I have a dealer who agrees to do so now; look forward to see whether it will affect the display tomorrow

Just when installing I was envious; thought my sportsbutton was white plastic and not the neat black with led and "sport" in the button but turned out to be a protective cover that had to be removed... do I feel silly.

Meantime I've seperately asked whether the steering was affected on a normal car without the active steering option - and I can confirm that it is; the steering gets really heavy. I've only gone around the block twice and cannot say I'm particularly impressed with the shifts just yet, compared to DS mode, but I hope a bit of acceleration timing will prove me wrong.

Make sure you try the "manual" shifting also, as one of my favorite improvements from the retrofit is the rev matching on downshifts. Let us know your results from the acceleration timing - my "butt dyno" felt a fairly significant improvement from my old DS mode (and my gas mileage went through the roof in sport mode), but would be curious to see some objective comparisons.

Paddle-shift update: Still stumped... paddles don't function and we're having some strange behaviour from the SAT shifter (ie. won't stay in DS or manual mode). We're back to a detailed analysis of the wiring diagrams now that we have the correct version for my 2008, and will hopefully have a go forward plan later this week. With luck we'll have the car back in, re-wired as appropriate, reprogrammed and back on the road soon. If/when we get this working I'll provide whatever detail I can if others want to do this...
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2008 550i M-sport
2006 X3 2.5i
1998 528i (retired)

so you did the SAT retrofit on your 550i 2008? if yes i also have a 550i 2008 M-sport, so it should be the same part. Could you give me your part numbers?

Thanks

If you're just doing the shift box/lever:

Shift box/gear selector : 61319204093
Selector lever handle: 61319142950
Sport switch: 61319142869
Trim (leather): 51166960789 (the other two trim options were not available in Canada)

If you want to do the whole paddle-shifter/heated wheel, I will need to let you know in a couple of weeks when we finish the process (Yup! We figured out the wiring issue and I'm booked in at the beginning of May to complete the install!! :twoup: )
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2008 550i M-sport
2006 X3 2.5i
1998 528i (retired)

Shift box/gear selector : 61319204093 : is that the ECU? replacing "61319165671 - ECU"? what is the difference between two parts?

Trim (leather): 51166960789 : should it be Trim (leather): 51166960879 ? (typo?)

Thanks again for your help

For my Danish car (steering wheel on the left side, like in US), I got the following:



? 51166960879 ? Console cover (incl black leather)
? 61319142869 ? Sports button
? 61319208271 ? SAT Shifter (renamed, used to have part number 61319142950)
? 61319165671 ? ECU

Yes - 61319204093 was the ECU number I provided to the dealer, it's basically the entire electronic "box" below the trim surface. Not sure the difference between the parts, although one is likely just the updated version of the other (I will be able to confirm final part # next week when we finish the work... and I have to pay the bill - ugh).

Good catch on the trim typo - it won't seem to let me edit the post though...

Dealer first said he got it right, then he couldn't do it and blamed the install for shutting down everything; even claimed the central control unit was almost blown. took 3 days and to no avail, finally got nothing out of it except that my caravan hitch connection now doesn't work and I'm not exactly on friendly terms with the dealer any longer. The SAT still works just like when I first installed it so I should have saved the trip to the dealer. Quick shifts, holding the gear longer and a nice heavy steering but I still don't see anything on the display, which I can live with. The dissapointing part is that I dont get the rev matching when in manual mode!

I'm going from memory here, as we coded my car for the SAT almost a month ago, but the "tricky" part of the coding is that you need a new VO (vehicle order) code for your car that shows the car having the S2TBA option from the factory --- AND they need to ensure that the normal auto trans option (can't remember the option code offhand) needs to be removed from the VO. Fortunately, as BMW Canada was supporting the work on my car they provided the revised VO codes to my dealer - first time forgetting to remove the standard auto trans, second time correct. The new VO code was also required in my case to support the heated steering wheel.

If your dealer received a VO code that didn't remove the standard auto trans, the vehicle does not behave nicely (possibly leading to the comment about nearly blowing the central control unit).

Sorry you're having trouble with the coding... hopefully you can get it sorted out!
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2008 550i M-sport
2006 X3 2.5i
1998 528i (retired)