Chipso4

Hey all,

New to the forum but I'm trying to restore the silver trim pieces on my steering wheel. The plastic is peeling. All the instructions say pop a screwdriver in the bottom hole and jimmy it out. Only nothing happens when I do. The airbag doesn't even move a single inch. Anyone had this issue? I'd love to just remove the grey plastic piece and skip the airbag removal but I don't think I can. Any advice?

doclouie

An Allen head with a little more cross sectional area will work better than a screwdriver. With a screwdriver you can easily miss the wire. You will see what I mean when you get it apart. When it is in the right place it will be a little springy when it hits the wire.

HenryPcar

See the backside of the steerng wheel, below the coil spring there is a horizontal steel bar. That is where you want to press up with a tool.



I modified a small screwdriver with a dremel tool by grinding a slot on the head so that it will anchor onto the steel bar to dislodge the steering wheel.

Quicksilver997S

And it requires a lot of force to push the thin steel bar up far enough to release the airbag, you might try positioning yourself so you have as much leverage as possible as you push up. I couldn’t release it by just sitting in the drivers seat, had to position half on the car floor and half out of the car.

qikqbn

YIKES... that's A LOT of force...... It should not require that much force if you, but yeah, it can be elusive and a real pain in the butt some times.. Like trying to find a needle in a haystack your first time. But once you have done it and know what angle works best, it should pop out fairly easy.

Here is another view of the metal bar you want to push up. It requires some force sometimes because while pushing up on the bar you are actually trying to push up a metal "square" shaped bar and release it from 4 anchor points. Catching that bar I think you want to angle your tool towards the back of the airbag, not away from yourself towards the dash... if that makes sense....

Good luck

Although these pics may show a 997.2 steering wheel. The concept of what the spring bar does and location is very similar.





Oh yeah... if you plan to remove steering wheel... I believe you will need a 12mm 12 point star bit...

mcfisticuffs

This will not be a helpful post, and for that I sincerely apologize.

However.

When I read the name of the thread, my thoughts were, "Have you tried slamming the car into a wall?"

Chipso4

This was amazingly helpful!! Now I know what to feel for. I thought just the thickness of the tool was the mechanism for action, but you are actually trying to catch that metal bar and push!

You guys are great! @qikqbn @HenryPcar