My new e39 problems with multifunction steering wheel

[augismas]

Hello guys i am new in bmw world, just bought my dream car bmw e39 530d prefeislift model ant it had one problem multifunction steering wheel not working. No horn no control buttons. So i decided to take apart my steering wheel and try to slove this problem. After i take of my airbag i found out not good surprize my airbag and horn is not connected, not even vires ar here. Most questionable is that where is no airba light on the dash. what should i do? where can i find stearing wheel vairing diagram or something. Sory for bad english still learning https://imgur.com/a/zlUTLBc here is the foto of my airbag.

[rdl]

The first thing needed to help you is the model year. Or better yet build date, which you should find on the placard on the B pillar. Wiring schematics varied year to year and sometimes even within a year.

And by the way, your English is quite understandable; you must have a good teacher. It's more comprehensible than some supposedly native English speakers.

[augismas]

I checked it by vin code and it showed me that prod. date 2000-05-10. You talking about this or something else?

[rdl]

I checked it by vin code and it showed me that prod. date 2000-05-10. You talking about this or something else?

That's exactly what's need. I'm just now going out the door on errands.
I'll post wiring schematics this evening.

[rdl]

Which wiring diagrams do you wish? For the modules you mentioned there are many - BMW wiring diagrams are broken into small segments so each module can have a dozen or more.
Your picture shows the small wiring harnesses from the coil spring to the driver's air bag and steering wheel controls are missing. You need to get those, plug them in & see what happens. Is there a reason you haven't done that?
The air bag warning never illuminating is suspicious. Any chance the previous owner removed the light in the instrument cluster to hide a problem?
I'd scan the car looking for the MRS (airbag and seatbelt control module) and instrument cluster to make sure they can talk to the rest of the car and are fully functional. And to see if either have any faults logged.

[augismas]

i need diagram that shows that kind of colored vires comes to the stearing wheel and from it. becau i dont know where to begin from. also i need diagram which shows that kind of viere goes from clock spring. Yes i quess there is a chance that previous owner removed the light.

[augismas]

here is some more fotos and i need diagram of there these vires goes https://imgur.com/a/6bnmm4i https://imgur.com/a/Oid65vl https://imgur.com/a/ZebcFpq https://imgur.com/a/Ow9NWaW

[rdl]

i need diagram that shows that kind of colored vires comes to the stearing wheel and from it. becau i dont know where to begin from. also i need diagram which shows that kind of viere goes from clock spring. Yes i quess there is a chance that previous owner removed the light.

The wiring diagram for the clock spring is attached in 2 parts.
F44 is fuse #44 in the fuse block over the glovebox
A12 is the airbag diagnostic module (MRS) located under the armrest in the center console
K2 is the horn relay located in the driver's footwell near the trunk release button on the A pillar
101032 is the steering wheel heat switch
101029 is the set of multi-function switches
G5 is the steering wheel air bag
S4 is the horn switch in the steering wheel
the various X----- are the connectors/plugs

The images in your post after the one quoted here show the ignition switch connector and the EWS module. (EWS reads the security chip in your key and enables engine starting) Although located on the steering column, neither are wired to the steering wheel nor associated with the problems you've described. Are you sure you need wiring schematics of those?

- - - Updated - - -

It's belatedly occurred to me that you can access wiring diagrams online at this site
http://www.bmw-planet.net/diagrams/release/en/index.htm

It's an online site with exactly the same database and schematics that I used in my post above.

[rdl]

A suggestion regarding the airbag warning light not illuminating.
I suspect the partial schematic attached shows the airbag warning light circuit in the instrument cluster. F40 provides B+ to the cluster warning light. If the MRS detects a fault such as an airbag not connected, it grounds the circuit to make the light illuminate. Otherwise the light does not illuminate. If that circuit is cut or disabled the light will never illuminate even though the instrument cluster is intact.
You'll be able to track down other details such as wire colours and connectors in the site mentioned above.

[geargrinder]

Damn I thought I posted in this thread already... seem to have lost my post before posting! Computer "forced reboot"ed on me yesterday stupid thing.

So BMW had a steering wheel change around 1999.

This was mainly related to the airbag changing from a single to a two stage system.

But the steering wheel "clock spring" or "slip ring" (i.e. the part that lets the wheel turn but still transmit electrical signals...) changed around that time also I believe.

You probably want to look at the details of the airbag AND the steering wheel and determine if they are the right thing for your car.

I'm gonna bet the previous owner had the airbag pop, bought an entire used steering wheel assembly to replace it, got to putting it in and found out it was the wrong one and the plugs didn't plug in, and never figured out how to fix it.

There are a bunch of threads on the steering wheel & airbag compatibility topic, if that turns out to be it, start doing research... easiest thing woudl be to find a junkyard airbag + steering wheel that is CORRECT for your car if so, but it may be the one you have can be made to work with some effort.

[rdl]

Damn I thought I posted in this thread already...

But the steering wheel "clock spring" or "slip ring" (i.e. the part that lets the wheel turn but still transmit electrical signals...) changed around that time also I believe.

You probably want to look at the details of the airbag AND the steering wheel and determine if they are the right thing for your car.
...

augusmas

Geargrinder, as usual, supplies some good useful info

Some help sorting out which parts suit your specific car, i.e. model and build date
1 go to this site http://www.realoem.com/bmw/enUS/select
2 enter the last 7 characters of you VIN in the "serial number" box and click the "search" button
3 the next screen will indicate some car details, click on the "browse parts" button near the bottom of the page
4 click your way through the selections to find the airbag listings
5 note the part # listed for your car's airbag style and date range, then compare it to the part # now in your car

Similarly check the clock spring and multi-function set.

[Qsilver7]

Augusmas...the online BMW TIS website might be helpful, too. Just click the link and enter the last 7 digits of your VIN (or select the correct tabs)...this will then give you a SEARCH box...or you can try to find it your self with the links that appear on the left side of the page...but using the search box and typing "steering wheel" or "airbag" will probably give you a lot of links specific to the topic you've typed into the search box.

Click here (and consider saving the site to your favorites/bookmarks). If you are looking at one of the wiring diagrams (SSP)...the titles (names of components, connectors,fuses, etc) that are highlighted are "clickable" which will open up another tab of information: https://www.newtis.info/tisv2/a/en/

[geargrinder]

Thanks for that Q-man. The TIS site is improved since last I tried to use it.

While I like bmw-planet.net for the 'looks just like the native app' aspect, and for the fact you can open a lot of diagrams in the navigation tree so its easy to flip between them, AND because I'm deep down the learning curve with it so I can fly around in it pretty well, there are a couple things that are not ideal with it, and, one thing being that component labels ("A6000" for the main DME for instance) are NOT clickable the way they are supposed to be to take you to the detailed component info.

Just noticed that on the TIS site the component identifiers ARE clickable and seem to work, which is cool. Plus has all the TIS service info the WDS doesn't. Gonna have to start using that a little more.

[Qsilver7]

...its always good to have multiple resources in our arsenals.

[augismas]

Hello horn is fixed i bought corect entire airbag with vires that cost me 10eur but controll buttons are not working, also i noticed that only 6 vires are coming to my clock spring so 3 vires are mising. So can someone explain me where is cruize control module is lockated? and where should one wire go to control radio?

[geargrinder]

OK some progress.

What year is your car? Apologies in advance also, since most of people on this site are North American based, we tend to not know anything about the diesel cars because BMW didn't sell those here.

Did you follow the advice to look up your VIN on realoem, and check the part number for the steering wheel to see if it matches up?

Also: run your VIN through a VIN decoder to see what factory options/equipment it is supposed to have.

I think it is highly likely that your car was not fitted with multi-function steering wheel (MFSW for short) originally, and therefore, the car is not wired for those functions in the wheel. In NorAm all the E39's were very luxury equipped and so things like that were all standard, so most people here on BimFo will think "they all have that"... however in Europe there are always a lot more 'basic' equipment cars. Very possibly your car was never wired for the steering wheel with buttons and the previous owner added it without knowing it was not going to work.

This is an early-E39 MFSW 'retrofit' document - tells the dealer how to install the MFSW into a car that didn't have it, for early cars. Clearly a car without the factory option is missing wires, and they need to be added to make it work.
http://www.ge39.com/files/EBADoc16771.pdf

If that is the case you can still retrofit it, but it will be a lot more work finding the missing wires and running them to the places they need to go. Luckily there is a retrofit harness for the MFSW, however, sometimes BMW doesn't have those kind of parts anymore, you'd have to check.

Re: your question about the Cruise module, after a certain point BMW went to "Drive by wire" (electronic throttle) engine computers that ran the cruise control themselves so there is no actual 'module', its just built into the engine computer. If your 530 is fully drive by wire then there is no cruise module I bet.

Re: your question about radio wire - the switches on the wheel are not hard-wired switches at all actually, the steering wheel itself is like a 'module' that talks over a 'bus' - a communication network basically. The E39 has many comms buses. Depending on year of the car, the steering wheel uses either the "I" or "K" bus to talk to the radio for instance.
http://www.bimmerfest.com/forums/sho...65&postcount=9

[augismas]

My car is 2000/05

[Qsilver7]

When you ran your VIN...does it list the MFL steering wheel option? (BTW, its MFL not MFSW ). The 3 spoke MFL steering wheel option code is S710. The 4 spoke MFL steering wheel option code is S249.

[geargrinder]

I know that for BMW-speak of course Q, it's just the general automotive term is "MFSW"... Generally is more self explanatory and understood vs MFL... Kinda like "DBW throttle body" vs "EDK" ( Elektronik Drosselklappen or whatever it is...)

[Qsilver7]

[augismas]

Ok guys deal is that i chcked my vin code and my car was without multifuncional wheel. So another question does it possible to conect it. does it cost alot? or i just need to do all steps from this site: http://www.ge39.com/files/EBADoc16771.pdf

[geargrinder]

Augi - I thought that would probably be the case.

Cuz I'm super awesome guy, I looked up the retrofit wiring harness for you.
http://www.realoem.com/bmw/enUS/part...&q=65710027961

As I suspected, its "NLA" (no longer available, or 'ENDED').

Your options are..
1. Get lucky and find one of those at some dealers shelf. Pretty unlikely but it has been known to happen. Sometimes dealers can look and see if some other dealer has the part and get it from them.
2. Go to junkyard ('breakers' as the Brits say) and pull out the wires required from a junked car. Would probably be very cheap but you'd have to figure out which wires to take by yourself and it might be trickier and require you to 'unbundle' some wires that are all wrapped together. A car that already had the dashboard and steering wheel taken out of it would be ideal for you as the wires would be all exposed. The same wiring harness seems to apply across all E39 so there shouldn't be any tricky bits about years or anything like that.
3. Try to make the wiring harness yourself, just ordering the pins for the connectors on each side, and some wire. This is cheap and feasible however requires being good with finding hard to find wiring part numbers etc. and won't result in the wires matching exactly the factory colors etc.

[augismas]

Hello once again writing here just to say thanks to everyone for all answers, it was very helpful i fixed my horn and connected multifunkcinion steering wheel with 3 vires how easy is that