Extending Airbag Wires for steering wheel spacer guide

Attention:

• WE ARE NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY DAMAGE OR INJURY THAT MAY OCCUR WHILE THIS PROCEDURE IS BEING CARRIED OUT. WE DO NOT KNOW THE OPERATING CONDITIONS OF EACH INDIVIDUAL INSTALLATION, NOR THE ACTUAL SKILL AND EXPERIENCE OF THE OPERATOR.
• THE ENTIRE PROCEDURE MUST TAKE PLACE AFTER THE BATTERY HAS BEEN DISCONNECTED FOR AT LEAST HALF AN HOUR.
• Be careful while handling cables. Never pull them. They all have snap-on connectors, take some time to see how to unlock them.
• Any doubt? NO PANIC, ASK US! help@spacershop.com
• patience is your friend: no hurry to finish the job. It is better to interrupt and ask help than make huge damage. Ask us, check on car maker’s workshop manual and or ask a professional.
• we prefer to crimp wires than solder them. Soldering wires leads to lot of heat transmitted to the wires themselves, which, being good heat conductors, can generate a quick heat flow that may damage the electronic circuits and leads to any sort of electronic failure on car’s whole electronic system, dangerous, difficult to diagnose and potentially expensive fo fix.

This guide is generic, not dedicated to a specific model and brand of car, it can be applied whenever installing a spacer on the steering wheel you find yourself in the situation of having to lengthen the airbag wires because they are not long enough.

The procedure starts with the steering wheel already disassembled.

1) Cut the wires, you will immediately realize that they are normal electrical wires.

2) Uncover the core conductor of the wires with a cable peeler, both on the car’s side the end that is left in your hand 

3) Get electrical wires, of the same cross-section as those of the airbag wire, and possibly also of the same 2 colors. Cut them to the required length, usually equal to that of the spacer: 5 or 6 cm. Peel off the ends of the wires and attach crimp tubes to the same ends. You will then have prepared your extension cords.

4) Using the crimping tool, tighten the terminals of the 2 extension cords to the respective wires coming from the airbag connector. At the end of the work you will get the complete extended wiring, as in the following photo, which will be connected to the car.

Continue by crimping the 2 terminals of the extension cord you have created to the 2 wires coming out of the machine. BE CAREFUL NOT TO SWAP THEM.

The wire that comes out of the machine, for example purple, must join the wire which, after the extension, will still be purple.

Some cars have 2 connectors for the airbag: it means that all the operations carried out so far must be done 2 times.

In the picture above you can see the final result: the extended airbag cable. From now on, you can proceed to mount the steering wheel spacer.

END