E36-E46 steering wheel swap.

[Hicham]

Hello,

I want to change the original steering wheel and replace ir with an E46 steering wheel, did it fit or not ?did someone of you guys try it before? is it easy or it needs additional elements ?

thank you.

[VMZ]

There was a guy who was doing it. I can't remember where but I'll have a look later. I think the main problem came from different slip rings.

[VMZ]

This is not the one I was looking for but near enough is good enough I guess.
http://forums.bimmerforums.com/forum/sh ... ring+wheel
The steering wheel fits but the e46 slip ring is too fat and the e36 lacks connection points to run all the buttons through.

[samabhi12]

[quote="Hicham"]Hello,

I want to change the original steering wheel and replace ir with an E46 steering wheel, did it fit or not ?did someone of you guys try it before? is it easy or it needs additional elements ?

thank you.

[VMZ]

by VMZ on Thu Nov 06, 2008; "...main problem came from different slip rings."

by samabhi12 on Mon Jun 01, 2009 "I don't think it can be done because the slip rings are different in both wheels."

Reviving a ~7month old thread to repeat answer?

[eL_cHe]

Now that it came back from death, let me show you a pic of my cars fully working steering wheel :

[url=http://img89.imageshack.us/i/05032008204.jpg/][img]http://img89.imageshack.us/img89/7821/05032008204.th.jpg[/img][/url]

[VMZ]

Looks good. All the buttons on it working?

[LesleyIlic]

did you get a second hand suib or a new one. i replaced my squib today as the MFL steering buttons stopped working last time i had my car on axle stands and sorting out the steering.
is your tracking fine as im thinking the reason it happened to me it because i was changing a track rod and did a few full which meant that the steering wheel was a llowed to turn more from lock to lock than it normally would which might have caused the squib to break.

[EROS]

This is my first post , im the new guy , i have a E36 1996 328i convertible org steering wheel , but want to up grade to a"" M class "" wheel ,, ,, what wheels can fit ? whats ur recommendation as well ,,,, E39/E38 ?? will the bottens work ,, lol i am soooo lost

[VMZ]

Welcome EROS.
My recommendation would be E46 wheel. I believe all the wheels from the same time period have the same spline so will fit.
Buttons will not work without a bit of work on your part. You'll need a slip ring the matches the new wheel and you'll have to wire all the functions yourself as the car wasn't wired for steering wheel buttons.