looks like they'll be removing the tune, doing a baseline dyno and re installing the tune and comparing before and after dyno numbers.

I was told by Matt that I am able to choose the amount of hp that I want so we'll see how that goes on Monday. If that's the case... I'll be aiming for about 330hp.

Hopefully they also have enough time to play with different ethanol mixtures.
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      12-04-2015, 11:55 AM   #15
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Quote:
Originally Posted by e46m3lol View Post
Hey guys quick update. I spoke to Matt and Bobby yesterday and I'll be getting the car checked out and dynod on Monday when I get off work. Looks like they'll be removing the tune, doing a baseline dyno and re installing the tune and comparing before and after dyno numbers.

I was told by Matt that I am able to choose the amount of hp that I want so we'll see how that goes on Monday. If that's the case... I'll be aiming for about 330hp.

Hopefully they also have enough time to play with different ethanol mixtures.
Yes Matt knows his stuff.
When they asked you how you wanted your tune, what did you say peak boost all at once or wanted it build up as you increase speed?
Did he say what HP ranges you can get?
Assuming he knows the limit of HP/TQ by now of N20.
Also, 330hp = 300-310whp ? Or you mean 330WHP since you have Upgraded Turbo?
What about Torque figures, Boost, Timing, AFR ?

Do you still have jb4 installed for logging purpose?

Cheers and Good Luck man!
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      12-04-2015, 03:37 PM   #16
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Quote:
Originally Posted by racerstf View Post
That looks like JBweld epoxy on the ECU. Can't believe they did that. They took sole ownership of that ECU the second they put that epoxy there. I hope they replace your since they permanently altered yours.
I was planning on using them in the future, but after what they did to your ECU and the fact that they were bought out, I definitely won't be going there.
GSR AUTOSPORT was bought by Trinity; GSR Technik is the tuning faction/entity/company. Separate entities that were at the same location I believe.
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      12-04-2015, 03:40 PM   #17
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Quote:
Originally Posted by OpenAir View Post
130 with All Season RFT's, 155 with performance.
I think Sport Line cars are different.
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      12-04-2015, 03:42 PM   #18
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Lets give GSR some slack guys. They've talked to E about this. I'm sure Matt will comment on the epoxy issue etc and no doubt E will report back after his car is worked on.
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      12-04-2015, 04:30 PM   #19
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Looks a bit like Dodgy bro's inc to me ! Good luck I really hope this ends well for all involved.
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      12-05-2015, 11:19 AM   #20
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Quote:
Originally Posted by SoCalDave
Lets give GSR some slack guys. They've talked to E about this. I'm sure Matt will comment on the epoxy issue etc and no doubt E will report back after his car is worked on.
This thread is posted in both the 328 and 228 forums, and in the other thread he mentioned GSR's response:

"The explanation they gave is that they did that to prevent others from stealing the tune."
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      12-05-2015, 06:46 PM   #21
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I think Sport Line cars are different.
Pretty sure it's based on the tire ratings.
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      12-05-2015, 07:19 PM   #22
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@GSR Autosport this is seriously concerning. What's more concerning is your lack of response to this thread.

I don't doubt that my car has more power and my engine certainly benefited from replacing the plugs with S55 plugs, where hesitation etc was concerned.

I really hope the OP's situation is rectified and you guys start responding responsibly. Please don't make all your customer regret using you.
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