Steering Wheel swap

[Willies Silver Ingot]

So you just bought the "control" panel and it's wiring plug went right into your factory spiral cable plug? Or you bought an entire steering wheel including a matching spiral cable and entire wiring harness down to the main connector under the dash? And bingo everything worked? I could care less about the radio controls, but not having cruise control is killing me.

[jwbr71]

I have an SE sedan with basic audio system without sync, and I bought an steering wheel from SES hatchback with premium audio and sync. I do not have to change anything, just the button trim. The factory spiral cable plug is the same, and the wires are in the same position, so you do not have to change the wire configuration. You just have to plug it in and the horn, and button illumination work pefect. The radio and cruise control buttons do not work (maybe need to reprogram the ecu). I really dont know why, but i just rewired the radio steering button to work with an axxess interface, to control my alpine, and it is working perfect.

[Willies Silver Ingot]

K, thanks for the clear up. I figured the plugs would work fine. Nissan products are all hard wired with most options in mind even when the car doesn't have them. Too bad my Consult at work is Nissan specific else I'd try and play around with the ecu settings myself. Fords only flub on this car imo is the lack of cruise control as a standard option.

[aspitaletto]

Buy an entirely new wheel from Towsley, 150 bucks...

then swap it

Steering wheel swap :







SERIOUSLY it was a 10 minute job !

[Willies Silver Ingot]

Ya it's easy to do, but without already having controls I see no reason to put them on for "looks". Granted the leather looks nice. If I decide I want the leather and can't figure out a way to make the controls work I'd probably just keep the leather and swap the non control cover off my original wheel, lol.

No idea about all the posts talking about popping the air bags. I've pulled a lot of these (more than say 50) out of Nissan's and put them back in. Judging from the pics I'd say the connectors are almost identical. I'll even admit to being in too much of a hurry at work and skipping disconnecting the battery.

[Flaco]

I did a steering wheel swap this week, as said it was quick and easy. I now have a nice leather wraped wheel from an SES instead of the cheezy rubber original to my SE. Bought the wheel off ebay for a little less than $ 80 bucks, and it did'nt have a blemish on it. A really nice mod for cheap ! Ford should put leather on all the steering wheels, they just look and feel better IMO.

[aspitaletto]

Originally Posted by Flaco

I did a steering wheel swap this week, as said it was quick and easy. I now have a nice leather wraped wheel from an SES instead of the cheezy rubber original to my SE. Bought the wheel off ebay for a little less than $ 80 bucks, and it did'nt have a blemish on it. A really nice mod for cheap ! Ford should put leather on all the steering wheels, they just look and feel better IMO.

exactly,

the rubber wheels look SO "rental car"

[sunstealth]

need to find which are the cruise control wires in the steering column to interface them with an aftermarket cruise control unit since the stock one can't be retrofitted it seems!

[MaineFiesta]

Originally Posted by jwbr71

I did what you want to do. I just installed the steering trim with steering controls to my fiesta:









I just trying to enable the steering buttons to control my alpine iVA505



I will post more info later.

How did you manage to get the trim piece off? I can't seem to get the horn button off of the steering wheel and I can't think of any other way to get it out in one piece... Also, do you just pull it (the horn button) straight off or is there something more to it?

[Erad]

I'm trying to get the trim piece off my steering wheel as well(just to paint it). Is it necessary to pull the horn/airbag off to get the trim off? or is there a way to slide it out?