Reversing steptronic position

[O3X5]

I plan on doing it this weekend but I'm a bit confused by the article http://www.xoutpost.com/articles/x5/...ientation.html

At the bottom where it says 2002/newer do the reverse procedure above but mine's a 2003 with the upshift pulling back not front so are the 2 wires the same ones to switch still?

[Qsilver7]

I'm confused as to why are you doing this? Your STEPTRONIC gear shift already works like the DIY explains how to change to.

Starting with the 2002 model year (which build date starts with 9/2001)...BMW reversed the direction of the STEPTRONIC upshift to where you PULL back to upshift and push forward to downshift.

Prior to the 2000 model year...STEPTRONIC shift pattern was...to upshift, you push the lever forward, and to downshift...you pull backward on the lever.

Are you wanting to go back to the first iteration of STEPTRONIC shifting?

Yours already works the way the DIY is showing how to change to.

See items #5 & #8 in the diagram below (its the e39 gear shift, but their diagram shows the distinct 2 different shift +/- icons). Up to & including the 2001 model year...BMW used the shift pattern seen in #5. Starting with the 2002 model year (build date of 9/2001)...BMW switched to the shift pattern seen in #8. The shift pattern in #8 is what the DIY is about...and your 2003 X5 should already have this shift pattern:

[O3X5]

Yea for me I rather have upshift as forward/up & vise versa

[Qsilver7]

Originally Posted by O3X5

Yea for me I rather have upshift as forward/up & vise versa

If your desire is to switch the direction of STEPTRONIC's upshift/downshift selection...then to answer your original question in post #1...yes, you would want to reverse the wires mentioned in the DIY because with your 2003 model year (build date higher than 9/2001)...the selection is the opposite. So reversing the wires will put the STEPTRONIC selection back to like it was prior to the 2002 (9/2001 build date) model year.