ls six

Hey there, I have a 90 T/A with the usualy deformed stock wheel (pealing up at the corners) and I'm not a fan of the spongy foam rim either.

I'd like to keep the airbag system for safetys sake and because I'll be swapping in a 4th gen consol and modified door panels with 4th gen bits along with other slightly more modern interior pieces and I think the airbag wheel will look better in those contemporary surroundings.

I found a 96 GrandAm with a leather rimmed wheel and **** that'll look good (similar to the 4th gen Firebird wheel) but I'm wondering if anyone has swapped airbag wheels before?

I know latter model wheels use 2 stage bags but I dont know when that began, I cant think of any other issues that might crop up besides the physical fitment of the wheel.

MarionCobretti

I realize this is old, but thought I'd just add some info. I briefly entertained similar thoughts. However, even airbags from fourth gen cars (which seem like the most obvious donor, given the cars' similarity) use different electrical connectors, as do apparently other later GM cars with two stage airbags. And given the quality of some of the other electrical components in my car (windows, door locks, hatch pulldown), something tells me this isn't a system you want to be splicing and soldering on.

At least, I definitely wouldn't want to drive around with Frankensteined airbag wiring. Curiously, I get the sense that some of the people who advocate doing this would flip the eff out at the idea of cutting into their factory stereo wiring instead of using a harness, yet have no qualms about hacking into the SRS's electrics.

One other option is just to pull the INFL REST bulb and swap in a non-airbag wheel from an earlier car or the aftermarket. There's a lovely how-to thread on doing this elsewhere on the forum. This strikes me as a pretty terrible idea. Besides it being illegal, it's going to be a stumbling block if you ever have to sell the car or if you move to a state with safety inspections. Plus it could subject you to liability if on the off chance someone else is driving your car, gets into an accident, and is injured.

So I'm currently on the junkyard/ebay prowl for a workable wheel. It seems the leather-wrapped wheels didn't warp as badly. The challenge is finding one with the leather still in decent shape (although I think someone out there does recover them). Also, some contemporaneous Bonnevilles and '94 Saturns used the exact same wheel and airbag setup (The Saturns just had a Saturn logo on the bag). I assume there were others as well.

If I find other non-Firebird options that will work with our stock airbags, I'll post them (and, if anyone knows of any, please post them). I think this would be good information to have for people who don't want to ditch their airbags but don't want their steering wheels to look like crap either.