I read a few posts that people were looking for a DIY on the F10 M5 shift knob. I decided to make the purchase. I have a 08 135i Mtech, and prem package, nothing else.
Step 1)
Put car into 2nd gear and using both hands pull upwards to remove the oem knob. Once the knob is off the shifter, you'll want to remove the shift boot. The boot is removed by pulling up on any corner, theres 4 tabs one on each corner.
Step 2)
You will now see the bare shifter, there is a 5x4x2 foam square piece you'll remove. Just lift up at the corners and it'll come out.
Step 3)
Get your M5 shifter, turn the boot inside out, you will see a white ring. Tug and pull on the leather boot and it will slowly come apart where its glued. Then you'll want to use a small screw driver or something to break the two oval tabs on the white ring. Theres no way of removing the white ring without breaking these 2 tabs.
Step 4)
Right around 4th gear, you should see an electrical connection. I'm not sure where it leads to/from, but its connected to the headlights/interior lights. I noticed its live when the headlights are on and turns off when car door is opened.
Step 5)
Disconnect the connector by pressing the two tabs on the side. There are 3 wires on the connector, brown (ground), green/yellow (unsure), red/purple (power). You'll want to tap into the Brown wire and the red/purple wire to power the led light on the M5 shift knob. Its pretty simple since the shift knob has the same color wires, brown, red/purple. Use whatever method you're comfortable with tapping the wires. (Soldering/wire tap/strip and electrical tape)
Step 6)
Once you've made the electrical connections for the M5 knob, you'll want to take the white ring you removed in Step 3. You'll take it and push it into your oem shift boot. Push it up from the bottom side... DO NOT push it all the way through, you want to place the white ring 1cm below the very top of the leather boot opening. Hold the ring in place and use glue to secure it in place, I used super glue. (Make sure the ring is pointed straight, the broken taps should be pointed towards 4th gear)
Now you'll want to install the foam square, then the leather boot, and then the shift knob, finally the interior trim piece.
Final
As I said, the knob will turn on if the headlights are on, and it will turn off if you turn off the car and open the door... The M5 knob feels different in the hand, but after driving for a day, I'm really starting to love how it feels, shifting feels much better too.
Here is the Purchase Link $123 shipped
