Aftermarket Steering Wheel Concerns

[ghost741]

Hello,

This is my first post so greetings to everyone.

I'm looking into replacing my steering wheel with an aftermarket wheel, however I want to keep the wheel controls, or at the very least, the arrow and info buttons. I'm not too concerned with the cruise control.

I have an automatic '09 LT.

I'm either going to get a wheel with NOS buttons and wire them to the two buttons I want. I'm not entirely sure if that's even possible though. I haven't been able to find a wiring diagram for the button cluster.

Another idea I had would be to grab the LS right trim panel and somehow wire those buttons correctly.

My last hail mary idea would be to remove the controls with their trim, and somehow fabricate them into my new wheel or to the dash trim.

Any thoughts, ideas, or information would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

 

[YelloEye]

I always find it curious that people worry about keeping their steering wheel buttons, but not the airbag. The thing which is designed to lessen injury in the event of a crash. But I digress, you came here looking for answers and I assume you have already taken this into account.

The radio buttons in the steering wheel all function over a single wire connected directly to the radio, each has a set resistance. The head unit sees these increases in resistance and does the corresponding action.

I believe the rest of the buttons function similarly but I don't have wiring diagrams handy to check that. Your easiest way of doing this is probably to figure out some method of hooking up the original switches or measuring the switches to put together your own set of momentary switches with specific resistances. Then connect them to the original wires that they were connected to but on the column side of the steering wheel.

 

[ghost741]

Greatly appreciate your reply.

If I could find a new wheel that had airbags I'd go with that. I really hate the size of the stock wheel.

I'm going to a scrap yard tomorrow to see what I can find from two 06 cobalts. Might be SS. Here's hoping.

 

[YelloEye]

What about the size do you not like? The leather 09 SS wheel is nice, the 09 LT wheel I feel is a bit thicker and uncomfortable.

Not sure if an 06 wheel will work with your 09.

 

[ghost741]

Yeah the 06s were pretty bad off. I have the 09 LT and I share your opinion on the wheel. I haven't seen or handled the SS wheel. Would be nice to get one with radio controls.

 

[YelloEye]

Have a look on Car-part.com to see if you can find a wrecked Cobalt SS, HHR SS, G5 GT, Solstice GXP, Sky Redline.

The C6 Corvette wheel can fit too and can be had in suede, just make sure you pay attention to what wheel you're buying. Some had different button mounts that don't work with your switches without cutting a hole for the cruise master switch.

You can always check eBay too. Looks like a leather SS wheel is ~$100.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/CHEVROLET-M...ash=item461050331a:g:HOoAAMXQJ3xRdt3f&vxp=mtr

Vette wheel is ~$200
http://www.ebay.com/itm/2005-2013-C...ash=item488da01275:g:eQMAAOSwmUdUYnm1&vxp=mtr