[Recon13x]

Hey guys, I do not have any pictures, maybe I can come back and add some if this could help anyone; I just finished doing a custom wheel and airbag (among other things) from Carbon Addons.
But I had a few issues and found no help or guidance online for every part of my install, just some, so I wanted to post this in case it helps anyone.
This is going to be some generic steps as well as some SPECIFIC steps to my situation.
I do sort of use "connector" and "connector socket" interchangeably as just "connector", sorry if that is confusing.

This post and its steps are a bit wordy, sort me making up for not having pictures, sorry if its hard to read, but I wrote all the stuff I wished I knew before tackling this.

My issues were:
- not knowing how to exchange the airbag module from the old airbag housing cover to the new custom one
- getting a 2016-2018 custom wheel to work for a 2019+ Coupe that has a different set of buttons on the left side (heated steering wheel button and LED and Forward Collision Warning (FCW) button are different).

Removing the airbag module from the car:

1. Disconnect the negative terminal from the battery in the rear right of the trunk; remove the liner insert in the trunk to access and use a 10mm to loosen the terminal. When doing this, I made sure to have the doors unlocked and open so the window was slightly down, and I closed the trunk carefully after so it didn't latch, allowing me to access the car freely with no power.
2. Press the brakes and horn a couple times to ensure no power is left in system, some people feel comfortable also waiting 10-15 minutes, I didn't.
3. Get a small but long flat head (not philips) screw driver, and find the holes on the left and right side of the steering wheel, pick a side and push the screwdriver in with the flat part facing up (important because of the orientation of the "clips" inside).
4. There is some rubber inside the wheel to push through, and some strong "clips" made of metal on the airbag module, you will feel them, don't be scared to push. When you feel you depressed that "clip", tug on that side until it pops out a bit.
5. Move to the other side and follow the same process, but when tugging make sure the previous side does not fall back in to place, lodging something there or a second pair of hands helps. As you are tugging on the second side, also pull out the screwdriver, its easy to confuse the "clips" not letting go vs the screw driver holding the module in place. Pull from all around the airbag, not just the sides, it will wiggle out.
6. Once you have it out there are 3 connectors (at least for me). A purple and pink set that look the same and you have to push up tabs on each side of the connector to pop it off, I used two small flat head screwdrivers. The last connector is a red one in the top left and there you have to move the bottom piece of plastic out of the way of the tab with a screwdriver and it comes right out.
7. The manual says the the spring loaded legs (there are 3 of them) may come off, be sure you got them attached to the airbag module when you pulled the airbag off, mine were fine.
8. You are done removing the airbag!

Swapping the airbag from the old housing cover to the new one:

1. I was terrified doing this, but in all reality without any electricity to set it off, as long as you don't do anything stupid like hit it with a hammer a couple times, nothing bad will happen.
2. The airbag to me had 3 main parts, the backing, the front (and side) housing cover, and the airbag itself.
3. On the airbag module, you will see there are 4 nuts on the backing that hold some contacts, they are 8mm, take them off. On most airbags it's just plastic tabs to let go, not this one.
4. The airbag backing can now lift off. This reveals the back of the airbag and the tabs of the housing holding the back of the airbag. Just moves those tabs out of the way and pull the airbag out of the old airbag housing cover, carefully, so it doesn't lose its shape.
5. Put the airbag into the new airbag housing cover, work it in nice and slow, and try to get those tabs on to the back of the airbag once you worked it in all the way.
6. With the airbag in and tabs aligned on the back, put the backing cover back on and put those 8mm nuts back. I tightened them in a cross pattern a bit at a time until they depressed down the backing and were tight. I do not have a torque spec, but going off how easy they were to break loose, try to mimic that.
7. You are done swapping the airbag housing cover!

Removing the steering wheel from the car:

1. With the airbag removed, you now have access to remove the steering wheel, first remove the top connector by depressing the tab and pulling it off, then the connector on the bottom right that's tucked into the steering wheel housing itself, don't make the mistake of thinking you have to disconnect it at the bottom-middle of the steering wheel instead.
2. Now you need to undo the middle bolt, it is a T50 torx, make sure you have a good quality one, I managed to break some using an impact tool. The impact sort of ruined the bolt a bit as well so that didn't work for me, though I have seen people have success with it. Instead I used a buddy with a long breaker bar, while I counter-held the wheel in place. It came off pretty easy that way. NO HEAT OR OIL THERE.
3. When that stupid bolt let's go, if you feel like replacing it, the PN is GM 11610164, having a spare ahead of time may be a good idea. You can now start to gently wiggle and tug on the steering wheel towards you. If it isn't budging, put the bolt back on a couple of threads and wiggle and tug harder. The bolt is there to make sure you don't yank the thing and mess up the clock spring. As the wheel is coming off, you can take the bolt back off if it's there, make sure the connectors are helped to exit cleanly through the appropriate holes in the steering wheel so you do not accidentally yank on the clock spring.
4. You are done removing the steering wheel!

THESE STEPS MAY NOT BE NEEDED, READ BELOW.
Now to make sure the wheel (and its buttons and functions) work for your car. This was specific to me because of what I mentioned earlier about my car year vs the steering wheel I received.
In order to make this work, I needed to at a minimum swap the left-hand buttons of the wheel and the wiring harness because of the extra wire for the FCW button. Also mine is heated, yours may not be so maybe some things are different or somethings are not needed to be done.
Here is what I did where the "new" wheel is the custom one from a 2016-2018 while the "old" one is from my 2019 Coupe:

1. Take some pictures of the old wheel and the new wheel at different angles inside so you can remember how wires were routed, where connectors sat, how things were, etc.
2. On the new custom wheel, we need to take off the harness and buttons because it is missing the FCW button, start by taking off the bottom trim piece that usually has your car trim name or "FIFTY" on it, this just pulls off, takes some yanking to do so, work your way around it.
3. On the new custom wheel, you want to take off the the buttons and their trim piece they are attached to, its the upside down triangle shaped trim. You will need to really yank on it, start at the buttons on each side and work your way around to the bottom. When the trim comes off, you will have to disconnect the connectors for the buttons on each side by depressing the appropriate tabs and pulling the connector.
4. With the buttons disconnected and trim off, you want to pull off the buttons from the trim. There are 4 tabs holding each button "module", start by tugging on the connector side as you use a flat head to push the 2 tabs out of the way on that side, this will let it lift on that side. Then without letting it fall back in place, do the same on the other side and buttons will come pop out, careful not to ruin the tabs. Repeat on the other side if you want, that side matches as far as buttons go, but I swapped it anyways.
5. Now work your way around all the other connectors of the main harness in the steering wheel, all that will be left as far as connectors will be the paddles, the side buttons (seek and volume), and what I think is the horn (the top left red connector that you disconnected a wire from earlier, attached to the airbag). The paddles and side buttons are the usual process: depress tabs and pull the connector out. The red connector on the top left just pulls out of its cutout, shove a small screw driver through the gap on the side and pull straight out of the wheel.
6. Now you are left with 2 wires going from the left-hand side button connector to the bottom of the steering wheel going inside it, which I think are is the heated function (if you do not have this, lucky you, skip it, you harness is now completely detached). You will have to de-pin those wires (this is what I did, not sure if this is easiest but it was my solution). Specifically the purple in the second slot and the pink in the sixth slot, depending how you look at it. I did this because I wasn't sure where inside the wheel they went, and didn't care to find out.
7. Pull the red tab on the front of the connector you will pull until it slides off, for me it came off in 2 clicks. Now you have access to some plastic tabs pushing against the contacts inside the connector on the front. I used a tiny TINY flat head to reach through the front and push up the plastic tab while pulling out the wire and contact from the back. First the purple then the pink, take note of the contact orientation as you pull them out so they go back in the same way later, and do not lose that red tab from earlier. The harness should now be completely detached and can be pulled out.
8. You have completely disassembled everything you needed to on the new wheel, you now need to follow these same steps on the old wheel to take it apart in the same way and reach the same condition. Do not lose track of which parts came from which, duh.
9. You probably noticed that the wiring harness followed a routing in some cutouts of the wheel inside, start putting the old wiring harness into the new wheel in those cutouts.
10. Begin connecting back all the connectors you can: this will be the paddles, the side buttons (seek and volume) and shoving the red connector back into its cutout at the top left.
11. We can now connect the purple and pink wires we de-pinned earlier. The purple goes in the second slot, the pink in the sixth, they just push in from the back until they click, make sure they are oriented correctly. You can now push on the red tab back onto the front of the connector.
12. Take the old buttons "modules" (with FCW) and pop them into the new button trim. Line up the trim and connect the buttons to the harness. For me one side didn't want to connect (the side I de-pinned), so I grabbed a needle, and shoved it down each hole on the front and worked it around in there to ensure each contact was aligned. This allowed me to connect it after some effort. Once they are connected on both sides, push the trim back in place as well as the trim piece on the bottom of the wheel.
13. If you want to, reassemble the old wheel with the new parts as well.
14. You are done making the new wheel compatible with your car!

Installing it all back:

1. This is really the "removing" steps above but in reverse.
2. Carefully pass through the connectors from the clock spring through the top and bottom holes of the steering wheel accordingly (make sure not to tug on them too hard), and slowly wiggle the steering wheel back on, it is keyed so be mindful of that.
3. With the steering wheel in place, connect back the top connector, then the bottom right connector and shove it back into its cutout area.
4. Put the T50 torx steering wheel bolt back on in the center, hand thread for as much as you can, then ratchet it down. I have seen different numbers, but I torqued mine down to 33 ft lbs based off a service manual (the other number I have seen online is 22 ft lbs, probably because the manual calls that for a similarly named bolt).
5. Ensure all wires are in their cutouts or pushed out of the way of the front opening of the steering wheel.
6. Bring the airbag module close and attach the 3 connectors, the purple and pink on the back of the airbag, and the last one in the top right of the steering wheel. They should all just push on when aligned correctly.
7. Make sure the three spring loaded feet on the airbag are aligned to the indents of the steering wheel, push the airbag module into the center and work it in until you feel those two "clips" grab the airbag. Press the horn to make sure it feels right and was installed correctly.
8. Connect back the negative terminal of the battery and tighten the 10mm nut, then turn on the car. The car may ask you to move the windows and whatnot when you turn it on for the first time.
9. Try all the buttons and make sure they all work. If not, I feel for you. They worked for me though, hehe.
10. You have finished installing the new steering wheel and airbag housing cover!

This is my first time writing something like this, and I am sure pictures could make it better.
But if this helps even one person out there, I'm happy.

[CalgaryZL1]

Great job explaining, I would like to see the new air bag cover.

[Recon13x]

Originally Posted by CalgaryZL1

Great job explaining, I would like to see the new air bag cover.

Here is a picture of my overall cabin:


It shows my:

• New Steering Wheel w/ Forged CF (red and gold flakes) and Red Alcantara
• New Airbag Housing Cover w/ Red Alcantara and Forged CF Ring (red and gold flakes)
• New Shifter with Forged CF (red and gold flakes) grip and Red Alcantara boot
• New Passenger Dash Piece w/ Forged CF (red and gold flakes)
• New window switch and door handle trim w/ Forged CF
• New Kneepads (4) in Red Alcantara w/ extra padding

Everything except the kneepads was from Carbon Addons, while the knee pads were done by a member from this forum: kropscamaro16, shout out to him cause they look great and the red matches the rest.

Still want to maybe do the radio surround in Forged CF, and the center storage lid in either red leather or alcantara, I am hesitant on alcantara since I rest my elbow there a lot...

[CalgaryZL1]

The airbag cover matches very well with the rest.