DIY Steering wheel and Stalk swap

[DavidB8]

I've redone the write up and pictures and moved everything to my website here: http://www.audienthusiasts.com/ProjectSteeringSwap.html

[ItsDubC]

Once again David, thx for taking the time to write this up and take pics during the process, especially given your climate conditions.

When you reconnect the battery, is there anything special that has to be done to get everything working the way it used to (ie entering a security code for the radio, re-VAG-COMing previous settings, etc)? TIA

[Cabal_san]

Nice as always and in sub zero temps! You are the mod god!

[rtc5250]

Nice write up!! Thanks again David!

[DavidB8]

Once again David, thx for taking the time to write this up and take pics during the process, especially given your climate conditions.

When you reconnect the battery, is there anything special that has to be done to get everything working the way it used to (ie entering a security code for the radio, re-VAG-COMing previous settings, etc)? TIA

No special codes needed.

I believe if you take out the errors I got because of the non existent options the only one I would have had to deal with was the steering angle sensor. I think that will happen if you put new stalks on because the car recognizes you swapped it.

[JetBlue]

I am always amazed by the amount of work you are doing on your car. Fantastic writeup.

[jabicho]

Great work, David... ´just thinking about the disconnecting battery issue.Here on my owner´s manual it says it ´s necessary to reset it or something like tahtt at the dealers, is it just to clear error messages???

[DavidB8]

Yeah if you don't have a vag com you could end up with some errors you can't clear. With my Vag I cleared everything no problem.

[Smeghead]

my next mod

[jabicho]

Do you know if it´s possible to adapt the original 4-spoke wheel air-bag to this 3 spoke wheel? It´s cheaper to buy just the wheel without it...

[DavidB8]

They are different unfortunately.

[ThePiombino]

The Mod Man strikes again! Great work as usual.

[pdegr]

Hello,
I'm Pino from Italy and excuse me for writing in pm and for my English.
I'd like to install MF taste in my 2008 A4B8 and I'm a little bit confused.I buy this :http://cgi.ebay.de/AUDI-A4-A5-A6-S-L...item2a0bb1dbdd
but now I need wiring arness for airbag and maybe another cable to joint the 2 tastes?
Please can you tell me more about it and audi part number ?
Thank you very much,Pino.

[Scott_C]

Hi, thanks for this excellent writeup and tutorial. Unfortunately, I've hit a snag. The airbag connector on the 3 spoke steering wheel is different from the one on my original 4 spoke wheel.


The green/yellow connector is the 4 spoke wheel and the orange/yellow connector is the 3 spoke. Note the tabs on the side; 4 spoke have them at the bottom, 3 spoke; halfway up.


I read the notes at the bottom of David's article; would it be best to buy the right connector from Audi and have that installed onto the 3 spoke steering wheel? Would it then work? I actually did shave the tabs of the 3 spoke connector down a tad so it could plug in, but there was no communication with the wheel (no lights, horn etc) and Vag Com reported the error as such.

Thanks,

Scott.

[autobahnaudi]

Looking at the back of the harness with the cover off and with the orange/green tab UP label the pins as follows.
1-2-3-4-5-6 (FISRT ROW TOP)
7-8-9-10-11-12 (SECOND ROW BOTTOM)
Completly de-pin the orange connector so you can put the green one in its place so you don't have to trim the tabs like you said you did. (Optional of course)
Here are the pin re-locations as I said to label them above. The other pins remain in the same place. Pin 3 4 5 and 6 leave in same location.
There is a purple pin lock on the side of the harness that will need to be removed so you can de pin the pins. This just push out with enough force. FYI the pins are a PITA to get out of the harness I used a sewing needle to unlock there clips. Insert sewing needle into the small aquare holes on the front to disengage the pin locks like I said its a PITA.
Pin relocation.
7 to 1 / Brown
8 to 2 / Yellow
10 to 8 / Red
Here some pics of before and after sorry they are old.
BEFORE I depinned the 3 spoke round airbag

AFTER I re-pinned the 4 spoke green harness onto the airbag.


I don't think you can take the wire harness from your old airbag because the mounting points are different to include the grounds. I might be wrong about that though, I did the pin-reloaction and swaped the orange for the green so I didn't have trim tabs. Been working for me for the last 4 months and all is still good. Make sure you disconnec battery, before you play around with airbag!!
Now your steering wheel contols and lights should work.
Great success!

[Scott_C]

Mate, thank you SO much for this information! I think I'll just rearrange the pins on the orange connector, as per your instructions, since ive shaved it to fit already. (it still clicks in nice and solid)

Ill leave the green connector on my 4 spoke steering wheel so that I can sell it.

Cheers,

Scott.

[Scott_C]

I think i may have a slightly different wiring config? Looking at the connector with the orange tab UP I have;

ROW ONE: 1/empty, 2/empty, 3/empty, 4/green, 5/white, 6/blue, 7/orange
ROW TWO: 7/black, 8/brown, 9/dark blue, 10/red, 11/empty, 12/empty

So for example, if I moved the wire in pin 7 to 1, I would be moving the black wire..

[autobahnaudi]

Ya thats wierd. What airbag are you trying to install the round one like the audi TT / S3?
I installed my audi S3 wheel with round airbag / replacing the audi a4 squarish airbag.
See if this link can help you
http://www.audizine.com/forum/showth...ing-wheel-fits

[Scott_C]

Thanks for the link, I'll have a look and see if it helps. At the moment, the 4 spoke wheel is back on the car, but I seem to remember all of the wires going into its green connector being black which is weird. My car is a 2008 Audi A4 B8 1.8T, I bought this off a guy who says he has a Audi B8 1.8T (i think 2010 or 2011, he just bought it) he was selling his 3 spoke wheel cause he bought the TT style flat bottom steering wheel.

I guess I have to work out on my car, which pin is the horn, which is the lights, etc.

[autobahnaudi]

That's what I thought it looked liked it your pics all the wires where black this is normal. The colors don't matter just there locations. My new harness for my old 4 spoke airbag has all black wires.
However I am only telling what worked for me. I wouldnt want you to blow your airbag or something crazy. :)

[Scott_C]

Thanks for that. I guess i'll need to find out the pin assignments for my specific model car.

[Kandiru]

I did Autobahnaudi's mod when i installed the R8 V10 wheel in my S4 and have horn
and backlights but nothing else and a "Parking Brake Failure" alarm.

Autobahnaudi can you help?

[imashy14u]

Just wondering, if I have a B8 A4 with manual transmission and 3 spoke steering wheel, am I able to buy a flat bottom RS6 or RS5 steering wheel with DSG paddles and fit it without any problems? I assume the only thing is that the paddles will not work, but everything else would. Am I correct in thinking this, or are the plugs totally different?

It seems all flat bottom steering wheels all have DSG paddles

[MikkelS]

What can bed added in the DIS by adding a new wheel?

[spuerer]

Looking at the back of the harness with the cover off and with the orange/green tab UP label the pins as follows.
1-2-3-4-5-6 (FISRT ROW TOP)
7-8-9-10-11-12 (SECOND ROW BOTTOM)
Completly de-pin the orange connector so you can put the green one in its place so you don't have to trim the tabs like you said you did. (Optional of course)

...

I don't think you can take the wire harness from your old airbag because the mounting points are different to include the grounds. I might be wrong about that though, I did the pin-reloaction and swaped the orange for the green so I didn't have trim tabs. Been working for me for the last 4 months and all is still good. Make sure you disconnec battery, before you play around with airbag!!
Now your steering wheel contols and lights should work.
Great success!

I hope you know what you do?!

You can't use the TT or RS6 steering wheel by changing the airbag-connector! There are two different airbag systems (adaptive in the B8 and non adaptive in TT,A6). There will be no error in the ECU, but in case of an accident the system will not work properly!!!

If there are different airbag-connectors ->there are different airbag-systems!

[spuerer]

The steering wheel from the facelift A5 (and fl A4) can be used in the "old" A4 B8! They have the same connectors and the same airbag-systems. with or without paddles.



without paddles:
8K0 419 091 CE INU
8K0 419 091 CN IXB (S-Line
8K0 419 091 CJ IWQ (S5)

with paddles:
8K0 419 091 CF INU
8K0 419 091 CP IXB (S-Line)
8K0 419 091 CK IWQ (S5)

Airbag:
8F0 880 201 H 6PS

Airbag-cable:
8U0 971 589 J (included in 8F0 880 201 H)

[jrod80]

The steering wheel from the facelift A5 (and fl A4) can be used in the "old" A4 B8! They have the same connectors and the same airbag-systems. with or without paddles.



without paddles:
8K0 419 091 CE INU
8K0 419 091 CN IXB (S-Line
8K0 419 091 CJ IWQ (S5)

with paddles:
8K0 419 091 CF INU
8K0 419 091 CP IXB (S-Line)
8K0 419 091 CK IWQ (S5)

Airbag:
8F0 880 201 H 6PS

Airbag-cable:
8U0 971 589 J (included in 8F0 880 201 H)

Do any of the facelift wheels not have the "i/NAV" button? If not, what is this button used for on those new facelift vehicles without NAV? I would love a new facelift wheel to replace my non-sport '12 Avant 4 spoke wheel but don't really want a "dead" button that doesn't do anything since I don't have NAV.

[DavidB8]

I don't think the iNav button does anything on cars with Nav. That's a new button for these wheels and not compatible with current system. The MFC buttons have their own bus system in the wheel so It's not like you can wire them directly for something else. I don't think a dead button is such a big deal though

[jrod80]

Agreed, not a huge deal and I can most likely live with it. I'm just curious what that iNAV button does on the new facelift vehicles without NAV if there isn't two different facelift wheels, one without the button and one with.

[jrod80]

Also, if you do an eBay search for S-Line steering wheel quite a few of the new style wheels show up (without airbags). The one I'm currently looking at has a different button configuration than the wheel posted by spuerer. The one I'm currently looking at has a < > button on the right side and the iNAV button and Speak button are in the same button on the right side with a * button below. Will these wheels work with our platform? Is the < > a skip button? If so, it would be great if it worked with our platform to skip tracks. What is the * button for?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Multifunctio...r#ht_500wt_922

And this wheel has the same configuration as the wheel spuerer posted...a bit confusing.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Multifunctio...r#ht_500wt_922

[DavidB8]

Don't know but I looked at the Audi Configurator on UK website and the car has that button even without NAV.

[jrod80]

Great thanks. I would really like the < > capability of the first wheel if it is indeed skip track. I posted a new thread so maybe Alex or someone can provide insight. Thanks David!

[mishonio]

Thanks DavidB8 for the detailed DIY!

I will be replacing just the steering wheel and not the stalks. A B8 A4 wheel for a B8 S4 one. Will re-programming be necessary?

Thanks,
Michael

[mishonio]

Also dimensions-wise and feel-wise how does the B8 S4 3 spoke steering wheel compare to the B8 A4 4 spoke one?

The S4 one looks thicker, so grip must be better. Is it made of better materials to even further improve the grip? Also how much smaller is it than the A4 one in diameter?

Cheers,
Michael

[dame drizzo]

Sorry for this annoying question, but if I have s5 steering wheel and want to put on my b8, would I need to change th stalk as well? Had steering wheel and airbag sitting in my house for months and would be disappointed if I didn't purchase all the parts necessary . :(

[DavidB8]

Also dimensions-wise and feel-wise how does the B8 S4 3 spoke steering wheel compare to the B8 A4 4 spoke one?

The S4 one looks thicker, so grip must be better. Is it made of better materials to even further improve the grip? Also how much smaller is it than the A4 one in diameter?

Cheers,
Michael

Thanks DavidB8 for the detailed DIY!

I will be replacing just the steering wheel and not the stalks. A B8 A4 wheel for a B8 S4 one. Will re-programming be necessary?

Thanks,
Michael

No reprogramming was needed when I swapped mine. As long as you don't so something silly like alter the clock ring on the stalks when you pull the wheel off you should be plug and play. The S4 wheel is slightly larger and does have a nicer feel to it.

Sorry for this annoying question, but if I have s5 steering wheel and want to put on my b8, would I need to change th stalk as well? Had steering wheel and airbag sitting in my house for months and would be disappointed if I didn't purchase all the parts necessary . :(

That stalks are the same. They only change for different options not based on the wheel you have.

[mishonio]

Thanks DavidB8.

If reprogramming is indeed needed, will it be trivial? Just force a re-check of installed components. On the dimensions aspect, in the photos the S4 wheel looks thicker but with smaller diameter. Are you saying it has larger diameter?

Cheers,
Michael

[r8ders]

Can anyone tell me if I can use the airbag off my 2011 B8 A4 w/ sport package 3-spoke steering wheel on a S5 steering wheel?

Thank you

[D-Love]

Excellent Write up. Question My car did not come with The Paddle Shifter Option if i were to Purchase the R8 wheel w/ Paddles is there a way to make it work? Thanks!

[Shamingo]

Excellent Write up. Question My car did not come with The Paddle Shifter Option if i were to Purchase the R8 wheel w/ Paddles is there a way to make it work? Thanks!

I second this. I'm very new to the scene, but I'd love to get some paddle shifters going. Any advice on fitment?