NOTES BEFORE INSTALLATION:
1) Park the car with the wheels straight before installation, otherwise you risk “missing a tooth” during assembly and find yourself with the steering wheel just rotated while driving straight.
2) Disconnect the battery before starting, thus avoiding the illumination of lights at the end.
3) Be careful when handling the cables coming out from behind the steering wheel, do not pull them even accidentally, unlock the connector clip before disconnecting, otherwise you risk disconnecting or moving the steering angle sensor and hearing an annoying “click” then while driving, and you have to do the whole procedure again.
INSTALLATION
There are many videos on the internet that show how to disassemble the steering wheel of the MX-5, watching one or two before starting helps to do everything more comfortably and without doing damage. In any case, I will summarize the main points here.
1) Remove the airbag from the steering wheel by unscrewing the two torx screws on the sides of the steering wheel. It may be necessary to remove rubber plugs that hide them from view. When the airbag unit is in your hands, disconnect the connectors behind it, do not pull on them and unlock the mini-safety clips first.
2) Install the airbag safely and away from children.
3) Unscrew the center nut without removing it, first make sure that the steering wheel slides along the steering column. In fact, after years, the aluminum steering wheel and the steel column tend to stick together and if you pull hard to unlock, the steering wheel can suddenly come out hitting your face and tearing the wires. The steering wheel can be so hard to pull out that it is suggested to use an extractor, which simplifies everything considerably. Insert 2 screws into the holes provided on the steering wheel and screw in the central pin of the extractor. It only takes half a turn to unlock the steering wheel (with a nice “knock”).
4) When you are sure that the steering wheel comes out, remove it and secure it.
5) Now you can see the steering angle sensor and the steering column on the car. It’s time to lengthen the cables if they are too short on your machine. You can cut them and lengthen them (insulating the joints) or you can cut the rubber clamp on the steering wheel itself and pass the wires through as shown in the photo, gaining a few centimeters.
6) Depending on the year of your car, the wiring harness can be disconnected from both the steering wheel and the steering angle sensor, or from only one of the ends. It can also happen that the wiring harness of the airbag cannot be disconnected from the steering angle sensor, while the wiring harness of the steering wheel controls can. In any case, usually the standard wiring harness of the airbag is long enough to allow it to be reconnected, while the other wires must either be lengthened, or passed through another path inside the steering wheel as shown in the photo.
7) Insert the aluminium part of the spacer into the column, respecting the orientation of the slots. The spacer reproduces the small groove of the steering wheel above the steering column and the large rectangular one at the bottom. The wiring must be routed through the large slot. Tighten the center nut that previously held the steering wheel. Have someone help hold the spacer (and column) in place while tightening the nut. CLEAN HANDS AND NO FINGER RINGS, otherwise the aluminum will scratch.
8) Screw the steel part of the spacer to the aluminum part, using the screws and the Loctite thread locker.
9) Slide the steering wheel onto the steel part of the spacer, which is a faithful copy of the steering column. Then reinstall the steering wheel on the spacer as if you were in front of the steering column of the machine, tightening the central nut and passing the wires through the slots provided to reach the connector on the steering angle sensor.
10) Be careful when putting the airbag back in its seat: The wires behind it must not be “balled up”, otherwise the horn may always remain running when you reconnect the battery. If you’ve done everything right up to step 9, this problem doesn’t theoretically happen. Again, watching videos of re-assembling the steering wheel on the car can help.
11) Reconnect the battery. END.
