Transit Connect 2009 face lift steering wheel change.

[pas66]

Hi all, I have a 2009 Ford transit connect Trend (face lift model). I am looking to swap the worn plastic steering wheel for a leather one, but I'm not sure what type of steering wheel will be a straight swap, with no re-wiring required. Any ideas please?

[Kenton]

Has yours got any controls on the wheel? All i can go on is that if it has NOT, then a focus wheel from the same age without any wheel controls will be the correct boss. But the more knowledgeable people on the later connects will be able to correct me 100% on this.

All the best.

[pas66]

Thanks Kenton, appreciate the advice. Mine has no controls on it, so maybe the Focus steering wheel will work. I thought I read on here that a C-max steering wheel would also be a staight swap but need further clarification...

[TAYLERMAKER]

Hi I'm New to the group and just purchased 2011 connect trend, I read somewhere that a fiesta St steering wheel would fit! But no it doesn't any ideas what wheel I need to get as the rubber one is soo worn

[SiH]

My steering wheel has been the bane of my life for the last couple of weeks and I've learned a lot from the experience! What should have been an easy swap turned into a bit of a ballache as a consequence of me getting ahead of myself. I'm not an expert and this is not a comprehensive guide but hopefully someone else will learn from it. My experience is with a 2011 Connect so things with yours might be a little different but there will be similarities.
Are you sitting comfortably? Then I'll begin...

When it comes to changing your steering wheel and removing the airbag disconnect the battery!!!. I disconnected mine about 30 minutes beforehand to let any residual voltage disappear. Don't do this with the battery connected!. There, I've said it...

When you change your steering wheel it's likely that you'll be using your original airbag, or at least one of the same design. This is important as the airbag connector varies over the years and so the original style of your steering wheel might be difficult to change. What I mean by this is that vans with a 3-spoke wheel don't appear to be interchangeable with a 4-spoke wheel and vice-versa.

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The Connect had a 3-spoke wheel up to, I believe, the facelift, so make sure the wheel you're planning on buying has the same number of spokes. This is important as the shell of the airbag has cutouts which match up with the spokes and it's not as simple as buying a new airbag to match. This is because the connectors on the back of the airbag also changed so they won't work with the steering wheel wiring harness.

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I've seen someone say about changing the wires for the airbag but I decided against that as I really didn't want to mess around with something so critical.

It does seem that the choice of replacement steering wheels for 3-spoke Connects is somewhat larger than for 4-spoke ones and it's further complicated by the airbag mounting clip too. While all 4-spoke wheels might look the same it's not quite as straightforward as that as some have 4 'fingers' to clip the airbag and others have 3.

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You can tell by either removing your airbag and having a look or alternatively you should be able to tell from the number of holes on the back of the plastic shell on the steering wheel. I have a 2011 Connect and it has a 4-spoke wheel with 4 fingers for the airbag clip. I believe this is pretty standard for the year.

Removing the airbag is pretty straightforward once you've done it once. The first time is inevitably a pain in the arse but I can now get mine on and off in about 6 minutes. There are a number of videos that make it look really easy and once you get the hang of things it is, but be patient and you'll get there. My tips would be to take all the plastic cowling off including the little 'leather' section below the instrument cluster to give yourself more space to work. The leather bit is just held in with a couple of spring clips so should come out easily. To get access to the airbag clips you need to turn the wheel (and so will need your keys in the ignition) and get the hole you're interested in at the top. Start with the bottom two clips and push your screwdriver straight back until you meet resistance. The spring clip is a long bar that goes across the holes so you need to aim your screwdriver so it lands outside the bar as you'll be pushing it towards the centre of the wheel. You know you're far enough in as when you push the horn you should feel the screwdriver being pushed back towards you. When you bend the clip inwards I find it helps to push the horn a little bit which seems to release the clip from the metal fingers in the steering wheel frame.

Now that the airbag is off the next thing to do is to re-centre your wheels. You'll have been wrestling with the steering wheel to get access to the holes to remove the airbag and it's easy to forget the orientation of the wheels when you put your new steering wheel on. If you misalign the clockspring when you put the new wheel on then you'll end up with a very annoying ESP Malfunction. Ask me how I know.... If you have your wheels centred then you can just whip off the nut from the old wheel, put the new one on and there's no problem.

With your new wheel, it might have the back plastic shell and it might not. It might also have cruise control switches. As far as I can see the cruise control switches simply screw into a couple of holes on either side of the frame and these can be unscrewed without too much difficulty. The plastic shell is held on by some Torx screws on the back so it's quite easy to unscrew your old shell and use this on the new wheel with your old airbag.

With your wheels centred you can then undo the wiring harness clips. I left my main connector alone and removed the spade terminals and then undid the airbag clip. On mine there was a small spade terminal screwed into the frame at the top, rather than pulling the connector apart I simply unscrewed it from the old wheel and screwed it into the new one.

Get your 24mm socket and undo the wheel. Feed the wiring bits through the right hole and then tighten up the bolt once more. There's probably a correct torque setting for this but I did mine up to 'Fart Nm' (you know, the torque where you might squeeze out a fart but not quite as tight as shitting one's pants!). A bit of threadlock probably doesn't hurt either.

Once all this is done then you can simply reconnect your airbag, push it into place making sure it's aligned with the airbag clip, reconnect your battery and enjoy your new steering wheel.

If you forgot about the front wheels and your clockspring has spun round don't worry. On the clockspring itself there are instructions about how to get it in the right place. On mine it was a case of turing it all the way anticlockwise until it stopped (and don't do this too firmly as there is only a ribbon of wire stopping the rotation) and then turning it back 'approximately three times' until the little arrow match up. The little arrows on mine were at the 7 o'clock position but you'll know as the connector will be at the top. These numbers of turns are, of course, assuming that your front wheels are facing straight ahead.

If you've got a 4-spoke wheel the ones I found that were a straight swap were Ford C-Max wheels from 2003-2010. When you're looking on eBay the thing to look out for are the number of metal fingers for the airbag clip. The 'compatible vehicle' tool on eBay will lie to you when it comes to steering wheels so make sure you look carefully before you buy!

If I can think of anything I'll come back and add it but I've also tried to put some pictures on to show what I mean in the text. Hope this helps!

[SiH]

So...
Having done even more research into this it's not quite as simple as I thought. My original thought was that 4-spoke wheels and 3-spoke wheels aren't interchangeable and that's true to a point but for facelift vans it is possible to change both the steering wheel and airbag as the Mk2 Focus 3-spoke wheel has the same airbag connector so you won't have the same issue as I found with my Mk6 Fiesta wheel.
The gist of it for facelift Mk1 Connects (that I believe will have a 4-spoke wheel) is that you can find the right kind of C Max wheel and use your original airbag, or alternatively you can get a Mk2 Focus 3-spoke wheel and airbag as the connector for this should be a straight swap.

For pre-facelift Mk1 Connects it seems that the Mk6 Fiesta wheel is a straight swap as it's a 3-spoke wheel and your original airbag should swap over easily.
If anyone has any experience that lets you use a Mk6 Fiesta wheel with the airbag from a 4-spoke facelift wheel then I'd love to hear it.