How to Change the Region of Your BMW

[TerraPhantm]

The region/model of your BMW is stored in the Vehicle Order of the car, and dealer computers read this Vehicle Order to determine which options to allow and disallow for your particular vehicle. This guide is going to tell you how to change the Vehicle Order so that your car reports itself as a Euro vehicle.

Requirements:
A working INPA/EDIABAS installation w/ NCS Expert installed
A working install of SSS/Progman – I’m using Progman v32, but it should work with others
An interface for your car to computer (I’m using a cheap on off ebay)
Some common sense


I’d also recommend that your battery is charged, because you’re going to have to run your car in accessory mode for a decent amount of time
1. Load up NCS Expert w/ your car connected and put it in Expert Mode
2. Press “VIN/ZCS/FA” (F1)
3. Press “ZCS/FA f. ECU” (F3)
4. Select the appropriate chasis (E46 in my case)
5. Select the appropriate ECU (In my car’s case, it’d be AKMB or ALSZ)
6. Press “Enter FA” (F2)


You’ll now see a listing of your cars entire VO, which you can edit

7. Look through that until you see a term that follows the general pattern “*XY##”. In my case, it’s “*ET55” (I already coded to eurospec, originally it was “*EV53”). This is the model/region descriptor
8. You’ll notice that if you put the last seven digits of your VIN into RealOEM, the same code is used to describe your model. In the section that allows you to select country, pick Europe if your car is originally US/Canadian, and USA if your car is from any other region. I’d pick Left Hand Drive when it gives you the option. Make sure you don’t change anything else as far as the model is concerned.
9. You should see a new 4 digit code listed in RealOEM; that’s the code we want to enter in the VO.


10. Back in NCS, delete the original model/region descriptor, and then add the new one. So for example, if your original is “*EV53” and the euro version is ET55, you want to add “*ET55”. Hit okay
11. Press Back in the main NCS window, and now press “Process ECU”. Here you want to select one of the ECUs that stores the VO (in my car’s case, AKMB and ALSZ are the modules that store the VO)
12. Change the job type to “FA_Write”
13. Hit execute Job

14. Now you need to select the other ECU(s), so hit “change ECU” (F1) and pick the appropriate module(s) -- On mine, this option is called "SG/SGET", I'm not sure why. It does the same thing.
15. Repeat Steps 12-14 until all the modules which store VO are coded.

Congratulations, your car now thinks it’s a Euro model! However we’re not done yet – We just changed the VO, we didn’t actually recode anything yet
1. Fire up SSS along with ifhsrv32
2. Start a new session, and name it whatever you want
3. Select the appropriate model
4. Wait a while for SSS to read everything out
5. Now you have a couple options
a. You can go into “Load SW” and recode modules separately


b. You can go to “Vehicle” and do “Complete Encoding” – I haven’t tried this yet, because I’m concerned about how long it would take and if the battery can take it.


Your car is now coded to euro-spec software. Main issue I have is that the car complains about not having city lights to power, but this can be coded out w/ NCS.

[Snowcatxx87]

Excellent Post.

[fnc1]

Now you just need to post up the us > euro conversions for the rest of the cars... (like your EV53>ET55) (even though you tell how to figure it out, it would be nice to see a list)

Also I know everything says to hook it up to a charger, but you can do that with the vehicle running, and not cause any damage.

[Snowcatxx87]

Now you just need to post up the us > euro conversions for the rest of the cars... (like your EV53>ET55) (even though you tell how to figure it out, it would be nice to see a list)

There are some things you have to figure out yourself mate.

[TerraPhantm]

Now you just need to post up the us > euro conversions for the rest of the cars... (like your EV53>ET55) (even though you tell how to figure it out, it would be nice to see a list)

You do realize how many different models there are, right? I'm bound to miss some if I tried to make a comprehensive list... I think it's easier for people to just enter their last 7 digits into real oem and flip the region.

Should also be noted that this probbaly won't be possible for every model-- for example in the new BMWs' cases, all the x28 models are US only. And in europe, the N52 330s have direct injection instead of valvetronic.

European E36s have aluminum blocks instead of iron blocks (or completely different engines in the M3s case) so they may have different coding too.

Both of the above cases *should* be okay as long as DME updates are not done, but I can't guarantee that.

[mimi123]

Very good post. Thanks for all.

[IcemanBHE]

Nice.. Good work.

[mehroke]

I used the guide.....got to the fa menu but them my modules wont respond. I can read EWS but not the akmb or alsz......When i get into EWS however there is nothing listed in any of the windows to delete so I didn't want to add anything to muck it all up. I have a preface lift 328i canadian spec I read somewhere that it could be a preface to face lift module difference. can anyone clarify?

[rondo]

Hi the facedrop model does not use the fa sytem for the vehicle order,To change the vo on your car you would have to change the zcs but what too i am not sure..

[TerraPhantm]

I used the guide.....got to the fa menu but them my modules wont respond. I can read EWS but not the akmb or alsz......When i get into EWS however there is nothing listed in any of the windows to delete so I didn't want to add anything to muck it all up. I have a preface lift 328i canadian spec I read somewhere that it could be a preface to face lift module difference. can anyone clarify?

I don't have access to the prefacelift models, so I'm not sure how the procedure translates over if at all... Go to your "WORK" folder and open "fa.trc" if it's there, and post its contents here.

[rondo]

Hi i dont have an FA trace in my work folder only the ASW,NETTODAT,SYSDATEN,ABLAUF.ASW,INDIVID i looked in profile and could not find any way to enable the FA trace.

[mimi123]

Hi i dont have an FA trace in my work folder only the ASW,NETTODAT,SYSDATEN,ABLAUF.ASW,INDIVID i looked in profile and could not find any way to enable the FA trace.

I´m in the same case. I only can read EWS and KMB. I haven´t FA
Any news?

[rondo]

Hi a small step forward i have found that the country coding for zcs cars is in the GM .
The GM is 8 characters and a checksum that describe the car model, country and language options.that are available , The GM for my 2001 e46 usa is 646300008 according to ncsexpert, .Can anyone supply a breakdown of the GM and also maybe post country code list?


edit : i think the 30000 is the us code.
10000 is the lhd,euro
20000 is the rhd euro
40000 is malasia
60000 is vietnam

[TerraPhantm]

This is a long shot, but for anyone who lives near Northeast PA: if you have a prefacelift E46 and are willing to meet up with me, I will try to figure out the region thing for those cars.

[Snowcatxx87]

Dont forget, chaning the region allows SSS to change certain options - however, you can do all of this in NCS without changing region (with manipulation), just not as clean....

[joako]

Dont forget, chaning the region allows SSS to change certain options - however, you can do all of this in NCS without changing region (with manipulation), just not as clean....

Yes but keep in mind if you connect to GT1/SSS and change anything any of the non-US options will go away. For example I only coded windows up with remote in my car with NCS, that reset all the other car memory options to default. I run DIS and set the other car memory options but it removed the windows up from remote. Solution: All car/key memory must be coded through NCS.

[Snowcatxx87]

^ thanks, but that is well known.

[TerraPhantm]

I wonder if it's possible to modify some config file in SSS itself to allow some custom defaults... would make restoring to our own settings easier, you know?

Anyway, I soon might not be able to experiment with this stuff anymore... Probably going to trade my car in for a 335i/iS soon. Need to get something w/o a 3rd pedal (joint issues)

[Snowcatxx87]

I wonder if it's possible to modify some config file in SSS itself to allow some custom defaults... would make restoring to our own settings easier, you know?

Anyway, I soon might not be able to experiment with this stuff anymore... Probably going to trade my car in for a 335i/iS soon. Need to get something w/o a 3rd pedal (joint issues)

WHAT!

Bitch box!

but the 335i is KILLER. Love the TT. No, you get to play with the latest software and move forward with the new cars!

[TerraPhantm]

WHAT!

Bitch box!

but the 335i is KILLER. Love the TT. No, you get to play with the latest software and move forward with the new cars!

haha change of plans -- medical bills came in and I'm poor now :P. Should move to canada for the free healthcare lol.

Anyway I thought of something - If your car is 3/03+ or newer, DO NOT UPDATAE THE DME if you switched to euro. The US has MS45.1 instead of MS43 w/ E46s that are 3/03+ and newer (330s anyway, idk about 325s.)

[Beemer187]

I have retrofitted the MFL steeringwheelbuttons so now I got cruiscontrol, everything works fine.

But, how can i add this MFL option to the car so DIS GT1 can see it without choosing it manually?

Can I do this with NCS or Progman? See picture.

[TerraPhantm]

I have retrofitted the MFL steeringwheelbuttons so now I got cruiscontrol, everything works fine.

But, how can i add this MFL option to the car so DIS GT1 can see it without choosing it manually?

Can I do this with NCS or Progman? See picture.

Wrong thread, but I'll help you out. If it's available under retrofits, do the retrofit in SSS, it'll change your VO so that the MFL shows up.

If it's not available, add "$249" to your car's VO in NCS; it should show up in SSS afterwards

[TerraPhantm]

I found a ZCS decoder/encoder. This could be used to add options to pre-9/2001 E46s. However, it doesn't seem to have provisions to change the region, so perhaps that's stored somewhere else?

BMW ZCS Decoder 0.3

Edit: I missed this; this is good stuff. Change your region than recode your LCM to euro, and I think your sidemarkers will be gone. Compare this file to the original to see what the differences are.

Hi a small step forward i have found that the country coding for zcs cars is in the GM .
The GM is 8 characters and a checksum that describe the car model, country and language options.that are available , The GM for my 2001 e46 usa is 646300008 according to ncsexpert, .Can anyone supply a breakdown of the GM and also maybe post country code list?


edit : i think the 30000 is the us code.
10000 is the lhd,euro
20000 is the rhd euro
40000 is malasia
60000 is vietnam

Edit 2: Can someone send me the FSW_PSW from a US-spec 2001 or earlier coupe? I have one from a euro 318ci... deleting the corners should be possible by comparing the differences.

[joako]

Rondo I missed your post! If you have ncs look at e.g the file E39ZST, E46ZST, etc. That should answer all your questions about what all the GM, SA, VN mean.

[Snowcatxx87]

I found a ZCS decoder/encoder. This could be used to add options to pre-9/2001 E46s. However, it doesn't seem to have provisions to change the region, so perhaps that's stored somewhere else?

BMW ZCS Decoder 0.3

Edit: I missed this; this is good stuff. Change your region than recode your LCM to euro, and I think your sidemarkers will be gone. Compare this file to the original to see what the differences are.


Edit 2: Can someone send me the FSW_PSW from a US-spec 2001 or earlier coupe? I have one from a euro 318ci... deleting the corners should be possible by comparing the differences.

I might have one from an 01 canadian cab, I'll look tonight.