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installing 3 spoke sport trim steering wheel into 2007 c280 luxury trim W203
My situation breakdown,
I have a 2007 C280 4MATIC luxury trim (WDBRF92H17F935465) which has the 4 spoke wheel style. I have purchased a genuine airbag for the 3 spoke sport wheel part #0008605402 and verified there was no subject to recall as the airbag was pulled from a 2007 C230 sport trim (WDBRF52HX7F895198). I also purchased the steering wheel itself which matches with the airbag part #1714600103. Will the installation be strictly plug and play? the most important thing for me is to retain access to my steering wheel controls to clear screens and navigate through my cluster. If i can't retain my steering wheel controls, then this project is a deal breaker for me. I'm replacing the wheel for the more sporty look which i admire greatly about the W203. I don't want to touch my steering angle sensor possibly damaging or mess with any electrical wiring. I will be going to a german autos hop which specializes in replacing & installing steering wheels. I just would like to avoid paying for unnecessary labor in the event that the wiring layout is different, steering wheel controls don't work, or the wheel itself is not compatible with my vehicle. I have a 2007 model with the last year production, and the airbag & steering wheel were pulled from a 2007 C230 just sport trim instead of luxury. The buttons on my current steering wheel match and look like the same options on the 3 spoke sport steering wheel. This is would be a blessing if someone could me some information on the process. If there's any information i'm missing to help someone answer my concerns please advise me, i will add anything i've missed. I have attached some images of my current steering wheel lay out , the air bag which i purchased as well as the connections in the back, and the steering wheel itself.
Thank you so much
4 SPOKE steering wheel currently in my 2007 C280 4MATIC Luxury trim 3 SPOKE sport trim steering wheel pulled from 2007 C230 sport (WDBRF52HX7F895198)
Pretty sure it's a direct swap since you bought the facelifted sport steering wheel.
You don't have to mess with the steering wheel sensor at all. The fancy electronics are behind the steering wheel, attached to the steering column. In fact this job can be DIYed if you have the right sized Torx bit and a 10mm hex socket. Undoing the 10mm hex screw is the hardest part of the job. They use way too much threadlocker at the factory.
Last edited by slammer111; Sep 4, 2022 at 07:38 PM.
Pretty sure it's a direct swap since you bought the facelifted sport steering wheel.
You don't have to mess with the steering wheel sensor at all. The fancy electronics are behind the steering wheel, attached to the steering column. In fact this job can be DIYed if you have the right sized Torx bit and a 10mm hex socket. Undoing the 10mm hex screw is the hardest part of the job. They use way too much threadlocker at the factory.
I'm a complete novice when it comes to installing a steering wheel all though the process did look extremely fluid on YouTube. I'm just going to pay my german shop hour to hour and half worth of labor to get the job completed the correct way. I'm just concerned about my steering wheel buttons. Currently, my steering wheel volume up + down function and / page up + page down (when in audio tab in cluster) change the track to songs from my double din head unit. I don't want to install this new steering wheel and these functions don't work. Best Buy installer used an adaptor to integrate music controls. Do you think ill lose those button controls in any way?
The functionality will be unchanged between the old and new steering wheels. They're the same electronics. The only difference is the shape of the wheel and the layout of the buttons. Basically the guy at the factory grabbed your current wheel out of the bin of luxury steering wheels instead of the bin with the sport ones.
Last edited by slammer111; Sep 6, 2022 at 03:09 AM.
The functionality will be unchanged between the old and new steering wheels. They're the same electronics. The only difference is the shape of the wheel and the layout of the buttons. Basically the guy at the factory grabbed your current wheel out of the bin of luxury steering wheels insted of the bin with the sport ones.
completely understandable and i would agree also. what do you think about the extra pin slots on the left and right side of the sport trim steering wheel? I was watching a youtube video where a person removed the steering wheel (same style as my current car) facelift and the connections looked a little bit different. I'm missing those left and right connections you see on the sport trim steering wheel opposed to the luxury trim steering wheel. Are those possibly connections for the paddle shifters (which i dont have in my car and that is fine). i pulled the images below from the youtube video. I also dont know if the if in the video ( i will leave a link to it below as well ) if the car is a US edition or Europe.
Those do look like connectors for paddle shifters. I imagine keeping them unplugged will be fine. Hopefully the steering wheel doesn't tell the car that they are missing, because that will result in some error code. But at this point I guess there's only 1 way to find out. The steering wheel electronics may need extra pins or something your car may not have. This is the chance you take when doing any kind of modifications on the car that involves unofficially swapping parts for their variants.
The German manufacturers like to have 6 different versions for the same part on these cars, and MB is notorious for stuff like this. Sometimes the same model year car will even have different versions depending on where the car sat on the assembly line. And the dumb part is that sometimes (~2% of the time) even the dealership computer gets the PNs wrong.
Last edited by slammer111; Sep 5, 2022 at 05:32 AM.
Those do look like connectors for paddle shifters. I imagine keeping them unplugged will be fine. Hopefully the steering wheel doesn't tell the car that they are missing, because that will result in some error code. But at this point I guess there's only 1 way to find out. The steering wheel electronics may need extra pins or something your car may not have. This is the chance you take when doing any kind of modifications on the car that involves unofficially swapping parts for their variants.
The German manufacturers like to have 6 different versions for the same part on these cars, and MB is notorious for stuff like this. Sometimes the same model year car will even have different versions depending on where the car sat on the assembly line. And the dumb part is that sometimes (~2% of the time) even the dealership computer gets the PNs wrong.
slammer111 i greatly appreciate your insight and knowledge on the logistics of this modification. i wanted to run another thought by you. since you have mentioned that it's entirely possible i can get. ESP light or something of that nature if the ECU recognizes that paddle connections are not connected with the airbag + steering wheel i showed you above. all though my vehicle has the luxury trim which includes no paddles, what if i were to put in part# 1714600403 (steering wheel with paddles connections)? yes i know that my car was not designed for shifters, but the idea is to avoid any potential trigger of a ESP or engine light? in this situation the the paddle shifter connections would get plugged in for the sake of occupancy so no lights trigger but of course would not function (im fine with that, i more would like to avoid a ESP or engine light). I attached a picture below of the steering wheel with the paddle shift connections. I think i'm going to bring both steering wheels in the event that one doesn't definitively work, and return the other. My preference would be to use the the original steering wheel i purchased, but this is definitely a trial & error situation. The original part # 1714600103 has no connections within the steering wheel itself for paddles. I attached an image below.
There is a chance that the paddle shifters will work when installed. Of course this may or may not also require some coding by a local dealership or indie to start working.
In your situation I'd try installing the wheel with the paddles first.
You basically have 4 possible outcomes:
1) The paddles work immediately. Best case.
2) The paddles don't work, but also don't throw any errors even though they're plugged in. In this case I would have a mechanic with the STAR computer plug into the car and see if there's a software flag that needs to be enabled. Only a dealer or MB specialist will have this equipment, and you may have to have to grease some palms.
3) The paddles don't work, but also throw an error. The solution is similar to #2. See if a mechanic can enable the paddles through software. The alternative would be to either unplug the paddles, or install the non-paddle wheel if the presence of non-functioning paddles becomes too much of a nuisance.
4) The non-paddle wheel with a non-paddle airbag also throws errors (extremely unlikely but never impossible). At this point you'll have to check with the dealer to see which electronics (the stuff attached to the airbag) the car needs to see to be happy. The dumb part is that even the dealer may not know, as their database only shows what went into your specific car at the factory, and any new PNs if those parts were superseded. For example, they may tell you that a different coloured door handle isn't compatible with your car.
Last edited by slammer111; Sep 6, 2022 at 03:26 AM.
There is a chance that the paddle shifters will work when installed. Of course this may or may not also require some coding by a local dealership or indie to start working.
In your situation I'd try installing the wheel with the paddles first.
You basically have 4 possible outcomes:
1) The paddles work immediately. Best case.
2) The paddles don't work, but also don't throw any errors even though they're plugged in. In this case I would have a mechanic with the STAR computer plug into the car and see if there's a software flag that needs to be enabled. Only a dealer or MB specialist will have this equipment, and you may have to have to grease some palms.
3) The paddles don't work, but also throw an error. The solution is similar to #2. See if a mechanic can enable the paddles through software. The alternative would be to either unplug the paddles, or install the non-paddle wheel if the presence of non-functioning paddles becomes too much of a nuisance.
4) The non-paddle wheel with a non-paddle airbag also throws errors (extremely unlikely but never impossible). At this point you'll have to check with the dealer to see which electronics (the stuff attached to the airbag) the car needs to see to be happy. The dumb part is that even the dealer may not know, as their database only shows what went into your specific car at the factory, and any new PNs if those parts were superseded. For example, they may tell you that a different coloured door handle isn't compatible with your car.
After taking all your factors into consideration, i decided to scrap the idea of the sport 3 spoke wheel. It's too many what if factors which also can lead to more $ in a simple project. I decided to upgrade my steering wheel and retain the same airbag. I'm not too big on 4 spoke, but these ones are extremely nice and sold me. I plan on deciding which color and putting the order in. I'm leaning the yellow because of the badge, but maybe not because that badge has nothing to do with my trim.
Wow. the AMG Edition 1 steering wheels do look really nice. That should be a direct swap.
Going back to the previous topic, there is a 90% chance that a non-paddle 3 spoke wheel will be a painless direct swap. However there is always the small chance that the coding in a steering module is different between a sport and luxury trim vehicle, and there is no way to know unless someone else on this forum has done the same mod and has posted the result.
Not sure about the facelifted cars, but for pre-facelift I can think of several examples off the top of my head where swapping an equivalent part with one of a different variant can result in errors with the electronics. The steering wheel isn't one of them, but the pre-facelift models also didn't have shift paddles (other than possibly the C32).
Last edited by slammer111; Sep 8, 2022 at 03:15 AM.
Mercedes SLR McLaren 722 S Is Extremely Rare Example Modified by McLaren
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That should be a direct swap.
