Land Rover LR3 - heated steering wheel upgrade

[kndrewa]

I am happy to report that my steering wheel upgrade was a success! I wanted to centralize the information about the custom parts required to make it a bit easier to share about this project. There was a change in the way the steering wheel buttons communicate signals to the truck between , so custom printed circuit boards are required. I'll share some videos of the process in this thread.

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[kndrewa]

The first step was gathering all the requirements. This video shows all the pieces waiting to be installed, and includes part numbers. A shopping list, if you will!

[kndrewa]

The next step after gathering everything is to insert the custom printed circuit boards. They were developed 10 or more years ago in the UK by a company called Black Box Solutions. They are required in order to convert the newer style communications signals to the older style the vehicle is expecting. The development of these boards is a fascinating story, with a thread that spans almost a decade, with many ups and downs. A great read! This video shows how to swap out the oem circuit boards for aftermarket.

[kndrewa]

After the boards are installed in the donor wheel (this one was from a 2011 Range Rover sport) then it can be installed in the vehicle, a 2006 Discovery 3 (LR3). If you're interested in the thread I mentioned showing the development of the PCBs, here it is: D4 Wheel with Tiptronic on a D3

The process is quite strait forward and not much to be nervous about, really. Well, you are going to be tinkering with the air bag, but as long as you follow the steps it should be safe and sound as if nothing ever changed. This is because you disconnect the battery so the ECUs don't notice things going unplugged for a while...

[kndrewa]

I've got another video coming soon - it shows the awesome upgrade for paddle shifters, which I plan to use when going slow on the trail. I want to be able to keep my hands on the wheel so that obstacles don't pull the wheel if I'm driving one handed while trying to use the manual mode with the gear select lever on the floor console. It will be awesome to use Tiptronic shifting (CommandShift) "paddle shifters" for gear control with the automatic transmission. Stay tuned for that!

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[Colin]

Thanks for posting this

[kndrewa]

You're welcome, I'll have another update soon about the tiptronic command shift wiring!

[kndrewa]

Today I published the video about my paddle shifter installation. I think my first trial fit resulted in a parasitic drain from a poor connection on the 12v power splice. Then when I tried to finish the install the next day, it resulted in a hard start and HDC fault (low voltage issue). So I captured that stuff in the video, but it's a distraction from the basics of how the wiring works.

[Bill E.]

Andy, That's a great tutorial. thankfully I'll never need to apply it to my old war horse. High respect for your skills !!