E46 M3 SMG Steering wheel fitting an E53

[james8whippy]

Hey Guys,

I know this has been answered a million times but I'm a little confused...  :-[

I've just bought a 2005 E46 M3 SMG steering wheel.

Do I need a slip ring off an M3 too for it to fit my car?

Will the electric steering colum lever not get in the way as I don't think M3's have that option?

For the rest of the install I just run a couple of wires down to the gear stick right?

Cheers
James 

[Raj]

If you want the paddles to work then yes you will as your slipping will not have the connection on it for the paddle connector to plug into/out of for your wiring to go to the gearbox.

[graemeX5]

Hi I know someone on here has done it as I did a searcha while back but just spotted this on this website a how may help you

http://www.xoutpost.com/articles/x5/int ... el-x5.html

Let me know how you get on as was thinking of doing the same

[james8whippy]

Ah best I buy a slip ring ring then! Hopefully the guy selling the steering wheel may have the original and I can buy that too.

Cheers Graeme I'll take a read!

[Ubatoid]

It's a nice mod for sure.  Hope you had better luck than me though. In my haste to get a wheel I accidentally bought an SSG shifter wheel. Had a good time working out the wiring as it's totally different to the SMG. Got there in the end and now have the benefit of having up and down shifts on bothe paddles. Any how, as mentioned you will need the slip ring and somewhere there is a list of connectors and pins that you can buy from your local dealer that will allow you to make up a loom to make it plug and play.  If I find it I will post it up.

[james8whippy]

That would be really helpful if you could find that

BTW whats an SSG vs a SMG wheel... I do hope I have bought the right one!

Cheers

[Ubatoid]

Here you go I found the post -  http://www.xoutpost.com/bmw-sav-forums/ ... -pics.html
SMG = Sequential manual gearbox
SSG = Sequential Shift Gearbox apparently, may be wrong though.

Heres a link to the write up I did detailing the messing about I had to do

http://xdrivers.co.uk/forum/https://xdr ... ic.php?t=0

Push to shift down and pull to shift up on both paddles - thats why they arent marked with the  plus and minus.
Good luck with the mod - post some pictures !!!

[james8whippy]

Thanks a lot!!

[Steamyrotter]

I've done it but with standard wheel and self made paddles (Illuminated perspex!!  Search for my previous posts)

You will Need the SMG slipring Assy either way which you can usually pick up on EBay and ANOther places..

You will need something like a PC motherboard connector (for the front panel LEDS) to plug into the slipring.

I found a cable in mine near to the old slip ring, but not knowing where it goes or what it does, left it out and ran 2 cores to the switches adj gear stick.

You need to switch these to earth to input up or down.
(Assuming that is covered by the M3 wheel though...)

[james8whippy]

So it turned out that guy was a total time waster! I was just about to leave and then he stopped answering his phone probably realised it was too cheap.... Then again he did agree to £100 for an SMG steering wheel thought it was too good to be true lol. Oh well so I've sourced another one locally this time for £240 so not so cheap but picking it up Saturday.

So I still need a slip ring... This wheel that the guy is selling said it came from an M3 SMG and he fitted it to his 330 auto. I said did you need an M3 slip ring and need to wire it into the gear selector and he said no it literally went straight on and plugged in.

So this got me thinking do I need a actual slip ring from an M3 or will any E46 one work?

Cheers
James

[Steamyrotter]

The standard X5 slipring does not have enough contacts for the paddle shift.
Pull the air bag out and look into the conections
If there is a spare 2 pin connector in ther on the ring then ou will be OK, but unlikely

I had to change the slipring on mine to get the necessary pins.
Got mine from Midland BM on Ebay.

[lezmtaylor]

Have a look at my early posts, there is a list of parts and part nos which will answer your queery.
Lez

[lezmtaylor]

Have dug out the invoice with part nos, dated 2007 so prices will have gone up

B61.13.0.005.197  contact  4 off 0.73p each

B61. 13.0.005.198 pin -contact 2off 0.73 p each

B61.13.6.925.634 sckt housing  1 off 0.77p each

B61.31.8.379.091 Slip Ring  1off £60.85 each.

Also required E46 smg stg wheel and ROUND airbag and some wire to make up harness (Loudspeaker wire is ok as it is only passing a signal current)

Lez

[james8whippy]

Nice one thanks guys! Once I get the wheel I will try have a look at my current steering wheel.

Just phoned my local stealer Slip rings have gone up a fair bit since then......... £107.80 inc vat now lol

Weird when I searched part number: B61.31.8.379.091 on RealOEM it came back as off an E53 4.6 X5 which is what I have now so does this mean I can use my existing one?

http://www.realoem.com/bmw/showparts.do?model=FB92&mospid=47743&btnr=61_1337&hg=61&fg=35&hl=4

Fingers crossed because then it will save me £107

Cheers

[Raj]

Trust me, you won't have the right slipping. The reason real oem comes back with the correct part is that as none of the cars that the slipping fits are made anymore E46, E53, E39, etc the slipring now held in stock is an all singing dancing version to cover any model that someone needs it for, as opposed to bespoke ones for each application.

When I fit the SMG wheel to my E46 saloon back in the day it too listed the correct part number but when I took the wheel etc all off there was no connection. My parts lady then told me that's what BM had done as it saves on costs of holding a number of different rings.

I even needed the E60 M5 slipping for my E60 530d that I also added the paddle wheel too.