O have a 2008 535xi and i am interested in changing my steering wheel. Does anyone know where I can purchase any of the two steering wheels with the center piece, and find a DIY link?

 

This would be quite an effort and $$$ on your part due to the fact that you won't able to use the paddle shifters unless you retrofit it with some cables. For one, these steering wheels are expensive. Specially if you don't have the airbag. I know there's a site where they seel certain wiring harnesses for certain models but can't rememeber the name at the moment.

 

you can find the wheel on ebay....for various prices depending on condition or look on getbmwparts.com and its like $768 or something like that for the wheel alone. then you will need and airbag....i would look at ebay for that as well...expect to pay roughly $500 for that.

there is a DIY in the DIY section of the forum. should be quite easy if you buy a post-2005 wheel for your post-2005 car lol....as far as the paddle shifters....if your car is not a sport tranny w/ paddle shifters....then yes u will need to retrofit that too (if thats important to you). the kit is $400 for the proper cables if memory serves me correctly.

this was my next mod....until i got some OEM M5 mirrors to replace my replicas

 

Am I understanding this correctly? I have a 2007 530i with sports tranny, and was planning to do the paddle shifter mod. I already have the sports wheel with the round airbag, but I was going to go ahead and buy the sports wheel with paddle shifters and I thought I had seen another thread state that it would automatically recognize the paddle shifters without any retrofitting or coding. But you are saying I would need to retrofit cables in order to make the paddles work even though I already have the sports tranny and can shift through the gears like a manual with my main shifter? I'm guessing if that's true then there is probably some coding that would need to be done as well, right? I sure hope not, because I was planning this mod with the hopes of a pnp easy job. If it needs cables where would the cables connect? From each paddle to somewhere under the shifting boot? Need more info...please

 

there is a thread i think in the vendor classified section for the plug and play wire harness.

the way i understand it works is the wires connect from the new steering wheel to the shift mechanism in your shifter on the center console. you buy the harness and run the wires back thru the dash and connect them. from there there is no coding needed (so says the vendor).

but this is all info that ive read...nothing that ive tested personally.


here is the vendors site...

http://www.motivemods.com/category-s/305.htm

 

Sorry to the member for highjackin this thread.
Good lookin' Umichchris. I'll check it out and keep everybody posted on my progress.

 

Hey, Umichchris I checked out the link you posted and that is not the one I want. I want the sports wheel that has the leather inlays on the paddles, not the SMG paddles, I dont like that look at all. The beginning of this thread has a pic of the wheel and paddles I want (the ones that come with the paddles option from the factory on 530, 535, 550 and I'm sure M's). I wonder if they both need wires ran or if the one I want is "actually" pnp. I'll do some research when I get home from work today and see what I can find.

 

That link is only for the wiring kit. No paddle shifters included....only wiring. It's crazy overpriced if you ask me to be honest. So...buy the wheel that you want with the proper paddles, then you need to buy that wiring kit to get the, to work properly. Or find a good electrical engineer to figure out your own DIY.

 

You have the Sports package I assume? Every E60 with an automatic has the same tranny. The SAT (Sports Auto Transmission) name is a bit misleading, since the transmission itself isn't changed. It was only a $500 option when new. It's basically paddles and a sport button that makes the car a little more responsive, kind of like adding a sprintbooster. Also, like the SB, a car with the SAT option isn't actually any faster than a car without, it's just more fun to drive if you like using the paddles.

 

that can't really be true is it?