Steering Wheel

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Eric1066

New Member
Joined
Jul 4, 2018
Messages
27
Location
London
Car
SL 350
Hi all,

I am not a mechanic, and have no practical knowledge so wanted to ask a question.

Are MB steering wheels, only in a qualitative sense, the same? What I mean is, for example, is the A Class steering wheel, no different is size, dimensions, quality, to a B class steering wheel or a C class steering wheel etc..? Or is an A Class one somehow smaller, or weaker, or pathetic in some way, or just very odd if placed in another model? (Just standard wheels, not AMG etc..)

If for example, you needed to buy a used steering wheel, and you have a 2010 S Class, and a 2014 A Class steering wheel was available, would it fit and could it be bolted and would not look weirdly out of place due to dimensions?

(Please disregard the possible electronic problem and cluster unit, for now.)

I just want to know, can someone simply unbolt the old one of one class and slide on and bolt another steering wheel from another class, are they all bolted with that 10mm Hex bolt?

I know, to someone with practical knowledge, it may seem like a stupid question, maybe ALL steering wheels can be bolted on as its just a standard size that every manufacturer uses, a Ford steering wheel would fit, i just don't know.

Clearly, using a Ford wheel the electronics would be different, different commands, different plugs etc, I'm not asking about that, and I get that.

Thanks
Eric
 
I'm sure they will probably bolt on but thats the least of your problems .There is a multi pin connector behind the wheel that feeds to all the steering wheel controls. As there are many different styles / forms of control on MB wheels I would be surprised if they are universal. In fact being MB the opposite is much more likely. So I have no difinitive amswer. All I know for sure is that a w219 cls63 wheel is a plug and play bolt on replacement for a w219 cls55 wheel because I have done it.
 
In my experience of swapping a pre-facelift W203 wheel with the facelift version it physically fitted but nothing worked, most importantly, no horn.
I know you say "Please disregard the possible electronic problem and cluster unit, for now" but this is perhaps the most important aspect as with no working electronics, you won't be able to use the car safely or legally.
 
Thanks for the responses.

There is a company in the USA, that sell the steering wheels with electrical conversion, for retrofitting, it's a small unit that gets tucked inside, for all, or at least, most, of the buttons to work, (obviously a more modern wheel may have a button that my car simply doesn't have and thats ok) But they want to sell their custom wheel too, which is amazing to look at, carbon fibre, alcantara leather etc etc... but are asking for over £1200. Telling me that simply buying a wheel from eBay won't even fit and I'm finding that hard to believe, hence the question.

UK sellers of custom wheels (that I have found) only sell the wheels, no electrical, and they start at £900, so you have to change like model for like. Basically you simply swap out your existing airbag and existing OEM electrical stuff in to the new same shape, yet custom wheel, which is not what I want.

But I don't need a new custom wheel, the next gen ones are perfect for what I want, my car has lots of these aluminium panels inside and the new wheel has such touches, and I've found a lovely wheel on eBay for £200!!

So, I'm trying to buy just the electrical stuff from them that would make the new 2nd hand wheel work and save, potentially, about £700. (Which is a lot of money for me) but want to make sure that it can be bolted on, before I go back to them.

It would seem by the responses, that it can be bolted on and the only issue anyone has is the electrical, which won't be a problem. Although a definitive answer by someone that knows for sure that, for example, all MB steering wheels are the same size bolt, or not, would be greatly appreciated.
 
Have you tried asking on a US based forum? As it's an American company there may be some experience posted there?
 
There is also a history of US airbags being bigger and deploying with more force than a UK one. Not sure if that is still the case.
 

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