Steering wheel replacement

[Lex_utor]

Is it a DIY job or difficult to do and best done by a garage?

 

The wheel I'm looking at doesn't have the phone and voice buttons on the right as mine. Is it just a matter of swapping my buttons over? Thanks as always. 

[steve2006]

What is the wheel you are “looking at”?

You need to consider airbag safety for sure if working on the steering wheel.

[dublet]

Definitely need to disconnect the Battery when taking off the steering wheel. Even then it's 😓 whether it explodes in your face. If you aren't swapping like for like, you might find the looms aren't exactly the same.

[Lex_utor]

It's a stock XE2 IS wheel. I would be swapping only the wheel and keeping my airbag and airbag cover. I guess also my side buttons as my wheel has more options.  But my wheel rim is a bit more worn out than I would like.

[scudney]

Personally its always advisable to swap like for like where possible,then you can't go wrong and you know everything should work as it should 🤔

[NemesisUK]

I swapped the steering wheel on my Merc for one that had slightly differing buttons, total nightmare! Even though the wiring connections were the same there was a variance in the coding and communication protocol.

Why not get the original wheel retrimmed? Royal have a very good reputation

https://royalsteeringwheels.com/

 

[Lex_utor]

1 hour ago, scudney said:

Personally its always advisable to swap like for like where possible,then you can't go wrong and you know everything should work as it should 🤔

Like for like as in exactly same model and year?

[Lex_utor]

1 hour ago, NemesisUK said:

I swapped the steering wheel on my Merc for one that had slightly differing buttons, total nightmare! Even though the wiring connections were the same there was a variance in the coding and communication protocol.

Why not get the original wheel retrimmed? Royal have a very good reputation

https://royalsteeringwheels.com/

 

Problem with that is the downtime.  The car is my daily driver now. 😉

[NemesisUK]

They do exchange, couple of days?

[Lex_utor]

34 minutes ago, NemesisUK said:

They do exchange, couple of days?

Thanks for that tip. That sounded interesting, so I checked it.

"EXCHANGE via POST – We send you the new, same type re-trimmed steering wheel first so you could swap the wheels over yourself/local garage and return your old steering wheel back to us within 2 weeks (recorded delivery required). 

You still use your original parts, paddles, plastic trims and buttons. A refundable deposit is required as business protection and will be refunded once we receive your old steering wheel back."

Particularly interesting it the last paragraph. This sounds basically like what I was thinking of doing. Buying a similar wheel and use my original parts and buttons on it.  So the advantage of using Royal would be price?