E9X M Drive retrofit on e9x 335i/s

aus335iguy

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Now that @dyezak has done the drivelogic retrofit to his ‘IS i feel inspired to persue some M goodness of my own. Ill do drivelogic eventually and ill likely change to an M3 diff as well but one other thing that interests me as well is M Drive. A company in Sydney called brintech reckon that they can retrofit Mdrive into any 3 series. I’d love to be able to have less intrusive traction control at the press of a button. Theres something about having a car that can go from Jekyll to Hyde and back again that appeals to me. Servotronic may also be in my future but it doesnt have the same appeal as Mdrive or drivelogic.
Questions
Anyone else thinking of doing the same?
Has anyone seen a documented retrofit anywhere?
Aside from the DSC pump what other parts do you guys think ill need to do this?
What coding do we think itll need?
 

doublespaces

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Now that @dyezak has done the drivelogic retrofit to his ‘IS i feel inspired to persue some M goodness of my own. Ill do drivelogic eventually and ill likely change to an M3 diff as well but one other thing that interests me as well is M Drive. A company in Sydney called brintech reckon that they can retrofit Mdrive into any 3 series. I’d love to be able to have less intrusive traction control at the press of a button. Theres something about having a car that can go from Jekyll to Hyde and back again that appeals to me. Servotronic may also be in my future but it doesnt have the same appeal as Mdrive or drivelogic.
Questions
Anyone else thinking of doing the same?
Has anyone seen a documented retrofit anywhere?
Aside from the DSC pump what other parts do you guys think ill need to do this?
What coding do we think itll need?
I'm interested in this as well.
 

aus335iguy

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Ill start by identifying parts and wiring differences. One main part ive read is that the steering sensor is heavily involved. This is an issue for me because i have active cruise control and its the one feature on my car that i never want to lose
 

LMB335is

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I have a clock spring and ABS/DSC unit from a '13 loaded E93 M3 on the way right now. I almost feel bad saying this, $300 for both on Ebay.
 
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doublespaces

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Ill start by identifying parts and wiring differences. One main part ive read is that the steering sensor is heavily involved. This is an issue for me because i have active cruise control and its the one feature on my car that i never want to lose

How is that related? Also do you have a small fmic?
 

doublespaces

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I have a clock spring and ABS/DSC unit from a '13 loaded E93 M3 on the way right now. I almost feel bad saying this, $300 for both on Ebay.
Does the m3 have an m drive button on the steering wheel or stalk? I know the performance wheel and heated wheel require different clock springs because there are additional wires.
 

aus335iguy

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I have a clock spring and ABS/DSC unit from a '13 loaded E93 M3 on the way right now. I almost feel bad saying this, $300 for both on Ebay.
I had my eye on a cheap DSC in the states and it’s gone.. if it was you best of luck. Please document as much as you can mate I reckon it’s going to be awesome. Did you get the m3 gws?
 
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doublespaces

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Steering wheel. There's four different versions for the various combinations of MDrive and rain sensor. http://www.realoem.com/bmw/enUS/showparts?id=KG93-USA-03-2013-E92N-BMW-M3&diagId=61_3088

If you could take photos of the connectors, I'd like to match it up visually to the wiring diagrams later.

I see some of the superceded versions going for as low as 150 OBO on ebay.. I must say, this thing looks awfully similar to the clock spring I already have with my electronic performance steering wheel v2, pretty sure it was identical to the one I also sold with my heated steering wheel ($200). These clock springs have a 12 pin connector if I remember correctly. I don't think there were any extra smarts in the clock spring, but it did have extra pin slots to pass through information from the steering wheel to the canbus, like the heated steering button which is just a canbus button if I remember correctly. I wonder if it would be possible to simply rig the heated wheel button on the steering column as an M Drive button, unless one of the existing steering wheel buttons can do the same.

The BMW M3 DCT guys use the Auto performance wheel as well I'm pretty sure. I don't think there is simply an M3 version of the performance wheel. And I was told the clock spring on my steering wheel actually was one off a 328i since the wires were repaired by the previous owner. So I think the heated clock spring is all you need, but the heated function is lost when you make the switch, because the pins are used for the performance portion instead.

By looking at the replacement sockets they show on that page, I can tell you they look just like the ones that my current clock spring uses.

See this guide for a little glimpse of the difference between the connectors, step 18:

https://bmw.spoolstreet.com/documents/bmw-performance-steering-wheel-installation.32/
 

doublespaces

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As far as I know active cruise was never fitted to M3s as it wasn’t an option. So my Szl doesn’t have an equivalent m3 one
Hmm.. How much different is your stalk? I've never seen an active cruise stalk before. I wonder if you get a 12 pin clockspring also because of that feature.
 

LMB335is

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If you could take photos of the connectors, I'd like to match it up visually to the wiring diagrams later.

I see some of the superceded versions going for as low as 150 OBO on ebay.. I must say, this thing looks awfully similar to the clock spring I already have with my electronic performance steering wheel v2, pretty sure it was identical to the one I also sold with my heated steering wheel ($200). These clock springs have a 12 pin connector if I remember correctly. I don't think there were any extra smarts in the clock spring, but it did have extra pin slots to pass through information from the steering wheel to the canbus, like the heated steering button which is just a canbus button if I remember correctly. I wonder if it would be possible to simply rig the heated wheel button on the steering column as an M Drive button, unless one of the existing steering wheel buttons can do the same.

The BMW M3 DCT guys use the Auto performance wheel as well I'm pretty sure. I don't think there is simply an M3 version of the performance wheel. And I was told the clock spring on my steering wheel actually was one off a 328i since the wires were repaired by the previous owner. So I think the heated clock spring is all you need, but the heated function is lost when you make the switch, because the pins are used for the performance portion instead.

By looking at the replacement sockets they show on that page, I can tell you they look just like the ones that my current clock spring uses.

See this guide for a little glimpse of the difference between the connectors, step 18:

https://bmw.spoolstreet.com/documents/bmw-performance-steering-wheel-installation.32/

Will do on the pics. I know realOEM shows no P/N for a heated steering wheel for a M3 so I don't know if that was even an option. Here's what I got https://www.ebay.com/itm/2013-BMW-M...e=STRK:MEBIDX:IT&_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649 I'll take a chance for $90 all day long.
 

LMB335is

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I had my eye on a cheap DSC in the states and it’s gone.. if it was you best of luck. Please document as much as you can mate I reckon it’s going to be awesome. Did you get the m3 gws?

I have the GWS. Knob and boot arrive today, and a instrument cluster, clock spring, ABS/DSC, and center console w/drivelogic button arrive Monday/Tuesday. Still need to source the power/dsc console switch cluster to fill that hole if for nothing else. Going to hit up a couple local shops/salvage guys and try and find the proper 8 pin and 6 pin connectors.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/2008-2013-...ash=item284f84b96a:g:G6QAAOSwHYVacmY1&vxp=mtr

https://www.ebay.com/itm/09-13-BMW-...142527347203?_trksid=p2349526.m4383.l4275.c10

https://www.ebay.com/itm/2008-2009-...m=162740319354&_trksid=p2047675.c100005.m1851
 
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doublespaces

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Besides a little paint, I don't see anything visibly different on there

Will do on the pics. I know realOEM shows no P/N for a heated steering wheel for a M3 so I don't know if that was even an option. Here's what I got https://www.ebay.com/itm/2013-BMW-M3-E92-E93-CONVERTIBLE-DCT-OEM-SRS-REEL-CLOCKSPRING-CLOCK-SPRING-STALK/112693922185?ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT&_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649 I'll take a chance for $90 all day long.

It makes perfect sense why there was no heated option, because you have to give those pins up in order to get M Drive. The performance steering wheel requires you to give up the heated wheel as well, but I'm pretty sure the M3 people are able to retain their M Drive somehow. That has quite good photos, you can see the 12 pin connector on the back.
bSB9s0E.png


And this is the non-heated (and maybe other) clockspring:

BhvELsK.png


My car comes with the 12 pin from the factory, which is why the Performance Steering wheel guides I read didn't make any sense to me, because they had the 6 pin connector. The Performance steering wheel instructions requires you to re-pin that connector, so I'm fairly certain/hopeful the clock spring is merely a pass-through and is a common part but with a different part number.
 

aus335iguy

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Im missing something here. M drive button is simply the top left button on the right side of the steering wheel. Why would it need a different clockspring unit for a button that’s already there? I can understand that the servotronic needs a different steering angle sensor but a change of button ?
 

LMB335is

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Im missing something here. M drive button is simply the top left button on the right side of the steering wheel. Why would it need a different clockspring unit for a button that’s already there? I can understand that the servotronic needs a different steering angle sensor but a change of button ?

It's not the button itself, you don't need to change the button other than to have the "M" there for looks. It's the way the signal is routed through the clockspring to change the function of that button. They're hard coded. The signal that the button sends goes to a different location based on the clockspring used.
 
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