[taztheman]

Hi CT team, this is a quick guide as to how to upgrade your steering wheel on a older MB car ( my W212 wheel was horrible & too big ).

I purchased a new W205 style wheel & decided to retrofit.

Contrary to what bullshit you read on the web, you DO NOT need a new steering column, it doesn't NEED any coding, it doesn't need anything special, other than YOUR TIME & effort.

You are welcome to waste your $$$ money and buy all the later 2014 columns, switches etc... and pay the extra $800 bucks !

I did my conversion for the price of the wheel, airbag & that's it ! about $400.

I will pass some of this hard work to a chap Kabboudi on the below forum link ( but his work needed some fine tuning to make it work, as I couldn't work out his pin outs for the new plugs.... which I finally managed to see with natural light & a big microscope !!! )

W205 wheel retrofit LINK, CLICK ME !!


Anyway, if you wheel looks like this >>>



you can make it look like this >>>




BEFORE YOU START, DISCONNECT YOUR BATTERY, AND DO NOT ATTEMPT THIS WORK IF YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND BASIC WIRING & SOLDERING, YOU'LL MAKE A MESS OF YOUR CAR !


1st :

Remove your old airbag & this will need some disassembly to get to the PCB on the old contact plate, as you WILL NEED to transfer this to the NEW airbag / contact plate module. This has all the correct coding in it for your car ! So this is the MOST valuable bit.



dismantle & you have this !




then disassemble MORE >>>>




note : In the bottom of the picture is the 2 black leads for the HORN, these will be soldered to the NEW contact plate

I forgot to take a pic, but the extended pink wires shows where these go ( easy to figure out when you have the new contact plate in bits from the NEW AIRBAG )



Now you transfer this into the new contact plate from the NEW wheel, NOW remember it will be a different width, and back-to front, however with some careful bending of pins, I made it fit, with careful dab of hot glue



Don't worry about the button connectors being square, as you'll need to remove & fit into the new connectors ( easy )



Next...

Buttons !

The ORIGINAL BLACK connectors are Numbered 1 - 6, easy to see, but the new delphi plug which are white & black is ALMOST IMPOSSIBLE to see the bloody pin numbers... but I found them using a microscope !



You only need to KEEP the black & white multiplug, as the pins are the SAME thankfully on the old square black plugs >>>>



AND



to remove pins, use a small jeweller screwdriver & care ! It will come out easily.

Make note to do one side at a time, and ONE at a time, so pin 1 is removed, then inserted into pin 1 of the NEW connector ! That way you WILL NOT MAKE A WIRING mistake !

One done, all you have to do, is extend the paddle shift connectors ( they are only 2 pins... if when you re-connect, you find they don't work, simply swap the terminals around & they WILL ! ), they must be CAN-SENSITIVE wiring to the PCB.



Now reassemble to new wheel fitted to the car ! & ensure ALL connectors are fitted



Be careful to reconnect airbag, as the wires are tight for the switches etc....

Time to take was about 3 - 4 hours fiddling & 2 days research.

This WILL SAVE you $hundreds...

End result :

Paddles work
Switch lighting works
No CAN BUS errors
All Switch functions work.

Hope this helps CT TEAM

I'm off for a beer !