I'm considering an E46 that is in the family, it doesn't have cruise control which is something I really want. I was wondering, is it possible to purchase a second hand steering wheel and loom (and potentially some sort of CC box) from a higher spec E46 and put it in mine? Has anyone else done this? Is it plug and play?

Cheers!

Nah, I would imagine there would be quite a bit of work. The magic comes from under the bonnet with a mechanism grabbing the throttle cable (as far as i am aware)

I'm not so sure, I've been doing a lot of reading around, it would appear that if you have the right engine (N42) all you need to do is add the right steering wheel and wire in three cables. Check here, here and

for how to's and here for the BMW dealership manual.

However, the M43 engine (earlier engine I believe) requires extra parts, as suggested here, and the parts can be found here. So this requires a lot more work and money, but it can be done successfully.

So in conclusion to my own question, it appears the answer is yes but check what engine you have first as you might want to think twice before trying it on an M43! Hope this helps someone out.

Edit:

Also, it would appear the N42 was put in the 2001-04 318's, and the car in question is a 2004 318 so it looks like it could be a simple job, however in 2004 this engine was changed for the N46. It appears to be a very similar engine but I haven't found out for sure if the retrofit is the same or not yet.