I've read in a few places on people wondering how hard it is to remove the nickel plated bezels around our steering wheel controls. It seems hard at first because most people is afraid of the airbag goin off. You dont have to worry about that part. You do not have to disconnect the airbag to remove them.

Sorry for the sorry pics but the only camera I have at the time is my cellphone.

And, don't be to hard on me. This is my first how to.

Tools needed:

Small blunt ended tool to fit in the holes in the at the side of the steering wheel. I'm using a phillips pocket screwdriver

#25 torx bit screwdriver.



You grab your tool of choice(mine was the pocket screwdriver) and locate your 2 holes(one on each side) of the steering wheel



You insert your tool in the hole about 1/4" and you should feel it hit something.



Here's the tricky part. You are looking (by feeling) for the release wire located just under my red arrow in the pic below.



Once you've think you found that wire with the tool, you press straight in and pull up as I did in the next pic. You should only have to insert it another 1/4" to release the bag. Leave it lifted like the pic and do the same for the other side.



Leave the airbag hanging like I did off the bottom of the steering wheel. There should be just enough wiring on the bag to let it hang and be just out of the way for you to have access to the screws holding the bezels.



Use your #25 torx bit screwdriver to remove the screws(one on each bezel)


You should be able to wiggle it a little bit and raise the bezel up to disconnect the single connector on the switch.



Now you have them removed, you might find it easier to remove the actual switch from the bezel to paint them. That's what I did.

To install, you just follow the steps backwards for installing the bezels. The airbag part, you have to align the small shafts to the holes in the steering wheel as in pic 4 with the blue and yellow marks around it.

again, sorry for the bad pics.


Your horn will honk when you push the airbag back on.

Thanks for reading

fr33k

 

Nice write up I was looking for this for mad long.

 

great!!!

 

Thank you bro! You have no idea how long I tried to get that thing off! Now I can swap those backlights to red ones as well as paint the bezels and try to add radio buttons....

Thanks!

 

you are a .net hero my friend..

 

You should disconnect your battery anytime that you are doing anything with the airbag just to eliminate the possability of it deploying..

 

Great write up, those release pins are a bitch to find but worth it. Thanks man

Jusitn

 

Disconnecting the battery is a good idea. But, I didn't even disconnect the bag itself so there is no chance of it blowing. When you push the releases in they only have to move just a little to disconnect. And there's enough wiring to let the bag move out of the way to unscrew the bezels.

 

That's even worse. It's really a dumb thing to do, playing with a live airbag!

 

Yay, no wonder why I couldn't just pop off those pieces. Stupid screws making things difficult for me. Thx for the how to!!

 

subscribed

 

I agree 100% with you, anytime you are working on anything electrical you should dissconnect your battery.

 

I agree. But, on anothre note, I've worked at a GM dealership for over 13 years and the techs here hardly ever disconnect the battery to disconnect an airbag. Not one has ever went off. That could be just pure luck or it could be that since the SDM is not energized on the deployment side, it dont send any charge up the yellow wires.

Again, it's always safer to disconnect the battery and wait at least a few minutes before messing with them. The SDM builds up a reserve charge just in case you lose battery voltage. It can retain a charge for up to 1 minute.

 

I've seen a few airbags go off because they weren't disconnected!! I even saw one go off on a brand new full size chevy van once, when all the person did was turn the key to start it.

 

ouch!!! Almost like the recall GM had once about one of the cars. If you was doin over 15 mph and bump the curve, it could blow all airbags in the car.

 

It was a brand new Full Size Cargo van. It was right off the dealers lot. The guy was going to pull it into the bay to start prepping it to spray the spray-on bed liner all inside.

 

I wish I had an 07 style steering wheel.

 

Thanks for the write up man. I"ve been wanting to paint those control covers for a while now. Silver is just not working for me. Red looks a lot better

 

Wow, that came out really nice!

 

07 steering wheels look odd to me. The only cool thing is that you can color match it to your dash since it has trim pieces

 

I need to go get some paint so I can do all of my trim pieces.

 

Just painted my steering wheel bezels, It looks great. The airbag came off very easily for some reason. I guess I just found the releases real quick. Thanks for the write up man.

 

i needed this badd

 

sub'd thanks

 

I have an 08 steering wheel for sale. You'd need the center airbag though.