Vince124

As I mentioned in another post, I am doing a write up on installing paddle shifters on my 2000 C2 cab tiptronic. There is a nice thread at: http://911uk.com/viewtopic.php?t=97582 but I thought the wiring part was a bit confusing and there were some steps that were skipped, plus I wanted to keep my tiptronic buttons functional.
Firstly, I bought a set of Mercedes Benz Paddle Shifters PN: 171-267-0046 brand new off eBay for $148.97 shipped.

Vince124

I disconnected battery and waited 15 minutes to prevent airbag discharge.
I removed the plugs from behind steering wheel and unbolted the airbag with T-27 torx socket; I then pulled off the airbag and pulled the yellow airbag plug straight off the airbag unit.

Vince124

I removed the steering wheel nut with a 24mm (15/16”) socket and then marked the position of the steering wheel on spline before pulling the steering wheel off. I took a pic of the wiring to refer to when finished, to ensure that the wiring was correct at reassembly.

Vince124

Removed the aluminum horn plate: (3) T-27 torx bolts

Vince124

I made a paper template from the bottom of the paddle shifters and transferred the shape to the steering wheel with a permanent marker. The template and resultant hole should be smaller than the widest part of the paddle for the best fit.

Vince124

I used a Dremel with a small grinder attachment to grind out a hole about 1 cm deep and then trimmed for the best fit. This was a bit messy and the paddle did not fit flush until it was “bolted in” in the next step.

Vince124

Using a washer and a nut as spacer on each paddle, I used a self-tapping screw to install the paddles. As per the 911UK.com forum thread, the nut spacer shown on the bottom of the washer helps to push out the foam for a flusher install.
Once I was satisfied with the installation of the paddles, I reinstalled the horn plate.

Vince124

Here is a pic of the wiring that needed to be done. Essentially I cut the wires for the Tip buttons and used three butt connectors to splice in the wires from the paddles; each paddle has a power wire and a ground wire. The first splice connects the yellow wire from the downshift paddle shifter to the yellow/brown wire; the second connects the blue wire from the upshift paddle shifter to the brown/red wire and the third connects the two black–ground wires (one from each the paddles) to the existing ground wire. After this pic was taken, I realized that the original cut ground wire from the Tip buttons needed to be spliced in also, so there should be four black wires going into that particular connector.

Vince124

Initial impressions after driving with the paddle shifters: They are much more intuitive for spirited driving and easier to find on a turn. The buttons which still work, seem quite small by comparison and are harder to find. I may convert these buttons to stereo volume/channel buttons down the line along with a new touch screen double DIN unit, but that depends on whether or not I decide to sell this car at the end of this year. There are also paddle extensions available on from various sellers on eBay in a variety of colors that fit these particular paddles.

ejdoherty911

Thank you for this write up!

ALLUC

Nice job! Great write up. A friend of mine wants to keep his buttons too and this will help him do so. Thanks

alpine003

I love your write ups. Very thorough. I don't have the patience to document to that level. Probably the reason why I don't like corporate gigs.

I'm assuming no issues on accidentally hitting the stock buttons at anytime you're using the paddles in a spirited way?

Vince124

No issues whatsoever.
I'm glad I did this project... I very much prefer the paddles to the buttons. The total time to completion was about 3-4 hours.

Kjan4

Great write up Vince, I was waiting for this one. I plan to tackle a similar job, but most likely will opt to use a D-shape steering wheel. Since you have already completed the install and have been inside the wheel, what are your thoughts on the difficulty of transferring the wiring to a non-tip wheel? Would it even be possible?

Thanks.

Vince124

That shouldn't be difficult at all. Take a look at the red arrow in the below pic; that is a plug that comes apart. The right side of the plug goes out of the steering wheel to the transmission. The left side comes from the Tip buttons, so splice into there (check the 911UK.com link I posted above, as he did it that way). The only other thing to consider is that you should have grounding points inside the new steering wheel for the existing wiring.