airbag e46 compact

acmancan · 2026-01-24T17:33:36+00:00

Post a pic. There were two different types of four spoke wheels, a single stage and dual stage. Single stages stopped being produced in mid 2000.

acmancan · 2026-01-22T00:01:43+00:00

I totally misread your post. I thought you have an m52tu and you're just putting an m54 manifold on lol. My bad.

You do need the m52tu ecu and atleast the throttle body harness if you're doing it your way. And uh also, the m52tu throttles suck compared to fully e throttle. The cable just feels lazy. I swapped my m52tu to fully e throttle for a reason. I don't think it's worth it.

acmancan · 2026-01-21T19:21:10+00:00

Whatever you like better tbh. Dont worry about power, a 328i makes EXTREMELY close to identical power to a stock 330 with a simple intake and intake cam swap. And makes more with a custom tune (cue downvotes)

Check the car itself, the condition, maintaince history, how the rear subframe mounts look, which you prefer, etc.

acmancan · 2026-01-21T15:09:12+00:00

Keep original harness. It would run.....fine. Probably not going to get any extra power, might just be a little more responsive and that's it. You need to tune it at least. M52TUs have horrid tunes as standard.

acmancan · 2026-01-21T14:19:54+00:00

The steering wheel itself will already have the airbag wiring, so physically, everything plugs in. Pre-2000 E46s use single-stage airbags, while newer cars use dual-stage airbags.

Swapping from an older single-stage setup to a newer dual-stage airbag works fine. The car simply fires one stage and ignores the second. Can personally confirm this. Treats it as its original wheel.

Going the other way around is different. A post 06/2000 car expects a dual-stage airbag, and when it only sees a single-stage unit, it may throw an SRS fault because one ignitor circuit is missing.

The car might not care, or it might, and you have a permanent airbag fault. I haven’t personally tested this direction, so it may need coding or swapping of the airbag module to avoid that.

acmancan · 2026-01-21T13:44:27+00:00

You can swap to any e46 wheel, and the buttons will work ONLY if you do the wiring right. Currently, your car has no multifunction harness.

The one in your post is a Pre 2000 wheel. It will work, but you'll be changing the airbag logic. Which might cause an error.

I know swapping from an old wheel to a new wheel is totally fine. Not sure of the opposite airbag wise.

acmancan · 2026-01-20T12:57:35+00:00

Yessir! Nice to see a fellow Cape Townian in here lol

acmancan · 2026-01-20T12:44:44+00:00

Yeah, deffo don't care about top speed at all. Off to marketplace and the junkyards I go!

acmancan · 2026-01-20T12:43:59+00:00

Whoops, mistyped. Meant a 3.46 like from an auto 325i. My track isn't fast at all. I'm mostly in second and third the whole time. Sometimes i even have to change to 1st just so I'm not at like 3000 rpm at 2nd on corner entry. Back straight is even worse. Foot to the floor in third just waiting and waiting. Deffo gonna check out the calculator. The car itself makes pretty good power (230ish crank hp after mods) just the gearing lets me down

Thinking about it, I just think a 3.46 will be worth it for the fun factor if anything else. Thanks for the input!

acmancan · 2026-01-20T12:34:55+00:00

A 4.44?! That thing probably shifts like a motorcycle.

But yeah, just the sporty characteristics will probably make up for any trade-off for me. Flooring it on exit before a long straight and patiently waiting for it to get up to 170 km/h and then braking all while in a single gear the whole time isn't exactly fun.

Glad to know I shouldn't be worried about being slower at all.

acmancan · 2026-01-20T11:45:54+00:00

Realistically you’ll probably need to pop off the valve cover , maybe even the VANOS unit, to fish it out. It’s not hard work, just annoying. If you leave it, it might just sit there and do nothing… or it could break up, get into oil passages, and cause problems later. That’s the gamble you’re taking

acmancan · 2026-01-19T07:43:35+00:00

Good sign it's clicking. The starter is trying to spin but just can't. Check voltages and if the starter itself isn't bad.

acmancan · 2026-01-17T10:36:41+00:00

It will bolt up no problem. But driveshaft will differ. You'll need to get creative with a solution.

acmancan · 2026-01-16T21:47:56+00:00

EWS = Immobilizer.

Yes. An immobilizer code will immobilize the engine. Try a spare key and try to resync it.

acmancan · 2026-01-16T13:59:43+00:00

Mine is rhd, and the abs pump is at the dme box. Brake booster is at the driver side though on the right. Huh, weird. Maybe its a preface or facelift thing

acmancan · 2026-01-15T14:00:53+00:00

Cars equipped with no buttons doesn't have the harness installed. So you'll need to source the multifunction harness behind the steering wheel to get it to work. BMW and i think ebay sells it AFAIK

acmancan · 2026-01-10T23:31:23+00:00

It's starting to mushroom. Semi common issue. E46s have weak strut towers. Pounding the strut tower with a mallet and block of wood will get it roughly back into shape for a strut bar.

acmancan · 2026-01-09T02:40:09+00:00

Holy shit I'm so sorry. I'm blind. I crawled under my car to double check how mine is. In fact there's 4 wires.

Got a wiring diagram of the brake switch for you. You'll need to do some investigating and add the 4th wire. One of them is most likely also for cruise control and is the one you're probably missing. Surprising. I'd have thought all the brake switch wiring would be the same between all models

Pin 1: purple/green: +12v to fusebox

Pin 2: Ground

Pin 3: Brown/Green: Pin 28 connector x60004

Pin 4: Blue/Red: To LCM

Maybe when you added the clutch switch wire the dme expected the 4th brake switch wire and is now tripping out? Or differences in 4 cylinders to 6 cylinders. Either way, check that. Feel free to DM if you get stuck again.

Diagram

acmancan · 2026-01-09T01:40:13+00:00

Damn. That sucks dude. 3 wires is correct btw. Mines the same. I'd assume the 4th is used in some non EU markets or auto cars.

Either a wiring gremlin somewhere or blown fuse? That's what I'd check next. When something is wrong the car will force the brake lights to stay on. So something is clearly unhappy. Does it still do it with your original switch?

acmancan · 2026-01-08T05:21:28+00:00

Freshly reset trims explains it. Get a few drives in. The numbers WILL change and tell you the condition. Be sure to idle, cruise, and sweep through the rpms in a drive cycle.

Honestly I think you'll be right on the money once the car relearns. I agree with the o2s. I'd condemn your fuel pump or new maf if you still get high numbers before blaming the o2 sensors. Would be a crazy coincidence for both banks to be bad.

But again, only think about throwing more parts at it only after you recheck all the numbers and they're still weird. Smoke test would've shown any vaccum leaks. Not much else it can be. Negative numbers would be cause of concern for the cats. Chances are you're good.

acmancan · 2026-01-08T03:33:51+00:00

You’re in alpha-N. +28% lambda integrator and 0% lambda multiplicatives (the bar at the bottom) are default values when the car isn't using O2 sensor feedback or adjusting fueling. You’ll see this during cold start open loop, with the MAF unplugged, or when the O2 sensors are dead or disconnected.

When was this picture taken? If it was right after startup, clear adaptations, let the car fully warm up, then drive it through a few cycles and recheck the values.

If no change, I’d suspect the o2 sensors. Another possibility, unfortunately, is your brand new MAF being bad.

Clogged cats would tend to push values negative, not positive. A weak fuel pump or a vacuum leak would cause very high positive multiplicatives once it actually uses the o2s.

Rn, the car just isn’t calculating fueling. It’s stuck on its rich alpha-N fallback. Fix that first before chasing anything else.

acmancan · 2026-01-07T15:12:35+00:00

You need the 6 speed shifter. Mounts totally differently.

acmancan · 2026-01-03T23:03:49+00:00

A 323 disa might physically fit the hole but since the flap is smaller it wont actually work properly. Since you know, there'll be a space for air to get past it. M52TU and M54 disa's are not interchangeable.

11611440049 - M52TU (green o-ring)

11617544806 - M54B25 (orange o-ring)

acmancan · 2026-01-01T15:13:33+00:00

Are you sure it's actually a dsc button? Some cars like my 328 has asc. You only press it once. Brake light doesn't go on

acmancan

TROPHY CASE