How to remove your steering wheel/airbag

MayorBloom

New member
I searched over and over for info to do my steering wheel swap and found nothing conclusive. It's really isn't that hard to do, but with the airbag, I thought I would give a "How To" that doesn't end in BOOM.

1. Before you do anything with your air bag/ steering wheel. Disconnect the battery. Most will tell you that you only have to disconnect the negative/ground but I believe in being more safe than sorry. I disconnected both and put a sweatshirt over the terminals to make sure they were not accidently touching. Pro Tip: press the break for about 5 minutes to make sure all power in the system is exhausted. (I have read that others leave it sit for 30 minutes).

2. Remove the plastic covers found on the back of the steering wheel. Use something like a plastic tool, flat head or knife. They pop out fairly easy and expose the next step.
left side:
left side.jpg
right side:
right side.jpg

3. Using a Torx 30 (maybe 25, but pretty sure 30). Unscrew the bolts found (In the pics above) when you removed the plastic panel covers. They should break free pretty easy and don't worry about getting them all the way out, the steering wheel rear cover has a clip that keeps them in place.

Remove white wire clips, FYI the airbag and controllers are all bound together.
remove these clips.jpg

4. Removing the airbag. On the rear of the airbag, there are 2 yellow plastic clips that lock the connectors in place. You will need to use a knife, flat head or plastic removal to pop these up. then you will be able to remove them. If you need to remove the bag from the steering wheel, you will need to move the steering wheel controls also. This is done using a Philips screwdriver, or power tool...your choice.

Back of airbag:
back of airbag.jpg

Once popped up, pull the yellow clip locks out:
popped clip.jpg

5. Now that everything is off, do your thing. Fix the controls, clean or in my case- do the wheel swap. No pics of this, but went to O'Reilly's and rented the steering wheel puller and done.

Finished product: (Don't know why the whole sideways thing has snuck back in m y life
finished.jpg
 

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  • right side.jpg
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  • back of airbag.jpg
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  • finished.jpg
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Last edited:
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I searched over and over for info to do my steering wheel swap and found nothing conclusive. It's really isn't that hard to do, but with the airbag, I thought I would give a "How To" that doesn't end in BOOM.

1. Before you do anything with your air bag/ steering wheel. Disconnect the battery. Most will tell you that you only have to disconnect the negative/ground but I believe in being more safe than sorry. I disconnected both and put a sweatshirt over the terminals to make sure they were not accidently touching. Pro Tip: press the break for about 5 minutes to make sure all power in the system is exhausted. (I have read that others leave it sit for 30 minutes).

2. Remove the plastic covers found on the back of the steering wheel. Use something like a plastic tool, flat head or knife. They pop out fairly easy and expose the next step.
left side:
View attachment 290084
right side:
View attachment 290085

3. Using a Torx 30 (maybe 25, but pretty sure 30). Unscrew the bolts found (In the pics above) when you removed the plastic panel covers. They should break free pretty easy and don't worry about getting them all the way out, the steering wheel rear cover has a clip that keeps them in place.

Remove white wire clips, FYI the airbag and controllers are all bound together.
View attachment 290086

4. Removing the airbag. On the rear of the airbag, there are 2 yellow plastic clips that lock the connectors in place. You will need to use a knife, flat head or plastic removal to pop these up. then you will be able to remove them. If you need to remove the bag from the steering wheel, you will need to move the steering wheel controls also. This is done using a Philips screwdriver, or power tool...your choice.

Back of airbag:
View attachment 290087

Once popped up, pull the yellow clip locks out:
View attachment 290088

5. Now that everything is off, do your thing. Fix the controls, clean or in my case- do the wheel swap. No pics of this, but went to O'Reilly's and rented the steering wheel puller and done.

Finished product: (Don't know why the whole sideways thing has snuck back in m y life
View attachment 290089

Good write up. What did you swap your steering wheel with ? I did this swap a while ago for shits since I have it sitting around from my old truck. It could work, but the 4Runner clock spring would need to be modified. Not willing to do it right now, but it looks cool
 

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    IMAG1452.jpg
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Good write up. What did you swap your steering wheel with ? I did this swap a while ago for shits since I have it sitting around from my old truck. It could work, but the 4Runner clock spring would need to be modified. Not willing to do it right now, but it looks cool

the last pic is the swapped. A member here posted an ebay 20% coupon, so I pulled the trigger on a gloss black/leather wheel. The leather on my '16 is beat already, so I swapped for 1/2 wood 1/2 leather. I hope it holds up better than the OEM because the OEM is pretty bad.
 

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