How-To: Swap out the 00-02 steering wheel to a 03+ model
How-To: Swap out the 00-02 steering wheel to a 03+ model
How-To: Swapping 2000-2002 Steering Wheel with 2003+ Wheel
WARNING: AS FAR AS I CAN TELL THE AIRBAG WILL BE FUNCTIONAL WITH THIS MODIFICATION, HOWEVER I DO NOT GUARANTEE IT AND WILL NOT BE HELD RESPONSIBLE IF YOUR AIRBAG DOES NOT DEPLOY IN AN ACCIDENT.
WARNING: AIRBAGS ARE DANGEROUS. I WILL NOT TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR ANYONE WHO TRIES THIS AND THE AIRBAG ACCIDENTALLY GOES OFF AND INJURES YOU.
NOTE: THIS HOW-TO IS ONLY FOR PEOPLE WHO DO NOT HAVE CRUISE CONTROL. IN 03+ NEONS CRUISE IS ON A SEPARATE STALK AND YOU ABSOLUTELY NEED THE CLOCKSPRING, BUT DON'T ASK ME HOW TO DO IT BECAUSE I HAVE NO IDEA.
HERE WE GO:
Ok, I'm going to breeze through the disassembly and first part of the resassembly...
1. Disconnect battery.
2. Go in the car and look behind the steering wheel, there are two little caps that you're going to pop off.
3. Get an 8mm socket and remove the bolts on either side of the wheel. This will release the airbag module.
4. Pull out the connector for the airbag and the horn. The horn one is a bit of a pain in the ass, there is a little lever you need to release in order to detach it.
5. Undo the bolt (13mm) in the middle of your stock steering wheel a few turns at a time and pull on the steering wheel. Keep doing this until it is all the way off. I didn't have much trouble doing it this way. If you do find it hard then you may need to get a steering wheel puller.
6. Replace the stock wheel with the SRT wheel and push it on as much as you can.
7. Apply some locktite to the threads on the steering wheel bolt and thread it back into the hole. Tighten it down... (I don't know the torque spec but there should be little to no back-and-forth play in the wheel.
Now comes the tricky part.
First an explanation...
The receptacle for the airbag connector is not identical in the pre 03 vs. the post 03 modules. What is different is that the receptacle for the 00-02 one is much more shallow than that of the 03+. Simply plugging the 02 connector into the 03 receptacle will not work. People who have done this mod in the past have had to buy the SRT clock spring assembly and snipped off the airbag connector. Then they snipped off their stock 00-02 connector and soldered the 03 connector to their existing wiring. Now I can't justify paying over $100 for a brand new clockspring when all I need is a stupid little connector.
So here's what I found. Refer to the following two pictures (they are 1600x1200 so no 56k).
2000-2002 Neon Airbag
2003+ SRT-4/Neon Airbag
As I stated, the receptacle for the 00-02 is shallower than the 03+. Now in each receptacle there are two pins. When nothing is plugged into the receptacle there are arms that touch each pin that are connected to each other. So if the connector is not down far enough in the receptacle then those arms touch the pins which tell the car that something is loose with the airbag, so you get the airbag light. Now since the 00-02 receptacle is shallower than the 03+ one, the 00-02 connector is shorter therefore it does not go far down enough to successfully break the connection between the arms and the pins.
The fix is actually pretty simple.
What I did was get some 16-gauge wire. I then stripped the insulation off of the wire. So I was left with an empty cylinder of insulation. I split the cylinder into two equal pieces of about 1.5mm each. Next I slid the cylinders over the pins in the SRT receptacle. (You need the really small screwdrivers to do this). Then I pushed the arm out of the way and pushed the cylinder all the way to the bottom of the pin. When you release the arm it now only touches the insulation and not the pin. Do this for both pins.
Now go back into your car and put the stock connector back in all the way and connect the horn. Fit the airbag in place and secure the airbag module in place by screwing it in from the rear of the wheel like when you took it off.
Reconnect the battery.
Go in your car, start her up, and voila, successful swap with no airbag light.
Now as a failsafe I checked to see if the airbag light would still come on if the connector was not down far enough, and sure enough it did. Basically I didn't push the connector all the way down into the receptacle and got the airbag. This leads me to believe that if the connection ever comes loose the airbag light will go on telling you to go back and secure it. However, I still advise extreme caution in doing this mod because I cannot guarantee that the airbag will deploy nor do I have any way to check for it except for the fact that the airbag light is off.
Good Luck,
Dante (italRT)
WARNING: AS FAR AS I CAN TELL THE AIRBAG WILL BE FUNCTIONAL WITH THIS MODIFICATION, HOWEVER I DO NOT GUARANTEE IT AND WILL NOT BE HELD RESPONSIBLE IF YOUR AIRBAG DOES NOT DEPLOY IN AN ACCIDENT.
WARNING: AIRBAGS ARE DANGEROUS. I WILL NOT TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR ANYONE WHO TRIES THIS AND THE AIRBAG ACCIDENTALLY GOES OFF AND INJURES YOU.
NOTE: THIS HOW-TO IS ONLY FOR PEOPLE WHO DO NOT HAVE CRUISE CONTROL. IN 03+ NEONS CRUISE IS ON A SEPARATE STALK AND YOU ABSOLUTELY NEED THE CLOCKSPRING, BUT DON'T ASK ME HOW TO DO IT BECAUSE I HAVE NO IDEA.
HERE WE GO:
Ok, I'm going to breeze through the disassembly and first part of the resassembly...
1. Disconnect battery.
2. Go in the car and look behind the steering wheel, there are two little caps that you're going to pop off.
3. Get an 8mm socket and remove the bolts on either side of the wheel. This will release the airbag module.
4. Pull out the connector for the airbag and the horn. The horn one is a bit of a pain in the ass, there is a little lever you need to release in order to detach it.
5. Undo the bolt (13mm) in the middle of your stock steering wheel a few turns at a time and pull on the steering wheel. Keep doing this until it is all the way off. I didn't have much trouble doing it this way. If you do find it hard then you may need to get a steering wheel puller.
6. Replace the stock wheel with the SRT wheel and push it on as much as you can.
7. Apply some locktite to the threads on the steering wheel bolt and thread it back into the hole. Tighten it down... (I don't know the torque spec but there should be little to no back-and-forth play in the wheel.
Now comes the tricky part.
First an explanation...
The receptacle for the airbag connector is not identical in the pre 03 vs. the post 03 modules. What is different is that the receptacle for the 00-02 one is much more shallow than that of the 03+. Simply plugging the 02 connector into the 03 receptacle will not work. People who have done this mod in the past have had to buy the SRT clock spring assembly and snipped off the airbag connector. Then they snipped off their stock 00-02 connector and soldered the 03 connector to their existing wiring. Now I can't justify paying over $100 for a brand new clockspring when all I need is a stupid little connector.
So here's what I found. Refer to the following two pictures (they are 1600x1200 so no 56k).
2000-2002 Neon Airbag
2003+ SRT-4/Neon Airbag
As I stated, the receptacle for the 00-02 is shallower than the 03+. Now in each receptacle there are two pins. When nothing is plugged into the receptacle there are arms that touch each pin that are connected to each other. So if the connector is not down far enough in the receptacle then those arms touch the pins which tell the car that something is loose with the airbag, so you get the airbag light. Now since the 00-02 receptacle is shallower than the 03+ one, the 00-02 connector is shorter therefore it does not go far down enough to successfully break the connection between the arms and the pins.
The fix is actually pretty simple.
What I did was get some 16-gauge wire. I then stripped the insulation off of the wire. So I was left with an empty cylinder of insulation. I split the cylinder into two equal pieces of about 1.5mm each. Next I slid the cylinders over the pins in the SRT receptacle. (You need the really small screwdrivers to do this). Then I pushed the arm out of the way and pushed the cylinder all the way to the bottom of the pin. When you release the arm it now only touches the insulation and not the pin. Do this for both pins.
Now go back into your car and put the stock connector back in all the way and connect the horn. Fit the airbag in place and secure the airbag module in place by screwing it in from the rear of the wheel like when you took it off.
Reconnect the battery.
Go in your car, start her up, and voila, successful swap with no airbag light.
Now as a failsafe I checked to see if the airbag light would still come on if the connector was not down far enough, and sure enough it did. Basically I didn't push the connector all the way down into the receptacle and got the airbag. This leads me to believe that if the connection ever comes loose the airbag light will go on telling you to go back and secure it. However, I still advise extreme caution in doing this mod because I cannot guarantee that the airbag will deploy nor do I have any way to check for it except for the fact that the airbag light is off.
Good Luck,
Dante (italRT)
Last edited by italrt on Thu Apr 28, 2005 9:05 am, edited 2 times in total.
- BlackRoseRacing
- 2009 Platinum Contributor
- Posts: 12737
- Joined: Sat Dec 25, 2004 8:58 am
I'm getting an SRT steering wheel with clockspring and airbag. This is all neccessary from what i've read through this how to....right? Nothing more?
dank(r/t) wrote:you tell 'em altezza light, black headlight cover guy!
you know what's up, it's obvious.
TheRandom1 wrote:Adionik, you're an asshole, we all know this.
- Diablo0
- 2GN.org Owner/Admin
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Nice write up! Question though, why did the other people snip and soilder on the connector instead of just swapping the the whole clock spring? Thats what I did for my swap in order to have the SRT wheel and it's working fine Obviously if you didn't have the clock spring you'd have to buy one but why the need to cut the connector off and go through all that when you can just swap the whole clock spring if they already have one Maybe I'm wrong though
-Jason
Black '02 Neon R/T | White '02 Neon R/T - SRT-4 Engine Swap
^^^ no, that isn't what I look like haha
Try not to become a man of success but rather to become a man of value. - Albert Einstein
Black '02 Neon R/T | White '02 Neon R/T - SRT-4 Engine Swap
^^^ no, that isn't what I look like haha
Try not to become a man of success but rather to become a man of value. - Albert Einstein
Diablo, how long did it take you to switch over the SW? With the clockspring it should just be a regular bolt over switch job, correct?
Thanks
Thanks
dank(r/t) wrote:you tell 'em altezza light, black headlight cover guy!
you know what's up, it's obvious.
TheRandom1 wrote:Adionik, you're an asshole, we all know this.
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- 2GN Member
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