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How to remove steering wheel

43K views 29 replies 19 participants last post by  ELCouz 
#1 ·
I have a steering wheel with the bluetooth/sync only and want to change it with the one with cruise control on the left side and bluetooth/sync on the right side. Does anyone know how to remove the steering wheel with pictures?
 
#4 ·
Don't do this. Seriously. It's not worth the cost and the danger of having an airbag explode in your face. Those things need programming too from my understanding, so mucking with one could cause all sorts of other problems with the other airbags in your car. If it matters that much to you pay for a professional (who specializes in airbags)to replace the wheel for you, or live without it.
 
#5 ·
^What he said. I believe there's a cruise control thread and someone had the dealer replace their steering wheel and the airbag still went off. You'd be in quite the pickle if that happened to you doing it by yourself!
 
#12 ·
You guys are such wienies. Why is everyone so damn afraid of voiding their warranties? They have to actually prove what you did was the cause of a malfunction. Then if the warranty claim is denied, it's not as if your car no longer has a warranty.

Story time kiddies. If you change your struts in your car... and then you start having troubles with the upper strut mount. You bring your car to Ford and they tell you "sorry Mr. Youshouldn'thavebeenworkingonyourowncar because of your unauthorized modification to the strut assembly of this vehicle, we can not approve your warranty claim." So you will pay out of pocket for this repair.

NOOOOOOOOOOW... 2 weeks later, the motor in your driver side window stops work... There is no feasible way they can link your suspension modification to the failure of this window motor, hence they have no basis to deny your warranty claim.

So to answer your question... the typically procedure is to remove the airbag fuse and pull the negative battery terminal. Once you do that give it at least 20 minutes and some recommend to press the brake pedal to completely drain the system. The pyrotechnic squib is of course still in the airbag, but with out an electric charge to ignite it... you should not be in risk of blowing the thing off in your face.

Remember folks... just because you're too scared to do something.... doesn't mean it can't/shouldn't be done.
 
#13 ·
So to answer your question... the typically procedure is to remove the airbag fuse and pull the negative battery terminal. Once you do that give it at least 20 minutes and some recommend to press the brake pedal to completely drain the system. The pyrotechnic squib is of course still in the airbag, but with out an electric charge to ignite it... you should not be in risk of blowing the thing off in your face.
I agree with everything you said in your post, however even with all of these precautions you should still be very careful. You may assume that the airbag has no electrical charge do to the battery and fuse being taken out, however most modern air bags have capacitors that hold energy for the air bag to use in result of this exact case happening in a crash or other accident.
 
#15 ·
Obviously you should always be careful when working on your car, and ideally recognize when a job may, in fact, be too big for you. Some people have no business changing a wheel, and others are rebuilding engines and transmissions in their garage.

The problem is all these "void your warranty" posts. I've seen it quite a bit in my month on this forum and it's sort of a knee-jerk reaction by some people. Modding your car or working on it yourself will not void your warranty. In fact, there is no such thing as a wholesale voiding of your warranty. As was previously mentioned, you may have a warranty claim denied if something you did caused the issue, but Ford cannot and will not simply suspend the warranty on your vehicle. People need to stop peeing their pants about this.
 
#17 ·
I just finished swapping my steering wheel (No more hard plastic!). I bought a 72 hour subscription to the Ford service info.

1. IMPORTANT!!! Remove the negative battery terminal and wait a couple minutes. (Ford documentation says to wait one minute.)
2. Lower the steering column to its lowest setting.
3. Remove the Torx screw on the top of the upper steering column shroud.
4. Turn the wheel 90° and undo a clip for the upper steering column shroud.
5. Turn the wheel 180° the other way and undo the other clip.
6. Remove the upper steering column shroud and position it out of the way.
7. With the wheel still at 90°, you will now be able to access a round hole on the back of the wheel. This provides access to a spring member than retains the airbag unit. Insert a flat blade screwdriver. You need to get between the spring member and its stop, so bias the screwdriver blade towards the steering column axis during insertion. When it's all the way in, twist it 90° to release the latch and pull on the airbag unit. This wasn't easy. You need a screwdriver with a small enough shaft to maneuver in the hole but a wide enough blade to disengage the latch when you twist it. I had to file one down.
8. Rotate the wheel 180° the other way and unlatch the other side.
9. Remove the airbag unit enough to access the connectors.
10. Disconnect the connector for the steering wheel controls.
11. Disconnect the two airbag connectors. You must pry up an orange locking mechanism to remove them. They look fragile at first, but they do come up.
12. With the airbag unit removed, turn the wheel to straight ahead.
13. Disconnect the connector from the clock spring.
14. Remove the center bolt. A 24mm or 15/16" socket works best.
15. Remove the wheel.

Replacement is mostly self-explanatory. The center bolt torque spec. is 48 N-m. Note the latching features at the front of the upper steering column shroud.
 
#18 ·
Did this today. A couple of quick notes:

Torx on column is T25.

Screwdriver I used was 3/16 and the same length as the torx driver.

If you push while twisting the screwdriver the airbag assembly will pop free without pulling.

Disconnecting the battery (10mm) before starting will give you at least 10 minutes before you can get both clips undone. Lol.

Breaker bar with 24mm deep socket worked perfectly.

The orange clips on the back of the airbag plugs can be gently pried up with a small standard screwdriver.

Use the same screwdriver to pop the green plug free by inserting it down the side of the green plug where the clip is.





Thanks again for paving the way!
 
#23 ·
I hate to bump an older thread, but I recently did the steering wheel swap and now find myself in a predicament. Popping the airbag from the se steering was easy, or perhaps I was just lucky. Eager to finish the job, I bolted on the st steering wheel without straightening the wheel. As a result, my new st leather steering is now crooked lol. I figured it was a biggie since I removed the wheel before. Unfortunately, that has not been the case, as I have not been able to successfully remove the airbag unit despite my several attempts. I even considered taking it to the dealer, but am afraid they would document something that would void the warranty. Anyways, I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions?
 
#27 ·
I'm trying to swap my wheel and getting the airbag out is proving impossible to me. I've tried every size screwdriver I have including the 3/16 recommended upthread. I've filed one down, bent another at a 90 degree angle and tried using brute force when turning the screwdriver. I get the screwdriver to turn, but the airbag doesn't free up.

Anyone have any suggestions? I'd just give up and bring it to the shop, but it bugs me that I've spent this much time and failed.
 
#28 ·
Do you need a special tool to hold the steering when torquing?

Never done a steering swap in my life!

What about the steering alignment?
 
#30 · (Edited)
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