Fitting M20 Cruise Control to M40 -which Bowden cable works?

Post Tue Jan 03, 2006 9:16 pm

Has anybody ever fitted Cruise control to a 318i (M40)?

I've got an M20 cruise kit for my 320i T. but as I tend to use the wife's 1993 318i T. on long runs due to better fuel economy I'd like to have a go at fitting it.

In RealOEM I've spotted a Cruise Bowden Cable for a 1991 E36 318i M40, which will definately fit the accelerator mechanism:

http://www.realoem.com/bmw/showparts.do ... g=66&fg=95

Has anybody tried doing this? The possible issues are whether the E36 M40 cruise kit used the same Actuator motor as the E30 M20 kit and also whether the Bowden cable will be long enough to still mount the actuator beside the airbox.

Thanks for any help,
Sharknose

Post Wed Jan 04, 2006 9:50 am

I believe Demlotcrew used a E36 318ti bowden cable to fit cruise to his E30 318is M42 engine.

Post Wed Jan 04, 2006 1:29 pm

Thx E30Mark,

Sounds like I was on the right track so as the early E36 Saloons would be the only M40s that had the cruise as a factory option.

I ordered the E36 Bowden cable this morning from the local dealer and for 18 Euro + VAT it is worth the risk.

I'll post my progress to the zone later,

Sharknose

Post Sun Feb 26, 2006 8:02 pm

In case anybody wants to install cruise in a 316i/318i M40 E30, I just finished it and it worked great with the E36 loom mentioned already.

The only slight hiccup is that the accesory socket in an M40 car does not have the pins fitted. I just ran a feed to the purple/white wire from another 7.5 amp circuit and the green brown wire to earth

Let me know if you have any questions,
Sharknose

Post Sun Feb 26, 2006 11:15 pm

Where did you get the kit? I've seen the LHD kit advertised on here but didn't know if it would be a can of worms for RHD?
cheers
dan

Post Mon Feb 27, 2006 9:18 am

The kit that I fitted was bought off ebay a few weeks ago.
It was from a LHD car but I untaped part of the loom, rearranged the cables and retaped it to make it work for RHD.

At 2 points a cut and solder were necessary, to get the clutch switch connector moved to the offside and the power feed connector moved to the nearside of the loom. The rest was as described here in several forum
threads

Sharknose

Post Mon Feb 27, 2006 1:55 pm

oh ok, so with an auto, I can just leave the clutch cable jumper in place and relocate the power.

Post Mon Feb 27, 2006 2:58 pm

Yeah, that should do it - at least if the donor loom came from an auto E30 that is all you have to do as the clutch switch connection on the loom will have a terminating plug to complete the circuit.
If the donor loom came from a manual car you'll need to fix the the clutch switch in such a way that it maintains the circuit or take out the switch and otherwise complete the circuit .
(I've got one of these termining plugs lying around spare if you need it)

Sharknose