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- "At a touch of a button it becomes one of the very best ..." - Clarkson
Tactile, responsive are probably not the words that come to mind when you are behind the steering wheel of a big 4 door sendan such as E60. May I present you THE button to change your perception of E60. The button that transforms 5' to a vehicle BMW engineers meant to be. Before bean counters and MBAs got their hands on the blueprints.
It's called FDC (Fahr Dynamic Control).
Here is what BMW have to say about FDC:
"Dynamic Driving Control (FDC) can be selected with the SPORT button in either automatic mode or manual mode. FDC is always deactivated when the engine is started.
When Dynamic Driving Control (FDC) is activated with the SPORT button, shift times for gear changes are reduced by the SMG control unit. In addition, in automatic mode the SMG only shifts into the next gear up at higher engine speeds. The DME unit adjusts the accelerator-pedal values. The engine responds quicker to changes in the accelerator pedal position. The system also switches "Servotronic" or "Active steering" option to a more sports-oriented characteristic. Steering and holding forces on the steering wheel are given more sporty settings."
But don't get discouraged - FDC is available on all E60. Here is the proof. You are looking at '07 E60 530i manual shift. Shorting FDC contact to the ground for a split second activates more crisp throttle response, steering becomes heavier in a good sense, and I'm sure on automatics trans shift points higher at any gear. And you get SPORT in the instrument cluster!
To disable FDC mode short contacts again.
Everything you need to get it done is in attached files, both pre-LCI and LCI E60s.
Home work: part numbers for Sport button and trim pieces.
Disclaimer: I'm not responsible for your speeding tickets! Nor for burned down control modules. Take it to a pro if you don't feel confortable tracing digrams or connecting wires.
Will this work for my 2008 E61? I need to search what LCI means as well.
So I just did this to my 2005 545i. Does it do something? Hell yes. Does it do something different to d/s? Not sure yet....! Will drive more and report back.
I have retrofited this button (oem frame with button) few years ago to my E61 from 11/2005 so preLCI. I have Servotronic and Dynamic drive. Servotronic is not standard option in E6x. You have 3 different types of steering in E60. Standard, Servotronic and Active steering (with servotronic option).
On my car I can see Sport in tacho, my steering wheel is harder to turn and Dynamic drive is more aggresive in turns. I can even code hardnest of steering wheel for normal and for sport mode with NCS.
I have retrofited this button (oem frame with button) few years ago to my E61 from 11/2005 so preLCI. I have Servotronic and Dynamic drive. Servotronic is not standard option in E6x. You have 3 different types of steering in E60. Standard, Servotronic and Active steering (with servotronic option).
On my car I can see Sport in tacho, my steering wheel is harder to turn and Dynamic drive is more aggresive in turns. I can even code hardnest of steering wheel for normal and for sport mode with NCS.
North America had servotronic as standard and active steering as an option; Of course the rest of the world had standard hydraulic(lucky) as standard and wouldn't have to mess around with the steering adjustment.
Just curious what settings you set for your steering under "normal" modes
It is on more softer options on normal mode than from factory. I will connect NCS tomorrow on my car and I will take screenshot
Ahhh gotcha; I'm trying to do the opposite. I've gone harder but still not enough. Looking for something just slightly less than "sport" steering all the time.
Trying to find a setting that exists vs having to code a custom one via neodat
Be careful with adjusting the steering tension. If you don’t have the proper options installed by the factory, power steering fluid will start to leak out of the PS fluid tank. Who knows what other unseen issues it may cause.
Be careful with adjusting the steering tension. If you don’t have the proper options installed by the factory, power steering fluid will start to leak out of the PS fluid tank.
How? These adjustments are for adjusting the servotronic(speed dependent assist) part of racks. If you don't have servotronic then you either won't have those lines of code or it wont change a thing
My Ride: E61 550i manual gear, panoramic roof, dark blue
Model Year: 2006
Engine: N62 4.8
morning Gents,
Added the mod by drilling a hole in the plastic sidepanel of the center console on the right / passenger side using a 8 mm black anodized momentary switch bought on amazon. Changing the face-plate and adding the switch seems ridicolous to me... i'm running a pre-lci e61 550i manual which I just bought in december 2021. Looking forward to experience the changes. Especailly the throttle response and steering. Note: No active stering on this one.
Hi there! I seem to be in a bit of a pickle trying to enable the hidden sport mode.
I recently purchased a 2004 525i I believe to be e60 body with n52 motor. It is automatic transmission with D/S mode (push shifter to left for triptronic).
I also believe it´s LCI although now that I ripped open the fusebox compartment I am no longer so sure...
So here's the scoop. After receiving the LED button & wiring in the mail, I proceeded to remove my dash panels only to find that I have a much simpler Delphi box (the one with the DSC button) than most.
As shown in the attached pics, mine only has 1 connector with 4 used pins and 2 unused. So I decided to check behind the fusebox and I cannot find the small white box that most LCI owners are targeting in order to short pins 7 & 9.
All I seem to have behind the fuses are 2 rectangular boxes shown in pics... most of the cables on them are very low pin count or fiber optic. I only see 2 cables that are apt candidates for shorting...
I was being aggravated by a tiger mosquito plus I succumbed to the fear of getting shocked (didnt disconnect the batt) and the possible reality of not knowing how to put the glovebox back together so I did not disconnect either of the 2 cables I was suspecting in order to check pin count. glovebox.avi
Does anybody recognize these electronics or know if the sport mode is possible for my car?? I am aware I might be able to enable without the dash light indicator unless the FDC values are reprogrammed. Could anybody shed some light on a cheap way to make these memory changes? Connection needed, recommended software, etc
Many thanks in advance for all the guidance being provided, very appreciated