Tiptronic switches for stereo?

[RandallNeighbour]

Anyone know where I can find a hack to convert the tiptronic switches on a steering wheel I just bought to control the stereo settings? (ie, volume up and down, station find up and down, etc.)

I saw one mentioned on Ebay a while back and cannot remember where to look for it again.

[Tool Pants]

I do not know of any way to do that with the oem Becker 210 and 220 radios as they do not have a remote control feature.

What we have done on 2 cars with manual transmissions and the owner got a good deal on a 3 spoke tip wheel is to use the shift buttons for the trip computer.

[RandallNeighbour]

cha ching! That's what I should do then. Any links on how to do it?

The other thought I had was to simply tear it down, "build up" the space behind the buttons and have it recovered in leather at an upholstry shop. But, I have not torn one apart to see how hard it would be to fashion a piece that makes it look good, not cheezy.

[Brucelee]

No offense but why would you do this?

[RandallNeighbour]

no offense taken!

3 spoke tiptronic wheel: $81.00 off ebay
3 spoke non-tip wheel: $380++ off ebay

(both prices are without the airbag, of course)

[Tool Pants]

No links since it is not popular. We might have filmed it but I do not remember since Henry is in charge of the video. You need to buy a tiptronic air bag spiral spring unit, remove the blue connector, cut the 2 terminals off, and splice on the VW wire cut in half which goes to the instrument cluster. It is like doing the trip computer retrofit with a switch but you use the buttons on the steering wheel instead. The pic on the left shows what I did to the tip air bag spiral spring unit.

If you got the wheel from ladybug717 then I bid on it in case a local owner wanted it. I thought you wanted a manual transmission wheel from ebay.

[Tool Pants]

And here you see Rich's car after the 4 spoke was replaced with a 3 spoke tip in carbon fiber. You can see from his shift knob that he has a manual transmission, a 1999 5 speed.

He wanted a carbon fiber 3 spoke to match all the other carbon fiber stuff he put in but the only decent price he could find on ebay was for a tip. Since he did not have the trip computer option I suggested to use the shift buttons for the trip computer. Either that, or for machine guns.

[Brucelee]

Oh, I hear you. Interesting.

Good luck

[QporscheQ]

I've heard that firing the machine guns while driving slows the car down sort of like the gun on the A-10 Warthog. Is this true?

[RandallNeighbour]

toolpants, I did get it from ladybug 717 after deciding those stinking non-tip wheels were just too darn expensive when considering the additional cost of an airbag.

Thanks for the pic and I will certainly consider doing this with the switches... one big favor would be the part number for the tiptronic air bag spiral spring unit. Is it outrageously expensive?

I tell you what, if I decide not to put it on I'll PM you to see if you want to buy it from me for what I paid. There's another non-tip I'm watching on Ebay that I will keep an eye on, but frankly, it's gonna sell for 300 to 400 bucks, I just know it!

[Tool Pants]

Tip unit is about $150 retail. Call around. 996 652 213 00 is the part number. A way back someone on ebay had several units for manual and tip transmissions and they were going for about $50.

I am not interested in a tip steering wheel after it has gone through ebay. If you want to sell it then try my local board and I will help a local owner put it in. If they bring the beer to our work on cars day. Otherwise put it back on ebay.

[Bethencorp]

Randall I may have an interest in the steering wheel if you still have it? Let me know.

[RandallNeighbour]

I do still have it uninstalled, and I'm now saving up for the airbag to install it. Should I decide to go with a manual or not install it, I will PM you, ok?