I recently upgraded the basic steering wheel with triangular airbag in my ’08 Cayman S to the 2010 manual transmission version from the generation 2 model. The new style is basically the PDK wheel without the buttons. When I was mounting the new gear, I noticed that the wheel did not quite mount as deep on the steering column spline shaft as opposed to my older wheel. There was about 2/10” of an additional extension beyond the shaft. I measured the amount of actual spline contact area which appears to be the same as before, but the mounting length depth on the new wheel is now longer.

Did anyone else experience this issue? See the enclosed photos for the new gap between the steering wheel and column in addition to seeing how the steering shaft does not extend as far forward as it should. Perhaps the steering column shaft and the point at which it begins to flare out towards the stalks were changed starting in 2009 (part numbers are the same from ‘08 to ’09, however).

I am a little concerned that the wheel is not as sturdy as it should be. Thanks.

 

Anyone? PDK steering wheel retrofit folks?

 

In case anybody is interested.

I went by a dealership to look at the gap on the 2010s and it appears to be normal (997s and 987s). It is somewhat strange of Porsche to design the steering wheel that way when the gen1 cars were nearly flush with the column, but it is what it is.

As for the steering column control switch, yes it turned out that I needed the part. I had hoped the '08 switch would be compatible since it's part number has not been coded as "replaced" in the PET system. As fate would have it, my '08 CS had the switch part number from the '07. In the end, the horn did not work, so an upgrade to the 2010 version was needed along with dealer programming. I still have a suspicion that the '08 switch may work with the '10 wheel/airbag. One can see the part if they look under the black steering column plastic cover.

Switch part numbers
2009-2010 -- 997.613.289.01
2008 -- 997.613.297.02
2007 -- 997.613.297.01
2006 -- 997.613.291.02

When the dealer is programming the switch make sure they activate the applicable items in the following list which I pulled from the service manual. A couple were missed on my car, so I had to return for a 2nd round of programming.
Tiptronic, multi-function wheel, cruise control, headlight washers, push to talk, and rear wiper.

All in all, this retrofit turned into more work than I envisioned, but the final product is a big improvement over my original basic triangular wheel. The new wheel is stone grey with the full leather airbag.