mikey33

Hey guys. Just wanted to let you guys know I just bought an awesome walnut amg steering wheel. I bought it straight from the manufacturer in Taiwan and got a smoking deal for $275 including two day shipping. The item will take three weeks to be custom made but I think it was worth it, has anybody else put an upgraded wood steering wheel in their w210 and was it worth it?

Also, has anybody put in the illuminated door sills in their car? I was thinking about buying them but was not sure on the fit and if they would be flush with the door. Just looking to get some information on this upgrade.

ohlord

the air bag. Disconnect the battery.
Might be a diy on benzworld.org or peachparts.
Long breaker bar required to remove
I think Raymond has lit up sills so search the posts.
someone may have the wis for the steering wheel r/r

ejsheltra

[QUOTE=mikey33;3677898]Hey guys. Just wanted to let you guys know I just bought an awesome walnut amg steering wheel. I bought it straight from the manufacturer in Taiwan and got a smoking deal for $275 including two day shipping. The item will take three weeks to be custom made but I think it was worth it, has anybody else put an upgraded wood steering wheel in their w210 and was it worth it?

Care to post the source of the wheel?

mikey33

If you want the source you can PM me and I will give it to you. Their MOQ is 20 steering wheels, but I told them I wanted a sample to check the quality so they let me buy 1. I'm sure if I e-mail them and tell them I referred you that they will probably let you order only 1 too. Let me know.

Also, I bought the illuminated door sills today from a seller on eBay going out of business and they are regularly like $200 and I got them for $50 brand new. The seller has one more set so first person to read this post and buy will be lucky!

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Merce...Q5fAccessories

ghaffar23

and let me tell you, it is worth it! The illuminated door sill DIY I got from here on MBWorld from zam2000. Just be careful that the door sill kit is different for 96-99 and 00-02 facelifts.

The steering wheel removal DIY is on benzworld.org, if not, on here as well. That's not difficult either, but you do have to have a torque wrench or something similar to break that middle nut loose. There's also a couple of Torx screws on the back of the steering wheel as well. Good luck! It is money well spent!

mikey33

I will look up the DIY, thanks. I'm going to do them next weekend so I will have some time to find the wrench's.

Alexbenz

are you serious? lol.....

of course this mod's been done......check formymercedes.com, there cheap and look good at night

mikey33

Okay guys I got the sills today and they are extremely high quality. My question is, how do these wires work? They seem to have little plugs on the end with a black and red wire going in. Also, on each of the door sills on the back is the led strip with a black and red wire going into a connector. Can anybody give me some help? thx.

45acp

i installed my door sills awhile ago, but from what i rememebr i tapped into the door sensors for illumination. those black plugs should plug into a small black relay/voltage regulator. power was tapped right from the battery under the seat.

i also just installed a steering wheel two weeks ago. if you do a search on here you should be able to find the threads about swapping wheels. not hard at all, took all of 20 minutes.

if you need more info let me know, this was just off the top of my head.

mikey33

Thanks for the help. Does your thread have instructions on how to swap the airbag and center piece?

raymond g-

mickey
did you buy them used? or, did you post partial photos of the set?
they should be electroluminescent panels behind cutout lettering.
EL is organic and inherently requires alternating current to function.
since your car basically supplies 12vdc transformers should have
been supplied. instructions should have been supplied as well

basically,
- identify wiring underneath the sills which supplies 12v when the
door is open....and off when door is closed

- splice the transformer into the wire; ground the other transf lead

- EL panel plugs into the transformer output


ergo,
- when the door opens, transformer energizes, which in turn, supplies
current to the EL panel

mikey33

Thanks raymond. I bought them new from a seller going out of business for $50. They are high quality steel with shiny finish. Anyways, I can post some more pictures here of the sills.

45acp

here's the thread i used when swapping my wheel...

http://www.benzworld.org/forums/w210...step-step.html

roach_juts

WOW mikey that door sills looks good, i have the same door sills like your which i have not installed because o dont know where to plug the wires .. can you teach me how did you install those plugs ... i read raymo_nd & 45acp thread , but i cant see where to tap those wire from the door sills.......

Thanks in advance

mikey33

Having major issues with the door sills. We have been installing them today and ran the wiring under the panels and the back seat and what not, and once we started putting power on them they no longer light up? They were working fine before and all of a sudden they do not work anymore. We have checked the entire length of the cable and the power is there but the light does not glow. Does anybody have an explanation on how to fix the light because we know it is receiving power.

mikey33

Another problem we had is that the wiring is so cheap and thin that it looks poor quality. For those who have the illuminated door sills, was your wiring extremely thin or normal?

45acp

i honestly don't remember how the wiring was, but i do know that the main power line goes to the battery (with an inline fuse), and the wiring that "turns them on" i wired into the door sensors (circled in the pic). not a great pic to use i know, but at least you get an idea (pic is of the driver's side rear door jamb area). this worked great for me as everytime you open the door, the sills illuminate (even with the car off, keys out of ign).

raymond g-

also, consider the courtesy light at the bottom of the door

mikey33

hi raymond. the wiring that they gave us did not extend the entire length of the car so we had to cut off the connectors and splice the wires together. We tested the front passenger and it worked but when we got back from the store it all of a sudden no longer worked. The other three sills no longer work either that we have not installed in the car yet. Do you think there is something that we are missing? We put the negative and positive on the battery and they do not light. I mean my dad is an electrical engineer and he can not get them to work so all I can say is that they are garbage unless there is something we do not know. Have any ideas?

mikey33

hi raymond. the wiring that they gave us did not extend the entire length of the car so we had to cut off the connectors and splice the wires together. We tested the front passenger and it worked but when we got back from the store it all of a sudden no longer worked. The other three sills no longer work either that we have not installed in the car yet. Do you think there is something that we are missing? We put the negative and positive on the battery and they do not light. I mean my dad is an electrical engineer and he can not get them to work so all I can say is that they are garbage unless there is something we do not know. Have any ideas?

mikey33

Hi. I have been doing some research and appears from what I read that these lights are powered through a small inline inverter which is under the black electrical tape in the picture I put up. We obviously cut these off because we were making the wire longer to run along the length of the car because the harness provided was too short and really looked like it was made for one side of the car and that we should have received two of them to complete the job. Does this sound correct to you guys about the inverter thing? I also found sites explaining how the EL lights work and that an inverter is required. Thoughts? Thanks.

http://www.kriana.com/pages/krilltechnology.html

45acp

the inverter (that's the name of it..i kept forgetting ) is absolutely necessary for illumination. if you hooked it up without it, something might be blown within the EL strip.

mikey33

I guess we ended up blowing 4 good door sills. We will try soldering the inverter's back on to the wires but even if they do work those idiots who sent us the wiring only provided two for two door sills so we are still short. I guess I will have to get another set which sucks.

raymond g-

it's also possible that they didn't short you parts if.....the wiring is designed
and set up to utilize one inverter (I used the word transformer earlier, sorry)
per pair of panels. so you might want to study the wiring set up just to
be sure.

mikey33

Hey guys. I just wanted to let you know I received my steering wheel today! One word, amazing, the steering whee is very big and thick. The walnut wood and the AMG molding is absolutely a pleasure to grab and feel. The leather is high quality and hand stitched with everything just the highest quality and craftsmanship. If you guys are thinking about updating your wheel, I would have to say that is the best money I have spent in three years on my car. I will put up some pictures for you guys to see!