Steering Wheel Swap (clean up soon) by cuttyman9


( 2 )

4 minute read

Steering Wheel Swap (clean up soon) 


Compliments of cuttyman9 @ http://5thgencelica.com


1-7-2015

While browsing instagram I came up with the thrilling idea that my car needed a better looking and feeling steering wheel.
the factory 1990-1993 celicas have a pretty mundane steering wheel that is also in Camrys and other vehicles that aren't exactly performance related. also I knew that I wasn't too big a fan of rice looking detachable or similar wheels and wood ones didn't match my cars styling overall so I turned to OEM looking wheels.

In my research I could not find what wheels where compatible because it seemed that most people went to detachable or race style wheels and all the hub part numbers did not match my 1992 celica.

I began searching for relatively cheap wheels so that if my idea failed I could either sell the wheel for what I paid or it was a low enough cost that I wouldn't be broke if it didn't work. My initial candidate was the ST205 steering wheels (which I found out match 98-99 usdm celicas with dual air bags) but they were well outside my budget at 250 for the wheel and airbag. Next up I found that the rav4 also had a similar wheel to the 205's (if not identical) and ended up buying one for 60 bucks without the airbag.

This airbag is a bolt on deal, only one catch, the cruise control did not work (I'll write up how I made this work with my factory wiring in another thread)
so I drove around without an airbag and cruise control for a while but realized how much i liked having cruise control so i modified a factory celica cruise control switch to fit in the rav4 wheel location.

then I got this crazy idea that a leather wrapped IS300 wheel would be cool. I found one cheap and it ended up bolting right on. I had the same problem with the cruise control not to mention that the IS300 has wiring tied to the "paddle" shifters because 95 percent of all IS300's were automatics.

next up was an airbag. I found a lexus one to match the IS300 wheel which also fits in the Rav4 wheel.


so to sum this all up this is what fits a 1990-1993 celica
-IS300 wheel
-Rav4 wheel
-most likely st205/204
-Supra
-Mr2
-Corolla


so for those who hate the stock 4 spoke bulky celica wheel, here are some alternatives.
let me know if you need any other info




celica without the steering wheel on


celica stock steering wheel


Rav4 wheel mounted, notice the cruise control switch thats native to the wheel


Lexus wheel with the celica cruise control mounted (ghetto-ly might I add)


rav4 airbag backside


lexus airbag backside


rav4/st205 airbag frontside


lexus airbag frontside


final product with a ghetto rigged celica cruise control switch (broke off the backside of the housing and taped it up with one bolt attaching it)


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