[Andrew_Boom]

I bought a MK4 leather 3 spoke sport wheel to install on my 04 Turbo S.

After getting the OEM steering wheel off, I noticed that the Beetle steering wheel has 2 airbag connectors, and the 3 spoke steering wheel has 1 center connector to the airbag.

Would this be resolved by simply getting an airbag wiring harness from the clock spring to the airbag from a MK4 that uses a single connector?

I’ve searched and haven’t found a definitive answer. It seems like people have encountered this issue before, but on all of the forums, there never seems to be a follow up post explaining how they ended up getting it to work.

Any help is appreciated!

Pic of the car for reference

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[TechnoTrix'd]

Sweet Turbo S!! Love those wheels, what a great look. Sorry, no help on the steering wheel question, as the only time I swapped steering wheels was for a MOMO non-air bag wheel.

 

[Ebo]

Hey man i swapped mine over to the 3 spoke mk4 and I didn't notice the difference to be honest and have never has a issue with it.

 

[Andrew_Boom]

Hey man i swapped mine over to the 3 spoke mk4 and I didn't notice the difference to be honest and have never has a issue with it.

I’m guessing you have an earlier year beetle then?

I completed the job now, so for anyone that searches for this in the future here is what I’ve found.

Early beetles 98-02 I believe had the single stage airbag, so any mk4 single stage airbag would swap over.

Not sure when exactly it changed, but the 04 Turbo S beetles have a 2 stage airbag in the steering wheel. So when you pull the airbag off there are two airbag plugs instead of one. (One for a lower speed impact, and one for a higher speed impact from what I understand)

So what I did was cut off the yellow (low speed airbag) connector from the beetle steering wheel harness, and cut off the airbag connector from the 3 spoke wheel and spliced it to the low speed airbag wires. This airbag now would get the same voltage from that one plug as stock beetle one would get and ignite under a collision.

I then soldered a 2.2ohm resistor to the high speed airbag connector.

I also had cut and solder together the horn wires since they also have different connectors.

Put it all back together and it looks great, an no airbag lights!

So for anyone with a beetle that has a 2 stage airbag, it is possible, just not a direct swap. The whole thing took me about 45 minutes.

Happy to answer anyone’s questions on this in the future!

 

[billymade]

Did the air bag and wiring, clock spring; hook up and work correctly? What parts did you use from which car, what year was the Golf or Jetta you git the donor wheel from? I’ve hear vw went from a single to dual stage airbag at some point and so, this might be why, people have had wiring or compatibility issues, depending on the years, donor parts used?


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[Andrew_Boom]

Did the air bag and wiring, clock spring; hook up and work correctly? What parts did you use from which car, what year was the Golf or Jetta you git the donor wheel from? I’ve hear vw went from a single to dual stage airbag at some point and so, this might be why, people have had wiring or compatibility issues, depending on the years, donor parts used?


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I kind of answered most of those questions and the questions I initially posted, in my previous post just above now that I have it working correctly.

I don’t know what year the 3 spoke was out of. But yeah it was a single stage and my beetle is a dual stage. I ended up using the beetle clockspring and wiring, while soldering on the mk4 airbag connector to one, and using a resistor in the other beetle airbag connector.

Like I mentioned in my initial post, I have seen it done, but when searching, most posts asked the same questions I did, with the OP never coming back to answer how they completed it.

So hopefully anyone searching this topic in the future will wind the answer here!

 

[billymade]

I was curios about hearing from“ebo”, who said; he/she did the swap successfully; I’m assuming the single, dual stage airbag, is a key factor?


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[Andrew_Boom]

I was curios about hearing from“ebo”, who said; he/she did the swap successfully; I’m assuming the single, dual stage airbag, is a key factor?


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Gotcha! Yeah I assume Ebo has an earlier model Beetle. Everyone that I saw do the steering wheel swap that said it was a “direct swap” had an early beetle with a single stage airbag.

If you have a 2 stage airbag, there is no way to do a simple plug and play swap with the mk4 3 spoke wheel, but it is possible.

 

[Ebo]

Must been the 90/02 model its registered in the UK as a 2003 but theres no saying it was not a late registered car. Old dealer stock kind of thing. In the build sheet it does say UK promotional sales scheme or somthing to that effect.

Glad you got sorted anyway mate👍