Paddle shifters

[tjpike]

Hey everyone,

has anyone on here retrofitted the ssg paddles from an E90? I think they're amazing and would be awesome if it is possible to retrofit them in the E38. Can anyone shed some light on the matter? Also, i'm talking about retrofitting them to the OEM sport wheel.

Thanks

[board57796]

I haven't done the E90 paddles, but I have MB paddles on my sport wheel.



Courtesy of Edwin http://www.bimmerboard.com/forums/posts/610491

[tjpike]

I've seen that post, but I fancy shifting with one hand Also, How did you route the wiring? That thread is not very clear on the routing of the wires from the shifter to the slip ring.

Your wheel looks good, save I want the ssg paddles

[PiotrC70]

The post I have sadly has broken links for the pics but I remember this writeup being extremely helpful because it also showed placement of the paddles and where to cut the foam/leather on the wheel.
http://www.bimmerforums.com/forum/sh...trical-Hookup)

From searching, Edwin also posted a writeup using the same paddles. As I recall, there are either 2 different parts with the same PN. One was plastic (cheaper) while the other was aluminum and more expensive.
http://www.bimmerboard.com/forums/posts/610491 Edit: I missed the link below the pic above.

[tjpike]

Yes, I have gone through those threads, but I'm looking for information regarding ssg paddles that were found on e90 cars. I wanted to know if they would fit our sport steering and are compatible with our steptronic trans, which seems like the case, but need to be sure before I pull the trigger.

[cazal740i]

SSG paddles on E90 may not work...They have function of + and - on each paddle. Theres only 2 wires on the heated slip ring.. I would assume the SMG paddles have 4 or5 wires

My M5 Alcantara suede Wheel with Mercedes AMG paddles plus RED LED lighting

[tjpike]

The SSG paddles have 3 wires from each side. I'm guessing one is +, one is - and one is ground. Now if the + and - from both sides were wired together, then it should in theory work right?

[cazal740i]

in theory yes but the other hurdle is FITMENT...only e46,e38, e39 steering wheels fit.. E90 Steering wheels do NOT fit..sure by looking at it the center hole and the island shaped hole for the harness appears to fit an E38 but the E90 wheel center is CLOSER together than e38.. E38 they are farther apart from eachother


- - - Updated - - -

e90

- - - Updated - - -

e38

[TxDarth]

I don't know about the fitment part but the paddles could be ganged together... the + an - from each side paired together to run to two wires of the slip ring.

[jp5Touring]

I have a SMG paddle shift wheel in my 01 e39. Only takes two wires and the heated wheel slip ring to make it work.
http://forum.e46fanatics.com/showthread.php?t=895897 pretty simple. Don't know if its same on a 2000.

[sealbeach740]

Don't know if its same on a 2000.

It is. I have a 2000 with the same steering wheel as you have.

[TxDarth]

As do I in my '01.........

[DennisCooper]

Hi

TJpike - You'll need to obtain a set of E9x paddles and their internal electronics and work out if they're the same operationally as the retrofits shown above. My guess is that overall they're not, the older cars use the iBus (I'm not sure if it's one of the other Bus' though) protocol for the signals. The newer cars use the optical based MOST system or equivalent. If that's the case, you might need to modify the E9x paddles and housings etc to see if you can make the physical paddles 'work' with the older electronics in order to detect the paddle 'pull' motion to activate the signal transfer.

To put it into a bit more perspective, on the UK forums perhaps 12-18 months ago, a member was looking at the Jaguar paddle shifters and wanted to try and make them 'work' in the way I describe above. After a short while it looks like he either gave up or found that he couldn't make them work. The paddles and Jaguar electronics were quite cheap to buy - were OEM ones too. I think there's also some threads were BMW guys have integrated the older Merc paddles which were physically smaller for instance, so those could be an option for you.

Another point, depending on how much you wish to spend, quite a lot can be 'done'. The E9x steering wheels CAN be made to fit earlier cars - seen it done in an E46 for instance. The amount of work needed to get it done is quite extensive as it involves some machining to modify the steering wheel metal centre area carefully. This requires access to someone with the skills to do it nicely along with the right tools, or going to a specialist machine capable specialist to do it. The 'costs' are also higher due to the later airbag modules being on the expensive side. The steering wheels themselves are also significantly more costly than the older types most commonly used.

Another alternative is the Storm Motorwerk paddles as well.

The steering wheels JP5Touring and TxDarth have is what I have in my car too. I've recently swapped to a 5 sp manual so need to swap my steering wheel again to a non SMG one! Check this section for when the changeover for the earlier E38 single stage airbag systems went to dual stage. For the E39, it was March 1999. If you car has a build date after that changeover, you'll be able to put on the wheels Jp5Touring and TxDarth have quite quickly and easily and then you can look into if you want to experiment into seeing if the E9x paddles could fit/work.

Cheers, Dennis!

[cazal740i]

yall missing the POINT... Yall posted the same Steering wheel I have..of course it fits e38......OP asked if a e90 steering wheel works with the e38.. It Can NOT unless u dremel the guts of the E90 steering wheel to fit

[Aitch]

yall missing the POINT... Yall posted the same Steering wheel I have..of course it fits e38......OP asked if a e90 steering wheel works with the e38.. It Can NOT unless u dremel the guts of the E90 steering wheel to fit

Uh, no he didn't. He wants only the E90 paddles on an E38 wheel. Unless I missed something.

[cazal740i]

Ya. I comprehended wrong as he said fitment of e90 paddles on the oem wheel

Thought he meant e90 paddles on oem e90 wheel

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[BmwLoverNyc]

i did retrofit to my E60

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[MParallel]

Using AMG paddles in a BMW was no option for me. I’ve always liked the new style silver/black shifters and also prefer +/- over “Up”/“Down”. The silver/black also matches the shifter and shift surround perfectly.

The only ‘problem’ is they work through a change in resistance instead of a simple on/off switch. So the pcb’s were modified to make them work like on/off switches.

Final result is as OEM as possible for a car that never came with paddle shifters.

[odejoy]

Using AMG paddles in a BMW was no option for me. I’ve always liked the new style silver/black shifters and also prefer +/- over “Up”/“Down”. The silver/black also matches the shifter and shift surround perfectly.

The only ‘problem’ is they work through a change in resistance instead of a simple on/off switch. So the pcb’s were modified to make them work like on/off switches.

Final result is as OEM as possible for a car that never came with paddle shifters.

Hello. I'm trying to retrofit the same, the paddle from e8x/e9x to an E46/E38/E39 sport wheel
Does anyone have a DIY?

Enviado do meu Nokia 6.1 através do Tapatalk

[MParallel]

Hello. I'm trying to retrofit the same, the paddle from e8x/e9x to an E46/E38/E39 sport wheel
Does anyone have a DIY?

Enviado do meu Nokia 6.1 através do Tapatalk

If you google on BMW paddleshift retrofit, you will find plenty,

[chrisn7]

I did the MB paddle retrofit to an M sport wheel in a Facelift car.

First off, pre and post FL cars have different slip rings, so you need to establish which you have from the outset, as they are very different. Do not rely on the car VIN - my FL car had a pre FL slip ring...possibly due to its being an early FL car.

The pre FL column has an unused round hole in the casting below the wheel, and this is for a 2 pin carbon brush holder which contacts two tracks on the slip ring (pre FL ring), which must be replaced by the slip ring for the heated steering wheel. The post FL ring does not have the tracks or holder. One wire from the paddles is ground, so just use the existing one under the wheel airbag. The other wires from the paddle(s) are simply the up/down signal wires and connect to the new 2 pin socket on either type of slip ring for heated wheels. Then run the signal wires down the column and inside the centre console to the 4 pin magenta plug at the side of the shifter. Splice in to the middle 2 wires, which can also be switched round to reverse the manual change to the modern 'forward to change down' configuration.

[MParallel]

I personally would not splice wires. I never do this myself.

For my paddle retrofit (BMW ones) I made a small retrofit loom with contra connectors, so it's all plug n play and can be reversed back to original without any traces.

[chrisn7]

I applaud your neat neatness - its just identifying the correct plugs and pins that's the issue. I did take the trouble to use matching wire colours from the plug to the slip ring though

[MParallel]

I applaud your neat neatness - its just identifying the correct plugs and pins that's the issue. I did take the trouble to use matching wire colours from the plug to the slip ring though

Thank you sir. It's just a rule I have to never cut any original wire. Always trace it back to a connector and work from there.

Having a spare carloom of an E36 does help.