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Hi guys, I've been lurking for a little while and this is my first post in this great community. Please bare with me, I have a bunch of questions about W212 steering wheel swaps.
I recently bought a 2011 E350 wagon and wanted to swap out the standard 4-spoke steering wheel for a flat bottom, 2012-2013, AMG-style steering wheel. I've used the search function and dug up threads in this forum that pertain to these types of swaps but still have questions that I'm hoping you guys might be able to help answer.
1) From what I see, I need to be careful of which steering wheel I buy because the buttons on it might not work on my car. (It seems like every seller on eBay lists their wheels as W212 compatible regardless of year.) How do I know which one will and will not work? Do I need to be concerned about airbags as well or are they more plug and play than steering wheels are?
2) Is there a way to check on which steering wheel part number would work on my car? Is there a list, site, or method to doing this? I don't want to drop that much money and end up with an incompatible wheel.
3) I read that some people, after connecting the new steering wheel, end up with buttons that don't work. Some sort of "chip" needs to be installed in the new wheel in order for the buttons to work. From what I gather this chip can be swapped from the old steering wheel to the new one. Can someone elaborate on this?
4) My car has lane assist and attention assist. There seems to be more steering wheels that do not come with the viber motor in them than ones that do. Can a motor be easily installed into a non-lane assist steering wheel or am I better off going with a factory preconfigured lane assist wheel?
5) I read that as long as the negative lead to the battery is disconnected for about 15 minutes before disconnecting the steering wheel, you shouldn't trip any error messages. If I do end up getting an error message anyway, can it be cleared without it coming back periodically? In other words, if an error code is cleared once does it go away permanently?
Thanks, I think I have it figured out. I'll post answers to these questions to help others out after I receive my new steering wheel and install it to confirm that my info is correct.
Hi guys, I've been lurking for a little while and this is my first post in this great community. Please bare with me, I have a bunch of questions about W212 steering wheel swaps.
I recently bought a 2011 E350 wagon and wanted to swap out the standard 4-spoke steering wheel for a flat bottom, 2012-2013, AMG-style steering wheel. I've used the search function and dug up threads in this forum that pertain to these types of swaps but still have questions that I'm hoping you guys might be able to help answer.
1) From what I see, I need to be careful of which steering wheel I buy because the buttons on it might not work on my car. (It seems like every seller on eBay lists their wheels as W212 compatible regardless of year.) How do I know which one will and will not work? Do I need to be concerned about airbags as well or are they more plug and play than steering wheels are? => Change the IC board from old steering wheel (must do some plastic cut + soldering) to new AMG (flat bottom) it will works : lights, all buttons => 100% sure, I've done 3 cars likes that.
2) Is there a way to check on which steering wheel part number would work on my car? Is there a list, site, or method to doing this? I don't want to drop that much money and end up with an incompatible wheel.
3) I read that some people, after connecting the new steering wheel, end up with buttons that don't work. Some sort of "chip" needs to be installed in the new wheel in order for the buttons to work. From what I gather this chip can be swapped from the old steering wheel to the new one. Can someone elaborate on this?
4) My car has lane assist and attention assist. There seems to be more steering wheels that do not come with the viber motor in them than ones that do. Can a motor be easily installed into a non-lane assist steering wheel or am I better off going with a factory preconfigured lane assist wheel?
5) I read that as long as the negative lead to the battery is disconnected for about 15 minutes before disconnecting the steering wheel, you shouldn't trip any error messages. If I do end up getting an error message anyway, can it be cleared without it coming back periodically? In other words, if an error code is cleared once does it go away permanently? => Yes, permanently
Now that I have successfully swapped my steering wheel, here are the answers to my questions. I hope this helps anyone looking to do the same swap!
I went from this:
To this!:
1) From what I see, I need to be careful of which steering wheel I buy because the buttons on it might not work on my car. (It seems like every seller on eBay lists their wheels as W212 compatible regardless of year.) How do I know which one will and will not work? Do I need to be concerned about airbags as well or are they more plug and play than steering wheels are? It looks like as long as you get the right airbag for the right steering wheel, it'll be fine. I let an eBay seller with excellent feedback that deals almost exclusively with steering wheels figure it out for me. His link is here. I chose a steering wheel that had short paddle shift buttons as well as not to impede with the column mounted gear shifter.
2) Is there a way to check on which steering wheel part number would work on my car? Is there a list, site, or method to doing this? I don't want to drop that much money and end up with an incompatible wheel. I ended up going with the 2012-2013 steering wheel. It looks like model years 2012-2013 for the following cars: C-Class, E-Class, CLS, and SL's all use the same steering wheels. (Maybe other models/years may work too, but for sure not S-Class, CLA/GLA)
3) I read that some people, after connecting the new steering wheel, end up with buttons that don't work. Some sort of "chip" needs to be installed in the new wheel in order for the buttons to work. From what I gather this chip can be swapped from the old steering wheel to the new one. Can someone elaborate on this? Yes, it's true, some type of chip or board needs to be replaced on the steering wheel so that its buttons can be fully functional in model year 2011 cars. The eBay seller I bought my steering wheel did this modification for me for an extra cost. I read that you can take the board out of your old steering wheel and do the swap yourself, but I wanted to sell my old wheel so I opted to not do it. My wheel came with the modification, which was visibly undetectable and worked perfectly. It's plug and play, all buttons work and light up.
4) My car has lane assist and attention assist. There seems to be more steering wheels that do not come with the viber motor in them than ones that do. Can a motor be easily installed into a non-lane assist steering wheel or am I better off going with a factory preconfigured lane assist wheel? I chose to not buy a motor-less steering wheel that required me to do this after all and ended up simply buying a steering wheel with a viber motor pre-installed. It didn't cost more than a wheel without the motor.
5) I read that as long as the negative lead to the battery is disconnected for about 15 minutes before disconnecting the steering wheel, you shouldn't trip any error messages. If I do end up getting an error message anyway, can it be cleared without it coming back periodically? In other words, if an error code is cleared once does it go away permanently? Yes, I unplugged the negative wire and left the car alone for 15 minutes prior to install and I didn't get any error messages.
Useful step by step instructions:
The swap was easy to do thanks to these two threads: Thread 1 and Thread 2 Quick tips: For the removal of the 4-spoke steering wheel, turn your steering wheel so that access to the rear of the upper spokes are not blocked by the gear shift, turn signal and cruise control stalks. I didn't do this and it sucked. The 2 rear torx screws (T25 size) found behind the upper spokes are self captured, so you unscrew them until the airbag is loose and that's it. They stay in the steering wheel by themselves. I loosened a third torx (T20) in the lower right spoke and didn't need to. That screw keeps the viber motor in place. Don't loosen it.
Last edited by pacrimguru; Aug 16, 2015 at 12:37 PM.
Wheel looks really good. I'm looking to do the same thing in my CLS. I already have the AMG sport wheel with the flat bottom & perforated inserts. I'm wanting the top & flat bottom wheel with carbon fiber or leather & alcantara inserts.
Hy, i want to do the same thing, but cant`t find any specialist to do it, does anyone has some pics or videos how to "=> Change the IC board from old steeringwheel (must do some plastic cut + soldering) to new AMG (flat bottom) it will works : lights, all buttons => 100% sure"
Not hard at all, took 15 minutes to swap and most of the time was removing and putting screws back in. I have a 2011 e350 wagon and installed a 2014 c63 3-spoke flat bottom with Alacantara on the sides.
So it depends on your vehicle and steering wheel your installing.
Originally Posted by b0gy
Hy, i want to do the same thing, but cant`t find any specialist to do it, does anyone has some pics or videos how to "=> Change the IC board from old steeringwheel (must do some plastic cut + soldering) to new AMG (flat bottom) it will works : lights, all buttons => 100% sure"
My car is a 2011 E550 and the new steering wheel came off of a 2015 E550 both steering wheels are OEM. The switch gear column for the 2015 steering wheel looks the same as my current one. Does anyone know if I still need to buy a new steering column or will my current one work? Any tips, suggestions would be greatly appreciated. And if I do need to purchase a new steering column switch gear, what do I need to type in the search bar in order to make sure I purchase the correct one.
Interesting so the original steering column that came with the 2011 E550 worked with the new AMG steering wheel? Everyone said you must change the steering column in order for the functions to work, I guess that wasn’t true.
Interesting so the original steering column that came with the 2011 E550 worked with the new AMG steering wheel? Everyone said you must change the steering column in order for the functions to work, I guess that wasn’t true.
it depends on which style wheel you have for the swap. generally speaking you dont need to ever swap the clockspring (this was the procedure years ago until a cheaper work around was made)
for example for a w212 wheel with the (round buttons): retrofit w212 facelift wheel: all you do is swap the boards
w212 facelift wheel to a w205 wheel you swap the boards but also solder in 2 ground wires tricking the cars computer.
for a 4 spoke wheel with the square buttons upgrading to the amg 3 spoke with with square buttons technically nothing needs to be swapped however id swap the chips and buttons just to ensure everything works. there are a handful different chips with different functions for those cars.
swapping clocksprings/steering columns is a thing of the past.
So basically I’m swapping the one on the top for the one on the bottom that came off of a 2015 E550 and my car is a 2011 E550. Do you think i’ll get away with the same steering column with everything functioning perfectly? Pictures below is my original steering switch gear column
Everything should work perfectly same as your stock steering wheel but that AMG logo at the bottom of the steering wheel is a poor quality . Those black color signs ///// AMG will fade .
Interesting so the original steering column that came with the 2011 E550 worked with the new AMG steering wheel? Everyone said you must change the steering column in order for the functions to work, I guess that wasn’t true.
My car is a 2011 and I swapped it with a 2012-2013 steering wheel and I didn’t need to do anything other than swapping out the steering wheel and airbag. The seller I bought my steering wheel verified it would work with my car before I bought it from him. That’s my experience, I don’t know about compatibility with 2015 steering wheels.
Sorry to bother you again so I have another question so I did the swap and everything looks great but the only problem I’m having is the buttons and the horn is not working on my new steering wheel and I’m also getting the “Front Left SRS Malfunction Service Required” error message.
Any idea what could be wrong because my old steering wheel and my new steering wheel all the functions and buttons look identical, so I’m wondering if I missed the step somewhere here any help would be greatly appreciated. I took a picture of my old and new stereo too just in case you wanted to see it, thank you in advance This is the new steering wheel This is my old one
so after trying everything I’m not sure what went wrong. The steering wheel looks nice and works perfectly but none of my buttons are functioning and the horn is not working. Where did I go wrong on this swap? Can anyone provide some suggestion or what I can do to make the buttons work I would really appreciate it. Thank you guys,
I’ve heard people saying swapping some board from the old steering wheel to the new one. What kind of board is it and where is it located and where exactly do you place it on the new steering wheel? Does anyone happen to have links or instructional photos/videos on what needs to be done? Thank you in advance!
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W212 Steering Wheel Swap Questions (5 of them)
