Been trying to retrofit a new steering wheel for 7 months now - Long tale of woe!

[RPiM5]

Alright so you all know me, been around here for a long time and some of you should know that it takes a lot, and mean a lot to get me very upset at something, but in the words of the salty sailor Popeye, "I've stands all I can stands, and I can't stands no more!"

So a bit of a backstory here first. A while back when I was giving my Mika (M5) an upgrade to her Stage III status with the big project I did back in May right before Bimmerfest, I ran across this post member who was selling his custom and very unique carbon fiber steering wheel on the member classifieds section. I was never really in the market to do a retrofit to the LCI M5 (M6) style wheel from the 2013 Pre-LCI style wheel, especially since I just had my Pre-LCI M5 wheel custom wrapped in Alcantara. But this wheel seemed to call out to me. I had never seen anything like it before with its flat bottom AND flat top design, perforated leather, and carbon fiber. It looked amazing to me and I just knew that somebody was going to grab it up fast. So I jumped on the opportunity to buy it off of him since it was also a very very good deal.

Here is the original for sale classified thread from back in April this year:

http://f10.m5post.com/forums/showthr...steering+wheel

I got the wheel in the mail and opened the box and boy was it beautiful. My next mission was to figure out and source all of the components to the wheel. I eventually found all of the parts that I needed and was able to order them through various sources, including the dealer parts counter guy, ECS tuning, and eBay. All for the best possible prices I could get them at. With this unique wheel and all of the parts I was in well over $3,000 dollars for the entire assembly.

It took me a while to figure out exactly which parts and their corresponding part numbers I needed and towards the end I found out that I had missed one small part so it wasn't until about the middle of June when I had finally got 100% of the parts needed for the wheel and I was happy and excited to finally install it.

So the day came and I had the entire steering wheel put together and was feeling quite proud of myself that day. I disconnected the battery to my M5, took off the Pre-LCI wheel and slowly and excitedly went to slide the new carbon fiber custom wheel onto the steering column.

But wait, something was wrong. I gasped, the carbon wheel wouldn't slide onto the steering column. I was utterly confused at first. I couldn't understand what was wrong. The metal shaft that protrudes from the steering wheel column was too big for the hole in the new steering wheel. I tried to jam it on, no luck. I tried to every which way to slide it on, all angles, nothing worked. I was just stunned. I waited 2 months patiently gathering all of the components for the wheel and now it wouldn't even fit?! When I finally accepted that the wheel just wasn't going to fit, I nearly punched a hole in the wall. I was extremely angry and I just wanted to know why it wouldn't fit.

So I put my new carbon wheel back in the box and had to reinstall the Pre-LCI wheel. What a terrible feeling I had, just sick to my stomach, that it didn't work. Especially after having spent SO much money!

I then went to work researching. I contacted the gentlemen who sold me the wheel. He said he had a Pre-LCI F10 M5 and that the dealer had actually installed the wheel for him at the dealership but couldn't get the vibration generator to fit for some reason because he had the Drivers Assistance Package. Besides that when I talked to him before he sold me the wheel he told me that was getting rid of his F10 M5 anyway because he wanted to buy a Supercharged Audi R8 4.2L V8. So I believed him and took his story at face value. But that still didn't explain why the wheel did not fit on my M5. I kept researching.

Next I stumbled upon some information after only hours and hours and hours of research that might explain why the custom carbon wheel I had wouldn't fit. I discovered the following:

The LCI 2014+ F10 M5 and F12/F13 M6 share the exact same part numbers for the steering wheels depending on if the wheel is heated or not heated.

However, there were different part numbers for the between the F8x M3/M4 wheels and the M5/M6 wheels. I thought, hmmm, strange the wheels look exactly the same and have the same dimensions, I wonder why. Well it turns out that the hole in the steering wheel where it slides onto the steering wheel column is shaped differently between the M3/M4 and M5/M6. This is the reason for the different part numbers. So I investigated the actual shape of the holes between the M3/M4 and M5/M6 and I found that they are indeed shaped differently. In the pictures below you will see what I mean.

The F8x M3/M4 steering wheel have a caved in shape where the hole is, whereas the M5/M6 steering wheel have flat surface where the hole is on the wheel. This was the visual difference. So after finding this out, I took a look at the carbon fiber wheel that I bought from the Bimmerpost member and low and behold the shape of the carbon wheel I had was the caved in design. Could this mean that I actually had in my possession an M3/M4 wheel instead of an M5/M6 wheel? I didn't want to believe it, but at that point there was no other explanation.

So I contacted the guy who sold me the wheel and asked him again, if the wheel was actually and truly installed on his Pre-LCI F10 M5, again he told me that it was. This time I had a hard time believing him.

Fortunately I have a lot of friends in the car business here in San Diego, a lot of people that own tuning shops and such. So I took my carbon wheel down to one of my friends shops and had them take a look at it and they also happened to have an OEM wheel off of an F80 M3 there at the shop. Perfect match! This confirmed it, I got sold an F80 M3/F82 M4 wheel. I was upset and at the same time not surprised.

At this point I had to decided what to do, I was not a happy camper and really loved the design of the wheel, but I realized I knew little about how the guy who sold it to me came to own in the first place.

So I went back to the original owner and asked him many questions. Where did you get? What website? When? What's the name of the company that makes it? How do I get into contact with them? And so on...

Come to find out that he bought it off of eBay from a company called Byilan that makes custom wheels for a lot of high end cars. They are located in Germany, but the owner of the company is actually Turkish and apparently travels back and forth between Turkey and Germany a lot. So then I was like Ok, let me contact the company and see what they have to say because it was obvious that they sold him an F80 M3 wheel even though on the eBay page for the item it says M5 wheel. I figured maybe they can help in some way.

Here is the eBay page where they list the item for sale. It's also worth noting that in the pictures for the item they show the back of the steering wheel and you can clearly see where the hole is and it is the caved in design. Ridiculous.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/BMW-M5-F10-F...dW7dST&vxp=mtr

So I then find the website for this company and all of the contact information. I email them and tell them everything that happened and that there was no way that the wheel that I had in my possession which was advertised as an M5 was actually an M5 wheel, it simply didn't fit. Firstly, it is obvious that English was not the owners first language so communication was tough, secondly they asked for lots and lots of pictures of the wheel that I had and the wheel that was on my car right now and so on. Once we got all of the basic information out of the way, I asked them if there was anything that they could do. I was still interested in the wheel as there is no other out there like it for the M5, and although there are some other aftermarket wheel makers out there they are not anything as exact as what I had purchased. I wanted the same thing, flat bottom, flat top, perforated leather, carbon fiber, etc. No other wheel out there has those exact things. So I wanted to see if maybe I could get an exchange. I thought briefly about trying to just sell the wheel that I had to an F80 M3 owner, but I thought, well if I can just get an exchange I'd rather do that. Big mistake.

The owner of Byilan Steering Wheels explicitly told me that I could exchange the wheel for exact wheel but for an M5 this time. They told me go ahead and ship the wheel to Germany, where they are. The address they provided me in the email matched the one on the website and I even confirmed with the guy that I originally bought the wheel from, just to make sure that the person I was dealing with in Germany was legit. So I made the decision, I'm going to ship the wheel back to Germany and they told me that they would make me a whole new wheel for the M5. I was thinking this is great.

I mailed the wheel via the USPS as it was one of the cheaper options. UPS or FEDEX would have been 400-500 dollars for shipping and I thought it was too much at the time. So I shipped the wheel to Germany via the USPS for about $115 bucks. The wheel arrived to Germany just fine, cleared customs just fine, and in good time too. I notified the guy in Germany that the wheel was now there in Cologne, or Koln in German, and was ready to be picked up. At first they responded to me and said ok they would pick the wheel up. Then a week goes by and my tracking information said not picked up yet. I contact them again, you can pick the wheel up anytime, then I get an email saying that they are going to be out of the country for weeks and will pick it up when they get back. I check the tracking information weeks later, the USPS just kept saying the same status that the addressee has been notified and has placed a hold on the package and will pick it up. At first I thought that, that status meant that the guy I sent it to put a hold on the package to be held for pickup, but I just recently found out that it doesn't mean that at all. It has to do with customs clearance. The package was never delivered to the address I sent it to but instead is on hold at the customs office closest to the address I sent it to. I tell the guy over in Germany this and no response. In fact I haven't heard from him in months now. My steering wheel has been sitting in a customs office in Germany since June this year and there's no way to get it back.

I went to my local post office, called the USPS a million times and did everything short of finding the Post Master General himself. What I found out is that with the USPS if you mail a package to another country, once it enters that country, the package is no longer yours and there is nothing you can do to get it sent back. So yes, it has now been nearly 6 months since I mailed my steering wheel to Germany and there is no way to get it back, short of perhaps going there myself and finding it but I would spend more on a plane ticket and lodging and transportation than the steering wheel is worth.

The name and address where I tried to send the steering wheel to is here:

Birgül ilan

Buschfeldstr. 27
51067 Köln
Germany

At this point, I don't care if I get the steering wheel back. All that I want now is this. If you know who this guy is, or where he is, or where this company is, and you live in Germany or somewhere in Europe, and if you have the spare time can you please find this guy and punch him in the back of the head for me. I have flushed nearly $2,000 dollars down the toilet along with countless hours of dealing with this clown and it would be nice if I could just have justice.




Now with that said, I have decided to move on from this exhaustive episode in my life and decided to just buy another wheel. Like I said, I could never find another wheel that I actually liked so what I decided to do was just go for regular OEM M6 leather wheel with heat. I already had the rest of the parts for the wheel, so it was easiest to just get an OEM wheel and call it a day. Also you are crazy if you think I mailed that guy any of the other parts of the wheel too. I only mailed him what I received from the guy that I bought it from.

So I got my new OEM Leather M6 Style wheel in and checked the hole design on the back of course and what do you know, it's the flat design. This proves again, that my research was correct. So I start to put my second wheel together and I now discover that I have another problem.

The new problem is that the cable design between the M6 wheel and the Pre-LCI M5 wheel for the heat function is different. On the Pre-LCI M5 wheel the cable for heating element is placed close to and is long enough to reach the plug for the steering wheel heat on the steering column, this is not so on the M6 wheel. I have the correct wire for the paddleshifters and buttons on the M6 wheel but after more research I have concluded that there must be a completely separate cable for the heating element on the M6 wheel because the plug for it is all the way at the bottom of the wheel. I contacted ECS Tuning, spent a couple of hours arguing with the guy at the parts counter at my local BMW dealership and no one can find a part number for this extra cable to make the damn heater work on the M6 wheel. No online forum mentions this cable and it is not present on RealOEM.com or even BMW's official parts system. We tried looking up every part number and we even looked up VIN's for a 30 Jahre F80 M3, an X6M, and an M4 all with heated steering wheels and all the parts catalogs for those cars show no part number for this extra cable inside of the steering wheel. I know that it exists because I found a picture of it.

Like I said, I have friends who own tuning shops here where I live and I contacted a friend to ask him if he has any customer M cars with steering wheel heat so that I could go over there and open up the steering wheel real quick to read the white tag on that cable and it appears that my friend has an M6 and an M4 in his shop right now, so I may be able to go look myself, but boy what a pain in the ass this is. I figured since I'm not getting the M Performance wheel or a custom wheel I might as well have heat and now I can't even have that. Can you feel my frustration?!

So I know that a few random people have done retrofits before, I ask that if any of you know what the heck I am talking about to please help. As the title of this thread states, I have been trying to do a retrofit now for the past 7 months and have had the worst luck.

I have provided some pictures below of the following:

- The original carbon fiber Byilan Wheel that I bought from the Bimmerpost Member back in April.

- A picture of the Carbon Fiber Wheel from the eBay website showing the backside and the hole.

- A close up of the caved in design of the wheel that I had, which is the F80 M3 hole design.

- Another picture from a website showing what a true M5/M6 wheel hole design is supposed to look like with the flat hole design.

- The metal tube in the steering wheel column that the steering wheel is supposed to slide onto.

- A picture of an F80 M3 steering wheel showing the cable that connects the heating element in the steering wheel to the plug on the steering wheel column. Note the plug for the heat on the wheel is white and at the bottom of the wheel.

- And lastly a close in picture of the heating element plug that is on my steering wheel that I just bought. You can see that it is a 4 pin female connector.


And remember if you ever run into this Birgul Ilan guy over there in Germany, think of me and this story I just shared with you. Thanks!

[TrevorM3]

no way i'm reading all that shit.


nice cf wheel tho


side note, i have 2016 steering wheel for sale. pm me if interested

[RPiM5]

Originally Posted by TrevorM3

no way i'm reading all that shit.


nice cf wheel tho


side note, i have 2016 steering wheel for sale. pm me if interested

At least I warned you that it was a long tale of woe. Lol! If you had read it, you'd know that I already have a wheel. But also, what is your situation with the wheel? Did you install the M Performance wheel? I need the cable that connects the steering wheel heat.

[TrevorM3]

Originally Posted by RPiM5

At least I warned you that it was a long tale of woe. Lol! If you had read it, you'd know that I already have a wheel. But also, what is your situation with the wheel? Did you install the M Performance wheel? I need the cable that connects the steering wheel heat.

i was going to get the perf. wheel. but that was predicated on me getting my current wheel sold. which i can't...

[apexlocator]

Wow, sorry for your troubles. I remember seeing that wheel for sale. All of your troubles started with the forum member seller being dishonest though.

[ImpetuousRacer]

Wow, some guy on the other M5 forum sold me an LCI wheel preassembled with heating and vibration. He shipped from across the pond. Purchased airbag from BMW. Installed in 5 minutes and everything works great. Sorry to hear this!

Look for MOK, he seems to have them often to sell.

[HXS]

I started cringing when you said the steering wheel wouldn't fit and the cringing became worse and worse with each paragraph. But the ultimate cringe was when you decided to mail the $3K wheel across the world! Arghh!

Why didn't you try to have a professional welder change the hole to the correct one?

[13M5F10]

Originally Posted by RPiM5

Alright so you all know me, been around here for a long time and some of you should know that it takes a lot, and mean a lot to get me very upset at something, but in the words of the salty sailor Popeye, "I've stands all I can stands, and I can't stands no more!"

So a bit of a backstory here first. A while back when I was giving my Mika (M5) an upgrade to her Stage III status with the big project I did back in May right before Bimmerfest, I ran across this post member who was selling his custom and very unique carbon fiber steering wheel on the member classifieds section. I was never really in the market to do a retrofit to the LCI M5 (M6) style wheel from the 2013 Pre-LCI style wheel, especially since I just had my Pre-LCI M5 wheel custom wrapped in Alcantara. But this wheel seemed to call out to me. I had never seen anything like it before with its flat bottom AND flat top design, perforated leather, and carbon fiber. It looked amazing to me and I just knew that somebody was going to grab it up fast. So I jumped on the opportunity to buy it off of him since it was also a very very good deal.

Here is the original for sale classified thread from back in April this year:

http://f10.m5post.com/forums/showthr...steering+wheel

I got the wheel in the mail and opened the box and boy was it beautiful. My next mission was to figure out and source all of the components to the wheel. I eventually found all of the parts that I needed and was able to order them through various sources, including the dealer parts counter guy, ECS tuning, and eBay. All for the best possible prices I could get them at. With this unique wheel and all of the parts I was in well over $3,000 dollars for the entire assembly.

It took me a while to figure out exactly which parts and their corresponding part numbers I needed and towards the end I found out that I had missed one small part so it wasn't until about the middle of June when I had finally got 100% of the parts needed for the wheel and I was happy and excited to finally install it.

So the day came and I had the entire steering wheel put together and was feeling quite proud of myself that day. I disconnected the battery to my M5, took off the Pre-LCI wheel and slowly and excitedly went to slide the new carbon fiber custom wheel onto the steering column.

But wait, something was wrong. I gasped, the carbon wheel wouldn't slide onto the steering column. I was utterly confused at first. I couldn't understand what was wrong. The metal shaft that protrudes from the steering wheel column was too big for the hole in the new steering wheel. I tried to jam it on, no luck. I tried to every which way to slide it on, all angles, nothing worked. I was just stunned. I waited 2 months patiently gathering all of the components for the wheel and now it wouldn't even fit?! When I finally accepted that the wheel just wasn't going to fit, I nearly punched a hole in the wall. I was extremely angry and I just wanted to know why it wouldn't fit.

So I put my new carbon wheel back in the box and had to reinstall the Pre-LCI wheel. What a terrible feeling I had, just sick to my stomach, that it didn't work. Especially after having spent SO much money!

I then went to work researching. I contacted the gentlemen who sold me the wheel. He said he had a Pre-LCI F10 M5 and that the dealer had actually installed the wheel for him at the dealership but couldn't get the vibration generator to fit for some reason because he had the Drivers Assistance Package. Besides that when I talked to him before he sold me the wheel he told me that was getting rid of his F10 M5 anyway because he wanted to buy a Supercharged Audi R8 4.2L V8. So I believed him and took his story at face value. But that still didn't explain why the wheel did not fit on my M5. I kept researching.

Next I stumbled upon some information after only hours and hours and hours of research that might explain why the custom carbon wheel I had wouldn't fit. I discovered the following:

The LCI 2014+ F10 M5 and F12/F13 M6 share the exact same part numbers for the steering wheels depending on if the wheel is heated or not heated.

However, there were different part numbers for the between the F8x M3/M4 wheels and the M5/M6 wheels. I thought, hmmm, strange the wheels look exactly the same and have the same dimensions, I wonder why. Well it turns out that the hole in the steering wheel where it slides onto the steering wheel column is shaped differently between the M3/M4 and M5/M6. This is the reason for the different part numbers. So I investigated the actual shape of the holes between the M3/M4 and M5/M6 and I found that they are indeed shaped differently. In the pictures below you will see what I mean.

The F8x M3/M4 steering wheel have a caved in shape where the hole is, whereas the M5/M6 steering wheel have flat surface where the hole is on the wheel. This was the visual difference. So after finding this out, I took a look at the carbon fiber wheel that I bought from the Bimmerpost member and low and behold the shape of the carbon wheel I had was the caved in design. Could this mean that I actually had in my possession an M3/M4 wheel instead of an M5/M6 wheel? I didn't want to believe it, but at that point there was no other explanation.

So I contacted the guy who sold me the wheel and asked him again, if the wheel was actually and truly installed on his Pre-LCI F10 M5, again he told me that it was. This time I had a hard time believing him.

Fortunately I have a lot of friends in the car business here in San Diego, a lot of people that own tuning shops and such. So I took my carbon wheel down to one of my friends shops and had them take a look at it and they also happened to have an OEM wheel off of an F80 M3 there at the shop. Perfect match! This confirmed it, I got sold an F80 M3/F82 M4 wheel. I was upset and at the same time not surprised.

At this point I had to decided what to do, I was not a happy camper and really loved the design of the wheel, but I realized I knew little about how the guy who sold it to me came to own in the first place.

So I went back to the original owner and asked him many questions. Where did you get? What website? When? What's the name of the company that makes it? How do I get into contact with them? And so on...

Come to find out that he bought it off of eBay from a company called Byilan that makes custom wheels for a lot of high end cars. They are located in Germany, but the owner of the company is actually Turkish and apparently travels back and forth between Turkey and Germany a lot. So then I was like Ok, let me contact the company and see what they have to say because it was obvious that they sold him an F80 M3 wheel even though on the eBay page for the item it says M5 wheel. I figured maybe they can help in some way.

Here is the eBay page where they list the item for sale. It's also worth noting that in the pictures for the item they show the back of the steering wheel and you can clearly see where the hole is and it is the caved in design. Ridiculous.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/BMW-M5-F10-F...ST&vxp=mtr

So I then find the website for this company and all of the contact information. I email them and tell them everything that happened and that there was no way that the wheel that I had in my possession which was advertised as an M5 was actually an M5 wheel, it simply didn't fit. Firstly, it is obvious that English was not the owners first language so communication was tough, secondly they asked for lots and lots of pictures of the wheel that I had and the wheel that was on my car right now and so on. Once we got all of the basic information out of the way, I asked them if there was anything that they could do. I was still interested in the wheel as there is no other out there like it for the M5, and although there are some other aftermarket wheel makers out there they are not anything as exact as what I had purchased. I wanted the same thing, flat bottom, flat top, perforated leather, carbon fiber, etc. No other wheel out there has those exact things. So I wanted to see if maybe I could get an exchange. I thought briefly about trying to just sell the wheel that I had to an F80 M3 owner, but I thought, well if I can just get an exchange I'd rather do that. Big mistake.

The owner of Byilan Steering Wheels explicitly told me that I could exchange the wheel for exact wheel but for an M5 this time. They told me go ahead and ship the wheel to Germany, where they are. The address they provided me in the email matched the one on the website and I even confirmed with the guy that I originally bought the wheel from, just to make sure that the person I was dealing with in Germany was legit. So I made the decision, I'm going to ship the wheel back to Germany and they told me that they would make me a whole new wheel for the M5. I was thinking this is great.

I mailed the wheel via the USPS as it was one of the cheaper options. UPS or FEDEX would have been 400-500 dollars for shipping and I thought it was too much at the time. So I shipped the wheel to Germany via the USPS for about $115 bucks. The wheel arrived to Germany just fine, cleared customs just fine, and in good time too. I notified the guy in Germany that the wheel was now there in Cologne, or Koln in German, and was ready to be picked up. At first they responded to me and said ok they would pick the wheel up. Then a week goes by and my tracking information said not picked up yet. I contact them again, you can pick the wheel up anytime, then I get an email saying that they are going to be out of the country for weeks and will pick it up when they get back. I check the tracking information weeks later, the USPS just kept saying the same status that the addressee has been notified and has placed a hold on the package and will pick it up. At first I thought that, that status meant that the guy I sent it to put a hold on the package to be held for pickup, but I just recently found out that it doesn't mean that at all. It has to do with customs clearance. The package was never delivered to the address I sent it to but instead is on hold at the customs office closest to the address I sent it to. I tell the guy over in Germany this and no response. In fact I haven't heard from him in months now. My steering wheel has been sitting in a customs office in Germany since June this year and there's no way to get it back.

I went to my local post office, called the USPS a million times and did everything short of finding the Post Master General himself. What I found out is that with the USPS if you mail a package to another country, once it enters that country, the package is no longer yours and there is nothing you can do to get it sent back. So yes, it has now been nearly 6 months since I mailed my steering wheel to Germany and there is no way to get it back, short of perhaps going there myself and finding it but I would spend more on a plane ticket and lodging and transportation than the steering wheel is worth.

The name and address where I tried to send the steering wheel to is here:

Birgl ilan

Buschfeldstr. 27
51067 Kln
Germany

At this point, I don't care if I get the steering wheel back. All that I want now is this. If you know who this guy is, or where he is, or where this company is, and you live in Germany or somewhere in Europe, and if you have the spare time can you please find this guy and punch him in the back of the head for me. I have flushed nearly $2,000 dollars down the toilet along with countless hours of dealing with this clown and it would be nice if I could just have justice.




Now with that said, I have decided to move on from this exhaustive episode in my life and decided to just buy another wheel. Like I said, I could never find another wheel that I actually liked so what I decided to do was just go for regular OEM M6 leather wheel with heat. I already had the rest of the parts for the wheel, so it was easiest to just get an OEM wheel and call it a day. Also you are crazy if you think I mailed that guy any of the other parts of the wheel too. I only mailed him what I received from the guy that I bought it from.

So I got my new OEM Leather M6 Style wheel in and checked the hole design on the back of course and what do you know, it's the flat design. This proves again, that my research was correct. So I start to put my second wheel together and I now discover that I have another problem.

The new problem is that the cable design between the M6 wheel and the Pre-LCI M5 wheel for the heat function is different. On the Pre-LCI M5 wheel the cable for heating element is placed close to and is long enough to reach the plug for the steering wheel heat on the steering column, this is not so on the M6 wheel. I have the correct wire for the paddleshifters and buttons on the M6 wheel but after more research I have concluded that there must be a completely separate cable for the heating element on the M6 wheel because the plug for it is all the way at the bottom of the wheel. I contacted ECS Tuning, spent a couple of hours arguing with the guy at the parts counter at my local BMW dealership and no one can find a part number for this extra cable to make the damn heater work on the M6 wheel. No online forum mentions this cable and it is not present on RealOEM.com or even BMW's official parts system. We tried looking up every part number and we even looked up VIN's for a 30 Jahre F80 M3, an X6M, and an M4 all with heated steering wheels and all the parts catalogs for those cars show no part number for this extra cable inside of the steering wheel. I know that it exists because I found a picture of it.

Like I said, I have friends who own tuning shops here where I live and I contacted a friend to ask him if he has any customer M cars with steering wheel heat so that I could go over there and open up the steering wheel real quick to read the white tag on that cable and it appears that my friend has an M6 and an M4 in his shop right now, so I may be able to go look myself, but boy what a pain in the ass this is. I figured since I'm not getting the M Performance wheel or a custom wheel I might as well have heat and now I can't even have that. Can you feel my frustration?!

So I know that a few random people have done retrofits before, I ask that if any of you know what the heck I am talking about to please help. As the title of this thread states, I have been trying to do a retrofit now for the past 7 months and have had the worst luck.

I have provided some pictures below of the following:

- The original carbon fiber Byilan Wheel that I bought from the Bimmerpost Member back in April.

- A picture of the Carbon Fiber Wheel from the eBay website showing the backside and the hole.

- A close up of the caved in design of the wheel that I had, which is the F80 M3 hole design.

- Another picture from a website showing what a true M5/M6 wheel hole design is supposed to look like with the flat hole design.

- The metal tube in the steering wheel column that the steering wheel is supposed to slide onto.

- A picture of an F80 M3 steering wheel showing the cable that connects the heating element in the steering wheel to the plug on the steering wheel column. Note the plug for the heat on the wheel is white and at the bottom of the wheel.

- And lastly a close in picture of the heating element plug that is on my steering wheel that I just bought. You can see that it is a 4 pin female connector.


And remember if you ever run into this Birgul Ilan guy over there in Germany, think of me and this story I just shared with you. Thanks!

I'll be in Germany in a few weeks ... it's about two hours away from where I stay. If I go pick it up, will they even release to me?

[RPiM5]

Originally Posted by HXS

I started cringing when you said the steering wheel wouldn't fit and the cringing became worse and worse with each paragraph. But the ultimate cringe was when you decided to mail the $3K wheel across the world! Arghh!

Why didn't you try to have a professional welder change the hole to the correct one?

I looked into that too. I found out that trying to retool the hole to fit on the column was not possible. A professional welder at my friends body shop told me this. Trust me, I tried everything.

[RPiM5]

Originally Posted by 13M5F10

I'll be in Germany in a few weeks ... it's about two hours away from where I stay. If I go pick it up, will they even release to me?

Maybe if you tell the name of the person I sent it to. Hopefully they won't check ID, but I can give you the tracking number as well. I don't know which customs office the package is at, I only know that it's at the closest one to address I sent it to.

[13M5F10]

Originally Posted by RPiM5

Maybe if you tell the name of the person I sent it to. Hopefully they won't check ID, but I can give you the tracking number as well. I don't know which customs office the package is at, I only know that it's at the closest one to address I sent it to.

Shoot the tracking over.

[Nikolov]

I had a similar experience to yours. I purchased a brand new LCI steering wheel from eBay, which turned out to be from an F15 X5M. Needless to say it didn't fit Luckily I was covered by eBay, since the seller didn't bother responding to my messages. Once eBay refunded my payment, he was very quick to respond with an address to ship his wheel back.

I ended up buying the wheel from BMW directly, as F10 LCI steering wheels seemed to be rare on eBay at the time. It seems the F10 LCI wheel fits the F10 and F06/F12/F13 (6 series) only.

[kefler]

Without sounding too contrarian here, is it the ebay guy's fault the wheel got stuck? I have friends in Europe and have on occasion sent them packages (gifts) and for some reason sometimes they get stuck in customs.

There isn't much you can do on either end actually. It sucks. The postal system there is as bad as ours or worse.

I will say in the 2 cases that happened, I did get the package back at home in the US after a LOONG time, 6-9 months.

[RPiM5]

Originally Posted by kefler

Without sounding too contrarian here, is it the ebay guy's fault the wheel got stuck?

I understand what you are saying, but he gave me no indication that he at least tried to go pick up the package from the customs office. If he at least tried but then the customs wouldn't let him, that would be a different story.

[RPiM5]

Originally Posted by Nikolov

I had a similar experience to yours. I purchased a brand new LCI steering wheel from eBay, which turned out to be from an F15 X5M. Needless to say it didn't fit Luckily I was covered by eBay, since the seller didn't bother responding to my messages. Once eBay refunded my payment, he was very quick to respond with an address to ship his wheel back.

I ended up buying the wheel from BMW directly, as F10 LCI steering wheels seemed to be rare on eBay at the time. It seems the F10 LCI wheel fits the F10 and F06/F12/F13 (6 series) only.

Yes you are right the F15/F16 X5M/X6M is a different part number too.

[RPiM5]

Good news, I was able to crack open an F80 M3 steering wheel yesterday on my friends F80 M3 and find the missing part that is needed to connect the steering wheel heat.

Here is a list of parts with an explanation for any one that wants to do a retrofit in the future:

-32307846034: 2014+ LCI M5 or F12/F13 M6 leather steering wheel WITHOUT heat.

-32307846035: 2014+ LCI M5 or F12/F13 M6 leather steering wheel WITH heat.

-32307846029: Front trim cover piece for the front of the steering wheel. Covers the bottom portion where the vibration generator is.

-32307848270: Rear cover to the back of the steering wheel

-32307848330: Wire harness for those that DO NOT have the Drivers Assistance Package.

-32307848332: Wire harness for those that DO have the Drivers Assistance Package. This harness has an extra black plug that will connect into the part number: 7849393 module and then that module connects to the vibration generator.

-32307848333: Screw set. Comes with 4 long silver screws and 4 short black screws.

-32311159951: Main Hex Bolt that secures the steering wheel to the steering column.

-32307845795: Airbag.

-61319282644: Paddle Shifters. Comes with both of them.

-61317849410: Control Buttons for M cars only. There are also two other part numbers for the button controls but they are for non-M cars or cars with Active Cruise Control.

-61317849393: Module for connecting the heated steering wheel and the vibration generator. If you do not have the Drivers Assistance Package then 2 of the plugs on this module will not be connected. Here is what the unit looks like on the ECSTuning website. This part is also not listed on RealOEM.com or parts diagram catalog that BMW uses.

https://www.ecstuning.com/b-genuine-...l/61317849393/

-32337849416: Vibration Generator for those that have the Drivers Assistance Package.

Hope this helps anyone in the future that wants to do a retrofit as the information that was out there in the forums and elsewhere on the internet before was not as complete as this.

[knepsterd]

How much are the parts for this retrofit?

[RPiM5]

Originally Posted by knepsterd

How much are the parts for this retrofit?

It really depends. There are a number of places you can to go to purchase all of these parts. The best one that I found for most parts is ECSTuning. They offer substantial discounts on all of the parts and if you choose free ground shipping you can save a lot of money. But if you want to go your local dealership and order them from there you can and the prices at the dealership are always negotiable. On average I would say though, that to do a full retrofit it will cost between $2,500 - $3,500 U.S. Dollars depending on where you buy the parts from and which parts you actually need, because not everyone has the Executive Package or Drivers Assistance Package.

[stealth.pilot]

Hmm. A few thoughts:

1) Why didn't you just return it to the guy on M5Post who sold it to you? He clearly listed it as an M5 wheel when it was in fact an M4 wheel. To me that's false advertising. Plus he would then have better leverage getting his money back because he would probably have buyer protection through PayPal or his credit card company.

2) Have you called the German customs office? I've had stuff stuck in customs in Europe before and usually I can resolve it over phone by emailing them the required paperwork. In this case the paperwork would be the purchase receipt and emails to show it was purchased from Germany and is a customer return, and therefore not subject to import duties.

3) I would go after them through PayPal or the Credit Card Co since it's not your responsibility to get it through customs, it is your responsibility to send it back. Of course you can't do this you were not his customer. But you could go after the guy on M5Post who posted this wheel for sale. You would need proof that he told you it would fit your M5 because the link you posted where it was listed doesn't mention M5 at all. The fact that it doesn't mention M5 suggests he knew he was selling you the wrong wheel. If this dispute worked, you would still need the wheel to be able to return it. You may be able to get the Germans to return it.

[RPiM5]

Originally Posted by stealth.pilot

Hmm. A few thoughts:

1) Why didn't you just return it to the guy on M5Post who sold it to you? He clearly listed it as an M5 wheel when it was in fact an M4 wheel. To me that's false advertising. Plus he would then have better leverage getting his money back because he would probably have buyer protection through PayPal or his credit card company.

2) Have you called the German customs office? I've had stuff stuck in customs in Europe before and usually I can resolve it over phone by emailing them the required paperwork. In this case the paperwork would be the purchase receipt and emails to show it was purchased from Germany and is a customer return, and therefore not subject to import duties.

3) I would go after them through PayPal or the Credit Card Co since it's not your responsibility to get it through customs, it is your responsibility to send it back. Of course you can't do this you were not his customer. But you could go after the guy on M5Post who posted this wheel for sale. You would need proof that he told you it would fit your M5 because the link you posted where it was listed doesn't mention M5 at all. The fact that it doesn't mention M5 suggests he knew he was selling you the wrong wheel. If this dispute worked, you would still need the wheel to be able to return it. You may be able to get the Germans to return it.

Thanks for you thoughts Stealth. I will look into your suggestions.

[JMD]

Good read! Lessons for a lot of folks here!

[JMD]

Originally Posted by RPiM5

Thanks for you thoughts Stealth. I will look into your suggestions.

This will only work if he still has the steering wheel that was sold to him! Once he shipped it abroad,..that changes everything,...as the original seller can now say,..."it was the right wheel when I sold it to him"!, etc., etc.