E63 Steering wheel upgrade to W205 style, done !

[_Taz_]

All I can say folks, is NEVER EVER, NEVER EVER again, will I bother doing this sort of stuff.

This was mainly to replace the W212 alcantara style wheel , that I have found utterly horrid to hold in my hands... it went all bobbly ( from the previous owner... )...

Anyway, after 2 days researching, looking at the wiring diagrams, and lots of messing about I went from this >>>>>

OLD wheel

to this

Points to note ( and ignore others who say you NEED a new steering column module at GREAT expense ! )

1) All the buttons work, no errors
2) The back-lighting works on the buttons
3) I kept my original steering column module
4) The horn works ( handy to pass an MOT ! )
5) Both paddle shifts work fine
6) No CODING is required.
7) YOU MUST keep the original PCB from the old steering wheel & adapt it to fit into the NEW contact plate for the new wheel

Don't bother buying spare contact plates, I did, and it was still the wrong size lol ( hey ho £40 wasted ).

I'll try to post some pics ( and thankfully a kind soul on the MB america site helped me work out how to do it...


You can of course take the easy route, buy a new steering column module, and get the right pre Facelift buttons etc.. when I worked it all out, it came out to about £1200 !

My conversion using simple tools, some careful research & my own time, total cost, well, the cost of the wheel inc' new airbag + P&P ~ £360.

regards,

 

[EmilysDad]

Looks good

 

[Developer]

Admirable tenacity .

 

[L John]

Very nice!

And all done in just 90 minutes

 

[LucasMartinUK]

Hi Taz,

Could you give me some instructions of how to adapt old PCB into the new steering wheel (W205)?

Thanks in advance,

Lucas

 

[John Laidlaw]

2017 it bad I suppose

 

[vtaylor78]

Would love to change mine , I find it to big.
But I think it’s a bit to much for me to tackle.

 

[DSK]

Great write up and sharing of information. It looks much better than the old one!

 

[_Taz_]

I'm still about...the actual job isn't too bad, just people never share info...

Actually took a few hours...
If I was to do again, prob 3 hours all in...

All mb OEM parts of course.

Just a bit of loom extending for the paddles...

Cheers

 

[Buck01]

All I can say folks, is NEVER EVER, NEVER EVER again, will I bother doing this sort of stuff.

This was mainly to replace the W212 alcantara style wheel , that I have found utterly horrid to hold in my hands... it went all bobbly ( from the previous owner... )...

Anyway, after 2 days researching, looking at the wiring diagrams, and lots of messing about I went from this >>>>>

OLD wheel

to this

Points to note ( and ignore others who say you NEED a new steering column module at GREAT expense ! )

1) All the buttons work, no errors
2) The back-lighting works on the buttons
3) I kept my original steering column module
4) The horn works ( handy to pass an MOT ! )
5) Both paddle shifts work fine
6) No CODING is required.
7) YOU MUST keep the original PCB from the old steering wheel & adapt it to fit into the NEW contact plate for the new wheel

Don't bother buying spare contact plates, I did, and it was still the wrong size lol ( hey ho £40 wasted ).

I'll try to post some pics ( and thankfully a kind soul on the MB america site helped me work out how to do it...


You can of course take the easy route, buy a new steering column module, and get the right pre Facelift buttons etc.. when I worked it all out, it came out to about £1200 !

My conversion using simple tools, some careful research & my own time, total cost, well, the cost of the wheel inc' new airbag + P&P ~ £360.

regards,

May I ask how you adapted the old pcb to fit?