Looking to install an aftermarket steering wheel like the ones made by Nardi. Can anyone help me figure out what's needed to make the install happen? I appreciate any input you folks can give me & definitely do a build log for the forums as well. Aloha from Hawaii.

 

You cannot install an after-market wheel (the thin wood-rimmed) in a modern (electroncially-loaded) car. What would you do with the cruise control, audio and phone controls...? The Nardi and similar wheels are for pre-90's cars..Steering wheels used to have a simple steering ad horn function. Now they are far more complicated and model-specific.

 

Not to mention the airbag.

 

The controls on my steering wheel doesn't serve me as much as it does others. My radio controls on it are inoperative because I have an aftermarket stereo system & my cruise control function is rarely used because here in Hawaii I'm never traveling more than 30 miles. Would my best bet be opting for a factory wood grain wheel? Mines is just the plain leather wrap model.

 

It isn't that wheels can't be swapped...they can, with various degrees of difficulty.

The biggest problem is that the X uses a rather unusual hex mount rather than a spline.

It would be possible to have an adapter created; but we are talking laser-cut or waterjet rather than machining.

That said, I was on a car site a few weeks ago...IIRC it was a Russian site...where a 2009 Estate had a wheel that looked like it came from an f-type. I haven't done any research on that, though.

Many of us are pleased to take out the bulky leather wheel and replace it with the later wood-and-leather wheel; the wheel swap itself is easy, but if your car is pre-2004.5, it takes some electronic surgery at the SMD level to make the cruise control work. Later models will either play right out of the box, or with a quick reprogram.