[SOLVED] Retrofit Steering Wheel Paddle Shifters

[smiddyboy1]

This one had not been planned at all. It all started when Wully sent me a link to the "popular auction site" with a Paddle shift steering wheel at a silly buy it now price that could not be refused!!! Without thinking about it I had bought it and it arrived within 3 days.

I set about removing the steering wheel, which was difficult doing it on my own! (Dam they put them in tight thankfully ), and all was going well. Albeit a bit paranoid being in around the Airbag .

All the parts on the car were checked to make sure they were Paddle Shift compliant (Spiral, Airbag, etc) which they were. The airbag had the connectors where the paddles plugged in so no problems there but I had already bought the £65 control unit that I didn't need , (The control unit is needed if you have the 4 spoke wheel) also no extra wiring was needed, again everything was going fine.

Next up was to try and work out the coding side of things - How hard could it be , turns out very! Many nights both myself and wully spent trying various coding options all without results, we were not giving up but this went on for a couple of weeks! I even bent the ear of a friend who works for a main dealer but again drew a blank.

In the end I admited defeat and emailed the experts (Comand) as I had followed the TUDU thread when he was the first to have the paddles fitted. I spoke to Alfie and told him what we had tried, but knowing in the back of my mind that it was a 7 hours drive away!

On speaking to Alfie I cheekily asked if there way a way to save me the 14 hour round trip . A few emails later he set about putting things in place at his end and by the end of the week I had the car codes for paddles and all appeared to be fine and also without a 14 trip. A more helpfully person you could not get! - So a big thanks is owed!.
The S / C switch was now working as a S / C / M switch, but on a victory test drive it was a very different story! and the problems began.

The car was always trying to shift up to the highest gear possible as though the + paddle was being operated. This made the car almost undrivable as when you slowed for a corner the car would be in the highest gear but as you accelarated out of the corner it would jump down gear and straight away go to the highest possible gear. Making the car judder, lurch and at times breaking traction with the torque! Not good at all when the Winter is around the corner. This is when I was starting to think what have I done!!!!

So another email was sent to Comand on Friday this time Richard replying as Alfie was away for the day. Again another guy who went out his way to help me resolve the problem and the knowledge he has is mindblowing! - (Another Huge thanks is owed!). All through Saturday & Sunday we exchanged emails to get to the bottom of it right up to 12 O'Clock at night - Now where would you get support / service like that. In the end Richard ended up calling me and giving me his diagnosis and bad news. My car had been incorrectly coded. He explained that the Button shifters are coded in a completely different way from the paddle shifters. The paddles rely on a positive signal to the control unit to show the button is being pressed where as the button shifters reply on a not connected / always connected wiring arrangment. Mines was coded for both!

So away the car went for more coding, but again the problem remained and under actual values you could see the paddles showing as being operated when it wasn't! I very nearly threw in the towel at this point!

In the end I finally managed to get the coding sorted and all is working as it should, but I've only used the paddles a couple of times ,

This one certainly made me think about retrofitting in the future. But as its all in the past now I'll start looking to see whats next lol.

From buying the steering wheel to having them working perfectly has been around 2 months and a lot of worrying! not something I'll be doing again!

If anyones is thinking about it then speak to the guys who know what they're doing.


A couple of photos of the work:

Old Wheel


Connectors for the Paddles


Close up of the connector




All done - Maybe I'll need to go for the Aluminium Paddles ?


A big thanks to Wully, Alfie & Richard for this one!