I have a black 2006 M45 sport that has bad paint/clearcoat peeling on the hood and front fenders, a cracked lower section of the front bumper, and very cloudy headlights. I got a quote from a body shop to repair all this. For what they quoted it occurred to me that it wasn't that far off the price of a used M. Anyway started looking and I found a low mileage 2008 M45x (also black) that was hit in the rear but otherwise pristine condition inside and out for way less than the body shop quote. I'm fairly confident that all the front end body panels and headlights could just be swapped over which solves my initial problem and avoids a trip to the body shop.

My question is way more insane than that: What else can I swap if I buy this donor car? It has the advanced tech package FYI. I see people have swapped the gauge clusters before. What about the center display? What about the seats with the built in bose speakers? What about the integrated DVD center console? What about the intelligent cruise and lane departure? Does anyone know if I'm headed for failure trying any of those swaps?

And then saving the best for last, if I absolutely lose my mind, could I swap the AWD system? I just think this would be a fun project to see how far I could take it. Any insight is appreciated.

I'll let someone like EdBwoy respond as he our M45 expert from the Y50 years but I believe they are identical. Only the M35 saw engine changes in 2008 compared to 2006.

This will be big!

The cosmetic part in front is pretty simple, but then again you want to verify that the headlights all have similar features before you're stuck on a wiring issue. If your vehicle is truly a sport, then you should have AFS, just like the 08 V8 will.

If you have a base model (technology-wise) and want to upgrade it to the tech or advance tech packages, then the best way would be to strip the vehicles and start moving the wiring and modules over. These vehicles don't seem to be pre-wired for all those different features.
Basically, you'd be trying to move everything over into your shell into make sure all the computers are talking to each other properly.
Someone accomplished this on their M45 a few years ago.

The AWD swap is a whole other ballgame. Different subframe, transmission, propshaft, front diff, axles, suspension, wiring and modules.
...and that is assuming everything from the donor is in perfect shape.

***
This is the kind of project your embark on as a passion project. The time and money invested is likely to far exceed the market value of your final product.
However, if you just do the project, the FSM will come in handy. Godspeed.

EdBwoy wrote: ↑

Fri Jan 06, 2023 12:00 am

This will be big!

The cosmetic part in front is pretty simple, but then again you want to verify that the headlights all have similar features before you're stuck on a wiring issue. If your vehicle is truly a sport, then you should have AFS, just like the 08 V8 will.

If you have a base model (technology-wise) and want to upgrade it to the tech or advance tech packages, then the best way would be to strip the vehicles and start moving the wiring and modules over. These vehicles don't seem to be pre-wired for all those different features.
Basically, you'd be trying to move everything over into your shell into make sure all the computers are talking to each other properly.
Someone accomplished this on their M45 a few years ago.

The AWD swap is a whole other ballgame. Different subframe, transmission, propshaft, front diff, axles, suspension, wiring and modules.
...and that is assuming everything from the donor is in perfect shape.

***
This is the kind of project your embark on as a passion project. The time and money invested is likely to far exceed the market value of your final product.
However, if you just do the project, the FSM will come in handy. Godspeed.

Someone swapped over a tech package?! Wow. I wonder how hard that is and what was involved

Thanks EdBwoy. I definitely am aware that this is a passion project and makes no financial sense. The M45 is not my daily driver anymore but I love it and can't imagine getting rid of it. So just wanted to see what things I can do to give it a second life. I did buy the donor M45 so I'm going to try as much as I can

I saw some of your videos on Youtube which are super helpful. Appreciate the info.

Please keep us posted. This could be a good learning experience.

Hey All, it's been about a year since I first posted about this project. I hate when people leave threads open with no update or outcome. So here is the update after a year of working on it off and on when I had time. From a cosmetic point of view I think this was a success. Body parts, headlights, carpet, dash pad, seats, etc. all transferred over nicely (or will transfer over nicely) from the '08 donor to my '06. I've got some things fully installed and everything else I did test fits on and everything looks good.

On the technical side, it's the opposite story. No success. To add the tech package to a non tech package car I think is theoretically possible but realistically unfeasible at the moment. A few major hurdles right off the bat are that the best I can tell it will require an ECM change, main wiring harness change, and windshield swap to go along with swapping all of the ancillary modules that run off that main harness inside the car. That's a daunting task itself as the correct ECM would need to be programmed and that main harness runs behind the engine, through the firewall, and behind the dash reinforcement...would not be fun to change. But my project was made even harder by the fact that my donor vehicle is an '08 M45X. That pretty much renders all the electrical components useless when trying to fit them to my non AWD, non tech package '06. So I'd have to source all the components on top of what I already paid for the donor car. Looking back on it, I should have been more careful about treating the 06/07's and 08/09/10's as essentially separate cars from an electronics point of view.

In the short term, I'll have a very nice stock '06 M45 with all of the cosmetic issues corrected. But no tech package (for now).