Help troubleshooting steering wheel replacement
Thread Starter
Racer
Joined: Oct 2017
Posts: 412
Likes: 30
From: Ohio
Help troubleshooting steering wheel replacement
I've swapped steering wheels to move from leather to suede and I bought an OEM replacement through Trunk Monkey.
I have a 2017 Z06 A8 and Trunk Monkey confirmed the right part was ordered and sent.
When I installed the new steering wheel, everything works properly except the backlights for the small cruise control pad are not working. That section on the steering wheel is dark and can't be seen at night. The cruise function works, so the buttons are getting power, but there is no light.
A few bits of context:
- I did swap the paddle shifters on the new steering wheel with the old ones because I had aftermarket shifters, so it was easier to just move them to the new wheel
- I tried changing the pad from the old steering wheel to the new one (for the cruise section) to see if that would work and it did not
- I tried changing the wiring harness within the steering wheel from the new one to my old one and that also didn't work
Any advice on troubleshooting? Might the wheel not be compatible? What am I missing?
Thanks in advance.
I have a 2017 Z06 A8 and Trunk Monkey confirmed the right part was ordered and sent.
When I installed the new steering wheel, everything works properly except the backlights for the small cruise control pad are not working. That section on the steering wheel is dark and can't be seen at night. The cruise function works, so the buttons are getting power, but there is no light.
A few bits of context:
- I did swap the paddle shifters on the new steering wheel with the old ones because I had aftermarket shifters, so it was easier to just move them to the new wheel
- I tried changing the pad from the old steering wheel to the new one (for the cruise section) to see if that would work and it did not
- I tried changing the wiring harness within the steering wheel from the new one to my old one and that also didn't work
Any advice on troubleshooting? Might the wheel not be compatible? What am I missing?
Thanks in advance.
Melting Slicks
Joined: Mar 2007
Posts: 2,240
Likes: 288
From: San Bruno CA
I had a similar problem when I swapped out my steering wheel too. Everything worked except for the cruise control buttons on the left side of the wheel. No lights, no nothing. Of course this happened right before I left for a trip so I didn't have a chance to troubleshoot the problem until after my trip. With the battery disconnected and the steering wheel still on the car, I popped off the airbag and double checked the connections. Sure enough, during the installation of the new steering wheel, I inserted the harness plugs but I didn't completely seat the plug. A little push on the plug and this time I heard it click into place-problem solved. That's what I'd check. You probably made the same mistake I did. Go back and double check the plugs on the left side of the wheel. You may have made a connection, probably just enough to send power to the light but not enough to make a full connection to power the cruise control. It's a tight working space trying to reconnect all the power plugs to the switches on the steering wheel. If you have to, use the tip of a small screwdriver to reach in there and push the bottom of the harness plug into the switch to make sure it's completely seated. Good luck.
