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I had been talking about trying it on Bimmerforums to see if I could do it... converting the button into a switch using a hard-wired microcontroller to detect the position of the switch and compare it with the mode of the car. I figured early non-sport models would be interested, but after reading this thread I'm not so sure. I was going to use the light from the sport mode LED to determine if the car was actually in sport mode, but from what I can tell the reduced steering assist actually sends the signal to the LED. The car must be fooled into thinking it has the sport package to get that change in EPS (reduced steering assist). In other words, the microcontroller (as-suggested) would not be able to detect if the car was in sport mode unless someone changed the vehicle order number.
There are ways to determine if the car is in sport mode, but it's going to require much more digging on my part and may be beyond my experience level right now. I'm still going to try, but there are several obstacles to overcome: where to hardwire the microcontroller, which one to use, how to burn it and program it (I've learned C but I have no interface with my computer to program and burn the chips), and finding an aesthetically-pleasing switch.
That being said, the chip itself should be simple - only a few lines of code. I know it is possible and can be done, and I've succeeded in similar projects before. The limiting factor is going to be my experience level and the fact that I haven't tried to do anything like this in several years.
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