[vudo]

Originally Posted by mmvv

Hello Vu,

About the whole thing, perhaps the hardest part was to replace the steering wheel (I replaced the plain one with the wood/leather steering wheel). Because I did not have the special tool to do it, I had to hire a mechanic to swap it for me. It took him about 5 minutes total and he left it up to me to give him any amount of money. So I gave him $20. During the process, I saw how he removed the airbag. It was a super easy job, There were two hex screws on the side of the steering wheel (you will have to pry out the plastic covers though), once he unscrew those, he carefully removed the airbag by pulling very gently about an inch upward. The battery was connected the whole time (he was lazy though. It should have been disconnected). Once the airbag came off the steering wheel, he unplugged the wire that connected to it and proceeded with the steering wheel. He then used the special tool to take out the steering wheel. However, I was not pleased when he put the new one in as he made no measurement whatsoever. To my belief, it may be one tooth off the center. However, I have not had any problem with that. So, I guess it was just my luck.

Several weeks later, I got a hold to another airbag that I liked the color better, so I repeated the procedure and was able to swap out the airbag without any problem - all by myself. I believe that I disconnected the battery before removing the airbag.

Similar to your situation, the new airbag that I got was from a Camry, not a Sequoia, so there was one slight difference in the drum/triggering device that was installed in the airbag. You can see it easily with your Camry airbag. It't the round metal piece sitting in tne center of the airbag.

The Camry airbag has 2 connectors while the Sequoia one has only one connector. While scratching my head from not knowing how to handle the situation, I thought about the idea of sawpping the drum/triggering device. So, I carefully removed all the screws that held the thing in place. Once done, it came off without any problem. I simply swapped the device from one to another. After that, I simply reinstalled the airbag and it worked immediately on the first try.

It was defintely an adventure for an amater like me. After all. it looks and works exactly like what I have always wanted. So, I am pretty happy about that.

That's pretty much all I remember. Good luck!
MMWW

Hi MMWW,

Thank you very much for your thourough reply and detail instructions. You are a very skillful amateur for attempted the impossible thing that the manufacture would have advised otherwise. I was impressed that you were able to reinstall the second steering wheel without a hitch, and even swapped out the airbag deployment chamber. I would have just used it as-is.

I bought a steering removal tool on ebay for $15 including shipping. Now arm with the knowledge passed on from you, I will perform the swap this weekend.

Thanks again.

Vu