Everyone know M5 TAs work in the E9X M3 (paid 575 USD for new piece)?

[anom3]

Thought I would post this in the general forum because I did not see it mentioned anywhere else... Maybe I missed it.

Over the last 3 months been getting the TA error codes. Over the last 2-3 weeks they started popping up pretty much every time.

Was about to do the gear swap (even ordered them, sitting on the desk here), but read that the gears are by far not a 100% fix.

So I decided to do the TA swap.

Found a brand new one for 575 USD equivalent (I'm in the EU). Thats WITH our 23% VAT (sales) tax.

Went to pick it up, the seller was a parts / shop, not an official BMW shop.

So I'm about to pay up, and the gentlemen tells me "you are going to have to swap the arm on it, its for an M5"... A bit worried at this point, wanted something plug and play. I decided to bite the bullet, worst case I would have to come in there raging and get my $$ back.

Take it home, sure enough:

The little arm that has the "ball" on it is at a slightly different angle. Looked about 10-15 degrees different. Swapped it for the one off my old one.

Get everything back together, fire the car up.

No codes, runs perfect.

So, I am not sure what "real" E9X M3 TAs are going for, but this one cost me 575USD with tax. I'm sure the same piece can be had for slightly less in the US as parts tend to be slightly more here with the higher sales tax and all.

The box was a NOT BMW branded, it was VDO (the company who makes them for BMW).

If anyone would like more details I can snap a picture of the packaging it came in. Like I said, brand new, not only visually, but it was sealed in pink foil (vacuum sealed, would have to go through a lot of trouble to replicate this) with a VDO sticker on the pink foil.

[anom3]

So, judging by ECS and a couple of other sites... Looks like I got a steal of a deal.

Here are some snaps of the packaging in case someone wants to find out if its possible to source these.

Oh, and:

A) There was no BMW sticker on it.

B) The VDO sticker showed 201512 as the manuf date.

C) Over 100KM on it already, a few WOTs and no codes / issues to note.

[buddalun]

Did you take any pics of the "arm" you mention? TIA

[pbonsalb]

The non dealer vdo m5 units are cheaper. There is a thread on it. Around $550 each. This has recently come to light and is a good development.

[X5-User]

There is another thread on this ...yes M5 actuators works fine on our e9X M3. You just have to swap the arm

[buddalun]

Originally Posted by pbonsalb

The non dealer vdo m5 units are cheaper. There is a thread on it. Around $550 each. This has recently come to light and is a good development.

Are the non-dealer VDO units of lesser quality as compared to dealer? Does VDO make the dealer unit as well? TIA