Highlander Steering Wheel Swap 2nd Gen?

Has anyone swamped a steering wheel over from a Highlander into a Tacoma?



The base wheel and clock spring are the same from Tacoma / Highlander according to part numbers.

Looking at part numbers, the main difference being the covers, switches and airbags.

Just wondering if anyone has tried this?

 

Not a fan of that wheel particularly but have always wondered if this would work for the newer Tacoma wheel.

 

My main concern would be airbag compatibility and function, pretty sure you could get the controls to work.

 

Interesting. Personally. I hate the late gen 2nd gen steering wheel myself. It's good to have some options and this could always be a pretty viable solution for the future if it actually does work!

 

Agreed. I'd assume all Toyota airbags have them same connector and wonder if it would function normally once plugged in...

 

I have a 13 camry se steering wheel in my truck. My truck didn't have steering wheel controls to begin with before so I didn't care to swap clock springs, and re-pin the wires. Its such a nicer wheel. Airbag is plug and play.

 

^^^ Did you go to a salvage yard to get that? Looks pretty nice.

 

Got both on ebay from 2 different sellers. I think I paid $300 so not to bad. I also added a leather wheel cover afterwards. It made the wheel a bit thicker which I liked.

 

Woah, nice. The horn works fine?

 

What don't you guys like about your 2nd Gen steering wheel? I think it's kinda nice, far better than the steering wheel on my Matrix previously.

 

The second generation has two different wheels. The early second gen and the late gen. The late gen's wheel is great. The early gen's wheel feels like a Corolla wheel from the early 2000's.

 

Ahh gotcha. Now that you mention it I do know what you are referring to. Yea, not as nice as the later 2nd Gen's

 

Did you get one of those leather sew-it-yourself kits, then? Looks factory so you did a great job!

Surprised you were able to get the wheel with the airbag intact. I thought you couldn't do that for some reason. Whole, "exploding components" issue and all that...

 

I had a 2012 Camry SE before the truck and would kill for that wheel again. Everything was in the right place.

I am not a fan of the wifes steering wheel in her Highlander, but she says its fine.

 

What do you have the paddles hooked up to?

 

Ejection seat would be my guess.

 

If it were me I would see what I could do about utilizing them as "kill switches."

 

Holy shit. :O I just found a new project!!

 

I got the cover from aliexpress.com Comes from china. I put the cover on about 6 months ago, and so far its holding up great. The wheel has been installed since January of 2015. It goes over the existing leather with double stick tape to hold in place then just stitch it up. In that pic the area around the 9 and 6 grip lifted up and have since fixed that, so its smooth now.

None of the buttons work only because I didn't want to change the clock spring. Cruise and horn are fine. Plus I would also have to get the harness to work with my aftermarket deck which I wasn't about to do. I just really like the way this wheel looks and feels which was why I swapped it.

If someone with a newer truck that already had wheel controls it would be easy to make them work. You would have to swap connectors and re pin the wires, but its doable.

 

I looked at the Camry wheels and was very close to pulling the trigger because the Type S models have a flat bottom race style wheel. That flat bottom would really help with the leg room for a Sasquatch like myself when getting in and out of the truck!



I do plan to make the steering wheel controls work on this one pin at a time, the slow painful way.