S54 wiring harness and DME flashing services

[nando]

Agreed on dbw. Deleting it doesnt make much sense.

How much is a new z3m harness? $500 seems cheap!

[FredK]

Yep. It's $460 at Tischer. 12517831637. You still need a coil harness but I think you can reuse the E46 M3 unit.

The DBW pedal is a little over $100 new, but it's also shared with a lot of other BMWs.

[Andrew325is]

Here's a link to a video demonstrating the end result:

Here's the last video I took driving the car the day before I sold it. It had logged 4,500 miles at this point with the S54. Perhaps not very impressive, but keep in mind I did not shift lower than 4th gear while driving on the interstate.

http://youtu.be/a0hoyiMvY38

[Asbradley21]

Ok great, this is good.
Andrew, I have the a whole m3 harness and would like to mount the DME in the stock e30 location. I would just assume keep the harness I have if I can. I also have a DBW pedal, what makes manual throttle an issue? How does one mount the pedal in the e30? I would rather have manual throttle, I just don't like the drive by wire of my e39.

[Andrew325is]

Ok great, this is good.
Andrew, I have the a whole m3 harness and would like to mount the DME in the stock e30 location. I would just assume keep the harness I have if I can. I also have a DBW pedal, what makes manual throttle an issue? How does one mount the pedal in the e30? I would rather have manual throttle, I just don't like the drive by wire of my e39.

Email sent.

[nando]

I also have a DBW pedal, what makes manual throttle an issue? How does one mount the pedal in the e30? I would rather have manual throttle, I just don't like the drive by wire of my e39.

it costs more than $300 to do a throttle cable setup vs free for DBW (if you get a pedal with your motor/parts car), or a used throttle pedal which costs $60-80 (any similar one will work).

I doubt the S54 throttle response is anything like an E39. The most important thing about throttle actuation is linear response, and the S54 DBW setup has that in spades. plus reprogramming the curve is pretty simple, and you can use the "sport" button to have two maps (the default sport throttle map sucks, but it can be toned down a bit).

basically the cable setup is a worse solution at a higher price. lose lose.

[FredK]

The pedal mounts to the stub in the e30 with the E46 DBW pedal baseplate. You'll need to modify the baseplate a little with some filing, and if you want to use the stock accelerator limiting bolt's hole to secure the plate, you'll need to make a simple adapter piece.

There is virtually no latency in throttle response. I notice no difference between a cable actuated throttle body like on my former S50US swap and the S54 swap.

[328ijunkie]

^Fred's a good guy so +1 There


Ill be releasing S54 harness conversions in the next month...

Edit: DBW, OBD2 Port, Full Cluster Functionality, PnP Etc. Im still nailing down a tuner to do the boxes.

[nando]

can't you also use the Z3m pedal sensor? it's electronically the same as the DBW pedal, but it uses a regular throttle pedal like the E30's instead. I don't know if it bolts to the E30 though.

[Andrew325is]

can't you also use the Z3m pedal sensor? it's electronically the same as the DBW pedal, but it uses a regular throttle pedal like the E30's instead. I don't know if it bolts to the E30 though.

I'm sure you could, but the Z3M pedal and potentiometer is very expensive new. There's got to be one laying around in a yard somewhere. :)

[FredK]

I didn't even try to source a Z3M pedal sensor. It's more than likely you could use one, you'd just have to find a way to mount it somewhere. Rather than futzing around with linkages, I decided to just make it nearly brainless and use a self-contained unit.

I work really slowly sometimes. You know, like how it took me like 16 months to get my car started. :|

[nando]

I just looked and not only is it far more expensive but it looks like it would probably be harder to retrofit.

the E46 pedal seems like a no-brainer to me.