You’ve purchased an F30, you love it..But it doesn’t have paddle shifters.

We can retrofit these into your car!

This retrofit will require a few things, as well as some coding that will need to be done. You will need a steering wheel with paddles. I ended up finding mine used on ebay for $150. Do some digging around, you can find them for relatively cheap.

We will also need the wires to run the paddles:

These are the tools needed for the job:

• Pick tools - Buy Here

• Trim Tools - Buy Here

• 10mm Socket - Buy Here

• 7mm Socket - Buy Here

• Coat Hanger - Look in your closet

• Impact Drill Set - Buy Here

• T20 Torx - Buy Here

• Screwdriver - Buy Here

• Needle Nose Pliers - Buy Here

• Electrical Tape - Buy Here

• Small LED Light (optional) - Buy Here

First, lets disconnect the negative terminal from the battery in the trunk, wrap a cloth around it. Then locate your Front Electronic Module (This is being covered by the plastic piece to the right of your right foot if you are sitting in the passenger seat. We will need to remove a few plastic pieces here. One is the door sill plastic, one is the plastic piece that covers the FEM and the other is the plastic piece underneath the glove compartment. The plastic piece just under the glove compartment is held in by two 10mm nuts and a few plastic clips.

We need to access the first plug inside of the FEM, to do this. Remove that plastic cover. Then you will see a latching mechanism that is holding the first plug into place. In order to undo that, press down on the tab and the latch will open. This will then release the plug from the FEM.

Next you will need to remove the black plug from the white casing. There are two tabs on each side, push them apart using a pick tool and the black plug should slide out. Pin number five is where we are tapping our wire into. We will be connecting all 4 wires together to form one long wire that will reach from the passenger side of the car over to the drivers side.

So if you look on your black plug, and count from the left. If you notice that slot number 5 is empty, you are like me and will need to wire them yourself. You may however get lucky and already have this prewired into your car. If that is the case you can skip this wiring step entirely.

So now we need to run this long wire over to the drivers side. Remove the small plastic piece under the accessory panel, we will remove the cd drive as well. This wire will run behind that and removing those will give us more access to push the wire through.

Next we need to remove the steering wheel. In order to do this, we need to remove the airbag. Take a screwdriver, flat head usually works best. You will see two slits on each side of the steering wheel. The screwdriver will go into that slit, we are feeling for a spring activated locking system. Once that spring has been compressed on each side, it will release the airbag. This is not easy and can be very frustrating. Take your time, this isn’t the place to damage anything.

Once you have released the airbag, there are two plugs attaching it to the electronic hub assembly. Use a pick tool to release those, set the airbag aside safely.

Next, there is a 16mm bolt holding the wheel on. Impact will take it right off. If you do this with a standard wrench it will take a bit of force.

Next, we need to disassemble the steering assembly. There is a leather covering just underneath your instrument cluster covering your steering assembly, that is held in by small clips. Disconnect this by pulling down the leather, it will come right off. The upper and lower steering assembly (Plastic pieces) are held together by clips as well. They are tough to get undone, but not impossible. Detach those both.

Then we need to remove the 4 7mm screws holding in the electronic steering hub assembly. In the back of the assembly is where we are pinning our new wire that is being ran from the FEM. On the back of the assembly there is a latch like plug, it has a grey latch and a black body. Remove this by sliding down the latch.

Then remove the actual plug from that latch housing. Just use a pick tool and pry it right out. We are looking for slot #3, this is where we are connecting our new wire. Locate #3, pull the rest of your wire from the FEM into the steering assembly. And now connect that wire into Slot #3.

It is now time to reassemble, take your time tucking wires. Might be wise to use zip ties to fasten loose wires. Lastly, reconnect the battery.

Alright, so now all we have to do is code the car for paddle shifters!

We will be using the application called Bimmercode to code this feature out, you can download the app for IOS or ANDROID. Check if your car is compatible HERE.

Bimmercode’s website suggests using the Veepeak Bluetooth Adapter, in order to connect your phone to the car via bluetooth.

You can use Code: YTBDST15 at checkout to receive 15% off of your purchase.

Let’s jump into the coding process!

Open bimmercode, plug your Veepeak Adapter into the OBD2 port (located near your left foot in the driver’s side footwell)

Select your adapter: Veepeak OBDCheck BLE, then select your vehicle (In my case, BMW 3 Series, F30)

Now we need to enter the Front Electronic Module - From there we will jump into expert mode, bottom left.

Then you are looking for 3190 PfSteeringWHeelPaddles

Lastly, select Aktiv.

You can now code this in, paddle shifters are now active!

Your Manual mode, should switch gears (M1,M2,M3 etc etc) when hitting the paddles up and down

If you would like to watch the full install, you can do that here: