DIY - Steering Wheel change

[redlabel81]

Finaly got me a A3 airbag to go with my new A3 Sline steering wheel.
Bought the wheel thinking I could reuse my 3 spoke airbag from my A4...........No go!

Here is the original wheel:

Start with unscrewing the 2 torx in the back of the wheel with torx t25 bits, you have to turn the wheel to be able to reach the screws so don't disconnect the battery just yet:

No disconnect the battery.
When this is done the airbag is now loose:

Now take you newly purchased M12:

And unscrew the center bolt:

Now make a mark on the center steering thing to indicate center of the wheel and remove it:

Don't touch anything here:

No take your new wheel and mount it on the same place as you marked earlier:

An then you should mount your new airbag............ Different plugs...Looked identical, but when i looked inside the wiring was different.

I decided to change the cables from the a4 airbag over to the new a3 airbag. That worked great. I hope....................:

Then connect the airbag and put it in place. Connect the battery and start your car from the passenger side(Just incase it EXPLODES).
Turn the wheel so that you can rescrew the two torx in the back and you are good to go!





Hope people can use this.
I take no responsibility for any damage or anything that might happen because of people following this writeup.I give no guarantee that this will work on your car........Everything is on you. :)

[4RingRook]

+ Rep to you for doing this!

I picked up the spline bit yesterday, so I'm definitely putting in the new dtm wheel this weekend!

[redlabel81]

Nice. :) Good luck

[cam]

cloth seats in a b7, hmmmmmmm

[Dangler]

awesome!!!... i get my mk2 tt sline steering wheel in today, this will help with the install.

[Glassnpowder98]

That looks amazing! You can get the A3 steering wheels with the stereo controls right? Those cloth seats look a lot more supported than the North American edition leather seats... Also, what is that silver kob with the red lighted base behind your gear shift? Is that just a cigarette lighter with something plugged into it?

[Doctor]

That looks amazing! You can get the TT steering wheels with the stereo controls right? Those cloth seats look a lot more supported than the North American edition leather seats... Also, what is that silver kob with the red lighted base behind your gear shift? Is that just a cigarette lighter with something plugged into it?

I've got the same seats in leather...I mean I used to anyway...hehehe...they are nice and kinda sporty...
I think that is the flashlight that goes into the cigarrete lighter by superbright leds...
At least it looks like that...

I've got myself the one from Tuareg, since I dont smoke...If u want the part number tell me

[Glassnpowder98]

I've got the same seats in leather...I mean I used to anyway...hehehe...they are nice and kinda sporty...
I think that is the flashlight that goes into the cigarrete lighter by superbright leds...
At least it looks like that...

I've got myself the one from Tuareg, since I dont smoke...If u want the part number tell me

Have you sold your seats? I would be interested in buying them, but I'm sure shipping and customs would be a pain. Are they heated?

Also, I don't really understand why you would need a flashlight ready and in the way at all times... But I dunno, you Europeans are just crazy to begin with (That was a joke in case it gets lost in translation)

[p1nk50ck]

woah, no cupholders in the center console? that's not where my lighter is...

i think the seats are actually pretty similar to ours, but they have the thigh extension, and because they're cloth, you probably don't slide around as much.

[Doctor]

Have you sold your seats? I would be interested in buying them, but I'm sure shipping and customs would be a pain. Are they heated?

Also, I don't really understand why you would need a flashlight ready and in the way at all times... But I dunno, you Europeans are just crazy to begin with (That was a joke in case it gets lost in translation)

I still have them and several people have asked me to buy them immediately when they saw them, considering the quality and the care I've treated them with..They are not heated. But even If i did sell them, I think the shipping would be a pain in the ass, and it wouldnt be much of an opportunity for you...

As for the flashlight...nothing more or nothing less, than instead of having a lighter, which I really dont need, I have something useful in its place, which has the same size and is really beautiful...Whats more it is always ready to use

LoL we are crazy yeah...I didnt get lost in the translation...but even if I did...
Comeeee on, can i be mad at a guy who has OZ UL on...? hehehehehe

@ Op: Very nice. I think the TT Mk2 would look even more appealing...

[redlabel81]

The cloth seats are the same as the leather sportseats we get over here. More support than your seats. I think they are really comfy!
The silver thing is some crap a buddy pushed on me. It's a ION aircleaner thing. Just trying it out to see if the air in the car becomes like mountain air. :p

I am thinking about getting the RS4 steeringwheel. I have the airbag so I am just missing the wheel. I don't need the buttons anyway so it will not cause any problems.
Anyone with the RS4 steering wheel for sale? Shoot me a PM.

For now I really love the new A3 wheel. Much thicker and looks $$$! :)

[p1nk50ck]

definitely a great writeup.

a TT wheel won't be on my mod list for a while, but it's definitely something i'd like to do in the future.

thanks!

[klee]

how much are A3 airbags? how about RS4 airbags?

[Bart-Man]

Nice, question.

I want the paddle shifters for my tip.
Which steering wheel do I need? and will my stock airbag work with it.

[Dangler]

Nice, question.

I want the paddle shifters for my tip.
Which steering wheel do I need? and will my stock airbag work with it.

you can do either the

audi a4 sline, you can use your exsisting airbag, the plugs match up.

aud mk2 tt s line steering wheel, you need a new air bag, the shape is different but will plug right up.

both have paddles. and both of them are plug and play. to get the paddles to work you need a vag com.

i just got my mk2 tt, isteering wheel. will post pics when done.

[4RingRook]

Nice, question.

I want the paddle shifters for my tip.
Which steering wheel do I need? and will my stock airbag work with it.

Are you non s line with the 4 prong wheel? If so, then you canNOT reuse the same airbag. If you already have the S Line wheel, you're fine.

With regard to the shifter paddles, if you dont have them now, you can get a wheel with them, but its not plug and play. You have to vag-com the car to recognize the paddles.

Good luck.

[4RingRook]

how much are A3 airbags? how about RS4 airbags?

Airbags are anywhere from $350 - $800 depending on where you find them.

Classifieds are your friend, although I'm not sure if there are any left.

[redlabel81]

ebay has everything you need. ebay.de search for lenkrad. That's german for steering wheel. :)

[Jersey Stephen]

looks good

[redlabel81]

Thanks. Think it was a nice upgrade without blowing my entire load on the TTs wheel.......:)

[supamannn99]

Thanks for the writeup!

[redlabel81]

No prob. Should this be moved to the "Do it to yourself" :) section?

[Dangler]

i see that the airbag plugs were different, i shaved some of the mk2 tt steering wheels plug so it would fit. now my horn doesn't work nor does it light up.

i'm gonna go back and swap the plugs....does your horn work now?? let me know...

thanks!!

[redlabel81]

Even if you shave of the plug so it fit the wiring indside the plug is different. Use your old plug. Than you are safe. Everything work on mine.
If you take a flashlight look inside the end of the plug you'll see that the wiring is different.

E

[4RingRook]

I'm going to do this today. When I unplug my battery, will that impact my Symphony II+ or OEM Sirius? (ie, will the radio be locked, and will i have to reconfigure sirius?)

I'm also assuming I'll have to reprog my fob (by putting it in the car in the run position and holding unlock) ?

[Dangler]

Even if you shave of the plug so it fit the wiring indside the plug is different. Use your old plug. Than you are safe. Everything work on mine.
If you take a flashlight look inside the end of the plug you'll see that the wiring is different.

E

Thanks!!!

[redlabel81]

I didn't have to reprog anything big with my RNS-E. Only minor settings.
We don't have Sirius so I don't know about this.
Fob needs reconfig yes.

[4RingRook]

^^ Thanks for the info. I did the swap this afternoon. Everything came out great. Check out my thread.

Thanks again for the DIY.

[Dangler]

okay, so i swapped the harness from the a4 air bag to the tt airbag, but its not a direct plug and play. i wish i took pictures,

the a4 has a very tiny plug for the plug that is for the horn, and only one tab to plug the ground from the harness

the tt steering wheel has a larger plug for the born and two grounds for the airbag.

so what i did was snip the horn plug from the tt harness and replaced the small a4 horn plug with the tt horn plug. and i created a y- connector for the dual grounds and used a crimp connect to attach it to the a4 harness.

i plug it all up again, the lights come on on the steering wheel, and the horn works. and no air bag light.

wheni get time i'll draw up a sketch of what to do, to get the tt wheel to work proper on your a4.

[redlabel81]

^^ good info :)

[Kemiksiz]

Any idea about :

If the B7 A4 Airbag will work just fine on a B6 A4? I have changed my steering wheel, still waiting to arrive but I had this question in my mind. I bought a new B7 A4 - S4 Airbag for the setup but since A4 B6 has 1 explode level and A4 B7 has 2 levels, will it work fine?

Thanks a lot!

[gfcipriani]

Finaly got me a A3 airbag to go with my new A3 Sline steering wheel.
Bought the wheel thinking I could reuse my 3 spoke airbag from my A4...........No go!

Hope people can use this.
I take no responsibility for any damage or anything that might happen because of people following this writeup.I give no guarantee that this will work on your car........Everything is on you. :)

I'm having the same problem. Have the A3 s-line wheel, my a4 b7 airbag will not fit. Wondering which airbag I need. Any help, thoughts on this would be much appreciated. Airbags are pricey (even used) and virtualy no returns, so I'd like to make sure I get the right airbag on the first try.

By the way, bought my wheel off of SharkFin who was reselling for someone else that had the same problem I'm having (just found this out today after doing an extensive search on this topic.) Both guys were aware of this problem but did not share this info with me. I've been trying to get help from Sharkfin, but not too helpful. I wish these guys would have been more honest so that I knew ahead of time what I was getting myself into here.

Thanks for any help you can offer!

[Jay211]

Hey all,

I just did this DIY on my B7 S4 and everything went pretty smoothly until I put everything back together. The problem I ran into is that I think I cranked the steering wheel down too much upon re-installation as it's now rubbing on the steering column trim pieces. It's rubbing pretty badly as well, to the point where there is some good resistance when turning the wheel. I've tried taking the wheel back off and sanding down portions of the column trim to allow it to slide back further and while it helped a little bit, it's still rubbing considerably.

At this point, I am entertaining getting a new steering wheel. Does it sound like I just cranked it down too hard when I re-installed it? If so, is there any known fix to this? In my search, I haven't been able to find much in the way of solutions regarding this particular issue.

Thanks in advance for the help!

[mtroxel]

Jay211, I just swapped steering wheels last month, and have had several Audi wheels on and off. I don't believe you can crank that steering column bolt down to the point where it pulls the wheel down farther on that shaft. I don't think that's your problem. I'd say either there's something wrong with the steering wheel, or with the column trim.

[Mopar-VDub]

Jay211, I just swapped steering wheels last month, and have had several Audi wheels on and off. I don't believe you can crank that steering column bolt down to the point where it pulls the wheel down farther on that shaft. I don't think that's your problem. I'd say either there's something wrong with the steering wheel, or with the column trim.

Part #

[mtroxel]

^^^^^^^It's part # 4 F0 419 091 BK URJ Not sure what it came off of, but I had no problem putting it on mine. ^^^^^^

[Charles.waite]

Random addition to this, but the bolts behind the steering wheel are T30 not T25.