Skyline R34 Remove & Replace Steering Wheel & Airbag & Resetting Airbag Alarm

[Les000X]

Skyline R34 Remove and Replace Steering Wheel & Airbag & Resetting Airbag Alarm

- Les Lothringer's Approach to Replacing R34 Skyline Steering Wheel & Airbag & Resetting Airbag Alarm. May be applicable to similar Skyline models.

This is an R34 GT4 manual.

- Duration: About one hour one person.

- Difficulty Level: Easy for experienced motor repairers, unless something goes wrong. Check photos for what went wrong.

- Disclaimer: Due to pathological lawyers and the people who use them, note the usual Disclaimer of Responsibility. This describes my approach. If you choose to follow it and screw it up following this approach, remember - at all times, it's your fault. If you choose to follow it and get a different outcome, that's because you need to know more than what is described here. No responsibility for errors or omissions. If you lack the confidence, ability, intelligence, patience, knowledge, discretion, correct tools and location to perform these tasks, engage someone who does not. Read the WorkShop Manual carefully. Remember, other people may have worked on your car and not followed good workshop practice - refer to what can go wrong. Every car can be different. Many stories attend the dangers of working with or near Airbags, like exploding near your head and causing serious injury or death. Torque settings as per Nissan R32 GTR WSManual.

- Reference: Nissan Workshop Manuals.

- Special Tools: Torx TR (tamper resistant) T30 Drive [for Airbag bolts x 2], Steering Wheel Puller. If Airbag Mounting Bracket is also to be removed, then T40 Drive [none TR is fine].

- Other Tools: Screwdrivers, Torque Wrench, 1/2" drive 19 mm socket [for Steering Wheel special securing nut], 1/2" Extension Drives.

- Parts: Another Steering Wheel or Airbag as needed.

- Safe Handling of Airbags: No guarantees here. Laying face up on a flat surface is advised. Do not short out electrical connector nor connect an external source of electrical energy to the Airbag - ie: don't try to explode your Airbag because you could do yourself or someone serious injury. Do not dismantle.

- What Can Go Wrong: Over-tensioned bolts may shear off. Amatuer mechanics not using the correct tools can damage bolts, leaving you to deal with it. Check photos. Trying to remove the Steering Wheel without using a Steering Wheel Puller is not recommended but doubtless someone will say they got away with it. Axially loading the Steering Wheel column is ill advised.

Approach:

_____________________

Refer the sequence of photos for removal of Steering Wheel and Airbag.

Fitment is more or less the reverse procedure.

One photo describes the resetting of the Airbag Circuit Alarm. This, to my knowledge, only works on R34's and not R33's.

Final photos describe what went wrong.

[rb2534]

I changed an R34 GTT steering wheel from auto to manual yesterday, this is a great help but I did come to a hurdle when I realised the horn wiring plug is different between auto and manual due to the tiptronic controlls. A simple fix was to use the original auto horn wiring that screws onto the horn plate as there is a screw hole for it and simply breaking off the wiring for the original manual wheel as it is rivitted onto the horn plate. This also involves cutting the steering wheel control wiring which was 4 pin from memory. It's easy work to see which wires you need to cut as they will obviously be joined up to the tiptronic controls.

Then it was a simple case of re-routing the wiring as normal and plugging it back into the existing loom. And as i removed the battery and let it discharge the airbag to 10mins I never had to reset the airbag light also.

Edited April 16, 2012 by rb2534

[Wongy]

Anyone know if this is the same method as R34 GTR wheel?

Thanks

[Burnz]

Thanks heaps Les! Saved me lots of grief

[FlyLine]

Can anyone help me install the original airbag. I bought the car with and aftermarket steering wheel and no airbag so I decided to change it back to stock however it doesn't seem to be as easy as it sounds. None of the wiring in the car connects to the airbag and I'm wondering if the previous owners have done something that will prevent me from putting the stock wheel and airbag on. Here's a pic of the connections I have to deal with (none connect to each other)

[Jsmith22]

On 29/09/2017 at 11:11 AM, FlyLine said:

Can anyone help me install the original airbag. I bought the car with and aftermarket steering wheel and no airbag so I decided to change it back to stock however it doesn't seem to be as easy as it sounds. None of the wiring in the car connects to the airbag and I'm wondering if the previous owners have done something that will prevent me from putting the stock wheel and airbag on. Here's a pic of the connections I have to deal with (none connect to each other)

Hey mate are you missing the clock spring? 

I changed mine and had the same issue till I realised I didn’t have the clock spring

[FlyLine]

Yep that would be it man! Haha thanks!

[Malar1898]

Hi, replaced my Wheel today but while pulling it off i spun the SAS and im not sure if i spun it back correctly. How could i test this out? The new Wheel is mounted correctly with the SAS Tab in the Hole.

[tridentt150v]

Essentially the same process for an R33 wheel.  I've attached a few photo's showing the differences between 2 wheels I have.  Note that the internals of these 2 wheels are not interchangeable.  I have highlighted some of the differences.

Hope this helps somebody.

[ob1]

anyone know where i can get 2 replacement T30 airbag bolts from?  Both of mine were on so tight i rounded the head getting them out.

[ob1]

On 26/03/2022 at 1:58 PM, ob1 said:

anyone know where i can get 2 replacement T30 airbag bolts from?  Both of mine were on so tight i rounded the head getting them out.

to answer my own question....Nissan PN 878508990A, pretty hard to find, but eventually a dealer had a couple. $2.30 ea

Edited March 29, 2022 by ob1

[adey]

On 3/29/2022 at 6:13 PM, ob1 said:

to answer my own question....Nissan PN 878508990A, pretty hard to find, but eventually a dealer had a couple. $2.30 ea

Anyone have the torque specs for these two T30 torx bolts? Thanks!!

[Ben C34]

On 6/11/2022 at 8:44 PM, adey said:

Anyone have the torque specs for these two T30 torx bolts? Thanks!!

Medium tight will do it

[ob1]

On 12/06/2022 at 2:19 PM, Ben C34 said:

Medium tight will do it

lol...was going to say the same thing.

[adey]

On 3/29/2022 at 6:13 PM, ob1 said:

to answer my own question....Nissan PN 878508990A, pretty hard to find, but eventually a dealer had a couple. $2.30 ea

Anyone have the torque specs for these two T30 torx bolts? Thanks!!

On 6/12/2022 at 12:19 PM, Ben C34 said:

Medium tight will do it

Thanks guys, I ended up hand tightening them w a 3/8 drive ratchet probably something like ~10-15Nm

cheers!

[silviaz]

Does anyone know for this tutorial why the steering column was released? Shouldn't the steering wheel be locked so when you take the nut off it doesn't move and remains straight? 

[GTSBoy]

23 minutes ago, silviaz said:

Does anyone know for this tutorial why the steering column was released? Shouldn't the steering wheel be locked so when you take the nut off it doesn't move and remains straight? 

It's not like it's hard to put it back on the same spline. Paint pens have been a thing for about 40 years.

[silviaz]

2 hours ago, GTSBoy said:

It's not like it's hard to put it back on the same spline. Paint pens have been a thing for about 40 years.

But the question is, do we need to release the steering column, wouldn't be easier just to lock it? Yeah I was going to use a paint pen to mark stuff but my concern was when the steering wheel moves, won't my tyres move as well?

[GTSBoy]

What difference does it make if anything/everything moves.....if you put the wheel back on the same spline?

[silviaz]

1 hour ago, GTSBoy said:

What difference does it make if anything/everything moves.....if you put the wheel back on the same spline?

I guess it doesn't. To confirm, if my steering wheel moves to the left for example, even when i go to put the steering wheel back on it's fine as long as it all lines up, then I don't need to straighten it? I'm having a bit of a hard time visualising it.