[992.5RS]

I will try to accurately describe the steps I took in order to make my turn signals and horn work with my Version 3 STi steering wheel. The mods listed here are not extremely difficult, but it is pretty involved. With that said here comes the fun stuff!

TURN SIGNALS
STEP 1: Remove airbag and steering wheel.
First disconnect the positive(+) and negative(-) cables from your battery. Wait about five minutes and then pump your brakes to drain the system of any charge. There are two torx screws, size T-30 that holds your airbag to the steering wheel. Here is a good writeup on removing the steering wheel.
Steering Wheel Removal-Scoobymods.com

STEP 2: Remove Clock Spring/Roll Connector.
I do not have any pictures of this procedure, but it isn't hard to understand. First remove the 3 screws holding the steering column covers on. They are located on the bottom of your steering column. Then pull the bottom cover off. Next, remove the 3 screws that hold the clock spring to the column. Then follow the wires under the dash to the connectors. There are two, one looks just like the green and yellow connector behind your airbag and it is a bigger pain in the but to remove because you have to be laying in your floorboard to see it! Disconnect the two connectors and carefully slide them out from under the column. You will have to cut one zip tie and open up a clamp that holds the wires to the column.

STEP 3: Call or PM your favorite Subaru JDM parts importer!
I contacted Jason at Garage Tuning to see if they had a steering column from an Impreza that had been equipped with a Nardi wheel. He did and I purchased the entire column because I didn't know what I would need. I didn't even know if any of this would work, but I figured it would be worth a try. All you really need is the turn signal and headlight stem assembly. It looks like this.

After a couple of days studying my steering column and the assembly I removed from the JDM column, I realized that I might be able to use the center ring from the JDM column to cancel my turn signals. This ring has three small pegs that correspond with three holes on the back of the Nardi wheel and two ridges that cancel the signals.

STEP 4: Remove plastic ring from JDM signal assembly.
This is very easy. Pull the white piece away from the ring and simply pull the ring off the assembly.

Luckily this piece fits perfectly on the stock RS column. The problem is the ridge on the back of the ring needs to be removed. When you turn your signals on there is a small plastic piece that sticks out inside the steering column. This is the piece that needs to be contacted by the two bumps on the ring in order to cancel the signals. With the ring in place the plastic piece will not come all the way out because it hits the ridge on the back of the ring. (Did that make any sense?) So I got out my dremel and cut it off!!

Click Image to Play

STEP 5: Cut off ridge on back of plastic ring.
Pretty easy and self-explanatory. This is what you should end up with.

Click to Play!


Ok, the turn signals are not quite finished. The ring sits to far back and doesn’t contact the steering wheel. I have figured out a fix, I am just waiting on a part.

 

[992.5RS]

EDIT: Turn signals working now!!
I sourced another ring from a Nardi equipped steeing column. I then cut it in half like pictured.

Then I drilled three holes so the two rings would mesh together.

Now the rings meet up to the back of the steering wheel and my turn signals cancel themselves properly!

Now on to the cruise control

 

[992.5RS]

CRUISE CONTROL RELOCATION
STEP 1: Remove cruise control switch from steering wheel.
First I removed the two torx screws the hold the cruise control bracket to the steering wheel.

Next, remove the horn wire from the connector on the backside of the bracket.

Then remove the two screws that hold the cruise control switch to the bracket.

STEP 2: Decide where to relocate your cruise switch.
I wanted to keep my cruise switch on the steering column, so I decided to mount it on the bottom steering column cover. I cut a hole where the switch would be positioned.

Then I went to Home Depot to purchase some hardware!

STEP 3: Cut wires from clock spring and splice back together.
On the stock setup the cruise control wires run through the clock spring, so they have to be cut off the clock spring and spliced back together so you can plug the cruise switch into the plug under the dash. Cut the wires from the front of the clock spring as pictured below.

And likewise from the back of the clock spring.

I used butt connectors to splice the wiring back together and added some shrink tubing for good measure.

Now the cruise will be operational once I put everything back together!

 

[992.5RS]

MAKING HORN BUTTON OPERATIONAL
Now that everything else works I needed to figure out a way to make the horn work as well.
STEP 1: Remove brass contact pin.
The first thing I did was remove the brass contact pin from the JDM switch assembly. You can see the gold colored pin in this picture. This pin contacts a brass ring on the back of the Nardi steering wheel.

From the back of the assembly you can see a wire running to the pin.

Simply grap the connector the wire is attached to with a pair of pliers and pull it off the pin. Pull the pin out of the assembly from the front.

Then cut the wire from the plug. I cut it close to the plug to give myself enough wire to work with.

Now I just have to figure out how and where to mount the pin.
STEP 2: Mount brass contact pin.
There is a hole in the RS stalk assembly that the pin fits perfectly into and it lines up perfectly with the ring on the back of the Nardi wheel!! Now that is just too lucky!! You can see the pin temporarily stuck in the hole in this pic.

And you can see how it contacts the ring once the wheel is bolted on.

I used the used the wire, connector and spring from the JDM assembly and put them together like seen below.

I then ran the wiring harness that I made earlier under the dash to its plug.

Then I temporarily hooked up the cruise control switch and put the wire from the brass pin into the horn wire on the cruise control switch to see if the horn would work.

And it did!!
Click to Play!

Then I shortened the wire and added a male spade connector. This is what it looked like once the column covers are on with the new cruise mount.

Now I have to put it all back together! The steering column covers have to be trimmed so they won’t rub on the back of the steering wheel. I just did this little by little until it didn’t rub anymore.

And somewhere during all of this I installed a variable intermittent wiper stalk. Not much to it, just two screws and one plug and you are done.

 

[992.5RS]

Finished Pics!!

 

[992.5RS]

You're interior looks awesome!

Thanks! I wish I knew a photographer that could takes some better pics!

 

[992.5RS]

I didn't measure the length, but I will when I pull the wheel off to finish the turn signals.

 

[992.5RS]

Nice work! Now come to my house and do that! I've been sitting on my STi Nardi wheel for almost four years. My car doesn't have cruise control, where could I wire the horn pin?

Four years!! Wow!

You would just have to see how your horn is hooked up now and use that wire.

 

[992.5RS]

Sounds like a winner, also, could you measure the length of the pin that actually protrudes from the plastic itself in order to contact with the brass ring on the back of the steering wheel.

Sure. No problem.

 

[992.5RS]

Awesome write-up. Im usually bad at following these, but I think I know exactly how to do this. Very clear directions and an awesome job.

The problem with the turn signals, what part are you waiting on? what did you figure out for the fix?

This thread will be updated once they are working properly. Thanks for all the compliments!

 

[992.5RS]

Very nice write up. This is the way DIY write-up's should be done. Your interior looks super clean to. The only thing that would drive me crazy is haveing the alarm LED in between the fog and cruise button. I switched mine.

Thanks! The alarm light has never bothered me. Not sure why it would.

 

[992.5RS]

HAHA!! Well I had to make it all work or it would annoy the crap out of me!

 

[992.5RS]

where can i get a V3 STi nardi wheel as clean as yours?..how much did you get yours for?

Luck mostly! I watched a bunch of them go on eBay for $250-$300 range. It was just more than I wanted to spend on one, not to mention shipping was usually an extra $50 or $60 from Japan. Found this one listed on eBay and I ended up getting it for $130 plus $60 shipping from Japan. Under $200 total I was very happy! And even happier to see the shape it was in when I got it. The pictures in the auction showed it was in perfect shape, but it wasn't until I had it in my hands that I realized what a deal I got. I don't know why more people didn't bid on this one. Like I said, I got lucky!

 

[992.5RS]

Turn signals now working. Check post #2 for pics.

 

[992.5RS]

Where did you source that other ring?
I have the same wheel coming in soon so your writeup is going to come in very handy, thanks!

Both rings came from GT. Can't wait to see your wheel installed! Hopefully I will have part numbers for the column covers soon. If not I guess I can live with the trimmed down stock pieces.

Matt, if you have any questions during your install contact me and I will help as much as I can.

 

[992.5RS]

so one JDM (any wheel) ring, and then one Nardi specific ring and it works? or are they both nardi specific rings?

Both are nardi specific.

 

[992.5RS]

No airbag. Guess my car is just not as safe now. Ohh well!

Use a 3.3 ohm resistor in the airbag plug under the dash to eliminate the airbag light.

 

[992.5RS]

the steering wheel is worth it tho man, nice write up and loving the seats and interior!

Thanks! I was back and forth on the airbag situation, but I liked this wheel more than any of the others so I went with it.

 

[992.5RS]

The install will be the same for the wheel you pictured.

 

[992.5RS]

STi Duracon shift knob. Got it from japanparts.com