Adding Paddle Shifters?

[klwill1192]

Originally Posted by jiggz

35d models never got the paddles from the factory, regardless of year or packaging. I've read posts from several 35d owners who added steering wheels with paddles - they didn't work. Perhaps if you did some DIY wiring you could get them to work?

LCI 35i/50i base & premium trims - same as 35d above.

I have a 2012 LCI X5 x35i with the Premium trim and no Sports Package. I can confirm a WORKING retrofit of a Sports steering wheel with paddle shifters.

I had previously completed the heated steering wheel retro fit (see my post on Mundo74's thread), and while I was doing it, I confirmed that I had 5VDC across pins 4 and 6 of the X01003 connector in the steering wheel. The steering wheel I purchased for this retrofit came with a post-recall airbag.

I bought a really nice heated Sports steering wheel with paddle shifters off a 2013 X6 from eBay for $245 including shipping. I'm pretty sure the BMW part number for this steering wheel is 32306797911.

I also purchased a cheap ($38) Chinese knockoff airbag cover and swapped it onto the extra airbag from my heated steering wheel retrofit. The quality of the cover is a little lower than OE. The plastic is slightly stiffer and the finish is a little duller--though a hit of Armor All helped with the finish. I will be replacing it with an OE airbag cover as soon as I can.

I had read that this retrofit required shifters with resistors (as opposed to simple open/close switches), and I checked as soon as it arrived. In the "open" position the left switch measured 6550 ohms and the right switch measured 6170 ohms. When closed, the left switch measured 345 ohms and the right switch measured 1171 ohms. These numbers might be slightly off because the probes on my multimeter were larger than the openings in the connectors, so it was difficult to get a good connection. I took several readings and these were most common results.

With that, I popped the old steering wheel off and put the new one on. Then I used NCS Expert to add $2XA to the VO in the CAS and FRM modules and took it for a test drive. The paddles worked exactly as expected. I don't know if the VO update was required, but it worked with it, and I see no reason to remove it now.

Thanks to everybody who has tried this retrofit and documented their results.