DIY: pre-facelift to facelift steering wheel and cluster swap

[TRS]

Disclaimer:

Tampering with any part of car may void your manufacturer’s warranty. If you decide to perform the conversion you could damage your car or be hurt; you do so at your own risk, I am not responsible for damage or any harm you may suffer or any special or consequential damages.

I don’t give any guarantee, that this DIY and included information as pinouts etc. are entirely correct and/or matching your specific trim level! First, read through the entire document before starting your work! All pictures and wiring diagrams mentioned in the document can be found at the very end.

DANGER: Disassembly of the steering wheel required! This means you have to uninstall the airbag module. Airbags contain explosive materials and can cause serious injury or dead if handled wrong!

DONT WORK ON AIRBAG MODULES IF YOU ARE NOT FAMILIAR WITH THIS TYPE OF WORK AND ABSOLUTELY SURE WHAT YOU ARE DOING!

DONT MANIPULATE THE AIRBAG WIRING! It is not required to change the airbag wiring for this swap. Stay away from this wiring, it is safety relevant!

Keep in mind, that all wiring connectors concerning the airbag will have a double lock feature! YOU WILL NOT NEED HIGH FORCE TO OPEN THEM! The only thing you need to do is to find and to unlock the additional locking mechanism. By doing so, you will be able to disconnect with a reasonable force and without damage.

General information: This swap was done on 2013 GT86 EU spec manual transmission. The car is push button start and formerly was equipped with factory navigation system. The factory radio will not be able to work with the steering wheel controls! If want a factory radio working with this controls, you need the matching (facelift) unit for the specific trim the steering wheel controls was taken from! 8there are also differences between the 86/BRZ models and the different trim levels!) I cannot guarantee, if the findings and wiring schemes I share here are also valid for US modes etc...

Single terminals or repair wires are needed for this installation. (see wiring diagram for details/art#) The repair wires can be ordered at your local dealership. Those are 5inch pigtails with a preassembled terminal. I recommend to order single terminals instead of using the repair wires, since the wires a unreasonable expensive and also need to be soldered, what will be difficult due to low space. Single terminals can be ordered at:

http://hi-1000ec.com

You can find the terminals by using the search function on this website. Enter the repair wire part#.

Further fancy stuff you need: facelift steering wheel with LH+RH satellite switches, facelift airbag module, facelift cluster (with graphic display) The good news: You will NOT need a facelift clock spring when using the wiring method given in this DIY!

Note: Make sure to buy the correct version, depending on your region you will have one or two 2pin connectors on the backside of the airbag module. Both facelift and pre-facelift modules are available with one or two connectors.

Removal of steering wheel, steering column liner and several other trim parts is required. I will not go through those steps in detail since they are already well documented. A good example of such a documentation can be found here:

https://howtune.com/articles/351-rep...baru-brz-gt-86

Step0: Disengage electrical steering lock (push button cars only)

Make sure your electrical steering wheel lock is not engaged. You have to disconnect the battery and need to able to turn the steering wheel after that. Therefore unlock the car, push start button 2x to activate ACC. Procced with step 1.

Note: Not needed for turnkey cars. You can open and close the steering lock manually with the key at any time, also without electrical energy.

Step1: Disconnect starter battery

IT IS VERY IMPORTANT TO DISCONNECT THE BATTERIE! Otherwise you will experience high risk to activate an airbag module unintentionally! This may cause serious injury or dead!

To make sure that any electric energy is dumped, wait 10-15min after disconnecting. Then shorten the car side ground and power wires against each other. (Not against the battery!)

Step2: Uninstall Airbag module

The module is secured by 3 spring locks. Those can be opened from the backside of the steering wheel. You will find three holes. Go in there with a screwdriver and unlock. Be careful to not damage the airbag module! If you have found the correct location to move the spring, very little force is required to unlock. Do not use excessive force! You may find more detailed information about this topic by using search function or google.

Once Airbag is loosen, disconnect blue (horn signal) wire. Lift the securing latch of the airbag 2pin connector cable. (US models will have two 2pin connectors) After that airbag connector can be unplugged with little force. Do not use excessive force!

Store the airbag module in a safe place.

Step3: Uninstall steering wheel

Make sure your steering wheel is centered and absolutely straight/leveled before you begin! The column to steering wheel flange is not keyed! If you take off the wheel in a random position you will have a hard time to find the correct steering wheel clocking when reinstalling!

Loosen the center nut. Wiggle the steering wheel side to side and up and down with good amount of force. Do this 5-10 times. Then proceed with this operation while SLIGHTLY pulling to yourself. Don’t pull to hard, in case the steering wheel loosens suddenly, you may knock out yourself! To add safety, you can reinstall the center nut on the steering column with a few rotations.

Now the clock spring can be turned freely. Make sure that this will not happen! It can cause damage of the clock spring and/or issues with the VSC system due to massively wrong steering angel sensor values! Therefore, tape down the moving side of the clock spring.

Step 4: Uninstall Cluster

Exchange of the cluster basically is the easiest process. It is a simple swap of the cluster assembly. If you are unsure how to uninstall and reinstall the cluster, you will find several HowTo´s by using search function or google.

Note1: Do to not reinstall the facelift cluster before you have you have finished Step XX!

Note2: If you have a push button start car, you are fine with basically any facelift cluster. If you have a key start car you have to use a brand new facelift cluster which was never installed OR the anti-theft function of the cluster needs to be reseted and relearned by a dealer. You may find more detailed information about this topic by using search function or google.

Note3: Mileage is bound to the cluster, so if you change the cluster mileage will be changed. Make sure to note and document the current mileage. In case you sell the car in the future, you need to inform the buyer about the correct mileage! If you want to correct the mileage of your facelift cluster to the correct value this means to desolder an EEPROM inside of the cluster and rewrite it. I recommend to contact the user @geraldjust to do so.

Step5: Make some room for your work

Remove the radio/headunit, steering column liner, knee airbag module and liner. You may find more detailed information about this topic by using search function or google. Be careful when working on the knee airbag module! Airbags contain explosive materials and can cause serious injury or dead if handled wrong!

Step6: Wiring on vehicle side

Create an additional wiring harness according to the following diagram. I recommend to follow the existing wiring harness and to use wires with given colors. I opened the guiding and also the OEM harness protective hose in order to integrate the additional wires. I opened until close to the dashboard support frame. From there I routed the new wires separately and also in two groups. (cluster and radio)

Note1: Make sure to use the correct terminal type for each connector! (see wiring diagram)

Note2: If using single terminals: The size of those terminals is very specific! A special crimping tool is required. Since I didn’t had this tool myself, I used a standard half automatic crimp tool and rebent the terminals with a beak tong.

Note3: The wiring diagram is made under the assumption, that whatever headunit you use, the harness of the headunit is using the OEM remote control pinout on the vehicle connector. If your headunit is not equipped with a vehicle specific harness you may need to change the routing of the remote control signals to your needs.

The two wires for the cluster controls need be routed to the 40pin cluster connector. All other cables need to be routed to the headunit/radio slot.

Attach terminals to all of the new wires on the end at the steering column and insert them into the D51 clock spring fixed side connector. (see wiring diagram)

Attach terminals to the 2 new wires ending near the D7 40pin cluster connector and insert them into the connector. (see wiring diagram)

Attach terminals to 3 of the new wires and insert them into the D79 28pin headunit/radio connector. (see wiring diagram)

Unplug the D18 14pin connector of the clock unit. It can be reached through the headunit slot. Remove the protective tape on about 3 inches of the harness starting at the connector. Splice in the illumination wires according to the wiring diagram. (I recommend soldering for all splice-in operations.)

Step7: (Re)install what´s been removed

Double check wiring/terminal positions of all new installed wiring before starting this process!

(Re)install facelift cluster+trim, radio/headunit, knee airbag+trim, steering column trim and your facelift steering wheel. Do this in reversed order as during disassembly.

Make sure to level the steering wheel precisely to find the correct keyway for proper clocking. Make sure to remove the protective tape from the clock spring before reinstalling the steering wheel!

Step8: Wiring inside the new steering wheel

I recommend unplugging the cruise control switch harness inside of your old pre-facelift steering wheel. Take out the z5 10pin connector including the cruise control harness and the horn signal wire. You can use it as it is and just add the necessary terminals. (see next steps)

Cut of the 12pin main connector at the satellite switch harness of your new facelift (!) steering wheel. Make sure to cut as close to the connector as possible. You will need the maximum length of each wire!

Attach new terminals to the cut of wires. Make sure to use the correct terminal type! (see wiring diagram)

Insert those terminals to the z5 10pin connector you took from your old steering wheel according to the wiring diagram.

Prolong the left over green ground wire and attach a 5mm ring cable lug. I recommend attaching the cable lug to one of the 5mm screws located left+right and slightly under the clock spring plug. (see picture below) Other locations might work too.

Plug the z5 connector to the clock spring.

Step9: Install Airbag module and finish

Install the airbag module. It is simply clicked back in. Make sure it is sitting properly and safe. Make sure to connect the horn signal wire before installing the airbag module.

Reconnect the battery. After that, open the door but stay outside for safety reasons. Reach into the vehicle and switch ACC on. If nothing unexpected happened jet you should be fine. Start the engine and check for fault codes. Test the cluster controls and horn.

In my case I learned the radio controls to the Joying android headunit. This came with a Toyota/Subaru specific harness and the remote signals are routed properly there. The learning process worked flawless.

Note: If you use satellite switches with phone and voice command buttons, this will work the same way. No changes in the wiring or anything. Just the resistance value for each button is different, what means it will not work with a remote capable OEM headunit of a different trim level. (without phone/voice buttons)
For any aftermarket android headunit you should be fine, just teach in the buttons to your needs. I use the left/right buttons for last/next track, up and down for volume and the "mode" button for voice command.

PS: If anyone is going through this process and may find missing or wrong information in this DIY feel free to add your knowledge!

[Joveen]

Nice write up. Would be great if it had pictures.

Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk

[TRS]

Originally Posted by Joveen

Nice write up. Would be great if it had pictures.

Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk

Did the DIY some weeks after the swap itself. Unfortunately I didnt take much pictures. But I think there are not that much things to be shown. At least nothing what wasnt covered by another HowTo write up or video jet.

The wiring Diagramm is the most important information I believe. As well there should be HowTo videos out there for pretty much any component which needs to be removed for this Installation. As well I was under the impression that it is not necessary to do another HowTo for interior removal...

If you like, feel free to search for some Youtube videos showing the disasembling and will link them in.

[Jollibee86]

Been waiting for this, thank you so much!

[jtiptonk]

Hi all, I've been curious if anyone has done this in combination with the LCD cluster swap?

[TRS]

Sure, I did. The pre facelift (non LCD) cluster doesnt take any advance of the right hand swc cross. Only the facelift LCD cluster will use those buttons. But you can for sure use the pre facelift cluster and leave the right Hand controls alone. Also the facelift non-LCD should work with or without the controls. The LCD Version needs the right hand controls to scroll through the menu. If you dont have SWC, the well known joypad made by geraldjust is the alternative solution.

For push Button cars the cluster swap is plug&play. In turn key applications you need a complete Brand New cluster which was never installed in a car or you need someone to figure out the anti theft topic. But there is a good thread concerning this topic elsewhere in the forum.

[JonnyObnoxious]

You are the best. I was just looking at this and people are telling me the controls won't swap. I knew they could. You saved me a lot of investigation.

So If I want the radio controls I'm going to need the head unit form the donor?
I want the OEM back-up camera as well. Got any info on that?

I want to be sure to get everything I need from one donor vehicle and get this done in one shot.

[EthanDG]

I do not mean to re-open this thread, but I am in need of some assistance. I cannot seem to find the 0,64III F terminal on the hi-1000ec.com website. Not quite sure how to navigate it and since it is in the picture I cant copy and paste the name since i cant tell if it is an i or an L. If possible could u post a link to the terminal connector?

[EthanDG]

Update: heres a link to the pins https://www.hi-1000ec.com/product/1215

[TRS]

Originally Posted by JonnyObnoxious

You are the best. I was just looking at this and people are telling me the controls won't swap. I knew they could. You saved me a lot of investigation.

So If I want the radio controls I'm going to need the head unit form the donor?
I want the OEM back-up camera as well. Got any info on that?

I want to be sure to get everything I need from one donor vehicle and get this done in one shot.

Hi, I didnt read this message since months. You should use the mention function or something like this, otherwise I will not be able to notice a message here...��

For the head unit I cant tell you details about the integration of the factory FL head unit to a PFL car. As far as I know this wont be easy, since there should be quiet a few differences in the wiring, at least concerning the remote buttons, since the FL head unit doesnt even have any. With other words: I wouldnt expect this beeing a P&P thing. Custumization of the PFL wiring is very likely necessary. How exactly this can be done needs to be figure out in the wiring diagramms of both cars, the donor and the destination car.

Since I dont see the features I want to use in my car I didnt see the point in buying a relatively costly FL head unit and having the added effort over simply using a aftermarket unit. In my personal case I anyway planned with an Android HU since I use some car apps which I want to have directly on the HU.

Nevertheless, it should be easy to adapt the buttons to any aftermarket HUs. Some of the Android china HUs are able to reach in the signals, for other aftermarket HUs there should be adapters which are used to make the controls work in FL cars. It should be easy to use them in a PFL car also.

[Trist0n]

Potentially stupid question; does the facelift steering wheel need to be from a manual for a manual car? Or can I use an automatic one and just remove the paddle shifters? Having some trouble sourcing an undamaged steering wheel

[Skylord_Crow]

Hey, sorry for bringing up an old topic. I'm planning on doing this swap relatively soon, and I'm having my wiring guy handle the re-pinning, but I have no clue on what to order. Can someone drop the links specifically to the pins?

[Skylord_Crow]

@TRS

Originally Posted by EthanDG

Update: heres a link to the pins https://www.hi-1000ec.com/product/1215

Looks like I glanced over this lol. Was this the only one I had to order? Sorry for the double post.

[TRS]

Originally Posted by Skylord_Crow

@TRS



Looks like I glanced over this lol. Was this the only one I had to order? Sorry for the double post.

In the wiring diagramm given at the end of the DIY, you find two different "repair wire numbers". Those represent two different pin types, which are available at the dealership as repair wire, what means pin plus pig tail. Those are very expensive and als pre crimped, what would mean a bunch of soldering work. To avoid this, order them at the Website given.

Again, two types of pins are required. Also the required amount can be found in the wiring diagramm I made. Since the pins itself are pretty cheap and the shipment makes the biggest part of the cost I recommend to simply order twice the amount needed just in case some crimp connections fail at the first attempt. Also note that those crimps have a special size. Most crimp tools are not made made for this size but it also doesnt make sence to buy a expensive tool only for this one use. So I used my Standard crimp tool to "pre-crimp" them and then reworked with needle pliers to fully close them.