cnolke

I'd like to buy a leather covered airbag cover. The plastic in the middle of my steering wheel seems to annoy me after all the money was spent on the fancy black nappa appointments elsewhere.

Because 212s dont typically have the sport wheel we do, I cant find any leather covered centers like the SL65 or CLS63 seem to come with.

What cars came standard with our "sport wheels" and... even better, does someone have the part number for the leather covered airbag cover for the SL65?

I want to be fancy.

PeterUbers

Probably cheaper to have current cover wrapped in leather micro suede ... Is that possible?

RW C55

Sorry to hijack the thread but I do not want to start a new one with similar title.
I'm interested to find out if 12+ steering wheels fit onto pre-12 cars. Some ebay sellers stated that "modifications may be required for pre-facelifted models", but they do not specifically say what needs to be done.
The steering wheel I saw in particular has part number "A172 460 47 03"
Will this fit onto 2010 W212 directly, or are modifications required? If so, what needs to be done?

xxGenericSNxx

@Cnolke we share the steering wheel with A, CLA, GLA, C (W204), CLS, and SL. But your real question is which leather stitched airbag fits our E. Luckily for you- I'm already performing this exact mod on my wagon. The answer is the SL (R231 all versions) come with a nappa leather stitched airbag (and not the CLS). It's a simple matter of removing the old bag and installing the new one.

This is the part number: 231 860 19 029 E38
I ordered it from MBenzNL in the Netherlands for 575 Euro before shipping which was cheaper than ordering from an American dealer where it retails for over $1,575. If you don't want to spend that much you can simply buy the leather airbag cover and replace it with your plastic cover. This is slightly more involved as it requires removing your existing MB star and putting in into the leather cover and it requires semi disassembly of the airbag itself. I rather not deal with the hassle and just bought the full assembly.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/181334087612?ru=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.com%2Fsch%2Fi.html%3F_from%3DR40%26_sacat%3D0%26_nkw%3D181334087612%26_rdc%3D1
Something else to keep in mind is to change out the aluminum trim on the steering wheel itself. Our cars say "airbag" in black plastic on the bottom of the wheel while the SL AMGs say "AMG." This trim piece is about $167. Part number: 099 464 23 13




@RWC55 I think it may require a new center column from the reading I've done. Are you in the Seattle area? I'm actually thinking to change out my Performance Package alcantara/nappa stock steering wheel and airbag (on a 2015 E63 S) in favor of something else once my car gets here in March. Let me know if you need those parts and also a reputable shop to do the work.

LFC09

thank you very much for this P/N, I have been looking, a quick search on your p/n shows MBPartsCenter.com lists for $138.

However, they don't ship internationally
IF anyone else is ordering one would they be kind enough to let me use their US address and then readdress it to Aus for me? I will check my local price, but we usually run at 3-4 times US prices.......

RW C55

Hey GenericSN, thank you for the offering. Unfortunately I've shipped the car back to Taiwan with me. I'll ask around locally if anybody knows anything regarding this "new center column"..

cnolke

I ordered one of the British leather airbag covers. We'll see how well it matches with the rest of the leather.

I don't know how hard the R&R will be, but I think I'll probably go to the dealer and pick up one of those little chrome stars just to avoid the job of moving that over. It looks like it's less than $30.

xxGenericSNxx

I'm not sure if you can order the chrome star separately. You may have to transfer the old one from the existing bag. Most folks have never disassembled an airbag. It's easy to do (just some clips that go around the bag as it's merely a fascia cover). Looking forward to how it'll turn out- don't worry leather will be an exact match since it's OEM black nappa leather to go with the rest of your interior.

Are you going to do the AMG silver trim as well?

cnolke

Cool. The trick is probably convincing the assembly to come off of the steering wheel.

I havent thought much about the AMG trim. I'll probably only do it if I can find one for a little less than the price mentioned. I've gone pretty far debadging the car. As it is, the big bright AMG that welcomes everyone when they open the door (lit up door sills) is pretty obnoxious (to me).

cnolke

Apparently there are two small holes that need to be made/plugged?

http://www.aclassclub.co.uk/forum/re...topic1650.html

Not sure I understand where. Maybe it will be obvious when I look around.

Lenin

Not sure about W212, but on many other modern MB cars, there are two torx T30 screws that need to be removed using these two holes.

cnolke

So I just finished, and it wasnt quite as straightforward as I had hoped, but I could do it much more easily if I had to do it again.

First, the Mercedes star on the cover is pretty much permanently applied. Im not sure what the part number it is, if there is one, but I would recommend a new one versus moving one over. I moved mine over, and it looks fine, but its not on there as well as it was on the original airbag cover.

To remove the cover/airbag/horn "pod", one needs to use the two indents on the side of the wheel. The tool isnt a Torq 30, but a torx 20 works fine in order to find the spring clips that get pushed in order to release each side of the "pod". It took about 1/2 an hour of feeling around in there for what to do, and I'm happy to report its a wire spring clip that needs to be pushed in towards the center.

Once the pod pops out from the wheel assembly, I left it plugged in. I'm pretty hesitant to mess with airbag electronics. It can just rotate and move around enough with the harness still attached. I have no idea if one needs to do something like undo the battery or discharge the system, etc. in order to prevent the airbag going off, but I treated it like a bomb and that seems like a reasonable way to work with it.

Taking the front cover off of the "pod" is tricky. I took apart a spark plug feeler gauge and used the thickest blades. I'd pry each clip around the cover and slip a feeler blade all the way in, holding that clip open. There are something like 10 or 11 clips, so you have to work your way around. Getting the cover off takes a bit of coaxing. Lots of gently prying all around, slowly working it out. Once you get the cover off, you'll understand that you just uncontainered the airbag. It is deflated, but the previous cover was holding it together with the back. At this point I transferred the star over. The star had about 15 small tabs that had been pressed through the other cover and then melted wide, holding the star on. I had to flatten all the tabs to allow the star to be pried off and inserted into the new leather cover. Like I mentioned earlier, this isnt all that ideal. It wont come off, but it's not the original level of connection, and its on the front of the airbag cover. I wouldnt want a small Mercedes star poorly attached to the front of an airbag if I could help it. No need for projectiles in an accident.

Tucking the airbag together in the new cover takes a little finesse. After packing it all up nicely, the new cover has the same 10-11 holes that the clips slide into, so that needs to be finessed together and all the clips positively engaged. Once that is all finished, make sure the airbag harness isnt coiled up, and push the pod back into the wheel center. The two large male connectors will fit past the spring clips and the pod will snap into place on the steering wheel. One should turn the car on to verify the horn works and that the pod is centered and properly attached.

My new leather steering wheel center needed a bit of leather conditioner to match the nappa leather of the seats. No big deal. Now it looks and feels great.

I'll post a couple pictures once I get some good light.

Lenin

to cnolke.

LFC09

pioneering is never easy, congrats on getting it done, thanks for posting.
Look forward to the pics.

cnolke

Thats the airbag without the cover.



Thats the final result with my currently filthy interior...

unagi1

Nice job cnolke, will definitely be doing this in the near future

Johnny Rad

xxGenericSNxx is a SAGE! Thanks for sharing the little AMG / Airbag trim piece trivia plus the steering wheel compatibility info.

Lenin

cnolke, did you get the cover from the seller listed in post#4 and how well does it match the console leather?

cnolke

Yeah, I did. The leather matches the seats better than the pleather or whatever we'd call it on the dash. It is smoother and more or a matte color (as it's real leather).

I found that a few treatments of leather conditioner of your choice helps to match it up with other surfaces in the car. After a few months, even the closest inspection wouldnt imply its not an original part of the car. Also, now I see other interiors and the steering center sticks out to me as noticeably "plastic".

Im really surprised that the leather airbag cover isnt available on a $120k MSRP car.

xxGenericSNxx

@Lenin 100% match since it's all OEM parts and they're both "black nappa leather."

Lenin

Add me to the club.

LFC09

that's much better

UNC Sooner

Check out the post by XXGenericSNxx. He listed all the information you need.
https://mbworld.org/forums/w212-amg/...-thread-2.html [PLEASE DISREGARD. I'm an idiot and cannot seem to delete this post. I apologize.]

LFC09

lol

cnolke

That looks great!

Can you imagine going back? Neither can I. What a great mod.