Bro, you're steering wheel in your CLS55 already made me say "heck yeah I'm definitely going to do a new steering wheel!". Slownrusty's thread and seeing Grant's wheel gave me the final push to do it lol. I need paddle shifters badly and not these lame push buttons behind the stock CLS55 wheel. You hit the jackpot though man because you have the real CLK63 BS wheel in your ride.

On another note, thanks Slownrusty for this tutorial. Your wheel looks sick! You're saving my @ss from a massive headache when I start to tackle this project in my garage. Hopefully i have time to do this before we get hit with some hot Houston weather.



.

 

Thanks again sir! Would not have known where to begin without your tutorial!

 

What parts are needed to swap a 04 e55 wheel to the e63 wheel/airbag? Will the new wheel/airbag have all the connectors I need?

 

The new air bag and wheel will not have the connectors you need for an '04 model. This upgrade is really geared to the '05 and '06 model years. Sorry..it is not that simple for your model year.

 

Just want to ask if I think it is correct

For those earlier E55, will need to have the following to have a BS wheel working.
1. One of the airbag listed at the first post
2. Guts and the collector from a newer model 211 eg from year 05
3. The new steering wheel (of course)

Thanks

 

I guess at a high level the answer to your question is "yes"

 

This is a very good interior upgrade for E55

 

Forgive my ignorance, but I have a few questions that may seem Newby.
What is a clock spring do/for?
What ALL would be needed to swap a 2003 (June of 2003 production date) wheel to a newer BS st. wheel?
Whats it like driving with the beefier wheel? nay differences good or bad? I heard it changes the feel of the whole car, true?
Looks great man, good write up too, besides one picture being removed/unavailable.

 

The clockspring (as seen in picture #11 of the original post) is a primarily a pass-thru device that protects the conductors ( the wires that are necessary to connect the steering wheel mounted switches to the rest of the car) from twisting/stress damage when the wheel is turned. Mounted on the steering shaft directly behind the steering wheel, it has its connections on the top and bottom. The top side connectors are for the air bag and wheel-mounted switches. On your car (like most models built after 2000), the connections on the bottom connect directly to the N80 (jacket tube module) which in turn connects to various other parts of the car either directly or over one of the CAN busses. Inside the clockspring, a long flat multi-conductor cable is wound many times (around the steering shaft axis); this long cable resembles the main spring of clock .... hence the name "clockspring". Many modern clocksprings also contain the steering-angle-sensor (used by ESP).

Clocksprings have a finite number of conductors passing through them that generally have a dedicated function. As an example of "conductor-conservation" (keeping the conductor count low), on some Mercedes models (mostly 2003-2006), a car could either have paddle shifters OR heated wheel (as the same conductors in the clockspring and N80 module were utilized for either function) . The clockspring used in your car was only used though 2004 (except in the case of G55s and G500s which appear to have used that same part in 2005 and 2006).


On to your BS wheel question ... you would likely want to start by comparing the parts list of your car to that of the BS model. Aside from the obvious wheel and airbag (group 46), you would want to look at the clockspring part number and the N80 (jacket tube module) (both in group 54, subgroup 640, items 45 & 50). Additionally, it would seem you will need the E63 SCM (steering control module) as these functions are no longer handled within the airbag on this model (IIRC). If you don't have an EPC subscription you are going to need one.

However, after you look into that some, you may want to try the simpler path of having your wheel converted by DCT motorsports . Using the plug-n-play paddle converter that DCT supplies with the conversion, a wheel like this one https://mbworld.org/forums/5309420-post145.html is a direct plug-in for your car, can be done on your wheel (or a core) , and uses your existing air bag.

hope that helps some,
Chris

 

Hi

Anybody want to make or sell me a fully prepped steering wheel like this to install in my 2003 E55 from Australia?

Regards

OZZYAMG

 

Bump, was anyone successful on doing this on a 04 e55?

 

It appears some steering wheels have the distribution block intact, but do not have the 'metal guts' that some wheels have.

just the block is present here:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/W211-W219-W2...-/121134565857

Anyone know what the metal guts are for? Is it just a support for the bolt holding the wheel down?

 

That's just some type of weight, you can install the wheel without it if you don't have it, there are no connectors going to it.

 

I pondered this recently (and briefly) as I put a nice factory sport wheel with paddles ( that had this part) into a car that didn't have this part (from a 2008 or so E class into my SL55) ... I left this part out. For lack of a better explanation, my guess was that it is intended to "tune" the characteristics of the airbag deployment.

However, I look forward to hearing a more informed explanation.

Cheers,
Chris