I am not an expert by any means, but when I bought my 981CS, it came with the obnoxious buttons for the PDK, I purchased a new one with the paddle shifters from Sunset Porsche (..$$) and I simply removed the air bag, the old steering wheel, and installed the new one and the paddles worked as design (no programming required whatsoever)

 

Thanks, that's helpful but not quite what I'm trying to verify. I'm more interested in someone who started with a "dumb" steering wheel like mine and replaced it with a multifunction wheel (and new airbag, of course). I want to know whether it can be done without using an adapter or modification to the connectors. Again, I'm not looking to use paddle shifters or any of the multifunction buttons and would prefer to replace them with separate trim pieces as I find the stalk control easy to use and prefer the clean and see through look of the wheel with no buttons.

My existing wheel with no buttons but a horn

Possible trim pieces from Suncoast to replace the multifunction buttons on a 781 or Macan GT steering wheel:
Steering wheel rear cap (MT)
Steering wheel spoke trim

 

Don't know about the buttons, but you can use the same airbag on the new steering wheel, unless the new wheel is different color.

 

I did the swap on my 987.2 and it was plug and play. Upgraded from a non multi-function triangle airbag wheel to a Macan wheel. No errors and I was surprised to find that no coding was necessary.

Here's a guy on YouTube that converted a MF wheel to non-MF. At 17:25 he shows the rear trim cover pieces that go behind the MF switches. You'll need to purchase new ones in order to fill in the gaps that the originals have.

Left #9P1-419-937-E-5Q0
Right #9P1-419-936-E-5Q0

The rear trim pieces I got are black (-5Q0) to match my inserts so you might want to check if you need them in silver.

Should be a straightforward swap for your 981 as it was for my 987.2. No clock spring or wiring changes on the car side was necessary.

 

From what I've read so far, am I correct that the 981 GT4 steering wheel uses a different airbag than the Base and S models?

 

I‘d doubt that - unless it’s got a alcantara or leather cover - not plastic ? What makes you think that ?

 

Should be no problem swapping a SD (Manual) to a GT (Manual, no MF, no heat).

 

981 GT4 steering wheel

From Suncoast Porsche:

Airbag is not included (only compatible with GT4 design airbag). Fits 2016 Cayman GT4 models or 2016 Boxster Spyder models. Not a direct replacement for other Boxster, Cayman, & 911 Carrera models. Special order from Germany.

Otherwise, the cost savings of reusing the 981 airbag could make the GT4 wheel a less pricey purchase.

 

Your current airbag will not fit as it's inset into the wheel. The airbag for GT4, Macan, 718 wheels sits more dome-like on top of the wheel.

 

Based on what I'm seeing, I expect I'll look for deals on either a 718 or Macan GT wheel and change out trim pieces if needed. How about the Macan airbag in a 718 steering wheel?

 

FWIW I just got this steering wheel in the mail from Steering wheels – Rennmeister LLC, have yet to install it, planning on doing it in the next few weeks when i find the time, looks/feels OEM quality, took about 2-3 weeks to get here. Comes with the airbag, and the wheel all in. Got it for about $1k, which was a steal imho.

One caveat is I have a base 981 manual so I already dont have multifunction lol.

Hope this helps

 

FWIW I just got this steering wheel in the mail from Steering wheels – Rennmeister LLC, have yet to install it, planning on doing it in the next few weeks when i find the time, looks/feels OEM quality, took about 2-3 weeks to get here. Comes with the airbag, and the wheel all in. Got it for about $1k, which was a steal imho.
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Great find! I pieced mine together and the airbag alone cost almost as much as yours! This will help others looking to do the same swap. 👍