I just installed a carbon fiber steering wheel on my 2016 Q50 Red Sport and figured I'll post some pics and help any DIYers out there. It's pretty straight forward, didn't run into any issues. Took me 40 mins total, prob could do it in half the time if I were to do it again. I took pics along the way but doesn't show everything I did. I kinda just started to work on the car and took pics when I remembered.
1. Disconnect the battery. No pics but 10mm for negative and positive.
2. Pop out 2 circular clips on left/right side of steering wheel. It is in between the paddle shifter if equipped. Use small flat head, stick it in and turn it a bit and should pop out.
3. You have to press the horn then push a thin flat head into the holes on each side to disengage the airbag. This took me prob 20 mins just because I couldn't see any spring but a silver piece. The easiest way I did it was positioning the holes at the 1 o'clock. If you did it with the holes at the 9 and 3 o'lock, its hard to see the silver piece and the paddle shifter were in the way. If you look down in the hole, you can see the silver piece and have a better angle to push it. I had a friend help so while pressing the horn, I pushed the flat head onto the silver piece in the hole. You should feel the airbag move alittle and at the same time, I pulled the airbag a little and it popped out. Then, reposition the steering wheel with the other hole to the 1 o'clock position and repeat.
Circled in red is what you will be pushing with the flat head to depress the airbag. Seeing this should help you when you start digging in the hole cause you can't see much.
4. I put the cables back on the battery so I can reposition the steering wheel so it's straight. Once straight, I disconnected the battery again so I can remove the airbag connectors. It's pretty straight forward but just take a small flat head and pop the black piece on the yellow connector and it should pull out and repeat with the yellow. Disconnect any other wires on the airbag then set it face up somewhere safe.
5. Everything is straight forward again but I unscrewed the counter weight at the top with 3 screws and 2 more screws holding the steering wheel connector/box.
6. 19mm nut to remove the steering wheel out. Before I removed it, I drew a line from mark on old steering wheel to the thread. This should help you when you put the new steering wheel on and everything lines up. Once the 19mm nut is off, the steering wheel pulls out easily. No need for any pullers. Be careful of the wires, you have to snake it out and at the same time not to move the black box for the sensor cable. I put a tape so it wouldn't move but as long as its not out of range too much, there is a white nub on it and it fits in the slot behind the steering wheel. Only can go in one way. So as long as your white out is marked and you didn't move the black box too much, it will still be aligned to what you had before. You will see in the pic that its the white piece near the 12 o'clock.
7. Pretty much after the wheel is out, you have to remove the plastic cover behind the steering wheel to show all the screws to the controls. It clips in so just be careful and pull it out slowly each corner. Once all uncliped, you can remove it, BE CAREFUL of the white mesh material. It is part of your heated steering wheel. Do not rip it out.
8. Once uncovered, you transfer over the steering wheel controls to the new steering wheel. Everything is pretty straight forward.
9. Once everything is trasnferred over, you line up the mark on the steering wheel to the white out mark on your thread bolt. Once in, reconnect all wires and screws. You will not be keeping the unit for the heated steering wheel. It will be a white plug connected with a black box. I left it connected to the old steering wheel.
10. Tighten the 19mm nut and reconnect the airbag. As you can see, I don't have pics for every step but most of it are straight forward.
