Changing steering wheel

[binliner 0]

How easy is it to remove the standard airbag steering wheel and replace with a non-airbag one?

any tips socket size needed... disabling the air bag light etc?

cheers

[Guest Olly_K]

1st off, disconect the battery, theres 2 bolts behind the wheel which hold the airbag in. undo em and the airbag will come out, giving you access to the main nut (22mm i think). you can get a resistor to short the left over cable with, which will stop the light coming on, and apperantly the other airbags will still work

[binliner 0]

cheers olly... so prety easy job then?

[Pittuf 0]

In my experience things that seem easy usually ain't.

You may find you'll need a puller to get the steering wheel off. I'm currently in the process of doing this on my xr3i, the nut came off dead easy (bit i thought would be hard!) but the steering wheel don't wanna budge.

Hope you have better luck justin

[kilokilla 0]

pittuf you turn ignition key on xr3i cos steering wheel lock also holds sterring wheel on.

[kilokilla 0]

soz for bad gramma .he he he

[Pittuf 0]

I had followed the haynes manual instructions and turned the ignition key killa, but on the strength of your post I just went and had another go, and after being a bit more forcefull and putting my not alot of weight behind it off she came, nearly got a fat lip tho x)

[Eat this 2]

what value resister?

[VR6Steve 0]

Disconnect the battery and leave it for a while, just to be safe.

Make sure the wheels/steering wheel are straight before undoing anything.

Think there are 2 bolts (1 on each side) at the back of the wheels. Undo those and that should release the bag from the wheel. That should only leave the electrical connector to pull apart.

It will probably help to have a second pair of hands to hold the wheel whilst you undo the securing nut.

Thats what i remember from when mine was changed a few weeks ago.

Justin, what wheel are you going for?

[binliner 0]

Isotta Vallelunga... well probably anyway. I'm trying to decide a. if I have time to buy and fit it tomorrow and b whether to wait and see if its cheaper at inters

http://www.isotta.com/main.htm

[Pittuf 0]

If you believe in this sort of thing, then the steering wheel nut has to be done up to 50Nm when being refit. This was taken from the haynes Mk3 manual but shud be relevant.

If you need a torque wrench i've got one you can borrow.

[VR6Steve 0]

Justin, that has to be my favourite non airbag wheel, good choice. However, I prefer my airbag. If I ever buy a non airbag car (I have been thinking about a Rallye/G60 of late) then that would probably be my first mod.

[Guest Olly_K]

im not sure what value resistor though, if anyone knows it would be good to know ! i think most MOMO steering wheels now come with the resistor in

[dubloke 4]

awesome gti can supply you the correct resistor and connector for around £10 i think justin! i got mine from there when i changed my airbag wheel! plus you can use the 10% discount now too!