exextatic

While I haven't personally dealt with one, I've heard these towbars have issues with stripped plastic gears, which does seem like it could be your issue. You'd have to take the drive mechanism apart and inspect it. If one or more of the plastic gears are stripped, replace all the plastic gears with metal replacements (can be found on eBay).

The cables change part number depending on whether the vehicle was manufactured before or after June 2006 - that might explain the length difference you're seeing? I've replaced both cables on my 130i previously without issue, though I'd have to go digging to find the part numbers I'd used. My 130i is a relatively early pre-facelift model so it was likely 51247145933 and 51237060529.

My pre-LCI Japanese import 130i has the ZF 6HP19Z, I'm pretty sure it's only the LCI variants that may have the GM 6L45 transmission.

You're unlikely to have a CCC in a 2012 X5, more likely the slightly newer CIC, which doesn't have the separate CAPPL module in NCS Expert.

See pages 28-35 of the attached training manual. While it's for the DCC system, functionally it's very similar to plain cruise control - the DME (engine computer) processes the same inputs as the LDM in this case. The main thing to note: Coding can be done DIY with NCSExpert or Protool, or if you want to pay someone to do it, contact our forum sponsor HellBM. 5. E90 DYNAMIC DRIVING SYSTEMS.pdf

Those are from ISTA/D, there are a few websites that offer cut-down functionality, e.g. https://bmwteka.com/wds/en/e87/6fe27cdd For retrofitting cruise control you won't need any extra wiring, only the correct (E87 specific due to rear wiper) steering column switch centre, the lower plastic cover (though I guess you could try modify the existing one), and appropriate coding.

The junction box (fuse box behind glovebox) changes between prefacelift and facelift variants. A white plastic junction box is prefacelift while the gray is facelift. Assuming your vehicle is prefacelift (2006) this should be relevant for your vehicle: A4010a is the JBE (junction box electronics) with two large plugs on the front, at the bottom of the junction box. Given the symptoms I'd suggest ensuring the plugs on both the car and steering-wheel side of the clock spring (A72 steering column switch center) are seated fully and check continuity across the clock spring.

You'd be best getting the car scanned with a scanner that can properly interface with the car's electronics (not a generic OBD2 scanner) and go from there - see if the head unit is responding to diagnostics.

Updating the cable's firmware isn't too difficult either: https://www.sfbmwcoding.com/files/flashing_compatible_cable_ediabaslib.pdf Definitely don't attempt to update the DME without fixing the firmware first, from memory the clone adapters have a firmware bug that results in every 255th byte being corrupt.

Long time, no update (again); while I was hoping to perform the conversion on my 'actual' 530i over the New Years holiday period, life got in the way. The wiring is coming along slowly, with JBE, CAS, DME and EKPM modules up and running. I did get some time to further develop the CAN translator firmware and put together a small UI for diagnostics / configuring the translator: The CAN translator is of my own design and is based on a PIC32MK with four CAN channels, three switch-to-ground outputs, three switch-to-VBat outputs and three optocoupler inputs. The firmware uses FreeRTOS for low-level task scheduling, TinyUSB (diagnostic interface per screenshot above, implemented using WinUSB, not CDC), and custom libraries for managing all of the peripherals. The firmware is field-upgradable with only a laptop and USB cable too

I wouldn't be too concerned with bus contention issues on E46 given it's a 500kb/s network with only a handful of messages. ARBID 0x338 is a good candidate for packing additional data, but it is only sent every 1000ms. If you're wanting data at a higher frequency then an unused ARBID is your best bet, as you've described using the 10ms task.

Definitely consider the CANTCU route if you're intending to use the vehicle as a road car / daily.

You'll likely find this interesting - I've been fiddling around with similar on my M3.

If you're not confident with the VO displayed in NCS Expert, you can use an online VIN decoder tool (e.g. MDecoder) to get the original VO for the car. The reversing camera pictured is aftermarket and won't show up in the VO. Aftermarket units typically intercept the signal going to the CID to show the camera output; this method is transparent to the vehicle's modules.

The HellBM 140i S65 is in a E82 1M replica currently, so the one you saw won't be the HellBM one.