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You need the following hardware.
1. Heated Steering Wheel. If you buy the same shape, you can reuse your airbag.
2. Steering Wheel Stalks, with all the features on your car + the Heated wheel option. Without this, there is no electrical connection to the heating element in the wheel. If you have retrofitted ALA or anything similar, now is the time to buy the stalks with the ALA or required buttons and also the Heated Wheel option.
3. You will need to supply a new power line from the front fuse box to the Steering Wheel stalks. This will include add a new fuse in that fuse box.
Most importantly, you will need to find someone who can Calibrate the Steering Wheel Angle sensor after the parts are swapped out.
No coding is required per se, but you might want to hide the * button configuration screens from the MMI because the new wheel has no * button.
When you mean new steering stalks, do you mean the two button units (left and right) that are in the wheel or the long sticks behind the wheel for turn signal, wipers, etc? Is that all one unit that has a connection for the heated wheel button? Would you have part numbers for a car that has all the options? Would Audi be able to do the coding?
Buttons in the steering wheel will come with the new wheel. Steering Stalks are the complete switch unit with the Turn, Lights, Cruise etc.
I can't comment on the part number for the Steering Stalks because there are quite a few combinations. You need to look up your own PR numbers and then find one that has them all + the PR number for the Heated Steering wheel.
Buttons in the steering wheel will come with the new wheel. Steering Stalks are the complete switch unit with the Turn, Lights, Cruise etc.
I can't comment on the part number for the Steering Stalks because there are quite a few combinations. You need to look up your own PR numbers and then find one that has them all + the PR number for the Heated Steering wheel.
Audi will definitely be able to code the car.
Was is very hard to swap out the wheel, the steering stalks unit, and add a fuse/power wire to the stalk unit?
Did you wire in a new fuse to a blank spot or piggyback off an existing one with an adapter?
How many amps did you use?
Also, what did all the parts cost you?
in the next couple months, I plan on buying a 2018 RS5 coupe (i don't believe heated wheel was an option) or if I can swing it, a '19 RS5 SB with a heated wheel if I can find one, but they are a lot more expensive so i'll probably get an 18 coupe and do the retrofit.
If you don't mind, I may contact you for help on this retrofit. Is that ok?
I did this retrofit so that it was as close to the factory option as possible. So the fuse went into the slot where the Heated Wheel fuse goes etc. I even used wire with the same colours are would have been used on the factory harness.
As for parts, it all depends on where you buy them from. I did all the research and bought all parts in the 3 months while Audi were building my new car. The parts brand new are not cheap so look on ebay. It was incorrectly advised that a brand new Steering stalk was needed, so I bought one. A used one will work fine too, if you can find the exact part number. But you can recover some money by selling the Flat bottom wheel, if it's in good condition. I am kicking myself for not speccing the new car with a flat bottom wheel. Selling the brand new flat bottom wheel would have probably covered the cost of this retrofit.
I wouldn't recommend attempting to remove the airbag yourself if you are not used to doing stuff like this.
I'm used to taking brand new cars apart in week one of my ownership. This car was no different. The coding was a bit hard for me to learn, coming from a BMW. But in the end even that was something I managed myself.
I have a base 2018 A4 premium and am looking to retrofit the heated steering wheel. Being that I am not adding any other features, I do not think the stalks need to be changed out. I have looked through the Audi parts website and there does not seem to be a differentiation on the part based on heated steering wheel. Can anyone confirm? Does this mean that there is power already ran for the A4 heated steering wheel and it will simply need to be swapped out and find someone to calibrate the angle sensor?
I have a base 2018 A4 premium and am looking to retrofit the heated steering wheel. Being that I am not adding any other features, I do not think the stalks need to be changed out. I have looked through the Audi parts website and there does not seem to be a differentiation on the part based on heated steering wheel. Can anyone confirm? Does this mean that there is power already ran for the A4 heated steering wheel and it will simply need to be swapped out and find someone to calibrate the angle sensor?
The stalks need to change simply due to the fact that you are adding a heated steering wheel. The Non Heated stalks don't have the pins in them to pass the power lines from the fuse box to the heater element. Besides all the electronics needed to manage and maintain the temperature is in the stalks. Plus you will need to run a 12V power line from the front dashboard fuse box to the stalks. You won't even have that fuse installed right now.
Hence why, now is the time to decide if you want to add more features that need the relevant buttons in the stalks.
Thanks for the quick reply Bruce-- I am having difficulty finding the part for the stalks that differentiates between heated and non-heated. The Audi parts website only seems to show different options based on lane assist and adaptive cruise control combination, I have neither. Would you be able to point me in the right direction as to the part number?
(A4 sedan stuff, but I expect it's the same for the A5 coupe/sportback; I see the same parts listed for the A5 but there's zero details on the PR codes on the A5CO catalog; Audi and their damn parts bulletins)
03-08-2020, 11:00 AM
