Joe_R
Active Member
- Joined
- August 23, 2002
- Messages
- 83
- Reaction score
- 0
- City, State
- delaware
- Year, Model & Trim Level
- 2K2 XLT
My wife's Explorer had the std. rubber molded steering wheel. I never liked it and wanted to replace it with a leather wheel. I found one on eBay for $50. Brand new in the box oem Mountaineer wheel. I liked this one because of the silver accents.
I arrived while on vacation (got back Sat.) and last night decided to see what was involved in taking off the steering wheel. I figured I'd need a wheel puller but as it turns out, I did not.
I disconnected the battery, the two bolts holding the airbag, unplugged three connectors (one for the airbag, two for the steering wheel controls) and unbolted the wheel. It slid off with mild coaxing. Put on the new wheel and buttoned everything back up.
As you can see in the pic below, there are three sets of controls. radio, climate control and cruise control. My old wheel only had cruise control. I knew the climate controls wouldn't work since mine is manual. But as it turns out, the radio controls do work, which was a nice added bonus. If it hadn't worked, I was ready to swap out the old controls and put them in the new steering wheel.
I arrived while on vacation (got back Sat.) and last night decided to see what was involved in taking off the steering wheel. I figured I'd need a wheel puller but as it turns out, I did not.
I disconnected the battery, the two bolts holding the airbag, unplugged three connectors (one for the airbag, two for the steering wheel controls) and unbolted the wheel. It slid off with mild coaxing. Put on the new wheel and buttoned everything back up.
As you can see in the pic below, there are three sets of controls. radio, climate control and cruise control. My old wheel only had cruise control. I knew the climate controls wouldn't work since mine is manual. But as it turns out, the radio controls do work, which was a nice added bonus. If it hadn't worked, I was ready to swap out the old controls and put them in the new steering wheel.