BMW E36 MFSW retrofit pictoral DIY

[jlefors]

Regarding 'dancerst's' post #107, I didn't know e46 CC modules would work for this. (Sorry if I missed that in an earlier post...). I've been looking for only the e38/e39 modules with HW-08 SW-04. No joy on Ebay currently.

I've got a 370mm 3-spoke wheel coming from Tainik in Germany, with the bag, slipring, and buttons (with phone & I/O). It's going into a '94 e36 with a CD43 Business head-unit.

Any advice on options for CC units beyond e38/e39 that will work greatly appreciated! (And thanks everyone for all the tech-love already posted here. I feel pretty confident about getting this done thanks to all your work!)

[dancerst]

Any module with HW-08 SW-04 and with blue connector on it will work.
If you won’t find I can ship the correct module to you.

[m4tt]

Sorry. Yes. The steering wheel is in the car. I have the radio controls working and steering wheel heater is hooked up. The wire for the cc is ran over to the cruise unit. I do have a e39 cruise unit but it's a 06-03 not the 08-04. Looking for the correct cc unit now. Just noticed that the wire colors were different on my car so I posted about it.

ok. wait for my instructions, i’ll try to write you tomorrow

Thank you for the help. Also if you have a 08-04 cc unit what do you want for it. I need one if you have one for sale

[MParallel]

I thought you only needed a HW08 version for certain wheels. I mean, all e38's had steering wheel controlled cruise controls. Only difference is the on/off function.

Unless I am forgetting something.

[M3GTii]

Great thread!

I have a full e36 (m3 evo) cruise control kit, I am going to use a HW08 SW04 module and run a MF steering wheel as done here.

I have found and bought an e46 module (p/n 65718369774) HW08 SW04, it is from a 4 cylinder though and my car is a 6. Will I need to change it?

How can you tell which the module is from? I have seen a few listed on ebay which don't state the donor car's engine. . .

[M3C]

Not familiar if the E46 cruise module will work with these buttons but you confirm that the module is from E39 with 5 speed manual and inline 6 engine.

[M3GTii]

I was able to change the module for a 6 cylinder one from an e46 323i.

Also purchased a set of steering wheel buttons and slip ring today, should be getting the 7 wire slip ring (column side) next week.

[jlefors]

Greetings All!

Thanks a ton for all the work that has gone into this thread. I've got all of the parts in-hand except for the 'blue connector' to work with my E39 CCM (The end attached to the wiring harness). I've been on RealOEM for an hour and can't find a part # to order one. Can anyone hook me up?

Ditto for the right pin connectors to use for the new wires. (I found a bunch on RealOEM but didn't know which ones to get.)

Thanks in advance for the help. I can't wait to get this all in the car!

[M3GTii]

I was under the impression that you still used the e36 module plug but just change some of the pins around?

I ordere some bits from BMW yesterday and asked them about pins, don't know how interested he was in this search . . . I ended up ordered a few different ones from an e46 to try them.

[bvli]

You can use the same plug, but it's coded different on the e39 cruise control module. That means that you'll need to cut off a "track" of your plug to be able to plug it into the module. It's really no big deal. and you'll see how, when you have both the plug and the module in your hands.

/b

Sent from my iPhone using BF.com

[UnderCoverGuy11]

I want the BMW wheel with the colored BMW logo in the middle, I don't really care for buttons and fancy stuff, nice work though, will probably use this guide for that project.

[E36LEE]

Hi there, sorry to hijack your thread.

I am looking to wire up an e39 mf wheel to my ACS M3, however I just want the left hand side buttons ( the radio buttons ), the others I will remove & buy a blank froma nother wheel.

How do I know if I have the right wheel? The one I have bought only has 4 buttons, and not 6 like yours.

I have just removed my ACS 3 spoke wheel & found that the slip ring doesnt fit the new wheel.....

Sorry to be a pain, I know you mentioned not helping if I had the wrong wheel, but I do not know if mine is wrong lol

[Joylove]

The ACS wheel is the standard 3 spoke one (with CF trim) with the same back part as the one shown on page 1? Or different like the E46/E39 Dual Stage Airbag one with the notch on it? Some pics would help.

For the buttons the again some pics would help but in general terms the buttons are all the same electrically so can be fitted to any iBus, if you only have 4 buttons you only get 4 functions but no additional changes are required to the install.

[JerCotter7]

All installed. Thanks Joy.

Btw with the E46 cruise module do you need to be over a certain speed for it to work? Because I connected pin 25 yo pin 12 like dan but mine doesn't light up when I press I/O. Don't want to put the car back together yet if it's not going to work.

EDIT: Forgot there was never an ASC bulb in my car >.> Now I feel stupid.

[Joylove]

You can arm the system at any speed, but it won't activate below about 25MPH.

[M3C]

+1 as J said, when you turn it on with O/I button the light should iluminate if you are connecting it to any light, it provides ground from cc box so you need to have 12V into ither pin of the light.

Regading the 2 additional round buttons on the steering wheel controls: the talking person (that's how I call it) button and R/T button looks like they do not function, what functions can be performed with these 2 buttons and how to make them functional in E36 system.
It would be great if for example talking person button to serve answering and ending the phone call, it appears it is the question of how to make the E36 ibus understand the signals from these 2 buttons or something else.
Any advise here??

[Joylove]

Regading the 2 additional round buttons on the steering wheel controls: the talking person (that's how I call it) button and R/T button looks like they do not function, what functions can be performed with these 2 buttons and how to make them functional in E36 system.
It would be great if for example talking person button to serve answering and ending the phone call, it appears it is the question of how to make the E36 ibus understand the signals from these 2 buttons or something else.
Any advise here??

They send out iBus messages same as any other button.

However they have a unique feature in that for some reason the MFSW buttons send a page to the TEL. If TEL responds the MFSW changes it's messages slightly, not sure why exactly.

 Steering Wheel Buttons (iBus Device 50) - e39	
e39 steering wheel 

50 04 68 3B 01 06 ---> previous 
50 04 68 3B 21 26 ---> Previous released 

50 04 68 3B 08 0F ---> next 
50 04 68 3B 28 2F ---> next released 

50 04 68 32 11 1F ---> "+" key 
50 05 68 32 10 1E ---> "-" key 
NB ^^ I think this is wrong. It's the byte count excluding the originator device code. In this case there are 04 bytes not 05 

50 04 C8 3B 40 E7 ---> R/T 
50 03 C8 01 9A ---> R/T (when no telephone is present) 

N.B. 
50 03 C8 01 9A is the request poll from the MFL to the Telephone. 
Once the MFL receives this POLL Answer, the button starts transmitting 
the code (50 04 C8 3B 40 E7). 

OTOH if there is no phone in the vehicle, the answer 
( C8 XX 50 02 00 CK | XX = LEN, CK = CHECKSUM) is never received and the 
R/T button continues to send 50 03 C8 01 9A when it is pressed.

EDIT: Don't seem to have the code for the sneezing man in there, shouldn't be too hard to find if needed.

[JerCotter7]

Got it all working now. But the cruise control still has the same problem as before. If I press + or - it still goes up 5MPH. Oh well. Better than nothing I suppose.

[ts295]

Hi chaps, hoping for some assistance on my non-working cruise setup which I've carried out as per this thread please! Thought I'd add to this thread as it may prove useful to have troubleshooting info in here.
I've got a 99 323, have installed MFW buttons from e39, GR2 and actuator from e46 318. The cruise control standby light comes on when I press the I/O button on the MFW, unfortunately if I try to set the speed it doesn't work and after mb 10 seconds the standby light goes out and I'm not able to re-arm the system until I turn ign off and on.
I've tried diag'ing the GR2 but INPA doesn't appear to recognise it regardless of what car I select, my bro has GT1 so will see if I fare any better with that. I originally had an e36 actuator in there, I tested it was working by supplying voltage to the solenoid and motor and it realed the throttle in ok so I think the bowden cable and actuator were good, at this point I wondered if I needed to use a later actuator so swapped to an e46 318 actuator to match the GR2, but still get the same problem.
I've wired clutch to ground, rpm and speed to the clocks, brake switch and +12v at brake pedal switch, diag to pin 12 of X17 at clocks, generally followed instructions from here...
Not sure what next steps are, thinking of trying a 6 pot GR2. Will also try going for the most basic wiring to make it work - I heard somewhere that 11 wires will make it go, what are these? 7 to actuator, then +12v, ground, speed and MFW signal? No rpm signal required? Actually it must be more than this as the clutch switch must be grounded.
Any help or thoughts are appreciated!
Cheers
Tim

[Joylove]

Could you detail what wires/pins you used to activate the actuator? I'd like to do the same to test one of mine.

If the light is going out, then something is not right with the system, as I think it stays on all the time.

Do you have a USB-OBD2 (KKL) adaptor? One thing to try is to go onto the GR2 diagnostic line direct with INPA and your K line adaptor. You can make the change in obd.ini from MODE=NORMAL to MODE=KBUS and then INPA will format the message prefix for the GR2 over the ibus, rather than from dBus.

[ts295]

Thanks for the reply.
To test the actuator pin 1 was grounded, pin 4 +12v, these are the motor. Pin 2 is ground and I believe pin 3 either grounded or +12v (solenoid), I think the latter actually. Sorry when I did it I had a pdf that had a pinout for an e34 or something and I used that... 5,6,7 are the potentiometer anyway.

Yeah I'm pretty certain the GR2 is deactivating itself as it's not happy with something. If I don't try to fire up the actuator (i.e. just press the I/O button to put it in standby but don't actually hit the accel/decel or hold buttons) the light will stay on indefinitely, which was what led me to believe it was something to do with driving the actuator.

I used a serial switchbox thingy with INPA, I think I'll have to invest in a USB K-line adaptor and try to read the module, that sounds like a good way forward from here rather than guessing as to what might be wrong.

I've also bought a e39 528 HW07 SW04 GR2 to try just in case...
It's quite a simple system it seems so a bit baffled at what might be wrong.

[M3C]

Could this be because the cruise box is not appropriate for E39 steering wheel buttons and the rest of the cruise system in E36.
I know from before that if your car is manual 5 speed with 6 cylinder engine, the cruise box has to come from same type of BMW because it is coded that way or any cruise box can be recoded to car's specs but that would be more expensive.

Joylove,
how hard would it be to find the sneezing man code from MFSW?

[ts295]

I'm not going to completely disregard this possibility, but I think it's unlikely. If you consider what the GR2 "knows", it doesn't really know anything that's e36 specific, and saying "the rest of the cruise system is e36" is incorrect - none of it is e36, actuator and GR2 are e46, s/w buttons are e39. The buttons appear to be compatible as I'm able to engage/disengage the cruise from the buttons, and I think that the accel/decel/hold buttons work too as when using these (and thus engaging the actuator) is when the unit errors out after a while. My guess is that the GR2 tries to control the actuator for a few seconds, fails, then disengages itself and refuses to switch back on until power cycled. I'm hoping it's a faulty GR2 or an actuator wiring screw up by me!

In terms of inputs to the GR2, the module does not know how many gears the car has or how many cylinders the engine has. As far as I see it, the only bits that are potentially different/specific are the speed and RPM signals from the clocks. I'd be surprised if these are any different between e46 and e36 (esp as other people have used various GR2s from various models without hitch). I could imagine that the rpm signal could be different between a 6 pot and a 4 pot (recalling e30 clocks using different coding chips dependent upon how many cyls the engine had), but even then I'm not sure and even if this were the case I'm not sure that the RPMs being off would cause this problem.

I'm not ruling out an incompatibility, I'm just not convinced that the number of cylinders or the gearbox type has any relevance to this specific problem. I could see how it could cause the system to accel/decel 5 mph at a time by each press of the accel/decel button etc though.

[Joylove]

Could this be because the cruise box is not appropriate for E39 steering wheel buttons and the rest of the cruise system in E36.
I know from before that if your car is manual 5 speed with 6 cylinder engine, the cruise box has to come from same type of BMW because it is coded that way or any cruise box can be recoded to car's specs but that would be more expensive.

I think the GR2 needs to know if it's a 4 or 6 pot, cos the rate of change of the speed and RPM pulse don't match when you make that change. Auto/Manual is selected by the wiring, with a simple inhibit line to the gearbox when the cruise is running to prevent double kickdowns or other wild changes.

Joylove,
how hard would it be to find the sneezing man code from MFSW?

It's proving quite hard to find on Google. I'd have to go to get it from the car using Navcoder. Do you need it?

[ts295]

Perhaps, 6 pot GR2 on its way will be interesting to try. With rate of change in rpm/speed varying so much by which gear you're in, diff ratio etc. I'd be surprised if this would cause the prob I'm seeing. I do wonder whether the tach signal is different between 4 and 6 pots as per e30s, even so I'd still be surprised if it didn't drive the actuator due to this.