Am I right in thinking I can swap my steering wheel for an identical one but with DSG paddles, with no coding required?

 

I'm sure I’ve read about it on here but I can’t find the thread for the life of me!

That was certainly the case when my OE flappy paddle wheel was fitted to another S3 that didn’t have flappy paddles as std.

Yes, there was even a link to an eBay listing for a seller in Germany IIRC. 

 

I was was tempted to buy a wheel, but my car was due for replacement in December. That was delayed due to WLTP c*ck-up. 

 

New car car due this month - with paddles 

I swapped mine for one with paddles, with no coding required.

 

Just don't do what I did - I unplugged the airbag with the ignition on, and I had an airbag warning light on for about 2 months before I got one of those little Carista dongles and cleared it properly

Thanks, I’ve ordered one of those wheels from the German eBay seller, which has covered a grand total of 7km.

 

I'll make sure the ignition is off, or better still disconnect the battery (or does that cause other problems.....?)

Could anyone post a link to that eBay seller? Thanks!

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.co.uk%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F401720711651

 

This is what I bought..

Is it a heated steering wheel?

I don’t have the dsg paddles on mine. Would like them for this price. But if i go through the effort i would like a heated version.

 

If it is heated than you wil need to code it. 

How straight forward would a swap between a heated “normal” multifunctional steering wheel with DSG paddles and a heated “sport” multifunctional steering wheel with DSG paddles be? Would any coding be required?

21 hours ago, daveb99 said:

Thanks, I’ve ordered one of those wheels from the German eBay seller, which has covered a grand total of 7km.

 

I'll make sure the ignition is off, or better still disconnect the battery (or does that cause other problems.....?)

Others say disconnect the battery for safety reasons (airbag meddling) but it causes more problems than it's worth with loads of error codes etc.

Just unplug it with ignition off and you'll be fine - there is an anti-static kill switch on the airbag so it's safe to handle

I swapped my non paddle non heated steering wheel for a paddle non heated version. I disconnected the battery after I had unclipped the airbag and then disconnected it. There was a few errors and warnings when I restarted the car but they all disappeared after a quick drive and ignition cycle. No coding required and all worked fine. The code for the wheel I purchased is 3V0419091S, link below.

https://www.cars-equipment.com/en/shop/three-spoke-steering-wheels-10/oem-3v0419091s-cwe-mfsw-multifunction-steering/.

Then you got lucky. I ordered that exact steering wheel from cars-equipment. When it arrived it had a big cut in the leather. The packaging was ok, so it obviously was damaged before.
 

Their return policy they show off with on their website sounds very good, (if not installed you can get a refund after contacting them and shipping it back). So I let them know that I wanted to ship it back.

No dice, I had to claim it with the delivery service. Yeah good luck with that, the second you accept a package at the door you lose all rights to claiming damages. The damage was so bad I could not sell it myself, nobody would buy it. It took 10 emails back-and-forth untill I got "fine ship it back to this adress then we will refund you the money"
 

So I paid for Insured tracking back to them. It shows the package arrived at this address in January. They next working day it was "back in stock". So they obviously got it. Since then no refund and no more responses to any emails. I had to claim it on my creditcard to get a refund. The cost of the insured tracking I had to eat, obviously.
 

Absolutely blows my mind a shop will act like this, I've ordered from them several times, and not small amounts either. They won't lose any sleep over it, but cars-equipment won't get another dime from me that's for sure...

Edited 6 March, 20197 yr by Too Tall

That really is poor customer service. I was really lucky because the one I got was fine. 

Edited 6 March, 20197 yr by buttkicker
Missed word

On 05/03/2019 at 06:57, kriva said:

How straight forward would a swap between a heated “normal” multifunctional steering wheel with DSG paddles and a heated “sport” multifunctional steering wheel with DSG paddles be? Would any coding be required?

 

I don’t think you need any coding. 

On 06/03/2019 at 11:28, Too Tall said:

Then you got lucky. I ordered that exact steering wheel from cars-equipment. When it arrived it had a big cut in the leather. The packaging was ok, so it obviously was damaged before.
 

Their return policy they show off with on their website sounds very good, (if not installed you can get a refund after contacting them and shipping it back). So I let them know that I wanted to ship it back.

No dice, I had to claim it with the delivery service. Yeah good luck with that, the second you accept a package at the door you lose all rights to claiming damages. The damage was so bad I could not sell it myself, nobody would buy it. It took 10 emails back-and-forth untill I got "fine ship it back to this adress then we will refund you the money"
 

So I paid for Insured tracking back to them. It shows the package arrived at this address in January. They next working day it was "back in stock". So they obviously got it. Since then no refund and no more responses to any emails. I had to claim it on my creditcard to get a refund. The cost of the insured tracking I had to eat, obviously.
 

Absolutely blows my mind a shop will act like this, I've ordered from them several times, and not small amounts either. They won't lose any sleep over it, but cars-equipment won't get another dime from me that's for sure...

Thanks for the heads up. 

No problem.

 

Just today I got the results from PostNL (I used them to ship the steering wheel return from Belgium to cars-equipment). I opened an inquiry with them aswell with the Credit Card company. They send me a printout of the reciept, the owner himself signed for reception of my return item.

Does anybody know what size socket is needed for the wheel swap?

From memory it’s a M12 spline drive

16 hours ago, Gizmo said:

From memory it’s a M12 spline drive

 

Christ, what the heck is that?   Here was me thinking it would a normal 22mm socket or similar...

One of these:

 

 

They are also pretty tight, so you may need a breaker bar to undo it.

Thanks, I have a T40 and T50 socket but I’m guessing they are both different to this.   If this is definitely the right size I’ll get one ordered..

On a related note has anyone upgraded to a heated wheel. That is a mod I would definitely consider. If so, how easy is it to do and what if any coding was required? Thanks. 

From what I've been able to learn you need the following;

 

1. Heated steering wheel (obviously)

2. Airbag for heated wheel is different. Unsure if it's a completely new unit or if the airbag is the same but the COVER is different, but I know there's an issue there. So maybe a new airbag.

3. New wiring between wheel, airbag and clockspring.

4. New steering clock spring that has extra plug for heated steering wiring

5. Climatronic with plug for a wiring harnass between BCU and the climatronic. So new panel.

6. Loom from climatronic to BCU.

7. Coding.

 

There's a thread on vwvortex about retrofitting it into a Golf VII, they got it to work (using an EXTRA clockspring just hidden away  ) and just coding it so it turns on automatically with the heated seats. Another person sais he will update the details on the wiring loom, but no details yet. Likely it will be something like "connect pin 23 on the BCU to pin 6 on the plug B to.......". Now, I can live with forking out cash for parts (you can buy a new steering wheel, climatronic panel, clockspring etc), but the wiring loom between BCU and climatronic is not available so would have to be built from scratch. That is where I draw the line, so no go for me!

Edited 11 March, 20197 yr by Too Tall

So.

 

I got my new steering wheel (with paddles) from THIS excellent seller on Ebay. Very good packaging, fast delivery, and the price was fair. Fitting it into my car was easy enough, simply the same procedure as VAG has used for the past 100 years. Turn steering wheel 90°, unclip the clip at the back (I use a small flat screwdriver and a small mirror to see). This releases the airbag at one end. Turn the steering wheel 180°, unclip the other one. Airbag pops right out. Unplug the yellow clip (this cuts all electrical current so the airbag is rendered "safe", as far as it can ever be safe). Unclip the lead that goes towards the multi function buttons. Use the M12 splime bit to remove the center bolt, remove old steering wheel. Done. Installing one is the same procedure in reverse, the only difference is you just push the airbag into it's 2 clips. This requires quite a push, so you'll end up honking the horn, scaring yourself sh*tless. Job done! Paddles work straight out of the box on mine, no coding needed.

 

I had to install new buttons on my new steering wheel with paddles, I need the "view" button for Virtual Cockpit, so I bought that separately and fitted those into the new steering wheel. Also a 5 minute job.

 

Got to play around a bit with the paddles this morning on my way to work, and I'm happy! With my manual cars I always try to use engine braking as much as possible, and that's the only thing I really miss in my new DSG car. Now at least I can shift down a few cogs when I'm coasting up to a roundabout, so there's that.

3 hours ago, Too Tall said:

from THIS excellent seller on Ebay

sadly there isn't flat bottom :(

i can't decide between perfect design and acceptable price

360e http://www.cars-equipment.com/en/shop/flat-bottom-steering-wheels-2/oem-mfsw-skoda-o3-s3-f3-2/

203e https://www.cars-equipment.com/en/shop/flat-bottom-steering-wheels-2/oem-5e0064241g-fng-dsg-flat-bottom/ 

 

3 hours ago, Too Tall said:

I always try to use engine braking as much as possible

first year i used paddles to, but for unknown reason gearbox always switching by self from 1 to 2 just a second before stop

now i found easier way, before touch brake pedal i push DSG gearbox stick back,

what changes  'D' to 'S' and gears switches down by self then.

after stopped i have choice,

leave in 'S' to avoid Start-Stop stopping engine

leave in 'S' to have better acceleration

but mostly i switching back to 'D',

where comes another choice, if Start-Stop doesn't shutdown engine i move DSG stick to 'N'

 

all time driving in 'S' is too loud for my ears