zaleonardz
Well-known member
I have always hated the stock steering wheel on the E34.
Now one of our forum members has a secret stash of BMW spares that could put autofever to shame, and he had an E38 steering wheel with slipring laying around.
I first though I could just change out the airbag, but that would of been far too easy.
It was obvious that the two steering wheels were compatible, but it took some fiddling.
Firstly, if you are going to try this, DISCONNECT THE BATTERY, an airbag exploding in your face is going to hurt. Also if you fiddle with the airbag while the battery is connected, you will get an airbag warning, and will require a computer reset, give me a shout if you need help with this one.
Firstly, on both of the steering wheels, the airbag plugs were identical, and both looked like this.
So the airbag itself was plug and play, however the horn connector was not.
The E38 slipring has wires that come out of it for the horn, whereas the normal steering wheel, the horn works on a spring brush that sits on the steering col,and metal contact at the back of the steering wheel.
This is the old steering wheel, you can see the metal ring I am talking about.
and the airbag wire on a plug.
This is a pic of the steering col, in the bottom towards the right you can see where the brush sticks out (the little white thingy)
Here is a pic of the Brush itself removed from the steering wheel and unplugged.
Right, so what I did is I went and got a spare one of these bushes from the scrapyard so that I can get the corresponding connection, as I was determined not to cut any of the E34 wiring, and all changes I made can be undone.
This is my yard cable, I put the original one away, cut the white piece off on this one, and put a terminal on it,
I then cut off the plug on the E38 slipring, there were only 2 cables, a blue and a brown. THe blue was ground, and the brown was for the hooter. On the brown I spliced the opposite side of the terminal, and could then connect to the OEM connector for the hooter.
I put a ring terminal on the blue, and found a ground mounting position, added it on there.
That was it, wiring done, however we still had one very annoying problem, keeping the slipring from just turning and breaking the wiring.
On this photo, in the top right, you will see another white spring loaded pin that is used to hold the old slipring in place... this does not fit on the E38 slipring.
So I had two choices, I could either just break the clip off, but I refused to damage the car, if I ever wanted to put the old wheel back, I would have an issue.
Therefore, I pushed the pin back, and secured it with three cable ties.
Something interesting that took me a couple of seconds to figure out. Both steering wheels had a plastic clip that secures the ringear in a specific location, reason for this is to make it easier for the technician to line up, as soon as you screw down the nut that holds the steering wheel, the plastic clip is pushed down, and the ring gear can move freely.
OK Job done. The only thing that I had to do was make sure the new ring gear does not turn.
I did this by using a cable tie on the both the ringgear and onto the steering column
Right, once done, make sure all connections are in, reconnect battery, and take it for a test drive to see if the steering wheel is straight, adjust if needed by loosening the nut, removing the steering wheel, putting it on straight, and fastening the nut.
You may have to break the cable ties that you used to secure the slipring, this is fine, just make sure that you do not damage the wiring on the slipring when turning the wheel.
Get back to the garage, loosen the battery again, tidy up all of your wiring with insulation tape and cable ties (even if you used terminals)
Make sure the slipring cannot turn and that the wires are not being squished or damaged.
Refit all of the plastic covers, and it should look something like this... which you have to agree is a massive improvement.
I more or less gave you a broad outline of how to do the job, if you get stuck, drop me a PM, and I'll be glad to help...
Next mod coming up, H&R's and shocks :thumbsup:
Now one of our forum members has a secret stash of BMW spares that could put autofever to shame, and he had an E38 steering wheel with slipring laying around.
I first though I could just change out the airbag, but that would of been far too easy.
It was obvious that the two steering wheels were compatible, but it took some fiddling.
Firstly, if you are going to try this, DISCONNECT THE BATTERY, an airbag exploding in your face is going to hurt. Also if you fiddle with the airbag while the battery is connected, you will get an airbag warning, and will require a computer reset, give me a shout if you need help with this one.
Firstly, on both of the steering wheels, the airbag plugs were identical, and both looked like this.
So the airbag itself was plug and play, however the horn connector was not.
The E38 slipring has wires that come out of it for the horn, whereas the normal steering wheel, the horn works on a spring brush that sits on the steering col,and metal contact at the back of the steering wheel.
This is the old steering wheel, you can see the metal ring I am talking about.
This is a pic of the steering col, in the bottom towards the right you can see where the brush sticks out (the little white thingy)
Here is a pic of the Brush itself removed from the steering wheel and unplugged.
Right, so what I did is I went and got a spare one of these bushes from the scrapyard so that I can get the corresponding connection, as I was determined not to cut any of the E34 wiring, and all changes I made can be undone.
This is my yard cable, I put the original one away, cut the white piece off on this one, and put a terminal on it,
I then cut off the plug on the E38 slipring, there were only 2 cables, a blue and a brown. THe blue was ground, and the brown was for the hooter. On the brown I spliced the opposite side of the terminal, and could then connect to the OEM connector for the hooter.
I put a ring terminal on the blue, and found a ground mounting position, added it on there.
That was it, wiring done, however we still had one very annoying problem, keeping the slipring from just turning and breaking the wiring.
On this photo, in the top right, you will see another white spring loaded pin that is used to hold the old slipring in place... this does not fit on the E38 slipring.
So I had two choices, I could either just break the clip off, but I refused to damage the car, if I ever wanted to put the old wheel back, I would have an issue.
Therefore, I pushed the pin back, and secured it with three cable ties.
Something interesting that took me a couple of seconds to figure out. Both steering wheels had a plastic clip that secures the ringear in a specific location, reason for this is to make it easier for the technician to line up, as soon as you screw down the nut that holds the steering wheel, the plastic clip is pushed down, and the ring gear can move freely.
OK Job done. The only thing that I had to do was make sure the new ring gear does not turn.
I did this by using a cable tie on the both the ringgear and onto the steering column
Right, once done, make sure all connections are in, reconnect battery, and take it for a test drive to see if the steering wheel is straight, adjust if needed by loosening the nut, removing the steering wheel, putting it on straight, and fastening the nut.
You may have to break the cable ties that you used to secure the slipring, this is fine, just make sure that you do not damage the wiring on the slipring when turning the wheel.
Get back to the garage, loosen the battery again, tidy up all of your wiring with insulation tape and cable ties (even if you used terminals)
Make sure the slipring cannot turn and that the wires are not being squished or damaged.
Refit all of the plastic covers, and it should look something like this... which you have to agree is a massive improvement.
I more or less gave you a broad outline of how to do the job, if you get stuck, drop me a PM, and I'll be glad to help...
Next mod coming up, H&R's and shocks :thumbsup:
