I installed my JCW Alcantara wheel today. It feels great, but I would note that the alcantara section is a little thinner than the leather’s. It still feels great though.

A couple observations.
It took me about an hour as I was a little nervous in removing the airbag assembly. Initially, it felt as though I had to pry the airbag off the wheel after pushing into the hole behind the wheel. It turned out that I was not pushing into the hole with enough effort. Once I did that, the entire airbag assembly popped off for easy removal.

The rest of the disassembly was straightforward. I did end up using the same plate from the new JCW wheel that secures the wiring harness, rather than swapping it out along with the MFSW controls. They looked the same.

One interesting thing happened after my install; the one touch feature on my driver’s side window only worked to lower the window and not raise it. Something told me to take a look at the owner’s manual (pg 36), and I found that sometimes after disconnecting the battery, the windows will not be lowered. I followed the steps to reinitialize the window power switch and now my windows work as before.

I learned something new today…

 

I installed my JCW Alcantara wheel soon after purchase almost a year ago. Best upgrade you can do!

 

Thanks for this write up just installed my steering wheel

 

cdc96inc, I have the same situation and not sure what exactly to do for. Can you post your outcome?

 

Hi, I own a 2007 R56 w/paddles on the steering wheel but no other controls like cruise. I wanted curise control. I ordered the parts for RealOEM. I followed the directions on removing the steering wheel. Yes, there were two male connectors, one for the air bag and the other one was used for the paddles.

As you see here http://www.realoem.com/bmw/showparts...75&hg=32&fg=35,
you have the sport steer.wh.airbag, mf, shift paddles all together. I have the female connector for the paddles and female connector for the multifunction. Do they become one? Can anyone help!