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Steering wheel change - buttons and horn not working

Old Apr 19, 2021 | 12:46 PM
  #1  
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Steering wheel change - buttons and horn not working

Hi all

I've just had my steering wheel changed over, unfortunately I didn't look hard enough when buying the (to me) new one and it had a slightly different arrangement of buttons.
I didn't think much of it, had my indy change over the contact plate and button modules but the horn and buttons still don't work, however pressing the upshift paddle looks to perform the action of the back or ok button 9 times out of 10.
Does anybody have any clue how to fix it and/or why it doesn't work? The only thing I can think of is that the paddle shifters are not playing well and I don't think these can be changed over as they appear to be a different size (pictures attached, chrome paddle shifters is the new steering wheel with buttons from old steering wheel)




?
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Old Apr 19, 2021 | 09:27 PM
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Please give us more details about the car and the new steering wheel that you are trying to fit. Do you have a picture of your old steering wheel.

Last edited by Andy74; Apr 19, 2021 at 09:30 PM.
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Old Apr 19, 2021 | 09:31 PM
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The car is a 2014 model with absolutely no options I can think of that would alter the steering wheel (no heated steering wheel or lane assist or anything like that), VIN is WDD2050042F038283.
After prodding the seller, the new steering wheel came out of 2017 C218.
What I don't understand is why would it still not work despite having both the buttons and contact plate switched over from the old steering wheel
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Old Apr 19, 2021 | 10:04 PM
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Originally Posted by PaulR7
The car is a 2014 model with absolutely no options I can think of that would alter the steering wheel (no heated steering wheel or lane assist or anything like that), VIN is WDD2050042F038283.
After prodding the seller, the new steering wheel came out of 2017 C218.
What I don't understand is why would it still not work despite having both the buttons and contact plate switched over from the old steering wheel
So the buttons and contact plate were taken from a W205 steering wheel and placed on a C218 steering wheel. And then this C218 steering wheel was placed on a W205 car. This is quite complicated. Why didn't you buy a W205 steering wheel?
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Old Apr 19, 2021 | 10:14 PM
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Originally Posted by Andy74
So the buttons and contact plate were taken from a W205 steering wheel and placed on a C218 steering wheel. And then this C218 steering wheel was placed on a W205 car. This is quite complicated. Why didn't you buy a W205 steering wheel?
Because I was stupid and didn't think to look at the pictures closely (I mean who would notice the left and right arrow instead of OK and voice assistant off button) and the seller listed a whole list of cars for this steering wheel without saying which car it actually came from.
I just went by the shape (changing to flat bottom from round steering wheel) and I know that was a mistake but I'm trying to work out if it's the paddle shifters or something else entirely, but other than those and the frame there is nothing on there from the new steering wheel so I'm just trying to pick some brains.
Also the last 2 pictures in my first post is the old steering wheel with new buttons.
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Old Apr 19, 2021 | 10:25 PM
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Have you tried returning it.
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Old Apr 19, 2021 | 10:29 PM
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Not yet, I will try if I can't get it fixed up in a week and considering I live in UK I can't imagine there will be a problem with it, although I would really like to try and get this one working.
It was quite a steal money wise and it's almost immaculate.
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Old Apr 20, 2021 | 02:40 AM
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Not really a 'steal' if it doesnt work

Caveat Emptor
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Old Apr 20, 2021 | 05:00 AM
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Never mind the steering wheel buttons not working, what about the airbag? This is not something that you want to discover did not work either...
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Old Apr 20, 2021 | 07:33 AM
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Originally Posted by jbnCH
Never mind the steering wheel buttons not working, what about the airbag? This is not something that you want to discover did not work either...
Good point
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Old Apr 20, 2021 | 10:49 AM
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Weird, I have a c218 and the buttons are the bottom ones.

Even though they are different (in reality, they are not), I am thinking something is off in regards to the wiring.
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Old Apr 20, 2021 | 12:19 PM
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The airbag is just fine or at least no errors come up about it, I can't imagine something like an airbag would be inoperative without warning you about it.
I'll open it up tomorrow to see if all the cables are seated properly and getting any voltage from the cluster side's wiring.
Would anybody know the pinout of the black plug or have a rough idea of what it should measure, 2.5V maybe?
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Old Apr 20, 2021 | 01:33 PM
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Well, of course it is fine, otherwise it would have blown up in your face by now :S

It would be the other harness, neither the horn nor the airbag is connected to. It would be hard to mess those two up.
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Old Apr 20, 2021 | 01:35 PM
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Originally Posted by Adi-Benz
Well, of course it is fine, otherwise it would have blown up in your face by now :S

It would be the other harness, neither the horn nor the airbag is connected to. It would be hard to mess those two up.
Yes I fully realise that, I think you might have misunderstood what I said, I'm asking what the other (correct) harness should measure across pins.
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Old Apr 20, 2021 | 09:13 PM
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Did you use your W205 air bag or the C218 air bag.
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Old Apr 20, 2021 | 09:40 PM
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Originally Posted by Andy74
Did you use your W205 air bag or the C218 air bag.
The C218 air bag, my round wheel one doesn't fit the flat bottom style wheel. There are no errors coming up on the dash (other than one I've had since forever but that's irrelevant).
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Old Apr 22, 2021 | 05:06 AM
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Thank you all for the help, I've opened up the steering wheel and started trying to measure the voltage across the 4 pins I realised 2 of them weren't reading anything.
I've used copious amounts of contact cleaner (after disconnecting the battery of course) and then taped the plug connected and everything decided to work just fine.
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Old Apr 22, 2021 | 11:19 AM
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Originally Posted by PaulR7
Thank you all for the help, I've opened up the steering wheel and started trying to measure the voltage across the 4 pins I realised 2 of them weren't reading anything.
I've used copious amounts of contact cleaner (after disconnecting the battery of course) and then taped the plug connected and everything decided to work just fine.
Congratulations this is now an interesting C218 steering wheel with C218 air bag with W205 buttons on a W205 car. 🙂
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Old Apr 22, 2021 | 11:25 AM
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Definitely looks way better, despite knowing that looks are subjective


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Old Apr 22, 2021 | 11:31 AM
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Originally Posted by PaulR7
Definitely looks way better, despite knowing that looks are subjective

I like it. Looks great. It also has the AMG logo on it.
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