OlyS6
02-25-2018, 01:57 PM
This DIY takes you through what I did to install a new flat bottomed steering wheel that came from Neidfaktor with R8 style buttons already installed, and came with 2 wiring harnesses. I only used the wiring harness for the start/stop button, drive select button, and ESC button. I did not use the harness for the exhaust flaps button, as I do not currently have exhaust flaps on my system (AWE Touring).
I also had to source a new airbag, as I went from the round heated steering wheel to a flat-bottomed CF wheel.
Tools required:
10mm hex socket
8mm hex socket
55 Torx head
Nylon pry tools
Additional supplies:
T-splice adapters for 16 gauge wire (4) (also called wire taps), readily available at any auto supply store.
Butt splice connectors for 16 gauge wire (at least 1)
Ring style crimping connector to place on the end of a ground wire.
Add-a-circuit fuse tap, with a 7.5amp mini ATA fuse.
OEM part number: 000979009E (or EA), which is just a single yellow wire with a small pin on either end, but the pin size is very specific. You just need one end of it.
To begin, go over the provided written instructions. Although a rough translation from the original German, most of the provided pics are useful.
Disconnect your battery!! (You will disconnect and reconnect a few times during this install, especially when it comes time to swap the wheel and airbag)
Next, pry off the driver's side dash panel cap that covers the the fuse box (pries off easily). Remove the 10mm bolt on the right side of the fuse box, as well as the 2
10mm bolts underneath the driver's side footwell panel. You can now remove the driver's side footwell panel with a pry tool and a little bit of anger. (Don't worry, you won't break it- just keep prying down and out).
(WARNING: To my knowledge, installation of the 'drive select' button and the wiring I'm about to go over in this section is for post-facelift cars only):
The object of your desire within the footwell is control panel J519. Unfortunately, there is a relay box that is blocking your view of said control panel. While looking under your steering wheel, this relay box is immediately to the right of your fuse box, and is immediately in front of your control panel:
http://www.audizine.com/gallery/data/500/IMG_2396.JPG
Remove the 8mm bolt at the top right of this box. Remove the electrical connection at the far right, the optical connection on the far left, and the 2 ring-wire connections (front and back). They are all easily removable. The relay box then unclips from the top left corner, and can be rotated down and out, then pulled out an set aside.
You can now see the control panel box. This is the part from the written instructions that is unclear. You will need your OEM pinned wire to pin the 'empty' pin 16 connection on the circled 32 pin connector with the gray housing in this pic (there are 2 different 32 pin connectors- the other one has a power line in it's 16 pin connection- don't splice into that!):
http://www.audizine.com/gallery/data/500/IMG_24072.jpg
Pop off the gray housing, and insert one end of your pinned OEM wire into the empty 16 position, and replace the gray housing:
http://www.audizine.com/gallery/data/500/IMG_2416.JPG
You can now butt-splice this wire to the 'drive select' wire on your new steering wheel harness.
While down here, you can also take the ground wire from your new harness, splice a ring onto it, and attach if to the grounding location just above the driver's side knee airbag in the left footwell.
Ensure you take the control box on your new harness, and ensure the first 2 dip switches are down (OFF), and dip switches 3-4 are up (ON). You can now velcro or otherwise affix your new control box up an out-of-the-way within your footwell.
Replace your relay box, remembering to re-connect each of the electrical connections.
From here, it is best to next work on the ESC button, since you'll need to have the MMI and ashtray removed to really do anything with the start/stop button anyway.
First, use a pry tool to pry off the faceplate for the climate control. There are 3 electrical connectors to remove. Set the faceplate aside. This now reveals the only 8mm bolt that keeps your MMI in place. Remove it, and you can now slide out the MMI to the point where you can see all of the connections that go to it. You really only want the 6 pin connector that is directly behind the ESC button, but removing the entire MMI unit makes threading some wires much easier later.
Time for a glass of scotch (or bourbon) to steel yourself for this pic of the back of the MMI:
http://www.audizine.com/gallery/data/500/IMG_2387.JPG
Thankfully, our Audi engineers are on our side, and all of these connections are color coded and fairly idiot-proof! Disconnect all of them, but don't completely remove your MMI yet (your gear selector is in the way!)
Look just in front of your gear selector, and remove the 2 8mm bolts that are holding your ashtray in place. Now gently lift up the ashtray (you could do this thru a tab in the base of the ashtray, but I'm going to have you remove the ashtray regardless to make some wiring easier): you'll be able to see a small round depression in front of your gear selector. Use a small screwdriver (or similar), and press the button in there, while simultaneously moving your gear selector back into the 'neutral' position:
http://www.audizine.com/gallery/data/500/IMG_2409.JPG
This will now allow you to lift the ashtray up and out, and then completely remove the MMI. Set both of these aside.
Now find and identify the purple and purple/black wires leading to pins 1 and 4 on the 6 pin connector for the ESC button:
http://www.audizine.com/gallery/data/500/IMG_23911.JPG
Now, thread the 2 gray ESC wires from your new harness/control module from the footwell, to underneath where the MMI was, and out to the wires of the 6 pin connector. Go ahead and use t-splices to connect these wires to the wires pinned to positions 1 and 4. Luckily, it does not matter which gray wire that you splice to pins 1 or 4, as they only need to complete the circuit, and polarity does not matter here:
http://www.audizine.com/gallery/data/500/IMG_24151.JPG
Sip some more scotch/bourbon. Deep breath. Relax. Onward.
For your start/stop button, you are going to want to use a pry tool to first pry up the leather hood of your gear select lever. It pries up surprisingly easily:
You will then want to pry up the faceplate that surrounds your start/button and MMI control knobs. First, lift off your volume/ on/off button as well as your larger control knob. It's ok, they just pull right off. You can also grab a hold of this panel from the edges where you lifted up the leather hood of your gear shifter:
http://www.audizine.com/gallery/data/500/IMG_24001.JPG
Just lift the panel up a few inches, and you'll be able to access the 6 pin connector that connects to the start/stop button. Unclip the connector and identify the blue and black wires that lead to pins 3 and 6:
http://www.audizine.com/gallery/data/500/IMG_24011.JPG
Now for the interesting part- you'll need to snake the 2 black start/stop wires from your new harness from underneath the driver's side footwell to underneath where the MMI unit was, and then underneath where your ashtray was to get to the start stop button. To do this, I used a length of plastic weed-whacker cord, since it is both flexible and can be somewhat 'pushed through' your desired area, and snaked that to where I wanted to be. I then taped the wires to the cord and pulled them through the area behind the footwell and MMI and out to the start/stop button location. I then used the T-splice connectors to 'bite' into the wires at pins 3 and 6, and then spliced the black wires from the harness onto them (the good news is that it doesn't matter which black wire gets spliced to which pin- all they need to do is complete the circuit, so polarity doesn't matter!):
http://www.audizine.com/gallery/data/500/IMG_24031.JPG
http://www.audizine.com/gallery/data/500/IMG_2411.JPG
Now we get to put all this crap back together.
Take your time. Reconnect all of your MMI connections. Gently push your MMI back into place and bolt it back in. Put your ashtray back in place and bolt it back in.
Reconnect your climate control faceplate, taking care to tuck all the cables back into place gently, and snap it back into place. Maje sure your start/stop button is reconnected with its 6 pin connector, and gently snap the faceplate back into place around your gearshifter. Then snap the leather hood back into place and re-install your control knobs.
Now, take your 7.5 amp add-a-circuit, and use a butt-connector to splice onto your red (+) power wire from your new harness, and push it into an open fuse in the middle 'B' column of your fuse box.
Re-install your footwell panel (remembering to re-connect your OBD2 connector and footwell light), and secure it with its original 3 bolts. Re-insert the driver's side dash end-cap.
Now it's time for the steering wheel!
Pull out your new wheel. Admire it. Sip some scotch/bourbon. Set it aside.
Reconnect your car battery. Turn on your ignition. Turn your wheel 90 degrees so that the left side (or right, doesn't matter, as we'll do both) is at 12 o'clock. Use your smartphone camera in selfie mode to help you insert a small screwdriver to lever the flat spring downwards until you hear/feel a pop as the airbag cover comes loose on that side. Now turn the wheel so that the opposite side is at 12 o'clock. Pop the flat spring lever on that side:
http://www.audizine.com/gallery/data/500/IMG_24191.JPG
Turn off the car. Disconnect the battery.
Take a sip of scotch/bourbon, and touch some metal to ground yourself.
Gently remove the airbag cover with airbag, and undo the airbag electrical connector, as well as any other electrical connector visible. Remove the old airbag and set aside.
You will now see a 55torx socket that will allow you to remove the steering wheel itself. Make sure the 12'oclock position is marked on your old wheel for re-installation if you ever want to go that route:
http://www.audizine.com/gallery/data/500/IMG_2421.JPG
http://www.audizine.com/gallery/data/500/IMG_2422.JPG
Install new wheel, being careful to get it perfectly aligned. 12 o'clock should be marked. Re-install the 55torx bolt. Either re-install the airbag (if you already had a flat-bottomed wheel) or install a new one (if you had a round heated wheel). Connect each electrical connector. Make sure you push on the airbag cover until you can hear the clicks of both straight spring clips locking into place. Reconnect your battery.
Test out your new wheel! Celebrate with some more scotch/bourbon! Don't drive for awhile if you've been taking my advice literally!
Enjoy!
http://www.audizine.com/gallery/data/500/IMG_2429.JPG
I also had to source a new airbag, as I went from the round heated steering wheel to a flat-bottomed CF wheel.
Tools required:
10mm hex socket
8mm hex socket
55 Torx head
Nylon pry tools
Additional supplies:
T-splice adapters for 16 gauge wire (4) (also called wire taps), readily available at any auto supply store.
Butt splice connectors for 16 gauge wire (at least 1)
Ring style crimping connector to place on the end of a ground wire.
Add-a-circuit fuse tap, with a 7.5amp mini ATA fuse.
OEM part number: 000979009E (or EA), which is just a single yellow wire with a small pin on either end, but the pin size is very specific. You just need one end of it.
To begin, go over the provided written instructions. Although a rough translation from the original German, most of the provided pics are useful.
Disconnect your battery!! (You will disconnect and reconnect a few times during this install, especially when it comes time to swap the wheel and airbag)
Next, pry off the driver's side dash panel cap that covers the the fuse box (pries off easily). Remove the 10mm bolt on the right side of the fuse box, as well as the 2
10mm bolts underneath the driver's side footwell panel. You can now remove the driver's side footwell panel with a pry tool and a little bit of anger. (Don't worry, you won't break it- just keep prying down and out).
(WARNING: To my knowledge, installation of the 'drive select' button and the wiring I'm about to go over in this section is for post-facelift cars only):
The object of your desire within the footwell is control panel J519. Unfortunately, there is a relay box that is blocking your view of said control panel. While looking under your steering wheel, this relay box is immediately to the right of your fuse box, and is immediately in front of your control panel:
http://www.audizine.com/gallery/data/500/IMG_2396.JPG
Remove the 8mm bolt at the top right of this box. Remove the electrical connection at the far right, the optical connection on the far left, and the 2 ring-wire connections (front and back). They are all easily removable. The relay box then unclips from the top left corner, and can be rotated down and out, then pulled out an set aside.
You can now see the control panel box. This is the part from the written instructions that is unclear. You will need your OEM pinned wire to pin the 'empty' pin 16 connection on the circled 32 pin connector with the gray housing in this pic (there are 2 different 32 pin connectors- the other one has a power line in it's 16 pin connection- don't splice into that!):
http://www.audizine.com/gallery/data/500/IMG_24072.jpg
Pop off the gray housing, and insert one end of your pinned OEM wire into the empty 16 position, and replace the gray housing:
http://www.audizine.com/gallery/data/500/IMG_2416.JPG
You can now butt-splice this wire to the 'drive select' wire on your new steering wheel harness.
While down here, you can also take the ground wire from your new harness, splice a ring onto it, and attach if to the grounding location just above the driver's side knee airbag in the left footwell.
Ensure you take the control box on your new harness, and ensure the first 2 dip switches are down (OFF), and dip switches 3-4 are up (ON). You can now velcro or otherwise affix your new control box up an out-of-the-way within your footwell.
Replace your relay box, remembering to re-connect each of the electrical connections.
From here, it is best to next work on the ESC button, since you'll need to have the MMI and ashtray removed to really do anything with the start/stop button anyway.
First, use a pry tool to pry off the faceplate for the climate control. There are 3 electrical connectors to remove. Set the faceplate aside. This now reveals the only 8mm bolt that keeps your MMI in place. Remove it, and you can now slide out the MMI to the point where you can see all of the connections that go to it. You really only want the 6 pin connector that is directly behind the ESC button, but removing the entire MMI unit makes threading some wires much easier later.
Time for a glass of scotch (or bourbon) to steel yourself for this pic of the back of the MMI:
http://www.audizine.com/gallery/data/500/IMG_2387.JPG
Thankfully, our Audi engineers are on our side, and all of these connections are color coded and fairly idiot-proof! Disconnect all of them, but don't completely remove your MMI yet (your gear selector is in the way!)
Look just in front of your gear selector, and remove the 2 8mm bolts that are holding your ashtray in place. Now gently lift up the ashtray (you could do this thru a tab in the base of the ashtray, but I'm going to have you remove the ashtray regardless to make some wiring easier): you'll be able to see a small round depression in front of your gear selector. Use a small screwdriver (or similar), and press the button in there, while simultaneously moving your gear selector back into the 'neutral' position:
http://www.audizine.com/gallery/data/500/IMG_2409.JPG
This will now allow you to lift the ashtray up and out, and then completely remove the MMI. Set both of these aside.
Now find and identify the purple and purple/black wires leading to pins 1 and 4 on the 6 pin connector for the ESC button:
http://www.audizine.com/gallery/data/500/IMG_23911.JPG
Now, thread the 2 gray ESC wires from your new harness/control module from the footwell, to underneath where the MMI was, and out to the wires of the 6 pin connector. Go ahead and use t-splices to connect these wires to the wires pinned to positions 1 and 4. Luckily, it does not matter which gray wire that you splice to pins 1 or 4, as they only need to complete the circuit, and polarity does not matter here:
http://www.audizine.com/gallery/data/500/IMG_24151.JPG
Sip some more scotch/bourbon. Deep breath. Relax. Onward.
For your start/stop button, you are going to want to use a pry tool to first pry up the leather hood of your gear select lever. It pries up surprisingly easily:
You will then want to pry up the faceplate that surrounds your start/button and MMI control knobs. First, lift off your volume/ on/off button as well as your larger control knob. It's ok, they just pull right off. You can also grab a hold of this panel from the edges where you lifted up the leather hood of your gear shifter:
http://www.audizine.com/gallery/data/500/IMG_24001.JPG
Just lift the panel up a few inches, and you'll be able to access the 6 pin connector that connects to the start/stop button. Unclip the connector and identify the blue and black wires that lead to pins 3 and 6:
http://www.audizine.com/gallery/data/500/IMG_24011.JPG
Now for the interesting part- you'll need to snake the 2 black start/stop wires from your new harness from underneath the driver's side footwell to underneath where the MMI unit was, and then underneath where your ashtray was to get to the start stop button. To do this, I used a length of plastic weed-whacker cord, since it is both flexible and can be somewhat 'pushed through' your desired area, and snaked that to where I wanted to be. I then taped the wires to the cord and pulled them through the area behind the footwell and MMI and out to the start/stop button location. I then used the T-splice connectors to 'bite' into the wires at pins 3 and 6, and then spliced the black wires from the harness onto them (the good news is that it doesn't matter which black wire gets spliced to which pin- all they need to do is complete the circuit, so polarity doesn't matter!):
http://www.audizine.com/gallery/data/500/IMG_24031.JPG
http://www.audizine.com/gallery/data/500/IMG_2411.JPG
Now we get to put all this crap back together.
Take your time. Reconnect all of your MMI connections. Gently push your MMI back into place and bolt it back in. Put your ashtray back in place and bolt it back in.
Reconnect your climate control faceplate, taking care to tuck all the cables back into place gently, and snap it back into place. Maje sure your start/stop button is reconnected with its 6 pin connector, and gently snap the faceplate back into place around your gearshifter. Then snap the leather hood back into place and re-install your control knobs.
Now, take your 7.5 amp add-a-circuit, and use a butt-connector to splice onto your red (+) power wire from your new harness, and push it into an open fuse in the middle 'B' column of your fuse box.
Re-install your footwell panel (remembering to re-connect your OBD2 connector and footwell light), and secure it with its original 3 bolts. Re-insert the driver's side dash end-cap.
Now it's time for the steering wheel!
Pull out your new wheel. Admire it. Sip some scotch/bourbon. Set it aside.
Reconnect your car battery. Turn on your ignition. Turn your wheel 90 degrees so that the left side (or right, doesn't matter, as we'll do both) is at 12 o'clock. Use your smartphone camera in selfie mode to help you insert a small screwdriver to lever the flat spring downwards until you hear/feel a pop as the airbag cover comes loose on that side. Now turn the wheel so that the opposite side is at 12 o'clock. Pop the flat spring lever on that side:
http://www.audizine.com/gallery/data/500/IMG_24191.JPG
Turn off the car. Disconnect the battery.
Take a sip of scotch/bourbon, and touch some metal to ground yourself.
Gently remove the airbag cover with airbag, and undo the airbag electrical connector, as well as any other electrical connector visible. Remove the old airbag and set aside.
You will now see a 55torx socket that will allow you to remove the steering wheel itself. Make sure the 12'oclock position is marked on your old wheel for re-installation if you ever want to go that route:
http://www.audizine.com/gallery/data/500/IMG_2421.JPG
http://www.audizine.com/gallery/data/500/IMG_2422.JPG
Install new wheel, being careful to get it perfectly aligned. 12 o'clock should be marked. Re-install the 55torx bolt. Either re-install the airbag (if you already had a flat-bottomed wheel) or install a new one (if you had a round heated wheel). Connect each electrical connector. Make sure you push on the airbag cover until you can hear the clicks of both straight spring clips locking into place. Reconnect your battery.
Test out your new wheel! Celebrate with some more scotch/bourbon! Don't drive for awhile if you've been taking my advice literally!
Enjoy!
http://www.audizine.com/gallery/data/500/IMG_2429.JPG