Heated Steering Wheel Disclaimer & Help
Disclaimer & Helpful Information
This disclaimer serves to educate all customers on their purchase by ensuring they know as much as possible on the heated steering wheel function that is offered by our company.
We are one of the only companies that offer heated steering wheels as an option for custom BMW steering wheels. Please note that all heated steering wheels purchased will come with upgraded elements that offer warmer than OEM heating. This is massively beneficial during cold weather, where it's direly important the driver can maintain grip of the steering wheel.
With that being said, we do not supply the OEM connectors with the finished wheel, but instead supply you with the cables needed to tap into the OEM harness. This means when your steering wheel arrives, it will come with the wires necessary to install into the OEM harness. The reasoning behind this method is BMW shares the same steering wheel fitment with many models around the world, while only having minor differences in wiring depending on the country market, trim package, or model. Supplying the OEM harness is not plausiable because this would require us to sell every steering wheel specifically to every VIN, which would drastically increase the great prices we offer. Supplying the wires as standalone without the connector allows us to appeal to the mass market and make our steering wheels compatible for everyone, since the cables can be simply spliced into place. Below is a picture example of how the steering wheel and accompanying cables will arrive.
These wires can be crimped, soldered or spliced into the OEM harness at either the male or female portion of the connector. The easiest method is to splice the heating element cables to the female portion of the OEM connector, as this is less wiring and bypasses the connector completely, allowing you to tap straight into the steering wheel heating wiring. Attached below is the OEM harness connection (left) and the wiring supplied with the BAVMODS steering wheel (right), which can be spliced together.
The black heater cable seen in the above picture appears to be one cable, but it is actually two wires bundled together in a protective rubber coating. You can simply crimp off the top of the cable to expose the two wires bundled together. Attached below is a picture showing the two wires cables in their un-crimped state.
By now you have probably noticed the OEM steering wheel wires are a different color than the BAVMODS steering wheel, this is perfectly normal. Attached below is a picture of the OEM wiring.
The thick red cables supplied on your new BAVMODS steering wheel take the place of the thicker brown and black OEM cables, with the two thinner black wires replacing the two thin wires on the OEM harness as well.
With this knowledge, you can splice over your OEM harness from the bottom connector and install the new cables in their place, or trace them up to the top female side and directly tap them in.
The OEM harness can 100% be transferred over to the new steering wheel as well, by simply cutting it out of place and splicing it onto our steering wheels, but this is fully up to the customer.
We highly recommend professional installation of all electronics, airbags and steering wheel products, but hopefully this background info was able to help if you are DIY-ing this project. Being one of the only companies to offer heated custom steering wheels means we have to appeal to the mass market, and with the minor differences in wiring depending on specific BMW models, we've deemed this to be the best route for keeping our prices significantly lower than the competition, while offering a premium, quality product.
Have a question?