Reading stock BMW Sensors

[Peter Carroll/Toronto]

Has anyone had luck interfacing the DL1 to standard BMW sensors? I am interested in Throttle, Brake, Steering. The car is a 1997 E36 M3 with a Euro 3.2L evo motor (the 321hp).

The TPS should be easy. I assume I just tap into the existing sensor rather than adding one.

Is there an easier way to get brake pressure than tapping the hydraulic line? That makes me nervous. I see there is a brake travel sensor on the master cylinder. However, the sensor is a variable resistor with both ends connected to the ABS unit. With a voltmeter I don't seem to get a meaningful reading. It's not a tap on a 0-5V like the TPS.

What's the easiest way to measure steering angle? He car doesn't have a sensor for that (the E46 does but it can not be adapted)

I have the RT sensors but wanted to hear other's experiences before cutting into things.

Peter

[m3driver]

Peter,

I have a 95 M3 and have used the following. Caveat is I use a Tec3 ECU. Stock TPS is just fine. For a brake signal I just tap into the brake light switch and get a somewhat binary signal. That combined with the decel data from the GPS and accelerometers does just fine for me. I have installed the RT steering angle sensor, but a poor mans substitute can be to use one of the GPS variables, I think it was gps heading change or something like that. It has been a while since I've used the DL1 since I plowed the car into a hillside

I would counsel against tapping into the stock brake pedal travel sensor since I've heard the ABS system is somewhat sensitive to spurious inputs and can cause faults etc.

Marco