[Guide] T6.1 MFSW Steering Wheel Upgrade

[Pauly]

Upgraded the MFSW on my 2022 6.1 to a Golf MK8 haptic touch wheel and want to lay out how i did it, lots of these steps are not specific to this wheel so thought this would be a handy 'how to' guide

These wheels are a straight swap but the electrical connections are a bit different so a few wires need swapping around to make it work, it seems logical that most (if not all) mqb wheels would be compatible so the wiring logic would apply to all wheels being fitted to a 6.1


Tools required for this
Small to medium flat blade screwdriver (to release the airbag clips)
M12 spline bit on an extension bar (for main steering wheel bolt)
Electrical contact release tools (you can use pins or paperclips at a push)
Some fabric loom tape (tesa or similar)


I will start by saying that this guide is how i did it and is my method of doing it, theres more than one way to do some things and others may do things differently, we are working with an airbag here so safety must be considered
Its worth noting that if you disconnect a battery on a T6.1 then the dash will be full of faults when you reconnect it and these faults will not clear until the vehicle has been started and driven (approx 20-40m)
When doing jobs of this nature i think its always a good idea to have a device to reset fault codes, turning on the ignition with anything disconnected will cause errors and some of these are latching (in particular airbag faults) and need a tool to reset them

 

[Pauly]

Removing the airbag

This picture shows what the airbag retaining clips on the wheel look like from the inside, these im going to call the steering wheel 'hooks'



and this is a rear view of the wheel with the airbag attached, note the metal pieces over the steering wheel 'hooks'



with the engine running we turn the wheel 90 degrees to put one of the airbag clips at the top so it can be accessed from behind at the top of the steering column plastics in front of the instrument cluster

with the engine turned off use a small to medium flat blade screwdriver to release the first airbag clip



to do this we just need to get the screwdriver behind the metal clip and press it downwards and off the steering wheel hook



once the first clip is released i start the engine and turn the wheel back 180 degrees so the opposing clip is at the top and accessible from behind then turn the engine off and repeat

when both clips are released i start the engine again and return the wheel to centre making sure the steering is central and the front wheels are pointing straight ahead, the engine can now be turned off and the ignition wont be touched again now until we are done

it is generally recommended to disconnect vehicle batteries when working on airbag systems so this is the point that can be done as we dont need power anymore

now the airbag has been released we can see inside the steering wheel and the yellow airbag connector can be undone



all airbag plugs have safety catches so they cannot be unintentionally disturbed so removing the plug takes a double action
firstly the white clip needs to be partially withdrawn outwards using a small screwdriver or similar



once the white piece is lifted we squeeze the white bit from above and the yellow plug from below and give the plug a wiggle and a pull and it will pop out

the airbag can then be moved to the side to access the plug for the steering wheel buttons



the plug has a small catch at the rear that needs to be depressed to release it



and this is what you end up with

 

[Pauly]

Removing the steering wheel

This is the easiest part, the centre nut on the steering wheel uses an M12 spline bit



The bolt can be fully undone and withdrawn



now before removing the steering wheel note the indent stamped into the steering wheel
to assist refitting i use something sharp and scratch a small line just below the indent



now a little wiggle and a pull and the steering wheel is free

 

[Pauly]

Steering wheel wiring loom

Now the fun stuff begins, this post is more for info, here i am going to document how the original wiring loom is pinned and what wire does what function in what hole, theoretically this info can be used to make any compatible wheel work in a T6.1 (maybe)



So basically there are 6 wires going into the main T12 plug, two of these are airbag wires and the other four are MFSW wires, the airbag wires always go into the top centre pins and the MFSW wires always go in the bottom row but configurations vary



Pin 3 - Black - Airbag
Pin 4 - Green - Airbag

Pin 7 - Brown - Negative - T6 pin 1
Pin 8 - Grey - Cruise Control - T6 pin 6
Pin 9 - Purple/White - LINBUS - T6 pin 3
Pin 10 - White - Positive - T6 pin 2

At the other end of the loom we have a smaller T6 plug



Pin 1 - Brown - Negative - From T12 pin 7
Pin 2 - White - Positive - T12 pin 10
Pin 3 - Purple/White - LINBUS - T12 pin 9
Pin 4 - Blue/White - Horn
Pin 5 - Spare
Pin 6 - Grey - Cruise Control - T12 pin 8

 

[Pauly]

Fitting new steering wheel and airbag

I went with a Golf R Mk8 steering wheel with haptic touch buttons, although the airbag is the same shape the airbag fixings are different so requires the golf airbag also
(this wheel was cheap as it has a squashed section in the foam where a handle was attached, im getting it recovered so doesnt matter)
For the rest of this post i am going to ignore the yellow and brown wires you can see in the middle of the wheel, these are for the heated steering wheel element and i am going to cover these in a separate thread



Looking at the loom for the new airbag we can see the wiring configuration is slightly different





T12 pin connector has an extra wire and the T6 pin connector has one less wire

On closer inspection the difference is because of the horn, the original loom sends the horn signal into the buttons on the wheels (and its transmitted to van via LINBUS) but the golf loom sends it directly to the slip ring/van

So lets list out the wiring

T12 connector
Pin 3 - Yellow - Airbag
Pin 4 - White - Airbag

Pin 7 - Brown - Negative - T6 pin 1
Pin 8 - Brown - Horn - T6 pin 6
Pin 9 - White - LINBUS - T6 pin 3
Pin 10 - Black - Positive - T6 pin 2
Pin 11 - Yellow - Cruise control


Pin 1 - Brown - Negative - From T12 pin 7
Pin 2 - Black - Positive - T12 pin 10
Pin 3 - White - LINBUS - T12 pin 9
Pin 4 - Spare
Pin 5 - Spare
Pin 6 - Yellow - Cruise Control - T12 pin 11


So if we compare the differences to the T6.1 listings we can see that the horn signal has gone into T12 pin 8 and this has displaced the cruise wire over to pin 11 so we just need to remove the horn cable then swap the yellow cruise wire from 11 to 8

Theres a purple plastic double locking pin running through the middle of the T12 plug so first we need to push it back in preparation to release the crimps, use something thin to push the small end of the plastic pin and we need to pull it back until the flat face of the purple plastic is level/flush with the outside edge of the yellow plug and should look something like below






Now we can use a terminal release tool to take the wire out of pin 8 and swap pin 11 over to 8, the purple pin can be pushed back and the yellow plug can be closed

The horn wire needs to go to the 6 pin plug at the other end of the loom so i undid the loom tape and removed it then taped the cables up again







The horn signal can now go into pin 4 on the small black T6 plug
Unfortunately the little plug uses different crimps to the big one so the wire needs to be reterminated, more info on that to follow (as im still trying to source bare crimps for this)

Thats the loom done and ready to fit, so now we can fit our new steering wheel and bolt it up, take care to line up the indent on the new wheel with the mark we made earlier



Offer up the new airbag and connect the T6 plug and the T12 plug and you are ready to go, i would recommend testing everything is working before clicking the airbag back into the wheel
If you disconnected the battery you will need to start and move the vehicle to clear the dash faults

Hopefully at this stage you have a fully wheel that looks something like this



You will notice these wheels have a heated steering wheel button on the right hand side, this is of no use to us here and can easily be disabled with vcds if required
To disable this button connect to the van with VCDS and select module 19 can gateway
Go into the coding section and select the slave MFL module from the dropdown list then enter the long coding helper



All we need to do untick byte 0 bit 2 and the heating button illumination will turn off the button will be disabled

 

[Pauly]

Reserved

I have successfully connected the heated steering wheel by replacing the slip ring etc but its not quite finished yet so when done i will post a link here to that content


*edit
and here it is

T6.1 Heated Steering Wheel

Following on from my previous thread about installing a Golf R MK8 steering wheel https://www.t6forum.com/threads/guide-t6-1-mfsw-steering-wheel-upgrade.37145/ I had a heated steering wheel installed that wasnt connected so thought it was worth trying to get it working I searched around for a...

www.t6forum.com

 

[Dav-Tec]

Solid effort there @Pauly

 

[MK2Golf24v]

Nice, planning a similar upgrade myself.

Keen to see how you got on with the heated steering wheel upgrade parts.

 

[The Van Cave]

Nice work bud. Might have to save this thread for future reference.....

 

[Pauly]

Nice, planning a similar upgrade myself.

Keen to see how you got on with the heated steering wheel upgrade parts.

Heated wheel is in and working but I’m trying to find a better solution for controlling it properly then will post the other ‘heated wheel’ thread

 

[MK2Golf24v]

Heated wheel is in and working but I’m trying to find a better solution for controlling it properly then will post the other ‘heated wheel’ thread

Any progress on the heated steering wheel?

Can you share what you did to sort the slip ring?

 

[Pauly]

No progress on the van lately so havent done anything with the info but i will dig out my photos and notes and see about getting the thread started, will link back here asap

 

[Pauly]

Made a start on it, more to follow, will leave the thread locked until i can get the info written up

T6.1 Heated Steering Wheel

Following on from my previous thread about installing a Golf R MK8 steering wheel https://www.t6forum.com/threads/guide-t6-1-mfsw-steering-wheel-upgrade.37145/ I had a heated steering wheel installed that wasnt connected so thought it was worth trying to get it working I searched around for a...

www.t6forum.com

 

[MK2Golf24v]

Just test fitted mine.

Did the wiring slightly differently, removed the brown wire and moved the pin line you did.
But I swapped the blue/white horn wire over from the T6 loom into the Golf Airbag loom, saves any messing with the black plug terminals.

Just waiting on a steering wheel trim before fitting it properly.

 

[Pauly]

Thats an easier way to do it, i was just trying to keep the T6 wheel complete so i could switch back or sell the OE wheel and airbag

 

[MK2Golf24v]

Thats an easier way to do it, i was just trying to keep the T6 wheel complete so i could switch back or sell the OE wheel and airbag

Yeah, pro's and cons to both.

Like you, cannot find a suitable black pin crimp - Connector looks to be 6RA 972 705A, but zero hits on something suitable. Which must exist as they churn out MFSW Steering Airbag wiring looms on Aliexpress!

 

[MK2Golf24v]

Scrub that, found it - Posting so i don't lose the reference - PICO MQS,TERMINAL

2-2287720-1 : Automotive Terminals

Get 2-2287720-1 Automotive Terminals specs, pricing, inventory availability, and more from TE Connectivity. Get a sample or request a quote.

www.te.com

 

[Pauly]

Thats not them, i already found them and bought some and they are very very similar but too long to fit into the plug

 

[MK2Golf24v]

it’s the NanoMQS that are too long at 13.9mm

 

[Pauly]

Will dig out the invoice and check the part numbers of what i got