Spit-ballin' a heated steering wheel in a Tundra

So the clock spring used in the 2019 tundra was also used on a bunch of other much older toyotas, like 2009 lexus gs... different steering angle sensor, but should hopefully be able to snap the newer steering angle sensor into the older clock spring and keep the tundra's turn signals...

but did any of the older toyota/lexus models have heated steering?
EDIT: answer is nope, none of the models with this style of clock spring had heated steering wheels.

continuing to poke around on the internet and scanning ebay used photos but at this point i think i need to find a u-pick-it yard and just go poking around to piece things together, before i buy any more useless parts. it's *possible* that the 2018 highlander's complete clock spring + steering angle + turn signals + wheel will just plug in and work (after repinning the connectors as the number of pins are different) but i doubt the computer would accept the newer steering angle sensor's signals.

EDIT 2: highlander clock spring/signals/etc don't fit. Ended up using a specific landcruiser/lexus clock spring, see further down the thread

 

yeah that's the case on 100% of the toyota/lexus heated wheels, heat is from 8-10 and 2-4 only.

 

I get sketchy when messing with clock springs. You’re braver than I am.

 

Yeah I'm not planning to open one up and change the bits in it. The tundra clock spring is identical to the one on corolla, rav4, highlander, tacoma, venza, camry, avalon, and lexus rx, gx, etc, but unfortunately it is for previous generations of those, and none of them had heated steering wheels. the newer generation there was a heated steering wheel on a number of the models... unfortunately the rav4 clock spring i bought is *two* generations newer so there's just no way to use any part of it. the 1-generation-newer clock spring has mostly the same plugs as the tundra stuff, just uses a 12-pin instead of 10-pin plug for the main connection, and adds a 4-pin heat connector. the airbag connectors are identical across all of them.
so yeah i'm willing to experiment, but not terribly excited about opening up different generation parts and swapping things between them

EDIT: Okay, so I opened up the tundra clock spring and the highlander clock spring. ayup, they're different! Nothing can be transferred between them so i wiggled them back together, now my hands are covered with gooey grease. yuck.

 

I've got a heated SW on my 2020 Bullitt. Didn't think I'd use it but........

 

The 2018 highlander heated steering wheel at least fits the steering column and has all the right buttons. This is also used in the sienna... the clock spring is useless again, too different from the tundra.

Found toyota/lexus part 84306-50190 and 84306-50200 are both using the older style clock spring, but with the high amperage heated steering connector. The 50190 clock spring is available for very cheap, like 40 bucks. 50200 is not available for that cheap, so wth, ordered the 50190. Crossing my fingers that it snaps onto the tundra's turn signals!
EDIT: Some additional digging reveals that 84306-50200 has the same 10pin/12pin harness connections as the tundra, so this would be a great choice if the chosen heated wheel has the same plugs as the tundra wheel, or if you want to add a wrap and heat tape to the factory wheel. 84306-50190 has 12pin and 14pin connectors instead of 10 and 12. The highlander wheel I'm planning to use has the 14pin connector so i'm going with that one. It also will leave two extra pins available if I want to later add paddles!

Current parts i am hoping will work:

• 2017-2019 highlander/2018-2020 sienna heated steering wheel and airbag (has lane departure and radar distance buttons for 2018+ tundras with TSS. Use a 2015-2016 highlander / 2015-2017 sienna heated wheel for pre-TSS tundras)
• 2013-2014 land cruiser heated clock spring 84306-50190
• tundra steering angle sensor
• tundra turn signals

will need to replace the 12pin clock spring to column connector with a 14-pin connector (appears to be used on both the land cruiser and the highlander, i have the complete highlander column with cutoff harness so i'll use that one if it plugs in)
and now more waiting for parts. i'm going to have a lot to dump on ebay when i finish this

 

This site shows a 14 pin for the platinum

https://clockspringexperts.com/prod...-0l-4-6l-4-7l-5-7l-new?variant=42290542215326

Could you use a button like the radio source.... To run it instead, re route after the clock spring. You'd have to look at the gage of wire and electrical requirements of the heated steering wheel, like that aftermarket one. I was thinking on this after reading your stuff the other night. Haven't dug much past these thought but if you have wire diagrams of a Toyota with a heated steering wheel and this one, let me know I'd like to look.

 

Oh that just adds a whole extra level of fun to this mod lol.
I'll poke around in TIS once I get the aftermarket heated clock spring i ordered and see if the platinum shows a different clock spring test procedure/pinout, and if so if it matches the clock spring i get.

I personally would not feel comfortable running the heated steering wheel power through the normal clock spring pins in a clock spring that wasn't made for heat. it's a coil of thin plastic with some copper drawn onto it like a circuit board... pulling too many amps through it could cause it to heat up and melt... and right next to it is another thin plastic coil with copper drawn on that runs to the airbag.

 

Got the wheel mounted and the airbag/clock spring/controls are all working fine.

Haven't hooked power to the clock spring's steering heat connector yet because it started raining, but nearly done!
Note the AliExpress steering heat button on the left next to the auto full beam headlight button

 

Shit yes this is awesome. I’ve always complained about the wheel especially in the platinum trim. I may need to do this lol

 

You wanna know the biggest improvement, besides heat obviously, is that the Volume Up and Next/Previous buttons are in the right place!! FOR THE LIFE OF ME, I cannot figure out WHY THE HELL Toyota decided to change that button placement for those. On the Second Gen Tacoma, it's the same Triangle, but Volume UP/Down is actually in the UP/Down spots. The NEXT/Previous is in the Lef/Right spots.

But NOOOO, on the 3rd Gen Tacoma's and these Tundras, they're swapped! Volume UP/DOwn is in the LEFt/RIGHT position and Next/Previous is in the UP/Down.

I HATE THIS SO MUCH! lol end rant

 

LMAO

I thought it was dumb too, but I live with it. My wife on the other hand *HATES* the placement. lol

 

Oh believe me, right there with you! I spent a lot of time looking at interior images of various Toyota and Lexus models from the last 10 years trying to figure out which steering wheels to try, and location of the damned volume buttons was very high on the list of things.

 

My hero.

 

@ColoradoTJ

This man cracked the code. Maybe a sticky? Either way this thread should be saved IMO or combined into something else.

Well done

 

Absolutely well done, @vilord!

I bet a lot of members would love to see a cleaned up step by step tutorial with parts numbers if you have the time. Just to make it all easier to follow since most of us use the forum on our phones.

 

The difficult thing is that nearly all toyota wheels post 2012 (with the exception of 4runner, tacoma, tundra, sequoia) use a 14pin socket at the column and a black 12pin socket for the controls in the wheel. tundra is a 12pin socket at the column and white 10pin in the wheel.

So the options are to add your own heat tape to the tundra wheel with a new leather wrap, and use the 84306-50200 clock spring, or to rewire the column with a 14 pin plug, use the 84306-50190 clock spring that's like 40 bucks aftermarket, and use another wheel like highlander/sienna, rav4/corolla, camry, etc that all use the 12 pin plug at the wheel controls.

you can see my notes here for the 12pin to 14pin conversion at the column:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Leie8b_zFCFKP0EM5M3Atvcips5oT4uP_m2W872qJb8/edit?usp=sharing
don't rely on the colors in my sheet, toyota seems to have changed wire colors a number of times over the years

helpfully, toyota didn't even use the same pins... the 14pin socket uses a newer type of pin than the 12 so it can't just be repinned... i ended up cutting off the tundra plug and wiring on the highlander/rav4 plug instead, you can see the solderseal heatshrink connections i used here:

(highlander's cruise control stalk has backlighting, the dangling white wire i haven't hooked up yet just needs to go to ground / illumination -. in highlander if there's an error with cruise it will flash the backlighting on the stalk, but i don't need that)

 

Yup, that's my plan, to put together a step by step once this storm passes and i can hook up the last few wires under the dash without getting rained on at 35 degrees

 

Oh also, if you do attempt this, don't be like me and use an impact to take off and put on the steering wheel nut! And be very careful moving the steering angle sensor from the old clock spring to the new one. The steering angle sensor is very sensitive to shock, and is about a $400+ replacement on the 2018+ TSS trucks. I ended up using my extended warranty to have it replaced a couple weeks ago when I was still experimenting, the dealer said it had developed an internal short.

 

That wheel just doesn’t look right on a truck.

 

Everyone's got an opinion

 

This opens up a lot of awesome!

 

I cooked a clock spring once working on a Pontiac. That one came out of my pocket though.

 

Oh! Can you mount it upside down, so the heated part is at the bottom, where I think most of us hold the wheel anyway? Lol

 

Most of us? I'd love to see the distribution on that, I personally never hold the bottom of the wheel.

Warm outside = one hand at 1-2 on the wheel, the other out the open window

Cold outside = one hand at 10-11 on the wheel, the other resting on the shifter.

 

You could try to do that, the clock spring and angle sensor have a number of rotations limit, if you exceed that number they will break.
And the turn signals won't disable properly.

Just add steering wheel heat tape where you want the heat, or buy a 22 which has a fully heated wheel.

 

Maybe it's an Eastern / western thing? Do you have the seat reclined all the way back like a balla?

 

I think it's more of a balla vs not thing. I could not by any stretch pull off being a balla

 

I'm right there with ya!