New 2020/2021 BMW/MINI Models Not Tuneable | Locked Bosch ECU

Over the past few months, you might have read some news bulletins stating information about locked ECU’s in brand new BMW and MINI models produced from roughly the end of June 2020. These issues are connected to newly developed and manufactured Bosch MEVD and MG1 ECUs, which were installed in these models on production lines at BMW plants.

Tuning specialists across the world have faced the issue that models and their onboard computers produced on BMW platforms cannot be accessed anymore, therefore no longer ECU remapped or tuned. According to insiders, the information that surfaced across a wide variety of BMW and MINI models could potentially affect all Bosch Tricore platforms that are currently being manufactured.

The reason for the update is connected to improved security for autonomous driving and other driving assistance features and keeping hackers away from potentially intervening with the vehicle’s systems. The lock has been introduced in the bootloader of the ECU and is implemented on processor level, which means that “bench unlocking” with direct access on the ECU is no longer possible.

The outcome of this situation means for newly manufactured cars that the following options are no longer possible:

• No OBD unlock
• No bench unlock
• No bootpin unlock
• No ECU remapping

The following information has so far been found:

• Not just BMW and MINI models are affected, other manufacturers like Audi, VAG and Mercedes will also have the same issue.
• No ECU remapping or ODB tuning solutions will work until further notice.
• ECUs installed before the end of June 2020 with the older Bosch bootloader cannot be updated to the locked version with a dealer reflash.
• Only new cars produced from the end of June 2020 onwards are affected.
• Old cars are not affected and are tunable until further notice.

Unfortunately, this isn’t great news for our customers and future owners that have ordered a new vehicle that is destined to arrive or has already arrived over the last few months. Together with our partners, we are looking into possible solutions for the situation that has arisen. We hope a solution will be found soon, but we feel that it won’t be solved within a matter of weeks.

If you have any questions or would like to know more about this particular subject, than please feel free to reach out to our MANHART sales team via the contact form below.

At MANHART Performance we want you to be delighted every time you shop with us. If you have any questions with regards to the tuning parts, upgrades or any other details or you would like to order your own parts, than please reach out to us via the contact form below.