Installation of euro three spoke air bag steering wheel

[rdorffer]

There used to be some really nice instructions on a website for the euro three spoke air bag steering wheels. It looks like the link is dead now.

http://www.hghtransitional.com/publi...procedures.htm

http://212.53.90.108/cardiy/openproc...99391394050017

Anyone have those instructions archived that they can send me or have another link or write-up.

Thanks in advance.

Regards,

Rich

[Robcast]

Try contacting the author, his screen name is Frankie.
I bet he could help.

[rdorffer]

Originally posted by Robcast
Try contacting the author, his screen name is Frankie.
I bet he could help.

I did that as well but he hasn't responded yet. Hopefully someone has it archived or Frank can send it to me.

Regards,

Rich

[CarbonBlkE36]

what do u need instructions for, its only like 3 bolts

[RichH]

The connection for the horn circuit needs to be modified. The Euro wheel has its horn circuit in the ribbon cable with the airbag with a dedicated connector, same as later non-M E36's. M3's have an older style horn circuit that runs through a contact ring. The contact ring needs to be bypassed to use the horn circuit connector on the steering wheel. Frank's site does an excellent job of describing this bypass, but you could probably figure it out yourself. Just use bullet connectors to complete the circuit.

The rest of the operation is simple:

1) With a T30 torx driver, start the car and turn the steering wheel 90 degrees to access the torx screw on the back of the steering wheel at the bottom. Loosen the screw, then turn the wheel 180 degrees and loosen the other screw. DO NOT remove the air bag, just loosen the screws completely.

2) Straighten the wheel to perfect center and turn off the car, disconnect the battery and spend 10 minutes getting your 1/2 drive sockets (16mm I believe, 6" extension, and a breaker bar.

2) Remove the lower dash panel (just the two top screws) and lower steering column cover to gain access to the ribbon cable airbag connection. You'll see it once you have the wheel off below.

3) After 10 minutes to discharge the airbag circuit, remove the airbag and disconnect it.

4) Use your 1/2" socket setup to remove the center bolt. Do not rely on the steering wheel lock to react your breaker bar. Have someone hold the wheel. The wheel will come right off once the bolt is removed, but it will be connected electrically to a connector below the steering column, as described above.

5) Deal with the horn connection, either with Frank's help or by figuring it out yourself.

Have fun. It's an awesome steering wheel.

Rich

[lkstaack]

Originally posted by rdorffer
Anyone have those instructions archived that they can send me or have another link or write-up.
Rich

Can't send you anything without an e-mail address.

[Matt M.]

I just pecked this out for someone who wrote to me privately, so I figured I should post it here as well.

<hr>

You need to make sure you have the E36 version of the Euro wheel, since it also came in E34s overseas and E46s here in the US. The E34 version should work, but the E46 won't.

You don't need to change the slip ring on the wheel, but you do need to change the steering column lock support bracket. The part number is 32 31 1 162 088, and it was $3.16 retail when I bought it a couple of years ago. This is the same part that is required to install a US 3 spoke wheel. Once in place on the column, it mounts the column stalks and the horn and airbag wiring. I did not look closely at why this part needs to be changed, but I assume that without it the turn signals would not cancel, or the wheel simply wouldn't slide far enough down the splines due to interference.

That's the physical bolt-up side of it. The electrical side is pretty easy. The airbag connectors are a direct plug-in.

You will have to change the style of horn actuation. The 4 spoke wheel used a conductive pin mounted to the lock support which contacted a ring on the back of the wheel to close the circuit when you pressed the horn buttons. For the Euro wheel, you will snip off this pin, and snip off the horn connector on the Euro wheel (small gray/black connector IIRC with a blue wire and a brown wire leading to it). You need to tie back the blue wire, and connect the browns with spade connectors to complete your horn circuit.

That's it.

Other things I remember:

1. It did not take the same size torx bit to remove the US airbag as it did to install the Euro one.

2. There are one or two plastic screws that hold the lock support bracket in place, and I lost or damaged one, which made the turn signal stalks a little wiggly until I replaced it.

3. The above directions really only apply to M3s with the 4 spoke wheel. With a non-M3, depending on year, either or both the horn and airbag wiring could be different. For an M3 with the 3 spoke wheel from the factory, and also on some non-M cars with a 4 spoke wheel, the lock support will already be the 32 31 1 162 088 I mentioned above.

Hope this helps.

--Matt