Anyone know of a way to disable the paddle shifters on their E55? I find them useless in this car and have unintentionally bumped my car into manual mode numerous times. Not a problem for me but I'm terrified my wife will drive the car to Orlando in 1st. gear.

What year is it?

It's an '06'. I can't be the only person interested in doing this. I have played with the shift buttons but prefer to use the gear selector since it's always in the same location as opposed to the shift buttons that are like trying to hit a moving target.

06 has a normally open circuit, so just pull out the two plugs in the wheel. A five minute job with the correct torx tool. Just put them back when you sell it to restore the function.

Yes.

Finny, I just took a look at the shift buttons and was able to pop one out rather easily. There are two wires leading into the back of the button which appears to be held on by two very small screws. Are you saying I can take the back off the button and disconnect the wires to disable the buttons? Will I occomplish my goal if I just disable the "down" shift button?

And, thanks for the suggestion. I think it will be an easy fix.

I've never seen an 06 with shift buttons or paddles that just pop out.

They are usually screwed in. I'm not sure about this one. It seems like an 03 version?

Post up a photo so we can see.

?????

In this picture, the two white plugs are the shifter wires, to get to these you need a remove the torx screws on the back of the wheel, this will release the air bag, and then you can access those plugs. I always disconnect the battery before removing the airbag.

I was able to slip a finger nail under the button on the back side of the wheel and pull out the entire button assembly. It popped back in just as easily. There are two wires coming from the back of the steering wheel into the shift button switch which has two small torx screws that appear to hold on the back of the switch. It looks like I may be able to remove the torx screws and access the inside of the switch and disconnect one wire. W

Will give it a try in a day or so and report back.

I've seen this mentioned several times with not much resolution. This seems like a significant potential problem and I'm surprised there's not a setting to disable the paddle shifters. Exactly as others stated, it's not me that I'm worried about, but I'd hate my girlfriend to drive 200 miles in low gear! Currently I have a '07 S550 and will shortly be getting a new GL550 and would sure feel better if I could disable those when she borrows it for trips...

So long as its not in 'manual' mode at some point it will gear up.... even in sport it does the same, gets a little dicey when gearing down at a stoplight but still usually corrects itself. If the trans is in manual mode - then yeah you've got a potential issue - but I don't know why anyone would run that in a day to day basis.

There is a setting within if you have sds you can code them out. Or as said! Take airbag off and unplug