Steering Wheel Upgrade

[quietpeen]

The last major piece to the puzzle for my interior is replacing the steering wheel so that I have a heated steering wheel. I didn’t even care about heated seats but i needed them for the module and wiring to work with the heated steering wheel. However I also swapped the seats because I wasn’t a fan of all the red on the base model trx seats.

I got a steering wheel from a wrecked trx on ebay. It is a complete steering wheel minus the air bag. It was delivered today, and I have already stripped it to clean everything up from the air bag and dirt from being a wreck. I was planning on swapping the switches, and paddles from my existing wheel this weekend anyway so this just gets me one step ahead. I would have been happy with the heated steering wheel from a level 1 TRX, but I happened upon one From a Level 2 so why not

Here is a pic of it stripped and cleaned up. I have more work to do on the alcantara suede, but I’m waiting for things to be delivered. For now it’s much better than it was and will work till the rest of the cleaning supplies come in.

The clock spring will also need to be replace and that is scheduled to be delivered on Friday. I’m trying to find all the settings in AlfaOBD to turn all this on, but if I don’t find them all before hand I guess it will be a trial and error till i find all the settings.

 

[G-Ride990]

Dont forget to make a long on Alfa before you start messing around. Saved my butt a few times!

Wheel looks nice though!

 

[quietpeen]

Dont forget to make a long on Alfa before you start messing around. Saved my butt a few times!

Wheel looks nice though!

good point.

Thanks

 

[OnTheReel]

If presented the opportunity I would downgrade mine to the Level 1 steering wheel. Not a fan of the alcantara. I’ve done well so far keeping it clean but it’s a pain. Looks good though.

 

[quietpeen]

That’s why I would have been happy with a level 1 steering wheel to be honest. I like the look and feel of the alcantara one but i know keeping it clean is going to be a chore. I will say after getting this one, i think my existing steering wheel might be synthetic leather. It’s not as shiny and also isn’t as thick. I don’t think the heating elements would add that much thickness.

 

[quietpeen]

I got started on this early today while it was nice and cool in the garage. 60’s out over night. First and foremost is to disconnect the negative terminal before screwing with the air bag For 2 reasons. 1. So you don’t have an accidental discharge of the bag, and 2 so you don’t turn on the horn when you pull the plug for it. After doing that and pulling the wheel, I swapped the parts from my existing steering wheel to the “new” one. I took the time to do this because I know that the paddles and the switches all work properly. I didn’t want to get everything back together and find something not working and have to take it all back apart. Just a comparison of the two wheels after all put back together.

Next I took the clock spring off. This is actually a rather simple job. I watched this video to figure it out.

Two things i learned, first on the TRX the nut holding on the steering wheel is bigger than the 22mm that was on the Rebel he was working on. I used a 24mm which worked but had a little play. Not sure if there is a sae socket that fits better because I didn’t have any that big. 2nd is when putting the new clock spring on pay attention to the top of the steering column. There is a hole for the set screw. First time I didn’t notice that and didn’t get it on far enough and was having issues with the steering wheel rubbing the trim. I tried making it stop rubbing other ways before I said to myself. This should be telling you that something is not correct with the clock spring - its not the trim. So i took it back off and then saw the hole.

Below is why you have to unfortunately switch clock springs.

my stock clock spring…..notice no pins in the plug

New clock spring….and here you can see the pins.

I didn’t check but there could very well be more pins in one of the two plugs on the back of the new one also.

and the completed job. After connecting the battery and letting the truck sit for more than 5 minutes I went for a drive and there were no issues and tested the paddles and controls. I have not activated the heated seats and wheel yet because it’s summer and it will give me more time to try to find the settings.

 

[quietpeen]

Probably wouldn’t have hurt to put the part # of the clock spring I got.

68545657AA. I believe this is the latest part # too. It replaces 8 other part #’s

 

[quietpeen]

So i have set a bunch of settings through AlfaOBD and i have the buttons on my 12“ screen but right now they don’t do any thing. I think there is a setting I’m missing or hopefully its not that the module under the passenger seat is not working.

 

[OnTheReel]

For the heated seats and wheel, or just the wheel?

 

[quietpeen]

For the heated seats and wheel, or just the wheel?

Both

 

[tinman454]

Wow great post sweet up grades

 

[quietpeen]

Thanks, still working on getting the functions to work but luckily have some time to figure it out.