I've never heard of the buttons being different for an awd. I thought it depended on the options for the car.

 

Buttons on the steering wheel are mostly affiliated with your car equipment there's nothing about awd or rwd. If your car is equipped with departure line warning that button will be on the right side of your steering wheel, in most cars these buttons are programmable.

 

You guys are partially right. An AWD wheel might have the button for Hill Descent Control, which will not exist on a RWD car. I think when the HDC button is present, the second button on the right pod will be the Lane Departure (if the car has the feature) or the Media Control (if the car is without lane departure warning).

Certainly my car currently has, on the right pod, the HDC and Media buttons,

So it's a combination of features and drivetrain, as I understand it now.

 

My car is AWD. All 535xi wagons in the US were AWD - hence the xi moniker.
Mine happens to be a manual, which is rare, but the steering wheel I purchased came of a RWD, V8, automatic e60 sedan. Plug and play. The wheel should fit your car as well. Might be worth doing a search. I'll look up what the other buttons do in the manual tomorrow. I only use the hand free voice activation button on a day to day basis. Don't think I've ever used any of the others or even know what they do.

 

Interesting... I was wondering what those buttons on the right do in your car.
And how do you activate the hill descent control...

 

I believe the face of the buttons doesn't matter. My right side is from a M5 and one of my buttons is the M button. In my iDrive settings it looks like gsodonis wheel buttons. I've set the M button to be my mute button and the other to change audio source.

Maybe we're all making this harder than it has to be and all this is controlled by your settings.

 

I don't think I have these settings in my iDrive - nothing about steering wheel buttons. Did your car have the sport option?

 

I'm attaching two pics of my owners manual. Yes I have the sport package, plus please note that the pics of the wheel used by BMW are of the non-sport, which clearly indicates that for e60 BMW's, both sport and non sport (and M) wheel button programming is the same. Try following the instructions in my pages if you can't find your manual.

 

 

You can't reprogram M button in M cars (M5) this button is responsible for power mode 400-507hp and it's only option to switch between. I don't think so you can reprogram departure warning line button if it's option from factory as well.