yoda888

Folks, I picked up a sports steering wheel from a '12 Cayman (w/ the flaps for PDK). I went to swap it this evening and everything was pretty straight forward. Took the car out for a drive and one of the lights was on (expected per my reading online). Literally less then half a block the warning light goes off. I'm driving down the block and decided to test the horn by hitting it. Nothing, so I tap it harder, STUUUUUUCK!

Keep in mind this is around 11pm in my residential neighborhood. I drove around the block parked the car and turned off the ignition! Luckily this isn't a car where the horn still sounds without the ignition on! Looked thru the fuses and pulled a fuse to kill the horn. Drove it home thinking I'd just pop the airbag out and re-seat everything.

The airbag/horn is now stuck. Any ideas how to pop it out? I know I'm getting full contact on the "spring clip" in the back to release it, but the airbag/horn is stuck. I can see it's sitting a little bit low (not flush w/ the steering wheel).

Any thoughts? I don't want to pry it for a couple of reasons (don't want to mar the steering wheel or airbag) and I don't want to set off the airbag in my face while holding a tool of sorts!

I feel like I need a giant suction cup to stuck on the airbag to pull and hit the spring clip at the same time.

terbiumactivated

Whoa that's a tough one. If it only needs a little up force you might try putting some duct tape straps across the recessed part and gently lifting.

yoda888

Mystery solved...

I did do some more searching last night and found some suggestions on how to push the airbag/horn back up. Some suggestions were to use a screwdriver and push it from the back while pushing the spring bar. Luckily, I had the original steering wheel to look at from the back, otherwise it would really be flying blind!

Here's what I did:
-disconnected the battery last night before bed to discharge overnight
-found out I can't reach any of the "holes/access points" from the back with the steering wheel straight
-can't unlock and turn the steering wheel without the key and power; so re-connected battery, turned steering wheel a little bit over 90-degrees
-disconnected battery and twiddled my thumbs for 20-minutes
-figured out to use an allen key (screw driver length/angle wasn't good) to push while pushing the spring bar; this took a couple of attempts
-the wire that goes into the slot was causing some binding
-practiced putting a couple of times w/ my old steering wheel (was easy)
-of course with the new steering wheel it wasn't; binded again! had to use the allen key and push from the back again!
-finally got it to work! no more blaring horn!

So summary:
-turn wheel a little past 90-degrees; use allen key to push from the back while pushing the spring bar

Glad I got the horn out. I was trying to figure out how to pop it out! Took the car for a quick drive around the block, PSM light turned off after 100 feet. Horn works. :tongue: (of course this time I tried in my garage and figure I'd pull the fuse if it went crazy -- but you can tell as soon as you hit it without power. It springs back!)

extanker

good

Hyper911

good to hear. It is a next year mod for me. Thanks for sharing.

pdxjim

YODA, is this a swap where you replaced the buttons with the paddles? And the right? side is upshift and left side down shift?

yoda888

Yes! The damn buttons are illogical! I would hit the button thinking it would downshift and it would upshift and vice-versa. It might just be I'm not too smart either.

So I swapped it with the paddles. It looks much better to boot! (though I'll let you know the chrome pieces do when I'm driving in the sun -- I had a 2018 Q5 loaner and the sun reflecting off the chrome steering wheel was killing me! I was wearing sunglasses too. I ended up driving with my palm blocking the middle spoke of the steering wheel)

Before:




After:

pdxjim

[QUOTE=yoda888;14404965]Yes! The damn buttons are illogical! I would hit the button thinking it would downshift and it would upshift and vice-versa. It might just be I'm not too smart either.

So I swapped it with the paddles. It looks much better to boot! (though I'll let you know the chrome pieces do when I'm driving in the sun -- I had a 2018 Q5 loaner and the sun reflecting off the chrome steering wheel was killing me! I was wearing sunglasses too. I ended up driving with my palm blocking the middle spoke of the steering wheel)

I agree with the confusing the buttons. Where did you source the wheel? Is it a plug and play switch?? TIA jim

yoda888

Purchased the wheel locally.

Yup, plug and play. The PIA item was putting the airbag back in. There's a "cable ribbon" that you need to make sure rests in a channel. The problem is you can have it lined up, but once you start inserting the airbag back in, you can't see it. So it could pop out, etc. I guess the only way you can tell is by feel. Is it "smooth or is there some binding?" But that takes experience! And I don't see swapping the steering in and out to gain this type of experience!

[QUOTE=pdxjim;14405201]

Blugsr600