DIY: M3/M5 Gearknob on Steptronic Gear Level

Here is a DIY for a fitting M3/M5 Gearknob to replace the gearknob on a steptronic gear lever. I did this on a friend's car and I only started taking photos halfway into the install so there are no photos of getting the gearknob onto the the gear lever. What's involved is slipping the gearknob bottom shaft through the shift boot and then onto the gear lever and putting a cable tie on. The shift boot should be turned inside-out to make thing abit easier. You can just bearly see the cable tie in the photo.



Now the wiring diagram. The pin numbers and the connector numbers (X....) tallies with that from WDS.



Here's the WDS diagram for the gear shifter:



The M gearknob (I'm not exactly sure if it's M3 or M5 or both) wiring is as follows:

Pin1 (white wire): "R" indicator
Pin2: "N" indicator
Pin3: "D/S" indicator
Pin4: 0V/Ground for parking/driving light illumination } dim lighting
Pin5: +12V for for parking/driving light illumination }
Pin6: +12V for the brighter "R", "N" and "D/S" indicator

X1599 is the big white connector:
Pin2: brown wire (not to be connected)
Pin3: red wire
Pin4: orange wire
Pin5: yellow wire

X1193 is the small white connector
Pin1: grey/red wire
Pin2: brown/black wire (ground)

X1600 is the small maroon/purple connector
Pin1: blue/white wire
Pin2: red/orange wire

X1599, X1193 and X1600 all these connects to the underside of the gearlever faceplate.

You can see that I added 2 diodes and a resistor. This will make the "D/S" light dimly when the gear lever is in the "D" position and then lights up brighter when in the Sports or Steptronic position. As this is a SMG gearknob there's no equivalent "D" position.

All wiring are to be spliced onto the existing wires, I made a wiring harness and parallel connectors so that no splicing was needed.

Finally, I made an animated gif of the shifting and the corresponding lights. Must apologise for the poor quality as it was quite dark and I had to rest the camera on the raised armrest, shutter speeds were in the region of 0.8s to 1s.

wow that is pretty wicked - haven't seen that before!

Thanks man.. that helps a lot. I was looking into a similar project on my e92.

Very nice DIY!

nice!
This information is worth more that gold to me at the moment!

I'm aboutto do the samething to our cars with the DCT knob.

Originally Posted by delmarco

As I'm in the middle of a break thru of retrofitting the DCT sport lever into our E46 cars.

Does anyone know or have a link to info on which of these pin wires light up and ground the indicator panel. There are 5 white wires leaving the plate on the black connector and 6 that either leave or enter the plate on two small 3 pin connector.

I only got this far because of the work MITe46 did back in 2003. But he didn't mention the pin out location for the LED gear indicator on the display plate. I'm counting 11 pin/wires leaving/entering the plate.




Here is the DCT lever:



and it's 12 pin connector:



So far I have figured them out and matched them to what pin leads light up which gear indicator but I need the information on the E46 steptronic gear display plate.

And here are the gear display modes of the DCT lever:

I found all the wires I need to tap into:





And the ones I need to switch to make my 1998 to 2001 E46 m/s - and + reverse to match the pattern on 2002 to 2005 E46 and the pattern on the knob.

I see you made good use of the pics I had. check your PM and your email... e90 is acting up right now. it's not loading up PM box.

Originally Posted by phattbam

I see you made good use of the pics I had. check your PM and your email... e90 is acting up right now. it's not loading up PM box.

yeah...thanks bro.



much props for everything. if I get this done I will dedicate the DIY to you man.

I have hooked mine up the same way and for some reason when I select drive it's in ds and in ds it's in d. And not illuminated any thoughts

bump, where to I run the d/s wire too? cannot seem to get the D and DS to work and light up???

Do you need an extra bit of wiring at all? (loom e.t.c)?c
And I have heard that this fits to any e46 with tiptronic gearboxes because I have the 2004 e46 compact is this true ? Is anybody in the know? Would appreciate help thanks guys

Yes I have used the diagrams and illuminated the gear shifter. You can make your own loom