How to Swap 2.5gen steering wheel to 2nd gen

Are you using an aftermarket or stock radio?

You will have the following issues.

1. Your steering existing steering wheel controls were grounded to 4. The updated steering wheel needs a ground on pin 3.
2. The updated wheel has a third SW channel of PIN 4 (instead of the ground). This pin if for Enter/Back/Left/Right.

If you simply re-pin Pin 4 to ground the SW1 and SW2 channels would output their signals correctly. If you have a stock head unit, this may not work, though, as it is looking for certain resistance that may not match. If you have an aftermarket radio you can change the settings to map any button to any pin.

 

Ok that makes a bit more sense! I do have an after market head unit from pioneer,

$1,200 Pioneer DMH-WT8600NEX 10.1" Digital Multimedia Receiver - Wireless Apple CarPlay, Android Auto, Built-in Bluetooth, WiFi and Amazon Alexa, Floating Capacitive Touchscreen, Single-DIN

DMH-WT8600NEX.
I believe I may need that adapter you mention, I was messing with my settings and didn’t see a button selection like yours offers. when you say move the ground on the J45, where is that taking place? Down towards the bottom of the steering column or up near the clock spring?

 

I think you will something like this https://www.idatalinkmaestro.com/ to change the output signals of the new steering wheel into the correct format for your specific head unit. It looks like the process for your radio will be different than mine.

The ground needs to be moved on the steering column connection side.

 

Looked into the idatalink, I’m curious if I really need one. When I installed the radio I never did anything for the steering wheel controls. I just plugged and played. I may have to do some more digging, shoot maybe even change my radio lol less wiring = less of a headache

 

@chrisf111 just ordered and received a steering wheel, same as the one you installed. Makes a lot more sense seeing the connections in hand. Found out through crutchfield I’ll be able to make it work with my head unit using a maestro unit. It’ll be nice because not only will I be able to set the controls but I’ll have access to data on my screen via the OBDII

 

Awesome - keep us updated!

 

@chrisf111 finally got around to ordering an airbag and man those things aren’t cheap lol currently prepping for the wiring portion. I do plan on going about it the same way you did and utilize SW3. That being said, do you have any close up pictures of how to added/relocated ground? And do you have any pics of how you utilized the resistor? Thanks a ton!

 

I'll have to take the cover off and snap a picture. I know that I ordered some new pins with the intention of doing it the "right way" but in the end I literally just used the resistor to jump J45 pins 3&4 and then used my 3.5mm jack connections to tie into SW1/SW2/SWG (pins 6,5,4).

 

@chrisf111 so almost a year later and I finally found some time to mess around with the wiring. And I need some help lol
So I went with cutting pin 4 wire and soldering an extension/relocating it into pin 3 of the J45. Do I still need to remap even though the SWG/SW1/SW2 by technicality are all the same?
I haven’t removed my radio in a while but I know I have the adapter, either AXSWC or it’s the ASW-1 from the previous owner. I’ll have to confirm tomorrow. So I do have the ability to remap if necessary.

 

I think you're going to end up having to reprogram the adapter. Once you get everything in place, it will be clear whether the buttons work as expected or not. The reason is that even though all the wires are hooked up to the same places (SWG/SW1/SW2), the interface is expecting the resistance ladder from the 2007-style steering wheel controls. The 2014 style is going to be sending different values.

I'm not familiar with the steering wheel control interfaces as much. My radio accepts the signal straight from the steering wheel and allows me to remap within the radio interface. You may have to reprogram it to some "manual" mode. I see on the product page it will attempt to auto-detect which car it's hooked up to, but the frankenstien situation we've created may not play nice with it.

 

Yeah I’m not sure manual reprogramming is working either sadly. I’m going to take it inside and upload the 2014 preset controls into it and hopefully that works. At that point if it doesn’t I’m looking at possibly have bad controls because I also noticed. When I added a ground to pin 10 my illumination didn’t work either. Starting to wonder if the steering wheel controls are bad. Or maybe my wire isn’t conductive enough as I am using tinned copper wire that I have from some hvac controls job I did for work.
I’m also considering reverting all my wiring back to the way it was and using resistors instead. Which ohm rated resistor did you use to move SWG from 4 to 3?