This is a 390mm Sportline steering wheel, complete with airbag. It's dated Nov-1994. Overall the wheel is in very good condition but it's not 'as-new'. At the top of the wheel, there is a section where the dye is worn. It's not damaged, and re-dying should make it appear new. It's not that obvious, either - I didn't even notice it at first, and it doesn't show in the photos. There are no cuts or ripped areas on the leather. On the back, next to one of the holes for accessing the Torx airbag bolts, there is a small cut in the vinyl/rubber backing. This is NOT visible unless the wheel is removed from the car and turned over.

Asking $499 USD, free shipping to the lower 48 states in the USA. I'd really prefer not to ship internationally for this item. The airbag is not particularly rare, but they normally sell for $500+ used... however the wheel seems to be awfully rare and hard to locate used for some reason. The last Sportline wheel & airbag I saw for sale was on 500Ecstasy.com, and the seller wanted $500 each ($1000 for both). Email me with questions. I accept PayPal and cashier's checks / money orders. Photos below.

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Dave
Boise, ID
Check out my website photos, documents, and movies!

Believe it or not, I don't care about an airbag. I guess I am old school and think good shoulder belts are sufficient.

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Charles Cleaver
1975 350SE + 1992 300CE-24 SportLine 5-speed + 2002 SLK320 6-speed + 1974 W114 280
1986 190E 2.3-16 (Decomm rear self-leveling suspension; Euro-code headlamps) sold
2004 Audi S4 6-spd - sold
1969 (2) and 1980 Porsche 911T, S, and SC - alas gone
1987 300SDL - Graf Spee; Euro-code headlamps; 16-inch 8-hole wheels - sold
1994 E420+(E500 suspension/E-code headlamps/PAD chip) sold
1968 250SE 4-speed (NICE car) - long gone
1962 220S 4-speed/column mount - long gone

Bump...decent and fair price.

Dave, does any W124/201 horn ring fit the back of it? Forwarding your post to a friend looking btw.

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Jim

1992 500E
2007 CLK63
2003 Audi RS6
2001 Audi allroad

Hi Jim,

Thanks for the 'bump'. The horn/airbag contact ring (aka 'squib') will fit, for early cars that need this contact ring must use the late style ring (photo below). Cars after approx 1993/94 use a different electrical connection, some kind of spiral wound thingamajigger (I've never seen one in person). The early contact ring (1980's) is slightly different and won't fit later (1990's+) wheels. So for example, when I put the Sportline steering wheel on my 1987 300D, I couldn't use my original contact ring, I had to buy the new one (part number in photo below) to fit the late model Sportline wheel.

The wheel & airbag are still available, btw. I was going to list it on eBay along with my Brembo brakes if I didn't get any bites on the forums.

Actually its cars after 1992 that use the new wheel/airbag/contact design, most 92-99 wheels are interchangeable between vehicles, the airbags will work (of course swapping contact rings may be necessary). Some airbags have fitament issues with different wheels though, depending upon the part number of the airbag, normally 92-97 are all the same (except R129 bags) 98-99 airbags carry different part number but do look the same as the early airbags on the outside.

Anyway, pre 1992 vehilces use a different airbag trigger and wont work correctly with a post 1992 airbag, last I checked, the airbag connectors were different as well.

Basically, don't expect a post 1992 airbag to work on a pre 1992 vehicle, especially something as old as a 1987.

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1993 500E
http://2phast.com/500e/500e-sig.jpg

The connector is the same, so there's no problem plugging in a new airbag to an old steering wheel. I have not heard of any problems with late airbags not working in older cars. There's no SRS light, and the basic theory of operation is the same, so as far as I know it should work OK (but I'm not going to test it on purpose!) The big change in 1992 is that those airbags no longer have a 15 year limit on service life, they are approved for use for the life of the car. Earlier airbags were to be replaced at 15 years of age. See attached PDF for more info.

On a side note, does anyone know if a 2000-2005 wheel can be used on a 1986-1991 car with the contact rings? They don't have the 4 holes to bolt the contact ring to the steering wheel, but I thought I've heard of people using those late model steering wheels on older cars....

Attached Files

airbag_service_life.pdf (6.6 KB, 116 views)

The newer bags won't work correctly with the older systems, its already been tested, basically the bag won't deploy, so keep that in mind.

Not one, but three retro fits that I know of have been in accidents and each time the airbag did not deploy.

One insurance company researched the issue thinking it was a defect (basically they were looking at sueing MB) and discovered that the airbag from a newer MB was installed on an older model. After contacting MB directly MB blamed the failure on the newer bag not being compatible with the pre 1992 igniter (or whatever the thing is called). Could of been BS from MB, but it still wouldn't explain why three newer bags installed on older (pre 92) models did not deploy during frontal impacts.

Suprised you did not read about this, there were several large threads about the topic on one of the other MB forums.

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1993 500E
http://2phast.com/500e/500e-sig.jpg

Nope, it's news to me. I do know a lot of people expect the airbag to deploy in almost any front collision, but it actually takes a very high G-force to actually trigger the SRS system and deploy the bag. I'll check with my buddy who's worked at the MB dealer for 15+ years and see what he knows. I'll also check the EPC to see what SRS components differ between early 124's and late 124's. If the components are the same, there would be no issue and the newer airbag would deploy normally. Maybe this is referring to very new airbags, i.e. 2000+.

OK, here's the update on the early/late airbag question:

First, I checked the EPC. The airbag electronics (sensor box, etc) went through 2 changes on the 124 chassis. The 3 breaks are 1986-87, 1988-93, and 1994-95. The first change (87-->88) basically consolidated 3 separate boxes into one - the main "brain" box on the tranny tunnel, which costs $1500 or $2200 MSRP. (The more expensive one is used with models that have the passenger airbag.) There's no explanation on the 93-->94 change, but most other parts remain the same except the wiring harness. And, while the electronics have definite breaks by model year, the various airbags used do NOT vary with model year. The connectors are definitely the same, I have a 1997 airbag in my 1987 car. AFAICT, any airbag through approximately 1999 (and maybe later) should work fine in older cars, as long as the connector is the same and they plug in.

Second, I called my buddy that has worked at the MB dealership for 15+ years and asked him. He said the same thing I did... he had never heard of this problem, and his guess was that the car in question either wasn't hit hard enough to trigger the sensor, or it was an odd angle impact that didn't trigger the sensor. Now, if some car ran 45mph into a telephone pole head-on and the airbag didn't go off, then, well, I'd like to know what airbag was used and what year car it was.

The only thing I can think of is that perhaps the 1986/87 models (I'm talking specifically about the 124 chassis here, btw), with the older electronics, may degrade over time and not be able to fire the airbag - ANY airbag, old or new - due to failed capacitors or something. This is just a wild guess. The early setups had 2 extra boxes - a "voltage transformer", and an "energy reserve condenser", in addition to the main brain/sensor. 1988-95 setups consolidated those 3 into one box with no change in airbag part number.

Lucky for us, the 124 chassis is still one of the safest cars on the road (IMO), even without a functional airbag!

Ah, so it looks like there is a difference between the W124 and W201, as a C43 wheel was fitted to a 87 16 valve and 1. The wheel splines did not line up and 2. Airbag connector was different. The retro's I did were also on W201's

Interesting that the W124 was different, good to know, thanks for the info.

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1993 500E
http://2phast.com/500e/500e-sig.jpg

Bump.

Update: SOLD... thanks for looking.