Steering wheel swap - airbag safety?

[lingnoi]

Hi, I purchased a wood/leather steering wheel from the bay for my W204 sedan and intend to do the work myself. So I pulled the instructions for the steering wheel swap from WIS net application. While the instructions instruct you to disconnect the ground wire at the battery it does not say anything about how long to wait for the airbag system (capacitor) to completely discharge. Anyone have definite infos??? Should I pull the airbag fuse (is there one?)? Thanks. Regards, LN

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[Peabody]

I would totally let the dealership do this install just to remove any liability issues in a life or death situation where the airbag would need to deploy. Any failure to deploy could shift that liability onto you if you do it yourself.

[lingnoi]

Please re-read the question. I didn't ask what you would do....

I purposefully came to an American forum to get a straight answer but no, a fellow German had to step up and lecture.

@Peabody: I obtained my driver's licence in US and never went to a (German) driving school. I have been driving for 10 years in Germany now, accident free. What do you suggest, should I go and sign up for "Fahrschule"? I would not want to jeopardize your safety on public roads....

Regards, LN

[micropower99]

Originally Posted by lingnoi

Please re-read the question. I didn't ask what you would do....

I purposefully came to an American forum to get a straight answer but no, a fellow German had to step up and lecture.

@Peabody: I obtained my driver's licence in US and never went to a (German) driving school. I have been driving for 10 years in Germany now, accident free. What do you suggest, should I go and sign up for "Fahrschule"? I would not want to jeopardize your safety on public roads....

Regards, LN

Dude just go get the airbag installed at the dealership. Listen to peabody, if you **** up its a huge liability for your safety.

[Peabody]

If he wants to risk suicide to save a few bucks then obviously he's not going to listen to reason. So what if your insurance could deny any life / liability benefits by naming you negligent in the maintenance of your safety equipment that would have prevented death / injury by naming you uncertified to make the appropriate adjustments / repairs. Obviously, if you can turn a wrench and get advice from the Internet that's all you need to bet your life.

[lingnoi]

My "advice" comes from WIS net. Maybe you have heard of it.

Anyway, my thread was directed at people with first hand knowledge about this subject and not drivers who need to go to the gas station to get their oil level checked.

Regards, LN

[lingnoi]

I just got her done (see attached pic)! No error codes btw...

The wheel is a bit thicker than the standard leather one I had before.

[Sportstick]

I would actually be suspicious of not having any error codes. The act of losing the connection to the bag should have stored a fault, even if it did not pop on the i.p. cluster. Unless you've already plugged in the diagnostic tool umbilical to check a stored fault, I would be concerned about the remote possibility that the ecu (or whatever is the name of the central processor MB uses) is not recognizing that a bag is installed, even for someone who offers as impolite answers as yours to Peabody. OK, despite concern for your well-being, I am ready for your insult now.

[lingnoi]

@Sportstick: as far as I know you will only get an error code if you re-attach a different airbag and not the original one that came on the car.

I will report back after my next inspection.

Regards, LN

[Sportstick]

That makes sense, but it would also seem logical for the car to set a fault to alert that the continuity of the circuit has been lost the moment it happens. In my case, the same air bag was reinstalled and reconnected within approximately one minute of disconnection, and the error code immediately appeared in the cluster on re-start. Whether the bag would actually work or not, I do not know, but it was easy to reset. Perhaps your car's electronics, unlike mine, automatically recognizes the reconnected bag and eliminates the fault on its own, but this is one area about which I would not speculate.

[lingnoi]

@Sportstick: Thanks, this is the type of reply that I was looking for, somebody with first hand knowledge and ability to contribute constructively.

I waited some time after disconnecting the battery before I disconnected the airbag.

I checked over on the E90 baord and they have at least one thread with 30 pages of people swapping steering wheels and nobody had any problems as long as they re-used their old bag.

Regards, LN

[dfordham]

Originally Posted by Sportstick

That makes sense, but it would also seem logical for the car to set a fault to alert that the continuity of the circuit has been lost the moment it happens. In my case, the same air bag was reinstalled and reconnected within approximately one minute of disconnection, and the error code immediately appeared in the cluster on re-start. Whether the bag would actually work or not, I do not know, but it was easy to reset. Perhaps your car's electronics, unlike mine, automatically recognizes the reconnected bag and eliminates the fault on its own, but this is one area about which I would not speculate.

Since battery power was removed during the uninstall/reinstall, I would speculate that the computer was powered down and never saw the event. If the airbag was incorrectly installed, I would think the computer would immediately recognize that once the battery was reconnected, and throw a code.

[Sportstick]

Perhaps the variable is disconnecting the battery so the airbag disconnection and reconnection occurs while the car is "under anesthesia". My swap was done with battery connected. That may indeed be the root cause of the different outcomes.


EDIT: dfordham: By the time I hit "submit", your post made the point!!

[lingnoi]

That clarifies it! I thought you had the battery disconnected too.

I followed the instructions from WISnet to 100% and even grounded myself immediately before handling the airbag.

Regards, LN

[Peabody]

Sorry, but not only do I not need to go to the garage to check my oil levels, I don't need to put on my underwear for professional legal advice.

[Nuru]

Originally Posted by lingnoi

@Sportstick: as far as I know you will only get an error code if you re-attach a different airbag and not the original one that came on the car.

I will report back after my next inspection.

Regards, LN

lingnoi, After you get it together, I would definitely go to the Dealership and get them to make sure that it does not have any issues. That way you can mitigate any concerns expressed on this thread. As you know, the techs have separate stable, filtered power supplies and other tools to assist them when they are dealing with the more "touchy" aspects of the cars.


As you know Air bag systems have a tendency to be a bit quirky when they are disturbed from the factory installation, and most techs I interface with really are very, very cautious when they work on them. You can follow the MBz procedures, however, sometimes steps are not quite clear - as I found out during my research for a couple of retrofits in my cars.

dfordham and Sportstick inputs seems pretty plausible. I do know that when I was talked into helping a buddy, retrofit his NAV, according the the MBz procedure doc, he took down the car's systems, unbolted the Steering wheel, during the retrofit, to get the Axial fan installed. When we finished, powered it up, it came up with a code. He drove with the seat way back all the way to the dealer - did not want a surprise hard jab from the airbag on the way

Once the dealer hooked their system up to the car, there were other codes that came up that the car did not reveal to us, and so they showed him the codes and what they meant and they gave him the tough love speech (synopsis - next time you do anything that involves removing components of the Passive restraint system - either get them to come out or bring it in to make sure it is not hiding a land mine). He kinda omitted the step that you employed (grounding himself - even though I told him I would have), and i think that led to the issues though

Ok, but anyhow - good luck, you seem to very cautious at what you are doing.

[lingnoi]

@Nuru: you mentioned that a code came up. Do you remember what code that was? What about the other codes that were revealed at the dealership? Where they in relation to airbag and restraint system or other reasons?

What repairs did the dealer have to do to your buddy's car?

Regards, LN

[Nuru]

Originally Posted by lingnoi

@Nuru: you mentioned that a code came up. Do you remember what code that was? What about the other codes that were revealed at the dealership? Where they in relation to airbag and restraint system or other reasons?

What repairs did the dealer have to do to your buddy's car?

Regards, LN

Gee I knew it after I sent the message, I should have remembered at least the code I saw, but I don't. Soon as we saw it, he took off for the dealership (I will admit I chickened out on riding shotgun). I dunno if he remembered the codes at the dealership, but apparently they had to reset the system using Xentry/DAS, and then they were satisfied it was safe and would not deliver any "phantom" punches to him while he was driving.