Multifunction steering wheel with Tiptronic for sale

[Oli18]

Aaaah, the daddy of all steering wheels....

http://cgi.ebay.de/Audi-A8-S8-S6-RS4-Lederlenkrad-Multilenkrad-Airbag_W0QQitemZ280219773101QQcmdZViewItem

-Oli

[cruiser647]

I don't think it looks as good as a three spoke wheel.

[PaulW]

It's a super nice wheel, espeically if you have the new bluetooth module retrofitted like I do...you can do everything with your phone from the wheel. However, you will need the wheel, cancelling ring, MFSW control module, and a plan to retofit all of them.....it was a lot of work at expensive, I spent probably $700 US for used parts with exception of a new cancelling ring which was $400 of the $700. Plus I bought a used cancelling ring for $100 that I trashed.

[IT_S8]

It's a super nice wheel, espeically if you have the new bluetooth module retrofitted like I do...you can do everything with your phone from the wheel. However, you will need the wheel, cancelling ring, MFSW control module, and a plan to retofit all of them.....it was a lot of work at expensive, I spent probably $700 US for used parts with exception of a new cancelling ring which was $400 of the $700. Plus I bought a used cancelling ring for $100 that I trashed.

Hi Paul, Hope you're well - This ebay listing aside I'm about to embark on the same project you completed. In my line of work, I'm fortunate to currently have access to a 2002 long wheel base with MFSW installed, which i intend to transpose onto a 2002 S8. This means i have the controllers, slip rings and wheel - but - the wheel is the audio + triptronic, not audio + phone + triptronc like you have, although I intend to change them over when one comes along - I'm looking at them at the minute and thinking the changeover will be straight forward enough once the hard work with MFSW controllers etc is done?

With the standard audi phone prep installed, is there anything special that needs doing to get the phone controls to work? - I assume it also displays the calling phone number etc on the DIS? I would have expected a phone control module of some sort, but you've not mentioned them in any text thus far?

I'd appreciate any pointers, even a step by step. In return, perhaps I can take any photos / gather any info required and between us we could create a guide for audipages?

P.S. Thanks to your sport mode mod, we have a steady stream of folks from your side of the pond wanting 2003 S8 ECUS -Shame they are few and far between.

P.P.S - Have you got a close up photo of your wheel - I really dont think the one I have here is heated, there just doesn't seem to be any wiring going into the outer wheel, however all text seems to imply it should be?...

[PaulW]

Hi Paul, Hope you're well - This ebay listing aside I'm about to embark on the same project you completed. In my line of work, I'm fortunate to currently have access to a 2002 long wheel base with MFSW installed, which i intend to transpose onto a 2002 S8. This means i have the controllers, slip rings and wheel - but - the wheel is the audio + triptronic, not audio + phone + triptronc like you have, although I intend to change them over when one comes along - I'm looking at them at the minute and thinking the changeover will be straight forward enough once the hard work with MFSW controllers etc is done?

With the standard audi phone prep installed, is there anything special that needs doing to get the phone controls to work? - I assume it also displays the calling phone number etc on the DIS? I would have expected a phone control module of some sort, but you've not mentioned them in any text thus far??

Once the wheel is installed, getting it to work with a phone pre would basically be automatic once you got the new airbag with the phone controls as shown in the ebay auction. The airbag has all the circuits in it....so you essentially supply unswitched power to the wheel, unswitched power to the heated part through slip ring and brushes, and then have the airbag connections, horn connections and one data wire. Everything except the heat for the steering wheel goes through the self cancelling ring (clock spring). You can use the existing wires for the tiptronic to tap into the transmission control unit, and you'll need to add about 4 more new wires.

Once the data wire sends the signal to the MFSW control module (you will need a CAN + Tiptronic) for your car, it converts the signals for the radio and phone functions and sends them over the CAN bus (you'll have to tap into the infotainment CAN bus). The tiptronic controls are sent right to the transmission control unit over dedicated wires (you can use existing tip control wires from your present steering wheel).

I'd appreciate any pointers, even a step by step. In return, perhaps I can take any photos / gather any info required and between us we could create a guide for audipages?

I have a three ring binder with all the wiring diagrams and all my notes. I could make a copy for you or post them. Most everything is here, and I have the specific info for the A8/S8:

http://www.nsxjr.com/downloads.html

P.S. Thanks to your sport mode mod, we have a steady stream of folks from your side of the pond wanting 2003 S8 ECUS -Shame they are few and far between.

P.P.S - Have you got a close up photo of your wheel - I really dont think the one I have here is heated, there just doesn't seem to be any wiring going into the outer wheel, however all text seems to imply it should be?...

Here is a post with pictures of how the heat hooks up, it's through a slip ring and brushes assembly on the back top of the cancelling ring:

http://forums.audiworld.com/a8/msgs/152561.phtml

If the pictures don't load, just hit refresh and they will.

All other connections are made through the ribbon cable inside self cancelling ring, so they don't have any rotating connections. Here's pictures:

http://forums.audiworld.com/a8/msgs/151372.phtml

To summarize, you'll need:

1. Steering wheel

2. Airbag with MFSW buttons

3. MFSW control module

4. MFSW control module double relay holder, what the MFSW control module sits in, it's actually a double relay holder.

5. OEM wires to hook into the double relay holder.

6. Wires and heat shrink

7. Self cancelling ring for the options you have. I ended up getting a used one, screwing it up, then I bought a new one. Read my posts above and don't spin it too much, that's what breaks the ribbon cable.

When you are ready, shot me an email and I'll get your the specific wiring diagrams with my notes on what to change (and add, you have to add about 15 wires).

In the meantime, to search all my posts on audiworld, click search, put in "22012" for a user ID, click on "with images" and if you put in "MFSW" or "self cancelling" or "MFSW control module" and search in the D2 forum, you'll find tons of stuff.

Cheers!

[PaulW]

Here is the MFSW control module and double relay panel it sits in, this mounts just forward of the HVAC duct work on the LH side of the car (drivers side, LH drive), which I'm sure would be the same for a RH drive. You have to pull the duct work out of the way to see where it would go.

Lots of pictures on audiworld, just search.

http://forums.audiworld.com/a8/msgs/150502.phtml

[IT_S8]

Hi Paul, thanks for that input. I sat down with a bottle of wine this evening, and decided to wade through it all, but the grape juice is defo not helping

I have at least confirmed that mine doesnt have heated elements, as the connector at the top rear is completely absent. Shame, but I can worry about that a little later. I'd buy the one from germany that Oli listed, but its got no cancellation ring with it, no guarantee of heating, and if I buy one, we'll get a car in to break next week with it on !

Also, from looking through the parts catalogs, it looks like the MFSW audio and MFSW audio+phone are identical apart from the buttons, which can be ordered seperately from the airbag/wheel from Audi.

I had a good look for the MFSW controller today in the UK LWB car and struggled, embarrasingly... I have two conclusions to this, either I didnt look hard enough yet, or they changed it on the 02 model year (which does seem to be indicated in some of the documentation)

In the UK, we have the fuse panel that you have in passenger side, on the right side like you, ie by the drivers feet, and the big distribution panel that you also have on the right side is on our left, under our passengers feet, which has really brought home to me how different the looms are from LHD and RHD cars... I'm just going to start pouring over the wiring diagrams to start tracing wires. I've used bentley in the past, but found the US wiring differs quite a bit through options you dont have and vice versa.

I know telematics was available in the US, which called home for help when you crash etc, and had a control module on the side of the CD changer in the left side of the trunk. Have you got this? Or did you get it all working without this option factory fitted..

Its tricky enough trying to get this stuff to work, without copying off cars with different factory setups

Thanks for your help so far.

[PaulW]

My car had phone prep, but for the old analog Motorola phone. 01 was the last year that this was installed in the US. Then they had the telematics package, which you could get a different phone (Motorola v60) and OnStar. When I had my wiring harness made for my RNS-E, I also had it set up for a new factory bluetooth module, factory XM module, and the CD changer in the trunk.

In essence, the bluetooth module, the MFSW module, RNS-E all speak to each other over the infotainment CAN bus. This is a twisted pair of wires, a network. The instrument cluster is also connected to the infotainment CAN bus, that's how it displays information from each of these modules.

So I added new wiring to connect all of them.

[IT_S8]

Well... Slight step forward, I've actually found the UK location for the MFSW controller - Its up high behind the glovebox, so probably in exactly the same place as yours Paul on the left hand side of the car. Blinkin Germans, no consistency, swop bits over left and right as it suits them., or not as in this case..

[IT_S8]

Well... Slight step forward, I've actually found the UK location for the MFSW controller - Its up high behind the glovebox, so probably in exactly the same place as yours Paul on the left hand side of the car. Blinkin Germans, no consistency, swop bits over left and right as it suits them., or not as in this case..

Ok, so all the wiring theory work is sorted, thanks to Paul for some confidence-inspiring notes and a few sessions with Elsawin.

The key to making this project work is having the right bits. The variation in steering wheels, and their associated slip rings is huge.

A multifunction, tiptronic steering wheel is not necessarily heated, plus the multifunction element can be audio only, or audio + phone.

The four main components are the Multifunction steering wheel controller, the slip rings, the steering wheel, and the airbag. The buttons are actually bolted onto the side of the airbag so beware of mulitfunction steering wheels sold without airbags, and also note shipping airbags is a dodgy business as they are classed as explosives.....

The slip rings seem similar between the UK Sports triptronic wheel, and non heated MFSW, so thats saves some effort. The Heated varient differs as it has a brush system for delivering the higher current to wheel required for heating. Paul had some greif getting this part sorted by the looks of things.

The MSFW controller is a posh term for a unit, the size of two relays, with 18 pins that is use to interface the steering wheel to the rest of the car. Without a MFSW, the gearbox ECU and dashboard illumination are connected straight through to the steering wheel for the tiptronic buttons.

With MFSW however, you add heating control and 6 buttons and its not viable to run that number of connections through, so instead they are reduced to a single data bus connection. This databus runs from the steering wheel to the MFSW controller and handles all the button illumination (inc dimming), heating temperature, audio and phone controls.

So the gearbox ecu, drivers seat heating switch, dash illumination and Audio Canbus all get connected to the MFSW controller, and in turn one single data connection goes from that to wheel. Incidently, if you have the Long wheel base, or the option for stereo controls in the rear armrest, then they use the same controller and same data bus.

Horn and airbag are always wired directly through.

After that brain dump, not sure if its of immediate help, but in summary:

* MFSW retrofit is do-able (obviously as PaulW has already done it)

* Its not quite as straight forward as first hoped

* Needs 4 components to make it work

* 13 wires to connect from MSFW controller to parts of the car for all functionality

Note that this work was all done on 2002 cars - the early facelifts 1999/2000 seem to have a very different system in place to acheive the same thing.

It is my intention now to install an Audio only MFSW non heated to my S8 (as I have one handy) and then upgrade to phone controls + heated when the parts come along.

The heated steering wheel only requires one extra connection to make it work, so I'll pre wire that in anticipation. The actual audio/phone buttons all talk down the same data bus which is wired up irrespective, so in theory you just change the airbag buttons to change the function....

Clear as mud? I'll post photos etc if there is any interest

[Figure11]

I'm interested in this as I fancy some way of getting tipTronic to my steering wheel withoout loosing the model I have now. Something like this....

Would be nice so interested in the electrics from the wheel to the TCU.

Mike

[IT_S8]

Electrics will be pretty easy, but fairly sure you'll have trouble getting the wheel to fit your steering column... We'll check it out next time you're with us...

[PaulW]

IT-

You've got it straight it sounds like. In the end, if you can, get the self cancelling ring with the part number: 1 J0 959 654 AL

That way if you ever get a heated steering wheel, you'll have the correct self cancelling ring already. It will work with the steering wheel you want to use. For the heat power supply, I just tapped off the steering column power supply for the +12 VDC, and ran a ground wire to the MFSW control module for the earth. As you have seen in my pictures, I didn't get the connector for the car side of the self cancelling ring, just put heat shrink on jumper wires and plugged them into the car side of the self cancelling ring.

Here's a thread with all sorts of info on the self cancelling ring, with links to a lot of pictures in my audiworld posts.

http://www.navplus.us/forums/showthread.php?t=7302

[EddyH]

If this thread means that A8 parts will have a facelift S8 steering wheel and cancelling ring available then I'll be interested in buying it.

[IT_S8]

Eddy - Email us re tiptronic wheels, we have various parts at the mo.

I have more or less completed my MFSW install in my S8:

There are a few different wheels you can get. You can get Audio only controls, or Audio and telephone. Also, it can be heated or not.

The heated wheels are specific, with heating elements and require different slip rings. I dont have this yet, but I've prewired for when one comes along so it will just bolt straight on.

The actual buttons are part of the airbag assembly, and they bolt on/off, so although this steering wheel was Audio only, it now clearly has the audio/phone controls as I have changed them.

Unfortunately though, its the MFSW control module that actually interprets what the buttons do, so although I've changed the buttons over, they all 6 still do Audio functions. I'll fix that with a new controller.

But, I now have tiptronic, and audio controls on the wheel, with Heating and Phone controls on the way which is rather good....