Fixing my biggest complaint with my 335i, proper trans tuning now available

typedRew

Sergeant
Feb 25, 2019
412
221
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2009 335i xDrive
@typedRew can you be specific in what you didn't like and what is different? Shift timing is one, did he change the behavior for gear selection during normal driving or anything else? Just interested what places you felt needed help.

I did try to go over this in the main post, but ill try and satisfy the question better here. To be clear when I got with him, I initially said, I just want him to flow power through gears at wot, I dont want a cut in power. I basically said, xhp without power interruptions.

But thats not what I got, because he cannot build of an existing xhp file, they are locked. So this is a fresh file, all from him. That being said, stuff I never even knew I wanted, he made better. Examples;

Cold map.; I hated how the car held gears too long and shifted rough when cold. Basically making my drive through the neighborhood at 5am unnecessarily loud and my drive out feel much more rough.

He built his own cold map that almost mirrors the hot map, with that, I dont feel like its hanging gears too long and doesnt hit the next gear harder than it needs to when cold.

Partial throttle, normal driving; First off it doesnt rush into 6th gear. Which i hate in every tune i've used(stock, alpina, xhp stage 3), even after screwing with the driving map, I never got the timing right.

While lightly accelerating, if you dont have a loud intake or exhaust, you would be hard pressed to notice the shifts unless staring at the tach. As oppose to stock and xhp, where each shift you get a noticeable bump and minor pause in power up to the next gear.

Accelerate a little harder, say 30% power and it does the same but starts doing its best impression of a cvt. No interruptions in power as it changes gears up and the revs hang a little more in its happy spot rather than falling off as hard. Its my understanding that this is TC tuning. This behavior multiplies with more throttle, honestly feels crazy. Never knew I wanted it to feel this way but im glad it does.

He modifies the torque converter behavior and it multiplies power harder when it needs to and has a looser feel when it needs to. To note, this worked fine without touching the DME tune, we only recently delved into the engine tune side to try and work more out of it. We ran the TCU tune on mhd, rfp and shoup tunes without issue.

Also my transmission stays cooler after more pulls than before, or cruising. Tells me its making less heat in the trans and thats a big postive for me. I could find 200 degrees fairly easily. Now even after multiple pulls, its rare for me to see 180.

The behavior for downshifts is different, i asked him to make it a little more difficult for me to commend a downshift, but that can be tailored to preference, only took 1 revisions for that to be dialed in.

And wide open i've covered but even after everything else, I feel like what you're getting compared to what we are used to is just far and away so much better, its hard for me to keep it to myself. Which is why i wanted to let people know there are options if they want their car to act a little different and pick up some time. So even if some people see no reason to change the way(inlets weren't supposed to make a difference, right?) its currently being done, for those that do, they'll probably start enjoying their car all over again.

I'm sure im missing something, ill edit this when I recall more. Theres been so much its hard to pinpoint everything.
 

typedRew

Sergeant
Feb 25, 2019
412
221
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2009 335i xDrive
What was your best 1/4 mile before or without the gearbox tune ?

We have been working on it so long it’s not clear cut, I’ve had some iteration of it on my car for many runs. And I’ve changed tunes a lot.

so at some point I’ll do a run , stop, flash xhp and then do another. So we can get direct back to back, same engine tune, direct comparison.
 

V8bait

Lieutenant
Nov 2, 2016
500
773
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Texas
I was wondering how long it would take for people to dig into the 6at tables more. Glad to hear this guy is doing just that with good results! It's a shame it took this long.

Anyway I don't know if a side by side track comparison would really do much based on his review, probably too small to tell. One huge advantage of trans tuning from the beginning was removing the limiters. That basically done now with OTS xhp but doesn't mean custom could improve on a lot of the drivability. I could see the shifting and driving behavior being a huge draw for custom tuning on the trans side, it has always been a focus of mine for the dme side as well as power. Thanks for posting this up for all the 6at guys!
 

matreyia

Major
Apr 19, 2017
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335i e93
"...he has left the E clutch on the 4-5 shift with still having a minor timing pull ..."

Only a person with deep knowledge and experience with the 6hp21 unit would know this... ask me how I know this.
I have ordered a 550-650 wtq tune from Rod and will install and review it after Twisted makes the necessary adjustments sent to me by Rod to marry to his transmission tune. Stay "tuned" folks... sorry, could not avoid that.
 
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nyt

Sergeant
Sep 15, 2019
331
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2010 335xi
"...he has left the E clutch on the 4-5 shift with still having a minor timing pull ..."

Only a person with deep knowledge and experience with the 6hp21 unit would know this... ask me how I know this.
I have ordered a 550-650 wtq tune from Rod and will install and review it after Twisted makes the necessary adjustments sent to me by Rod to marry to his transmission tune. Stay "tuned" folks... sorry, could not avoid that.

Careful. Many of his ecu changes were quite misguided and he had a few transmissions burning up clutches. Curious what another tuner thinks of this ecu adjustments. I tried to give him feedback but it seemed to be ignored.

That said, the actual TCU maps were pretty aggressive for going fast, though not sure if he ever got the paddle latency down.
 

matreyia

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Apr 19, 2017
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Careful. Many of his ecu changes were quite misguided and he had a few transmissions burning up clutches. Curious what another tuner thinks of this ecu adjustments. I tried to give him feedback but it seemed to be ignored.

That said, the actual TCU maps were pretty aggressive for going fast, though not sure if he ever got the paddle latency down.

From what I saw he had me send to my Tuner, the ECU changes were totally normal changes, minor except for one setting which was uncommon according to my tuner. Now, that being said, the ECU changes are not his focus, but rather TCU changes that make or break the xHP custom tune.

Anyone who comments on a transmission tuner and uses ECU to base his comments is out of order. He is a TCU specialist. Any ECU changes he submits are minor adjustments for the engine tuner to make in order to use his TCU flash to its fullest potential.

Now I should be getting the ECU adjustments from my engine tuner today and I will flash both the new ECU flash as well as the TCU flash from Rod and I will do the adaptation drive and report soon.
 
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nyt

Sergeant
Sep 15, 2019
331
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2010 335xi
From what I saw he had me send to my Tuner, the ECU changes were totally normal changes, minor except for one setting which was uncommon according to my tuner. Now, that being said, the ECU changes are not his focus, but rather TCU changes that make or break the xHP custom tune.

Anyone who comments on a transmission tuner and uses ECU to base his comments is out of order. He is a TCU specialist. Any ECU changes he submits are minor adjustments for the engine tuner to make in order to use his TCU flash to its fullest potential.

Now I should be getting the ECU adjustments from my engine tuner today and I will flash both the new ECU flash as well as the TCU flash from Rod and I will do the adaptation drive and report soon.

Lol, ok, just sayin, if I'm blind loading maps and changes from someone, I'd want to be sure they know what they're doing. Making ecu changes that he doesn't understand is not exactly confidence inspiring, especially ones that cause the ECU to under report torque. I don't think either you or he know what all of his changes are doing. But yeah, focus on that instead of the transmissions with burnt clutches, too. Hopefully the tune has improved a bit.

I wasn't saying not to use it, just be careful.

Good luck.
 
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E90TommyB

Private
Apr 9, 2018
37
8
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Indiana
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2007 E90 335i
So i just got my zf6hp21 tune from Rod and it shifts great but i lost my downshift blips, and in fact the car barely rev matches. Did this happen to anyone else?
 

matreyia

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Apr 19, 2017
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So i just got my zf6hp21 tune from Rod and it shifts great but i lost my downshift blips, and in fact the car barely rev matches. Did this happen to anyone else?

I am glad to hear that it stopped blipping... I really hate that feature. The gods of Automobiles must have heard my prayers. So now I am looking forward even more to testing this new flash from Rod.
 

E90TommyB

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Apr 9, 2018
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Indiana
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2007 E90 335i
I am glad to hear that it stopped blipping... I really hate that feature. The gods of Automobiles must have heard my prayers. So now I am looking forward even more to testing this new flash from Rod.
I personally love the throttle blips on downshifts and want it back, do you not like the rev matching? Because to me without it, it feels like im about to go through the windshield.
 

matreyia

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Apr 19, 2017
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I personally love the throttle blips on downshifts and want it back, do you not like the rev matching? Because to me without it, it feels like im about to go through the windshield.

Yeah, I hate rev matching... mostly because it's an automatic transmission and not needed so just feels like 'wannabe racer boy' driving the car in sport mode. When I am in use the paddles and it revmatches, the car is too damn jerky. Unlike previously when there was no such feature.
 
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E90TommyB

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Apr 9, 2018
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2007 E90 335i
Yeah, I hate rev matching... mostly because it's an automatic transmission and not needed so just feels like 'wannabe racer boy' driving the car in sport mode. When I am in use the paddles and it revmatches, the car is too damn jerky. Unlike previously when there was no such feature.
Interesting because when my car rev matches its damn near seamless every time and i love that.
 

matreyia

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Apr 19, 2017
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Interesting because when my car rev matches its damn near seamless every time and i love that.

It's the opposite on my car. It's horrible. When I do manual downshift or even sport mode driving...the damn car lurches back causing the occupants to lerch forward. It's super annoying. I thought, "why the hell would anyone design this into a transmission?"

Are you saying you have a ~600whp car that did not lurch backwards when revmatching? That would be impressive.
 

E90TommyB

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Apr 9, 2018
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It's the opposite on my car. It's horrible. When I do manual downshift or even sport mode driving...the damn car lurches back causing the occupants to lerch forward. It's super annoying. I thought, "why the hell would anyone design this into a transmission?"

Are you saying you have a ~600whp car that did not lurch backwards when revmatching? That would be impressive.
well see thats exactly what my car is doing now, its causing me to lurch forward in my seat because its not blipping the throttle hard enough. You can control the blips with xhp so that it doesn't do that, but for some reason its not working with my custom tune from Rod.
 

rev210

Corporal
Feb 24, 2019
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335i - 08 Coupe .
"...he has left the E clutch on the 4-5 shift with still having a minor timing pull ..."

Only a person with deep knowledge and experience with the 6hp21 unit would know this... ask me how I know this.
I have ordered a 550-650 wtq tune from Rod and will install and review it after Twisted makes the necessary adjustments sent to me by Rod to marry to his transmission tune. Stay "tuned" folks... sorry, could not avoid that.
Keen to see how it goes for you , I have the same turbos , also run the upgraded trans and twisted is my tuner as well.
I am trying to see how the XHP v3 map goes for now but, it will be great to hear back on your report.
Maybe , do some 0-60/0-100 draggy runs before and after?
 

matreyia

Major
Apr 19, 2017
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well see thats exactly what my car is doing now, its causing me to lurch forward in my seat because its not blipping the throttle hard enough. You can control the blips with xhp so that it doesn't do that, but for some reason its not working with my custom tune from Rod.
You must deactivate all custom settings for Rod's tune to work properly. That means every single customizable item must be off or set to default...I set mine to off on all and there are still throttle blips but this time there is no more jerking back when it blips or at least VERY tiny amount.
 

matreyia

Major
Apr 19, 2017
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Keen to see how it goes for you , I have the same turbos , also run the upgraded trans and twisted is my tuner as well.
I am trying to see how the XHP v3 map goes for now but, it will be great to hear back on your report.
Maybe , do some 0-60/0-100 draggy runs before and after?

stage 3 version 3 ots xhp map is a great improvement and i would have stuck with it but Rod is an opportunity to explore custom tuning so that's why I did this. So far, during test drive with very light to average driving for adaptations, nothing out of the ordinary in terms of difference in smoothness...however, I can tell you that you can now drive in sport mode around town and the car will not feel high strung at all like before..as if it were a rabid dog trying to get off leash.

And in grandma mode, the car can now go from normal 40 mph cruising to suddenly speed racer mode if you mash on the pedal a little...it will literally go from 6th gear to 3 gear to get your car almost instantly in acceleration mode...unlike before when the car would feel like it was a lazy teenager on cannibus if you were cruising in 6th gear and decided to pass someone.

It's pretty dope. I am looking forward to the next three days when the adaptations are complete and I can do super aggressive testing and report back.
 

Topfueljunkie

New Member
Aug 10, 2020
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stage 3 version 3 ots xhp map is a great improvement and i would have stuck with it but Rod is an opportunity to explore custom tuning so that's why I did this. So far, during test drive with very light to average driving for adaptations, nothing out of the ordinary in terms of difference in smoothness...however, I can tell you that you can now drive in sport mode around town and the car will not feel high strung at all like before..as if it were a rabid dog trying to get off leash.

And in grandma mode, the car can now go from normal 40 mph cruising to suddenly speed racer mode if you mash on the pedal a little...it will literally go from 6th gear to 3 gear to get your car almost instantly in acceleration mode...unlike before when the car would feel like it was a lazy teenager on cannibus if you were cruising in 6th gear and decided to pass someone.

It's pretty dope. I am looking forward to the next three days when the adaptations are complete and I can do super aggressive testing and report back.

Any more updates on this?

All of this sounds really awesome. This is something I've been looking into doing on my car and would love to hear more about this and especially your experiences with your aggressive testing.
 

typedRew

Sergeant
Feb 25, 2019
412
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2009 335i xDrive
we are still cooking up a few new changes with Rods maps as of late, still making them better. not sure when he will release to public as we are still testing changes now and we like to make sure they work before he sends them out