Aluminum SMG paddles retrofit

[mrpcar]

Hi, newbie here.

Just bought a 2012 X5M, in less than one week I've already made some upgrades.

DVD in motion unlock, for the kids in the backseat of course
NAV in motion unlock
Got rid of the start up warning message
Ordered Lux LED angle eye

Another thing I noticed and really bothered me was the paddle shifter, which were just painted plastic. In less than 200 miles some of the paint were wearing off at the edge of the paddles already.

Does anyone know if I can buy a set of aftermarket aluminum SMG paddles used for the M3 and install them on our X5M?

TIA

[Jess///M]

Originally Posted by mrpcar

Hi, newbie here.

Just bought a 2012 X5M, in less than one week I've already made some upgrades.

DVD in motion unlock, for the kids in the backseat of course
NAV in motion unlock
Got rid of the start up warning message

TIA

Cool! How did you unlock the DVD & NAV and get rid of the annoying warning message?

[mrpcar]

You can e-mail this guy in Thialand, at first I thought this looked like a scam but I paypal the money and requested what unlocks I was looking for and he e-mailed the file and instruction over. I burnt the files onto a CD and followed the procedure and they worked! Pretty amazing. Prior I was planning to do the coding procedure from the ********* forum, but this was a lot easier and faster.

Here is his youtube video

So, anyone on the paddle question?

[XR_SIX]

Video would not load. If you dont mind me asking, how much does the guy charge? Dvdinmotion charges 180 if I remember correctly.

Originally Posted by mrpcar

You can e-mail this guy in Thialand, at first I thought this looked like a scam but I paypal the money and requested what unlocks I was looking for and he e-mailed the file and instruction over. I burnt the files onto a CD and followed the procedure and they worked! Pretty amazing. Prior I was planning to do the coding procedure from the ********* forum, but this was a lot easier and faster.

Here is his youtube video

So, anyone on the paddle question?

[Samurai of 2day]

Originally Posted by XR_SIX

Video would not load. If you dont mind me asking, how much does the guy charge? Dvdinmotion charges 180 if I remember correctly.

That is an excellent question. The video makes it look simple enough so Im curious on how much this would cost because I always wanted this feature. Also, give us a lil review on your experience with this upgrade... have you experienced any problems with any of the functions of your iDrive system since the conversion? how long ago did you do it? How long did the disk and instructions take to ship to your door?

Any information regarding those questios would be highly appreciated... thanks.

oh yeah. be careful with the cops... the last car I had, i did have DVD in motion, but i had to sign a waiver / disclaimer because it is illeagal here in NY... lol so just be careful unless it is not a problem for you.

[motex]

Does anyone knows how to contact this guy?
I'm very interested and also wanted to know if anyone else has done it ?

[crunchingnumbers]

I did the dvd in motion and it works great..

There are some threads which talk about the coding required to do this. Just go to the coding forum which is named after the car (i can't type it here cos it's being filtered out by the forum - bmw coding (one word) . com. After reading the 37 page thread with hacks and re-hacks, I couldn't ever figure out if it would actually work but it was free.

Quite likely that someone with a bit of patience developed an executable and just replicated dvdinmotion. What baffles me is why someone hasn't developed a menu of CD-loadable executables for doing all the other coding stuff.

[motex]

Originally Posted by crunchingnumbers

I did the dvd in motion and it works great..

There are some threads which talk about the coding required to do this. Just go to the coding forum which is named after the car (i can't type it here cos it's being filtered out by the forum - bmw coding (one word) . com. After reading the 37 page thread with hacks and re-hacks, I couldn't ever figure out if it would actually work but it was free.

Quite likely that someone with a bit of patience developed an executable and just replicated dvdinmotion. What baffles me is why someone hasn't developed a menu of CD-loadable executables for doing all the other coding stuff.

thanks a lot ! sorry but I'm kind of confused here, you did the DVD in Motion with this guy ? or you did it from other source ?

[mrpcar]

You can e-mail him directly, his contact information is in that youtube video I posted. He will ask for your car's year, model and VIN, I think he codes the software with your VIN so you can't use the software on anything but your car.

Price is $170, but I am sure he will probably do a group buy discount if few people ordered at a same time.

After you send a paypal payment he e-mails you a file, you basically burn a CD with the file and then load it to the DVD drive of your car. Instruction is included very simple and only take few minutes. Like I said from the youtube video I first thought was a scam, but it works! Pretty amazing.

BTW, no affiliation with this guy. I just discovered this source from another forum, tried it and it worked.

[mrpcar]

His name is Zong, e-mail is zongkung@hotmail.com

Regular price is $170, he may give a group discount for $150.

[Samurai of 2day]

Originally Posted by mrpcar

His name is Zong, e-mail is zongkung@hotmail.com

Regular price is $170, he may give a group discount for $150.

Anyone else interested in doing a group buy? let me know. This is an upgrade i have always been interested in, so maybe we can get a few people interested enough to give this a shot.

[Samurai of 2day]

Hey OP, as for the paddle shifters... my paddle shifters are different than yours because while yours are flat in shape with the + and - signs on the right and left respectively, mine are more 3D in shape and design and there are no + or - icons on them either so I'm not sure what is really going on why the paint is fading on yours.

I have not experienced any chipped paint on my paddle shifters. maybe a difference in the material they are made out of for the different year models...? My car is an '09. I hope you are able to find a simple fix for your problem.

[mrpcar]

BTW, here our new 2012 X5M and the rest of her friends.

[Samurai of 2day]

What an amazing stable you got! ... especially the Ferari you hidden back there, lol. Enjoy all of your nice shiney toys... i'm jealous... lol.

Just curious though, if you already own a Cayenne, what made you pick up the X5M instead of the X6M? It would seem that you already have the high performance "SUV" type vehicle so now you have two cars that are so similar in size, utility and performance standing next to each other in your driveway.

to each his own of course, but IMHO, the X6M would have brought a nice contrast to your beautful and expensive collection of machines.

[AndreyATC]

OP
I'm a little confused
I thought paddle shifters were aluminum on Ms
I dont see any paint on mines, they're just all aluminum
Perhaps pictures of the paint chipped off would be great, if you could?

[Samurai of 2day]

Originally Posted by AndreyATC

OP
I'm a little confused
I thought paddle shifters were aluminum on Ms
I dont see any paint on mines, they're just all aluminum
Perhaps pictures of the paint chipped off would be great, if you could?

Agreed. My paddle shifters are aluminum as well, that is why I mentioned perhaps there is a difference in the materials between yours and mine, however AntreyTEC's paddle shifters are made out of the same material as my own, even though the designs differ between our year models. Pics would help a great deal.

[mrpcar]

Originally Posted by Samurai of 2day

What an amazing stable you got! ... especially the Ferari you hidden back there, lol. Enjoy all of your nice shiney toys... i'm jealous... lol.

Just curious though, if you already own a Cayenne, what made you pick up the X5M instead of the X6M? It would seem that you already have the high performance "SUV" type vehicle so now you have two cars that are so similar in size, utility and performance standing next to each other in your driveway.

to each his own of course, but IMHO, the X6M would have brought a nice contrast to your beautful and expensive collection of machines.

Thanks. Good eye! Believe or not the F-car is my least favorite car. Way too much drama, I don't like dramas. And they are very poorly constructed from the factory, and my F-car is actually very reliable. My recommendation is never waste your money on a Ferrari.

I picked the X5M for 3 reasons:
(1). The rear seat headroom, the X6 is just too small. Also with 2 kids I need the extra space.
(2). X5M is somewhat low key, blends in with the rest of them soccer mom X5s. Not too many people know what the "M" badge stands for, which is what I like.
(3). Coming from a 911 C4 as a daily driver I need the extra power, or else I probably wouldn't be too happy driving a SUV as an everyday driver.

The Cayenne S is my wife's car (But she prefer to drive her beat up 2000 328i everyday), I would never have bought a (red color) Cayenne. She have a Pepperdine MBA license plate frame on the Cayenne so if you look at the car from top down from the rear the car basically reads. (Red, Cayenne, Pepperdine) pretty funny if you asked me. LOL!

With that said, the Cayenne S is a pretty amazing truck now that I can really compare it with the X5M. The Cayenne feels more agile, feels lighter, amazing brake power but no frills. BMW packs a lot more neat, fun gadgets, technologies and features to their car/truck. But time will tell, I am trying very hard to break her in as quickly as possible. So the real testimonial will come later.

However I am discovering first (issue) with the X5M already. I noticed a high pitch whistle sound on the first few minutes of start up. Not depended on engine temp (So not the SAI pump), nor the HVAC system (I turned it completely off). A very faint sharp whistle sound coming from the engine bay area (can hear it from outside of the car). But goes away after few minutes of driving. Anyone experienced the same thing?

[mrpcar]

The paddles feels and look aluminum but after I saw the paint chip and wear mark I realized it was just plastic. (Or metal?)

Here is a picture of it, sorry about the picture quality (iphone). You can see the paint chip and wear on the right side edge of the paddle.

[AndreyATC]

I'll take a look at mine later
Still, hard to tell if it's plastic or metal
Possibly painted aluminum?

[Samurai of 2day]

OP, I see why you picked up the X6M now and i understand your logic 100%. You have a fine stable regardless and i'm sure depending on your mood of the day, you can enjoy any one of those fine machines when you choose to do so.

As far as the paint chipping off, that is a shame because that thing is brand new and it always sucks when something like that happens. I will take a look at mine as well just to see if it truly is painted, but looking at my paddle shifters for over three years now, i always thought they were of a material that was that color by "nature" and not painted to look that way.

Mine are different than yours however so it wouldn't be much of an accurate comparison in order to get info on how to avoid/determine what causes that wear and tear anyway, but i will let you know what i find.

AndreyATC, sorry for getting the name wrong earlier, but I made the correction now.

[mrpcar]

Btw I did posted this in wrong forum however I am getting 0 response from the same post in the x5m side.

[AndreyATC]

OP,
I just looked at mine and they're as good as from day 1
I could almost swear there is no paint and they're all-aluminum pieces
I tried it with my nail but nothing happened, very solid
I did noticed one difference between mine and yours
Top and buttom edges are different
Mine is kind of like one peice, from top to bottom and it enters the shifer unit as is - one piece

Sorry for picz, also iPhone