[335iBrando]

Hello fellow enthusiest. I took on a challenging project and have succesfully converted my daily driver 2014 335xi Auto into a manual RWD car. The car drives amazing and flawless and I am very glad I did this. I am running a 58k mile M4 manual transmission (ZF-GS6-45bz) (SHBS) with its factory flywheel, twin disc clutch, and pressure plate. Aswell as the f80 trans mount and shifter mechanism. For the drive shaft I used one from an f30 335i RWD AUTO. There is about an inch of spline showing but I think it will be fine. Due to this car being an Xdrive car, half the RWD trans mount bolted to the car, and the other half had nothing to mount to. I used a grinder to make my own custom trans mount bracket out of sheet metal. Its ugly but functionality wise is perfect. I had to run wires from the clutch module to the DME and FEM, and ran wires for the reverse switch to the FEM. In order for the m4 tranny to work, I had to drill and tap a hole in the transmisison for the reverse switch. I also had to take off the f80 output flange and replace it with one from an f30 335i gs6-45bz transmission. I did not wire in the zero-gear sensor as it does not affect the cars driving nor gives me any lights on the dash. Getting into the DME connectors to add pins is very trickey, so I did not bother. Aswell as the f30 neutral sensor will not work with the f80 transmission. If someone knows a way to get the f80 gear sensor to work on an f30 that would be great. All of the coding was done using ESYS. I FA coded all of the modules to type key 3A93(RWD) and deleted the $205 from the list of options. The only module I had to revert back to factory coding was the EPS module. I have zero lights on the dash, but get a code on my reader that relates to the DME not seeing the VTG(transfer case). This does not affect the car at all. If anyone is genuinly curious to try to do this themselves I can add another post that goes into greater detail. All in all I loved banging through gears in the Xdrive auto setup, but just missed having the third pedal. Prolly the best mod I have ever done. Thanks.

[E36 wire harness]

Great work very nice. You might be able to VO code the car to tell it it's not all wheel drive and get rid of that code. The gear sensor is probably not worth it. I have the kombi module coded to show the gear that it's currently in, and not just what I should up shift to, which is all it did by default. That's kind of nice but I wouldn't hack the harness over it. Are you going to delete the front diff and oil pan and front hubs at some point? That's relatively easy compared to above.

[335iBrando]

Originally Posted by B58 parts

Great work very nice. You might be able to VO code the car to tell it it's not all wheel drive and get rid of that code. The gear sensor is probably not worth it. I have the kombi module coded to show the gear that it's currently in, and not just what I should up shift to, which is all it did by default. That's kind of nice but I wouldn't hack the harness over it. Are you going to delete the front diff and oil pan and front hubs at some point? That's relatively easy compared to above.

I have the entire car VO coded to RWD including the DME. But somehow the DME still knows to look for the VTG. It doesn’t throw any lights or put the car into limp mode. Just a code. The DSC module seems to be working fine aswell with the Xdrive wheel speed sensors up front still. I don’t think I’ll swap out the parts in the front as that may require swapping sub frames. I would have to swap out all of the controls arms, struts, power steering rack, oil pan etc…

[johnung]

Congratulations. Pretty cool project feat that you pulled off.

Please correct me if I’m wrong. I seem to remember that the transmissions in the F80 increase the risk of a spun crank hub in the N55/S55 engines. Engine power wasn’t the cause because heavily modded F30 N55’s rarely spin crank hubs.

So does your F80 transmission addition increase risk of a spun crank hub? Or have you already pinned the crank hub to prevent that?

[335iBrando]

Originally Posted by johnung

Congratulations. Pretty cool project feat that you pulled off.

Please correct me if I’m wrong. I seem to remember that the transmissions in the F80 increase the risk of a spun crank hub in the N55/S55 engines. Engine power wasn’t the cause because heavily modded F30 N55’s rarely spin crank hubs.

So does your F80 transmission addition increase risk of a spun crank hub? Or have you already pinned the crank hub to prevent that?

I don’t believe it increases the chance of spinning the crank hub. The f80 trans is the same one out of the e92 335i through the f30 335i. Same gear ratios aswell but it has beefer synchros. Though the bell housing is about 1” longer due to the longer twin disc clutch setup. I think the crank hub issue stems from the s55 having its water pump drivin from the timing chain. Thus adding more drag to the crank hub. I’ve heard that the rapid kick down from the dct when you go full throttle is what spins them.

[rlesko]

Did you write new FA to vehicle? What about code DME? that may get rid of your DME error expecting transfer case.

[335iBrando]

Originally Posted by rlesko

Did you write new FA to vehicle? What about code DME? that may get rid of your DME error expecting transfer case.

Yes I wrote the new FA to all of the ecu’s. The dme must still be looking for the VTG due to the vin

[rlesko]

Originally Posted by 335iBrando

Yes I wrote the new FA to all of the ecu’s. The dme must still be looking for the VTG due to the vin

FA gets written to vehicle not to the ECUs? i understand you coded everything. I certainly am not an expert but I find it hard to believe the DME is doing VIN decoding to figure out what equipment is there.

But btw, very awesome project you underwent here! you should be proud.

[Willnotbow]

Hey man, can unshare coding? Tbh I need to swap rwd 8hp instead of awd. Can’t find any coding to solve it

[335iBrando]

I believe there is a post about that, that someone did on a 328d. You would have to download something to change the vin coded into the transmission for that swap. I have no clue of how to go about that.

[jimmyj-wa]

Hey 335iBrando

This is awesome that you managed to get this to come together!

I am in the process of doing a manual swap on my F22, all the mechanical work is done but I cant seem to get the car to start... ive wired in the clutch pedal sensor to the FEM and the DME but its getting a "Engine start only possible when no gear is engaged" so its clearly looking for that sensor. Did you bridge that sensor somewhere or code it out?
Any help will be super appreciated!

[335iBrando]

Originally Posted by jimmyj-wa

Hey 335iBrando

This is awesome that you managed to get this to come together!

I am in the process of doing a manual swap on my F22, all the mechanical work is done but I cant seem to get the car to start... ive wired in the clutch pedal sensor to the FEM and the DME but its getting a "Engine start only possible when no gear is engaged" so its clearly looking for that sensor. Did you bridge that sensor somewhere or code it out?
Any help will be super appreciated!

Did you delete the $205 VO in ESYS?

[Lucky1]

Can this be done on the F or G 2 series 240i's?

[slobo7x]

Hey great work there wow man!! Not only did you do RWD swap, but you also swapped the transmission to manual!

I did similar to F10 550xi, I swapped the front subframes and installed EPS system because of a different unit being utilized, did the front splines and wheel sensors too. Had to code the DSC unit to RWD, but just like you even though I coded DME and other ECU's with KN93(type code for rwd) DME is still looking for VTG in ISTA. No codes on the dash though. I did not swap the transmission or driveshaft yet, that's a big project for another day but my Transfer case is unplugged and i have Xdelete app (which i'm not sure if I really need anymore).

Would love to know how to get rid of that DMW to VTG hunt as well! If you go to bimmer code and try to code DME to HECK(rear wheel drive) it won't accept coding.

[rlesko]

Originally Posted by slobo7x

Would love to know how to get rid of that DMW to VTG hunt as well! If you go to bimmer code and try to code DME to HECK(rear wheel drive) it won't accept coding.

There are some parameters in the DME which can only be changed during the first 10 working hours of the vehicle...maybe this is one of them?

If you got the DME on the bench I believe you can overcome this limitation with lower level flashing tools.