# VAG codes for adding paddle shifter steering wheel.



## DarthVWer (May 18, 2015)

Sup guys, 

So my car does not have paddles on the steering wheel. I purchased a wheel on eBay with paddles. 
I’ve looked on other forums and one guys states that you do not need VAG-COM codes to do this. He has a write up on audizine I believe that he changed his non-paddle wheel for a paddle wheel and the car eventually learned itself. 

Does this sound right?

Also if not, does anyone have the VAG-com codes to do this mod?

Thanks in advance


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## crawler07 (Jun 16, 2009)

As long as you have the right wheel it will work without coding. I have an S3 wheel in my A3, plug and play.


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## DarthVWer (May 18, 2015)

crawler07 said:


> As long as you have the right wheel it will work without coding. I have an S3 wheel in my A3, plug and play.


Awesome thanks! I ordered the Sline red stitching. Should not be any different. 

Did you install yourself?


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## crawler07 (Jun 16, 2009)

Yes I did. From what I remember, turn the wheel 90 degrees, use hand mirror to see clip in the hole on the back side of the air bag, unlcip, turn wheel other direction so it sits 90 degrees again and unclip the other side of the air bag, at that point center air bag portion pops towards you and you unclip a connector and then you get to the steering wheel bolt which takes a triple square bit to turn out. Don't remember what size, 12mm maybe? Also dont touch the stalks on the steering column while doing the swap, it can mess something up if you do. Google the s3 europrice steering wheel thread, I think there is more info there also. I used some towels and some painters tape to protect the steering column area while swapping, as prying on the clips can be a pita....I had to stop one day and try it again another before I got it. Doing one clip is easier than the other so if you're having trouble try the other side. If you get stuck, step away and cool off...don't force anything.


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## DarthVWer (May 18, 2015)

Thanks man! A lot of help this will be. 


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## crawler07 (Jun 16, 2009)

Just remembered I put the ignition to accessory so the column would unlock and then pulled the battery cable to power it off unlocked so you can turn the wheel, and not have to worry about the airbag going off. But be careful obviously, air bag is always possibly dangerous. Maybe go as far as putting the front wheels on some cardboard or something somewhat slippery to help the wheels steer easier while you turn them. Other option is connecting everything and powering car on again just to turn the wheel the other direction to get to the other air bag clip.


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## Yogibearal (Apr 17, 2014)

I just got a 2017 Premium post facelift and tried doing the swap and it doesn't seem to work plug and play. I tried looking in VAG-COM for measured value of the buttons clicking like I could on my Passat, but there is no option for this. I then noticed that although the Multifunction button plug for the buttons have 4 pins/wires connecting, but the main harness from the buttons to the main steering wheel only has 3 cables. I'm wondering if this 4th cable is what sends the tiptronic paddle signals to the ECU. Unfortunately I can't tell for sure. Has anyone done this successfully on a 2017+ Audi A3 premium to an S-line steering wheel? If so do know if the wiring has 3 or 4 cables from the multimuction button pod to the main yellow plug for the steering wheel?


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## Yogibearal (Apr 17, 2014)

Yogibearal said:


> I just got a 2017 Premium post facelift and tried doing the swap and it doesn't seem to work plug and play. I tried looking in VAG-COM for measured value of the buttons clicking like I could on my Passat, but there is no option for this. I then noticed that although the Multifunction button plug for the buttons have 4 pins/wires connecting, but the main harness from the buttons to the main steering wheel only has 3 cables. I'm wondering if this 4th cable is what sends the tiptronic paddle signals to the ECU. Unfortunately I can't tell for sure. Has anyone done this successfully on a 2017+ Audi A3 premium to an S-line steering wheel? If so do know if the wiring has 3 or 4 cables from the multimuction button pod to the main yellow plug for the steering wheel?


The more I look at this the more I think the ECU on this vehicle may not support this functionality. Hopefully I can figure this out otherwise I just spent a ton of money for a flat bottom steering wheel without tiptronic functionality.


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## crawler07 (Jun 16, 2009)

Yogibearal said:


> The more I look at this the more I think the ECU on this vehicle may not support this functionality. Hopefully I can figure this out otherwise I just spent a ton of money for a flat bottom steering wheel without tiptronic functionality.


I guess I can only speak for 2016 and newer, my car is a '16. This is the second time I've heard of the paddles not working after a steering wheel swap on a face lift car.


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## Yogibearal (Apr 17, 2014)

crawler07 said:


> I guess I can only speak for 2016 and newer, my car is a '16. This is the second time I've heard of the paddles not working after a steering wheel swap on a face lift car.


Thanks for the info. I'm wondering if it is the source of my steering wheel. I'm just not willing to gamble on it. Likely just install it since it is flat bottom and plug the tiptronic button holes and call it a day. Then I'd at least have the better steering and the correct button layout. I'll inquire with the dealership first to see if they can somehow enable the coding for it.

Do you happen to know who the other person was? Or a link? I also posted on the audiworld forum. So hope it wasn't me. Or if I could find someone with a premium who was able to add the paddles to ensure it can be done, I may try again.


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## crawler07 (Jun 16, 2009)

I'm not sure where I saw the other thread but one option would be to contact Europrice, their prices are nuts but they should be able to tell you what wheel your car should use as far as flat bottom wheels with paddles.


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## Yogibearal (Apr 17, 2014)

crawler07 said:


> I'm not sure where I saw the other thread but one option would be to contact Europrice, their prices are nuts but they should be able to tell you what wheel your car should use as far as flat bottom wheels with paddles.


Yeah I already did as the wheel I bought was supposedly bought from them. They weren't of much help. Just wanted me to purchase a new one. Although they won't guarantee it will work as there are no returns on "electronic" items. So I can't even try. 

Part of it is my fault as I didn't get the sellers name or else they would have been able to look up the exact part# used on their order. Maybe I can just replace the entire set up buttons, since the steering wheel is good. Need to see if I want to try again or go to the dealership to see if it is a coding thing (not doable via VAG-COM)


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## crawler07 (Jun 16, 2009)

Yogibearal said:


> Yeah I already did as the wheel I bought was supposedly bought from them. They weren't of much help. Just wanted me to purchase a new one. Although they won't guarantee it will work as there are no returns on "electronic" items. So I can't even try.
> 
> Part of it is my fault as I didn't get the sellers name or else they would have been able to look up the exact part# used on their order. Maybe I can just replace the entire set up buttons, since the steering wheel is good. Need to see if I want to try again or go to the dealership to see if it is a coding thing (not doable via VAG-COM)


Does your new wheel have the 2017 split bottom spoke design just like your stock wheel or is it the pre facelift design?


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## Yogibearal (Apr 17, 2014)

crawler07 said:


> Does your new wheel have the 2017 split bottom spoke design just like your stock wheel or is it the pre facelift design?


It is post facelift design with the split bottom spoke. it is a s-line version with partial perforated sides.


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## crawler07 (Jun 16, 2009)

Yogibearal said:


> It is post facelift design with the split bottom spoke. it is a s-line version with partial perforated sides.


Seems like the plug and play steering paddles ended in 2016 unfortunately. Hopefully someone will chime in with a solution for the post facelift cars.


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## jonnyg (Jan 10, 2003)

anyone successfully retrofit a steering wheel with paddles to an 2017-2018 A3?


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## dp_motley (Nov 12, 2016)

If I were going to replace my steering wheel with one with the paddle shifters and it didn't work, the first thing I would check out were wiring. Look at the main (yellow) airbag plug that connects your steering wheel to the slip ring. The upper row of its pins contains black and green wires. It's for the airbag detonator. The lower row has more occupied pins. From left to right, they are 
1) Brown - ground
2) Blue - claxon
3) Violet - multifunction
4) White - paddleshift

The pin-out above is true for the PFL 8V, so be careful.

Do you have any white wire there? If you don't, you need to add it or buy another airbag harness. 

P.S. I'm not a 8V owner yet, though I'm going to trade my 2012 8PA for a FL sedan. I used a few different steering wheels in my 8PA (A5 S-line the current one), so I know that A3 8P, A3 8V, A4/A5, Q5 or perhaps other Audi models have different plugs and pin-outs. I won't be surprised if Audi decided to use different airbag looms for cars with or without paddleshift.


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## Yogibearal (Apr 17, 2014)

dp_motley said:


> If I were going to replace my steering wheel with one with the paddle shifters and it didn't work, the first thing I would check out were wiring. Look at the main (yellow) airbag plug that connects your steering wheel to the slip ring. The upper row of its pins contains black and green wires. It's for the airbag detonator. The lower row has more occupied pins. From left to right, they are
> 1) Brown - ground
> 2) Blue - claxon
> 3) Violet - multifunction
> ...


Looking at my Airbag harness,

1) Brown - Ground
2) Red - no idea what that is for
3) Violet - multifunction

So it is indeed missing a white cable - but what pin does the white cable go into for the Yellow plug? I will need to investigate this further. Hoping to get it to work still.


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## mr2scott (Feb 26, 2008)

Two reports of being plug and play here. 

I have a RS3 wheel I'm going to swap into my A3 tomorrow, praying for 4 wires.


https://www.audizine.com/forum/show...st-effective-way-to-get-paddle-shifters-in-A3


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## Yogibearal (Apr 17, 2014)

mr2scott said:


> Two reports of being plug and play here.
> 
> I have a RS3 wheel I'm going to swap into my A3 tomorrow, praying for 4 wires.
> 
> ...


Yeah please let me know. I looked up all the part# from online Audi and they seem to match the equipment I have. The main thing is the airbag harness is not sold separately and all the airbag numbers are the same. After doing some research I'm pretty sure that the air bad harness is the issue. Doesn't have the tiptronic button wire. I took a close look at ebay for airbags from A3 post facelift and some have the wires while others do not.

However the post facelift no longer uses a white wire but instead a blue wire.


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## mr2scott (Feb 26, 2008)

My car only had 3 wires.

But I installed the new wheel any way and the paddle shifters work!!


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## Yogibearal (Apr 17, 2014)

Just wondering where you got the wheel? Also what trim of A3 did you have?

I have the base model A3 Premium without digital dash, so that makes a difference. Thanks for your help. If you have VCDS if you can get your steering long code, and ECU model/revision # so I can cross check against mine, that would help greatly. I really want to get this to work. It is possible the ECU doesn't support it. If you have a Premium Plus or Prestige it may be the reason it works.

Thanks,


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## mr2scott (Feb 26, 2008)

Yogibearal said:


> Just wondering where you got the wheel? Also what trim of A3 did you have?
> 
> I have the base model A3 Premium without digital dash, so that makes a difference. Thanks for your help. If you have VCDS if you can get your steering long code, and ECU model/revision # so I can cross check against mine, that would help greatly. I really want to get this to work. It is possible the ECU doesn't support it. If you have a Premium Plus or Prestige it may be the reason it works.
> 
> Thanks,



I got an RS3 wheel from Romania, brand new. 

I have a 2017 quattro premium plus, normal dash, there were only 3 wires on the harness which means the paddle signals go through the same wire as the rest of the controls. I can look at the long code later.


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## Yogibearal (Apr 17, 2014)

mr2scott said:


> I got an RS3 wheel from Romania, brand new.
> 
> I have a 2017 quattro premium plus, normal dash, there were only 3 wires on the harness which means the paddle signals go through the same wire as the rest of the controls. I can look at the long code later.


Yeah from what I can see 2017 Premium does not have the ability in the BCM. The Premium Plus seems to be able to handle it. Went into the steering wheel module and it doesn't even allow measuring paddle output values. So doesn't recognize it being installed. Ohwell.


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