*If you have .bin files for chips or XDF files for these ECU’s please email them to me at admin@rtsauto.com and I will upload them to this page as a resource for others.*

Bosch Motronic 1.3, 1.1, 1.0, 1.7 are the primary ECU’s that power all E30’s. 1.3, 1.1, 1.0 for M20’s (6 cylinders) and 1.7 for M42’s (4 cylinder).

Creating and replicating Motronic ECU chips is relatively easy and requires very little investment.

Tuning Software: Tunerpro or WinOLS, both Free (not needed if you do not wish to review or edit the .bin file before burning)

EPROM Burner: Many different inexpensive burners are available in the$50-80 range such as the Willem PCB6.0 USB EPROM programmer and come with their own burning software.

Its as simple as inserting chip into burner > have burner erase any images that may be on the chip > burn .bin file > install chip into ECU > install ECU into car

Here is how the burner is used, keep in mind in the video the gentlemen is using a 512 chip, the only difference when using a 256 chip is to select it when in the device drop down (ref 2:20 in the video).

The other difference is that with the newest versions of the willem pcb is that you no longer have to use old school cables, there is a USB connector now.

EPROM Chips: 27SF256 chip which can be bought for $2-5 each on places like ebay.

Encryption: Chips do not have encryption, therefore any chip can be duplicated.

.XDF files are definition files that tuning software like tunerpro uses to decode the HEX code found on the chip to make it readable (separates specific tuning parameters and maps for editing).

.XDF files are specific to the Motronic version, therefore an XDF that was made for motronic 1.3 should work for all 1.3 chips found in all 1.3 ECU’s.

For an E30 that would mean that an .XDF file made for 1.3 would work for ECU’s ending in 173, 380, 382, 524, 525, 526.

Likewise an XDF made for 1.1 would work with 153, and 1.0 would work with 073, 081.

XDF files are made by individuals and thus vary in completeness or accuracy, and may not define the full Hex range found on the chip.

.bin/.ori files are the actual code images of the chips. These are the files you can create as images of a chip or use to burn onto a new chip.

When loading a bin file into a program like tunerpro it is important to make sure the XDF you are using was made for the version of motronic you are looking to edit.

XDF Motronics 1.3 file (from Tunerpro):

E30380ECU

Stock ECU bin files:

E30380ECU

153stock

stock173

M60 Bins including 6 speed manual bin – Rare M60 Manual Bin is named “M60V8-404DME_public.xdf”

Internal Motronic 1.3 schematics (something you will have a hard time finding elsewhere):

Download (PDF, Unknown)

How to remove ECU and change chip:

For those interested in viewing the HEX of the BIN codes in their raw form you can use:
[url]http://hex-works.com/eng[/url]

One of the most common questions with E30 ECU’s is regarding the differences between the different ECU editions (173 vs 380 vs 525, etc):

I did a little bit of research between the 173 and 380 ECU to see if there any HEX differences and it looks to be nearly identical in-so-far as the above XDF is capable of identifying:

However there are some ~4000 differences in the byte spaces that are not defined by the XDF.

Again, if you have .bin files (tuned or stock) for chips or XDF files for these ECU’s please email them to me at admin@rtsauto.com and I will upload them to this page as a resource for others.

This entry was posted on December 30, 2016 at 4:28 pm and is filed under Interesting Stuff. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.