[aMIC]

Originally Posted by ifr

It should align via vin decoder but can't guarantee it. The only way to be sure will be to check the FA on your car which will need access to esys.

That's what the car reads when doing an i-step upgrade and thats what determines what is coded on the car by 'default'.

For example, if you had an i-step of say 03/2020 but your build date in FA was 11/2020 then that would be messed up e.g. it would setup idrive 'menu' coding options to enable TLA if applicable, but the i-step wouldn't support it so it wouldn't work when selected in the menu. Just an example, but the principles the same. The i-step version (not idrive, that is a specific ECU - HU_MGU), must be at least as recent as the build version but can be newer of course.

In theory you could have a situation where the i-step is older than the build version but it shouldnt happen from factory. Another example is the active PDC brake on flank. It seems to use newer hardware at the rear/side and is coded as such. If the build version and i-step didnt match there would be problems.

This is an example of the under the hood coding the car uses to configure the TLA feature:

XPath=boolean(//cat[@val<"128"][crit[@val=3248]]) and boolean(//cat[@val="255"][crit[@val>=2011]]) and not(boolean(//cat[@val<"128"][crit[@val=186]])

That basically means if the car has DAP (3248) AND build version is >= 11/2020.x and the car is not one of a long list of exceptions (i abbreviated it, 186 = US type) then enable TLA.

This boolean logic changes between i-step and also the underlying code in the software changes to be able to support an active feature, including bug fixes.

Caveat: this is how it should and normally works. We know there have been issues that are resolved with later i-step updates, which has been presumed to be because of bug fixes. Perhaps some are because BMW messed up at the factory?

You mention that criterion with value '186' means USA and '3248' means DAP.
Is a place or a list of these 'crit' elements?