FBSW Airbag Harness - HELP

[bbeast]

So, I'm a bit stuck and could use some help. I have what was billed as an R8 flat bottom steering wheel which was supposedly plug and play with the RS4. See pics below...

Recently I went through the install and everything went swimmingly until I got to plugging the new airbag harness back in to the steering column connector and I realized that the new harness plug (the big yellow one) did not fit. So off it all came. Now I'm at a bit of a loss as the stock RS4 harness does not look like the new harness which came on the R8 wheel, so I can't just swap it out. Is there a plug and play harness available somewhere that will fit the new airbag? For others that have gone through this, what other options do I have here?

Thanks!

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[koolade9]

IIRC we usually run an A8 airbag with flatbottom wheels in the B7s.

[my_RS4]

Subscribed.. I might be in your shoes soon! Do you have a close up pic of the connector from the steering column?


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[dufferdude]

Pm Alex@europrice he might be able to help you out?

[AussieDan]

It's pretty easy to make that harness fit, here are the details on how I did it.

[Malv1]

It's pretty easy to make that harness fit, here are the details on how I did it.

Your pics are not in the link anymore, do you have them still?

[bbeast]

It's pretty easy to make that harness fit, here are the details on how I did it.

Thanks AussieDan - I'll give that a shot if I can't come up with another solution by this weekend.

[AussieDan]

Your pics are not in the link anymore, do you have them still?

Weird, they're public images on dropbox and should be working fine. Anyway, I threw them up on another server:

This is the factory RS4 connector:


This is the newer connector on the FBSW harness:

The ears marked in red are wider than the ones on the RS4 connector, they just need to be trimmed off with an exacto and the connector will plug in.

Follow the instructions from the other thread to move the horn and MFSW wires so they match the RS4 pinout:

OK, here's the procedure to rewire the harness for the TT MKII MFSW. The harness has part # 8J0 971 589 B.

MAKE SURE TO DISCONNECT THE BATTERY BEFORE DOING ANY WORK WITH THE AIRBAG!

The 12 pin plug connector (yellow) on the TT MKII harness needs to have three of its wires re-assigned. Open the cover on the back of the harness plug. Looking at the plug connector from behind as if you were going to plug it in, there are 2 rows of slots, which we will number
1-2-3-4-5-6
7-8-9-10-11-12

3 through 6 are for the airbag - DO NOT TOUCH!

7 = Brown
8 = Yellow (horn)
9 = Purple
10 = Red

1, 2, 11, 12 are empty.

Push out the purple lock in the harness and then release the appropriate wire to be re-assigned.

You need to move the following wires:
move the Brown wire from 7 >to> 1
move the Yellow wire from 8 >to> 2
move the Red wire from 10 >to> 8

All MFSW controls including the horn should now work. You may also need to trim the tabs from the sides of the plug to be able to insert into the S/C ring socket. You'll know what I mean when you see it.

[Malv1]

There they are! Thanks Dan


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[B7OrangeA4]

The pins get stuck about halfway out. So you ll need to put a small jewelers screwdriver in where the purple locking tab was and push down and it ll slide out. Took me a while to figure that part out

[bbeast]

The pins get stuck about halfway out. So you ll need to put a small jewelers screwdriver in where the purple locking tab was and push down and it ll slide out. Took me a while to figure that part out

Nice thanks!

I plan to do this this weekend, so I'll let you all know how it goes.

[CoreyRS]

Wow, I never realized the R8 wheel could be used AND retain the MFSW control. Thanks for all of the info.

[james12lucy]

Wow, I never realized the R8 wheel could be used AND retain the MFSW control. Thanks for all of the info.

As can TTS FBSW.

[CoreyRS]

Ahhh shoot, I was thinking of the Euro RS4 wheel. Can that be re-pinned?

[AussieDan]

There they are! Thanks Dan

No worries!

The pins get stuck about halfway out. So you ll need to put a small jewelers screwdriver in where the purple locking tab was and push down and it ll slide out. Took me a while to figure that part out

Yeah, once you figure out that first pin it's plain sailing :)

I plan to do this this weekend, so I'll let you all know how it goes.

How'd you make out?

Wow, I never realized the R8 wheel could be used AND retain the MFSW control. Thanks for all of the info.

Yup, it's kind of weird that Audi went to the trouble of making that minor change to the connector and pinout without changing any actual functionality but I guess it makes sense if you're German...

As can TTS FBSW.

Yup, I'm running the TT-S wheel.

Ahhh shoot, I was thinking of the Euro RS4 wheel. Can that be re-pinned?

Afaik the Euro wheel doesn't need any re-pinning. ISTR there is a VCDS setting for the euro wheel (and your dash-mounted s-mode button will no longer work) but don't quote me on that.

[bbeast]

Well - I wish I could say it was smooth sailing, but it wasn't the case for me. I only had about a half hour to do this. Trimming the tabs was a breeze, but I couldn't for the life of me figure out how to get the pins out. I had what I thought was a tiny screwdriver and I was sticking it everywhere I could think, but those damn things wouldn't budge. How exactly to you "release the barbs on the pins"?

I figure what I was using wasn't long enough or thin enough to get where it needed. I assume the tool is supposed to go in the little slot above (or below) the pin hole, and this magically releases the little bugger. Anyway, unless I totally have it wrong, it seems I now have to invest in a repinning tool - ugh. To make matters worse, when separating the wires, I used some needle nose pliers since I was having a hard time handling them with the clumsy stumps I call fingers, and I tore the flesh of the insulation on the red wire. The wire itself is fine, but just sucks cause now I have to do a small repair on that too.

I'm making this out to be way worse than it was - I'm sure it is easy to do, but I was rushed for time and preoccupied with the mountain of crap I had to do that day. Lesson learned (yet again) - don't try to rush through any DIY project - take your time and do it right.

[koolade9]

Well - I wish I could say it was smooth sailing, but it wasn't the case for me. I only had about a half hour to do this. Trimming the tabs was a breeze, but I couldn't for the life of me figure out how to get the pins out. I had what I thought was a tiny screwdriver and I was sticking it everywhere I could think, but those damn things wouldn't budge. How exactly to you "release the barbs on the pins"?

I figure what I was using wasn't long enough or thin enough to get where it needed. I assume the tool is supposed to go in the little slot above (or below) the pin hole, and this magically releases the little bugger. Anyway, unless I totally have it wrong, it seems I now have to invest in a repinning tool - ugh. To make matters worse, when separating the wires, I used some needle nose pliers since I was having a hard time handling them with the clumsy stumps I call fingers, and I tore the flesh of the insulation on the red wire. The wire itself is fine, but just sucks cause now I have to do a small repair on that too.

I'm making this out to be way worse than it was - I'm sure it is easy to do, but I was rushed for time and preoccupied with the mountain of crap I had to do that day. Lesson learned (yet again) - don't try to rush through any DIY project - take your time and do it right.

Yeah, you need either a re-pinning tool or just something small/thin enough to push through the slot in the plug. I modified a little set of tweezers from an old swiss army knife and made my own tool.

[lorengphd]

IIRC we usually run an A8 airbag with flatbottom wheels in the B7s.

Does anyone know what year A8 airbag? I ordered a euro spec fbsw for 07 RS4 but it doesn't come with an airbag? Can I pick up a used airbag on ebay? Something like this?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/2004-2005-20...ZXhksc&vxp=mtr

[my_RS4]

Does anyone know what year A8 airbag? I ordered a euro spec fbsw for 07 RS4 but it doesn't come with an airbag? Can I pick up a used airbag on ebay? Something like this?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/2004-2005-20...ZXhksc&vxp=mtr

Not sure, but I am sure that's a screaming deal for an airbag!!


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[dturn37]

That airbag will unfortunately not fit in the RS4 Euro steering wheel. You need part number 4E0880201CT6PS. You will most likely need to get it shipped from overseas. Here is one on ebay airbag http://www.ebay.com/itm/Audi-RS4-B7-...oAAOSwGWNUVg0k

[lorengphd]

That airbag will unfortunately not fit in the RS4 Euro steering wheel. You need part number 4E0880201CT6PS. You will most likely need to get it shipped from overseas. Here is one on ebay airbag http://www.ebay.com/itm/Audi-RS4-B7-...oAAOSwGWNUVg0k

Shoot. I was told by another person that the part number is 8E0880201CT6PS. Do you think that's inaccurate?

[my_RS4]

Just saw this..
http://www.audizine.com/forum/showthread.php?t=688821

edit: just noticed you posted in that thread. Nevermind!

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