Why do some 997 C2's come with a triangle airbag and some with a round?

 

The standard/multifunction wheels have the triangle airbag. Sport steering wheels have the round.

 

It has never made sense to me why both types are used. It makes it a PITA if you want to change from one to the other, because the air bag modules are expensive to buy. I wish all wheels were the sport type (round center). It seems to me the multifunction option could have been incorporated in the sport wheel design if they tried.

 

Perhaps Porsche took heed...Aren't all the 997.2's round airbags?

Additionally, I believe I've seen a thread retrofitting the multifunction buttons to the sport (round) airbag wheels.

 

Good point about elimination of triangular airbag on the 997.2.
Personally, I'm not sure the MF buttons are worth the hassle of retrofitting to a sport wheel. I find the buttons to be of almost no value to me, since the radio and PCM are close at hand.

 

No, the buttons aren't for me either. Quite honestly I don't even use the radio, although in fairness my car is strictly for pleasure. Maybe if one used it as their daily driver they'd be more interested in the creature comforts.

 

Thanks for the info.

 

The new 2010+ 997.2's finally have the option of having multifunction sports (round airbag) steering wheels with a 6spd manual, so its now the case that you can order the car the way you want.

I'm in the process of upgrading my 2009 997.2 6spd from the round sports wheel (XPA) - thicker option, to the 2011+ style 6spd with wheel heating and multifunction with black plastic because:

* ice cold wheels in winter are literally painful to drive
* the user-configurable button on the multifunction wheel to be able to 'turn the PCM screen off' with one click is valuable to me.

So it will cost several grand to get the parts and get them installed plus the then superfluous 2009 wheel and its round airbag (the new round airbags are different than the old round airbags). But in the end I'll have a car where I'm happy about the steering wheel. (that is, I'll have the wheel I would have ordered if I'd had the option in 2008.

 

Will a 997.2 wheel fit a 997.1 (without PDK of course)?

 

I suspect it will, since the 2009 997.2 6spd cars came with 997.1 sports wheels as that sports wheel option.

IE, my 2009 997.2 has a 997.1 XPA wheel on it from the factory, so I don't see why a real 997.2 (2010+) wheel would not fit in the other direction, on a 997.1.

 

Thanks. What color is your XPA wheel?

 

997/987 early years has these different steering wheel types to differentiate a Porsche as "standard" or "sport" model.
In measurement, the round airbag type is slightly smaller than the triangle one in diameter.
Our work will be much easier if 997.1 only have one type