MB Marko

so michail71 and myself have been picking our brains i've dug and PM'ed tons of members for help thanks to all those who helped out!

To fill everyone in I have a 2012 C300 4Matic Sport- it had no paddles on it now it does!

any ways heres tons of pics hope you like them!

It took a lots of swearing and taking everything apart but I'm happy with the results the car sounds like a beast with the x-pipe and the use of the shifters.

I couldn't of done this if Mort didn't give me a amazing deal on the steering wheel thanks man! and of course the 200+ PM's back and forth from michail71, he didn't give up and was the first to risk this in a long long time.


the first pictures are the grips I have about the gaps... unsure if its right or not but everything clicked in nicely and al the buttons and lights work. I may have to use the C63 air bag and see if it makes a difference in the gaps.

the rest are going through some gears for proof.

michail71

Beautiful! I'm jealous about the C63 wheel now.

Now you need to get Funk to enable M mode.

michail71

I'm not sure if the gap is a problem or not. It could just be you being hyper sensitive to the parts now. Since that pushes down for the horn it has a little gap.

michail71

How did it go with the wheel bolt?

MB Marko

i think your right i just put the C63 air bag in my old wheel theres a gap thats the same as the pictures.

I think it was the super attention to detail in me haha!

MB Marko

that wheel bolt was a ***** doing it alone. I called my father to come over he came over and i held the wheel and the hex socket in place he put literally no effort in with a 4 foot pipe connected to the socket wrench it came out like butter.

but doing it alone i struggled to get it for a good 15 minutes, you need major leverage on that sucker. As i was trying i thought to myself why am i working harder and not smarter.


I also torqued it back to 59 ft pounds and put blue lock tight back on the bolt so that sucker is on there just as good as before.

michail71

I had the same thought when I installed mine. Then I pushed it down more which made the horn go off, lol

michail71

I wound up borrowing a 3-4 foot bar from a mechanic friend. Even then it took some effort but I had stripped it a little by that time.

So did wires from the AMG paddles fit your original wheel controller?

MB Marko

ya the stripped part might of been the reason why it was still a little tricky.

yes the AMG paddle connectors clicked right in. They feel like a cold aluminium and give a nice click every time you change gear. Makes you feel like your in a real AMG AHAHAHA without all the power!

I do have to say the throttle variant coding Funkwagen did makes the car launch hard and when in manual(Gears 1-6) mode it seems to have more power though al the gears now.

It must be better if you open that 7th gear, I might have to do that next.

Adi-Benz

GJ Marko!

MB Marko

Thanks!

If anyone needs help or is thinking about doing this I'm sure me and michail71 can answer all your questions. theres some good threads about this on MBworld already.

The one thing i should of mentioned is how weird it is to drive with this steering wheel. The shape is really different from normal cars, its going to take a bit to get used to the shape of it.

michail71

It looks similar but is thicker? It would probably be hard to go back.

I may try getting the C63 wheel at a future date. The paddles have better switches with springs in them and all. But the normal ones seem to feel good. The trans still takes its time to respond at times, lol.

Unless the main screw is in a different position the AMG paddles should fit right in to the
same wheel openings. And you determined that the wiring fit your control module that you swapped.

michail71

I'm curious to see what the M mode change will do. In the W205 cars you only seem to get M mode and there is no gear limit. If you are in any drive mode and you use the paddles the car goes into temporary manual mode. After a bit of time without shifts it goes back to the previous drive mode. If you select M mode it then stays in M mode and won't shift until you hit idle or redline.

From reading the W204 C-Class manual it seems like we would still have gear limit unless toggled to M.

But if I gear limit to D6 now in S mode my car gets crazy responsive. So much so that I don't normally keep it there. It even barked on an upshift, which I have never heard a C250 do before.

It does act different than D in S. It feels like S+ in the newer models.

MB Marko

wow the funny thing is i just talking about switching to S every time i drive. this was the first time in a while i haven't and the car was responding well.

tomorrow ill take it for a long ride in S down some riding backroads and see how it goes.

the shifters respond okay it feels like its a lot better upshifting. when you down shift it basically tells you F off then does it a second later lol.

its nice it really lets you get up there in RPM and the x-pipe i installed really gets loud.

I have 2 more mods on the go at the moment then i think I'm done for a while!

I want to enjoy the car how it is for a little.

I might sell my old steering wheel to offset my spoiler cost. or at least the C63 air bag.

michail71

The upshifts come real quick if you rev high. But they can get lazy too, especially if you undershift while in S mode. This would likely change with manual mode.

When I do a long hold downshift before giving throttle the downshift and throttle response do come on much quicker than they would have otherwise.

romeo291

Good job man, I am so jealous cause I finally finished my steering wheel swap and the paddle shifters doesn't work. I thought I had all the wiring correct, but no signal. Maybe I just don't have the option enabled or something, but my chip did have the connectors required.

MB Marko

thanks!

I had an issue with mine i didn't put them in all the way. I had a feeling to push them in a little harder before putting the air bag on and I actually heard it click in place.

check if your contact plate has the gold prongs where the paddles get plugged into, if it does it should work.


michail71 has a very clear picture in his thread on this topic if that helps.

its worth a shot, i drove using the paddles all day today its much more fun.

Mort

Congrats Marko. Glad to hear it all worked out and you are enjoying the paddles. Good for you on taking the risk of it not working. Drive on!

Funkwagen

Nice install, let me know when you want me to enable manual mode for you

MB Marko

Hey thanks I will. I'm just going to sell my old wheel first to get some funds for my next mods hahaha, Thats number 1 on my list though.

michail71

Oh no! What are the details on your car?

Did you keep the wheel controller or swap it out. I see some of the pre-facelift owners have to move the controller from the airbag and do some modifications.

Do your other buttons work?

Outside that there is a code for paddle shifters but I haven't hear of anyone needing that done.

I can't say I know that much, I mostly got lucky on this swap.

michail71

Visiting Florida any time soon?

michail71

Oh, I see from the other thread you have a 2009 C300.

That may need coding. Some years seem to need that while others don't.

Does your transmission stick have the -/+ function?

Andriy242

So if I am reading this right. You pretty much just bought a C63 Steering wheels with paddles, and it was just plug and play?

Paddles worked without programming?
I am assuming your car just that the C/S button by the transmission?

Really want to get this done, but don't want to get a wheel and then find out I need to program it.

2012 C300 4Matic Sport

michail71

For Marco and myself that was the case. So far it seems like the facelift cars come with the controllers and coding required for it to work plug and play. You may or may not need to swap the controller which is really easy to do.

Even then you may still want to get manual "M" mode enabled to take full advantage of them.