allenjdmb

So I'd like a nicer, fatter, leather and alcantara wheel for my 63. Ledermanz, a guy who I have used with great satisfaction in the past from ebay, has lots of them, but nearly all of them say "not for line (sic) assist version". I was thinking that these were run by boxes elsewhere in the wheel, or perhaps under the knee bolster. My car is a 2012 (1st facelift), and of course, I know the earlier versions won't work....but seem that 12 and 13 should be changeable. Anyone have any insight? Thanks....

Mikeki7

There is a vibration motor in the steering wheel with cars that have lane assist, I personally find lane assist useless and annoying so I have it disabled but yes the car will throw a code saying lane assist malfunction if you plug in a wheel that doesn't have the vibration motor, you can clear the error with star diag and disable lane assist in the cluster in the first start button press and you wont have any issues.

If you have distronic then your lane assist is much more advanced and you will lose more functionality.

HPMan

I bought a carbon / leather wheel to replace my alcantara wheel and it did not have the lane assist motor with it. I had to transfer the vibration motor and some wiring from my original wheel to the new wheel and it was then all plug and play with no errors and no loss of functionality. While I can't say for certain, I would think that it would be the same with the scenario you described.

jnolan

I think it is more than just the vibration motor, there is also a sensor that detects when your hands are on/off the steering wheel.

Mikeki7

I thought that was the new s classes with distronic that had self steering. May be wrong.

allenjdmb

if you have the potential for self steering, with distronic, which I really dislike (and don't have). Dislike the lane sensor too, but needs to be there when I sell it, want to be able to get back to stock.
So it sounds like a visit to my good tech at the dealer ought to make it happen? And he can reset codes, etc, and make sure it's all working.
Appreciate it if anyone could chime in to confirm...
Thanks...

Mikeki7

You can disable lane assist in your cluster before swapping over the wheel and you should be good, you wont have any codes. Make sure to unplug the battery before unplugging the airbag and as HPMan described you can transfer the internals from your old wheel, not sure if this works if you are upgrading to the new 2015+ steering wheel.

6speeddave

Bumping this. Does anyone know if the lane assist vibration motor in the 2015+ CLS / GLE / GLS / SL AMG wheel is in the foam of the wheel, or if it is able to removed / replaced?

Asking about this wheel in specific:

PeterUbers

2014+ w212 have steer assist and will track lines and cars on the highway but is not as advanced as the Tesla auto pilot or the s class, it's still sorta a cool feature in the w212

i still like showing off my auto parallel parking

Sambugnet

What happend if you dont disable before swapping? I didnt

Thanks!

lthlc63

If you get a wheel from a 3rd party depending what module they use you may not have any codes on your cluster. Otherwise if you don’t disable you’ll have a lane assist inoperable light