IL Motorsport RAID/ATIWE/HUNGARY steering wheel

Warning

Unexpected failure of the horn button can be very dangerous under the right circumstances, but deployment of the airbag when it should not, or nondeployment when it should is almost certain to cause at least injury, and quite likely paralysis or dead.

The below description of my installation are not installation instructions. Use them only to get a comprehensive idea of the steps involved, and for additional clarification, but the correct instructions (which are likely to change periodically) must be obtained from:

• The Mazda Workshop manual for your year for how to remove the old airbag and steering wheel, (if you want to cheap out, the $20 Enthusiast 1.6 (1990-1993) or 1.8 (1994-1997) Manuals have a description of the process.)
• The adapter kit installation flyer on how to adapt the old wiring to the new airbag.
• The Raid/Atiwa installation manual for the final steps.

If you follow one or all descriptions below, you do so strictly on your own risk. I am not a mechanic or an expert in any sense. I did not blow my head off or paralyze myself for life, but that may be just because I was lucky. If you see a mistake in the descriptions, let me know so that I can fix it.

Installation

Imagine, if you want, your kids throwing an airbag face-down in a campfire to see what happens, and the hardware thrown up by the explosion decapitates one. Get the message? Put airbags down face-up, so that if an explosion happens, the hardware is blown into the ground, rather than up into the air. Do not put any objects on the airbag either. Same idea. Make sure kids cannot swipe the airbags.

Of course, being made orphans prematurely will not do your kids much good either. An airbag can blow your head off if you are working close to it when it goes off. Do not even think of trying to measure continuity on any circuits related to the airbag with a multitester or whatever. Keep open flames far away. I do not know from what height you can drop an airbag without it going off, or how much static electricity they can take, and my enthusiasm to find out is frankly nonexisting. So, if you find out and live to tell the tale, let me know so that I can add those interesting tidbits here.

Make sure you do not create shorts. Do not try to repair any damaged cable; get a replacement from trussvillemazda.com or the dealer. Especially if you damage the clockspring, get a new one. It will short out, as I discovered myself in the past when I used the brute-force method of wheel removal.

When first turning on the ignition after installation, sit outside the car, and reach below the steering wheel; do not sit in the car. Remember that the airbag explodes mostly upward. Better your car destroyed than you.

If you do not have kids, and you want to follow my installation process, please reduce your life insurance so that society does not suffer needlessly under my mistakes.

All that said, I had no big problems. In fact, mine was quite problemless compared to most installations of aftermarket goodies. As appropriate for a critical system, the quality of parts was very good. Though part of the instructions were in German. Of course, Germany is where I bought my kit, so I guess I cannot complain. I list some installation times, so you can see how I was progressing.

First, of course, I had to wait until I got the right adapter kit. Initially, I received the NB (1999+ Miata) kit. Which will not work on a 1996. And vice-versa. So, if you are reading this to find out how to install in a 1999+, think again.

I also got appropriate tools; it is just stupid to take risks with a safety-critical system like this and/or destroy the threads of a $700 steering wheel to save $30 or whatever on tools you can reuse for other purposes or resell on E-bay. (Or borrow.) Besides basic tools, you need a small and mid size torque wrench, a T-30 torx socket driver with at least 1 inch sticking out above the socket (the torx screws hold the airbag, and are an inch recessed into the wheel) and a set of metric hex socket drivers for screws with inside hex heads. I got a suitable torx set from Wal-Mart for $20. I also got a set of SAE US hex drivers there for $10 (actually two identical sets by mistake), but I found that the fit of the SAE hex in the metric screws was poor and you are likely to damage the screws. I think mine are still OK, but I will get a metric set from Sears next time.

(1:07) I checked whether I still remembered my radio code. Roger. Then I disconnected the negative battery terminal. I first ensured the positive terminal was properly protected from anything touching it in the heat of installation. Shorting positive and negative battery terminals is not something you want to do. Very bad news... I used a long toggle to loosen the negative battery terminal. It was hardly attached! If I had to do it again, I would just have removed the battery hold down bracket right away, since that is what I ended up doing eventually anyway. Bend the terminal out of the way so that it cannot accidentally reconnect.

Then I spend some time finding my swivel-head socket-rachet. After much searching in my house and car, I finally disovered it on top of the car-cover I had taken off before starting installation. I do not know how it got there. I also took some pictures of the old steering wheel while still on the car for comparison purposes. This took the half hour you need to wait after taking off the negative battery terminal before proceeding. (The airbag has a backup "battery", a condenser, so it can still blow after the car battery has been disconnected, unless you give it half an hour to discharge.)

(1:36) Next I took off the cover below the steering column. Two philips screws.

Then struggling with the "clock spring connector," a blue and orange contraption below the cover, since I had forgotten how to take it apart. (Unlike the usual electrical connectors, this one comes apart real easy if you do it right.) Went to search for a flash light to see better. Orange comes off first. Depress the catch as usual, and then pull the connector from the assembly in the direction of its wire. It should come off without much force. Next, to pull off the blue connector, its catch must be pressed in the direction perpendicular to the plane of the assembly. Confusing. The "arms" of the catches are fairly evident in the magnified picture. (1:48)

Next I took off the nuts at the back of the Mazda steering wheel keeping its airbag on. There are four in all; the picture shows one of them. Actually, there would have been four if at some time in the past I would not have broken off the thread holding one of them. So there were really only three.

A swivel-head ratchet really helps getting them off.

Take the inside clock spring connector out of its clamp and apart. You can see the orange connector's catch pretty nicely here. Detach the rope holding the airbag from the steering wheel. Remove the airbag and put aside face-up in a safe place.

Put the base of the clock spring connector in the hole so that later we do not snag on it when removing the wheel. (Actually, you might as well cut it off now; see later.)

Make sure the steer is straight. Mark the top of the steering column end and its nut, just to be sure. Try various size sockets from tool chest on steering column nut. Search for M 21 socket. Find it among the tools in the trunk. Search trunk for 1/2" socket extension that must be there since we need it to replace a wheel in case of a flat. Search. Take out spare tire. Search behind spare tire. Get flashlight to find it. Search tools bag and tools box and area around the jack several times. Go in the house. Search tools chests, storage room, and everywhere else. No extension. Use 3/8" extension and 1/2" adapters to reach M 21 socket. Try getting nut off steering column. Go in the house and find a nice breaker bar. Nut comes off fairly easily with it. (2:35).

If you plan to try to use the brute force method to get the steering wheel off the column, I recommend that you leave the nut partly on the steering column. When I got impatient one day and used this method, I hit my nose very painfully with the rim of the wheel when it came off, and I destroyed the $300 or whatever clock spring. Wiser now, I used a steering wheel puller I got from Autozone. Carefully remove the wheel without hurting cables and set aside.

Make sure the clock spring connector stays with the arrow up. If you ever mess it up, the neutral position is almost three turns from the end of motion either way. Watch it, the thing is delicate. Next the sensitives may want to avert their eyes. You need to cut through the wires directly behind the clock spring connector base.

Remove some of the plastic sleeve around the wires and then strip them about 1/4". The exact length to strip can be seen from the spades that come in the connector kit: the "arms" should bite into the plastic isolation to secure the spade to the wire; the inner crimp area should grip all copper for a good contact. (You can see the clock spring not being straight in the picture.)

Crimp the crimp connector attaching the new horn button power wire to the green and red horn wire. I do not have much trust in these kinds of connectors, so I used (commercial quality) electrical tape to wrap it all good and tape the wires to the connector, and hope for the best.

One by one, bend the arms of the spades around the wire insulation of the yellow/grey and yellow/red wires, and make sure they "bite" well into the plastic. Then fold the crimp connection about the copper to make a connection that stays put.

Attach the new airbag connector cable to the spades. It was not stated how, so I attached red stripe to red stripe, and grey stripe to grey stripe. Make sure they click securely. Then I wrapped each connection completely with tape, and then I taped those two together to make things hopefully more secure. (3:33).

Unscrew the two torx screws holding the airbag of the new steering wheel. As you see below, you really need that one inch sticking out of the torx socket. Place the airbag face-up in a safe place.

Ensure the arrow is straight up on the clock spring. Put the adapter on the steering column, its arrow straight down, feeding the wires through its square hole, and making sure the clock spring extensions match the cut-outs in the adapter. Make sure the adapter grasps the steering column correctly. If you cannot get it quite exactly vertical, the steering wheel angle will be fixed with your next wheel alignment. Screw the M 21 nut back on the steering column hand-tight to keep things secure from moving. (3:45)

Screw the steering wheel on using the four hex screws. Set torque wrench to 10 Nm. For those who want to cheat: that is not much torque. The screws have a coating to prevent them from vibrating loose. Use the right torque. Tighten steering wheel column nut to 45 Nm. (4:00) Search car for ground cable. Panic. Search some more. Search trunk. Maybe never taken out of my house? Find ground cable in house. Remove UPC sticker from airbag. Do not put on steering column, as instructed, in case we later want to deny everything. UPC stickers can easily fall off, right?

Put the horn power cable spade and the horn earth into the horn connector block, which is clamped in a recess in the steering wheel. Because of size, only one connector will fit in each hole. Make sure the spades click securely. Worry about the earth not being connected to earth. Peruse adapter kit documentation. Peruse airbag installation documentation. Persuse each some more. Much more. Not a word can be found. Go into the house to get a multi-meter, with batteries, to check whether the four hex screws holding the steering wheel provide a good earth. End up being vastly under-impressed. Search conscience. Look for other possible earths. Not very easy. No thread inside the steering column end? Use flashlight. No. Look more for possible earths. Is the remaining screw of the adapter kit supposed to provide the earth?

Where does the screw included in adapter kit go? Finally find hole for this screw well hidden behind steering wheel. Any way to get it in? No. No? No! Curse. Remove steering wheel again. Struggle for 15 minutes getting screw in while hopefully not damaging horn and airbag wires too much by holding steering wheel up with one hand to relieve stress on wires, trying to get recalcitrant screw in hole with second hand, and at the same time screwing it in with screwdriver in third hand. Think how easy it would have been to screw this in before even starting installation, if we would only have been told about it. (5:17)

Put steering wheel back on with hex screws. Put protective insulating tape around the unprotected terminals of the horn wire connector block. Put orange airbag wire connector in corresponding hole in airbag. It is not stated what way, so I did it with the wire pointing down rather than up. It must click in place. Camera battery is gone, so we can cut back on the pictures. Put airbag on new steering wheel, making sure no cables are caught. I put most of the the wiring in the space behind the wheel to keep it from getting squeezed. Note that adapter has been cleverly designed not to provide space for torque-wrench head in torqueing the deeply recessed torx screws. Remove plastic shroud around steering column to make space by removing four screws from its bottom, and then working the top of the shroud off. (Actually, it appears that you only need to remove the front left screw to get the top of the shroud off, but anyway.) After much trial and error, put three tiny lock washers in torx socket to keep torque wrench head clear of adapter (see gap between socket and wrench in picture.) Curse a lot and torque torx screws to 8 Nm. (6:15).

Try to reconnect battery. Find it impossible, so end up taking battery hold-down bracket off. Which we could have done when we started installation, and saved a lot of trouble. Carefully start ignition, sitting outside car and reaching below steering column to key. No explosion = good explosion. Note that airbag light comes on and goes off. Much jubilation. Note that horn buttons do not work. Much cursing. Find that airbag light is flashing. Consider what may have gone wrong. No clue. Seems we will need to take it all off again and search for bad contact. Cursing. After taking off negative battery lead, wait five minutes to take apart clock spring connector. Use this time to discover that we never reconnected the connector in the first place. Conjecture this may have been the cause for not working of horn and airbag flashing. Reconnect clock spring connector, reconnect battery. Turn on ignition from outside the car, note that airbag light comes on, then goes off and stays off. Press horn buttons, horn sounds. Victory! Another successful installation by the better mechanic!

Clean up. Find that an insulating cover is left over from the adapter kit. This is a good sign, since you know that you must have had plenty of parts. Later I found another such cover in the house, and I deduce that they must have gone over the two spades. Anyway, taping them down with electrical tape is probably more secure anyway.

As always, keep your steering wheel at arms-length.

Evaluation

The wheel is a bit smaller in diameter than stock, about an inch. (The wheel comes in three diameters, and I took the middle one.) It feels a bit unfamiliar, but I like it. Although it gives a bit less of an "arm" during autocross (I took the power steering out.) It will be interesting to see how it handles next autocross.

The wheel is at exactly the same distance as the stock wheel, as far as I can make out. (They missed an opportunity there, there is enough free space in the adapter to offer a choice of wheel distance.) The rim is a lot thicker than stock and has a lot of profiling. It feels good to me. It is a very nice shade of black. Click for bigger pictures.

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