Steering wheel bolt torque

[3C4M Guy]

I need to remove and replace my steering wheel on a 2007 B6 Passat - I'm changing to a nice R36 wheel with paddles. My Haynes workshop manual says to torque the steering wheel retaining bolt to 30Nm then angle-tighten a further 90 degrees. This seems awfully tight.

Some forum posts overseas mention torqueing the bolt to around 45-50 Nm. Does anyone know the correct specification?

Also, Haynes say the bolt must be replaced each time it's removed whereas most sources say the bolt is good for 5 uses and should be marked with a centre punch each time as an indicator. Some sources recommend the use of Loctite.

Any advice?

[Umai Naa!!]

They have some Loctite on them to start with.

VW's mentality is any bolt that is micro-encapsulated (has locking compound, Loctite) on it, should be replaced every time. I can't see an issue with it being re-used, and re-tightened firmly.

[3C4M Guy]

Thanks Umai. You're a star! Do you know the torque?

[Guest001]

30Nm plus 1/4 turn (90deg) isnt very tight Sounds about right I would think It would end up at about 45Nm at that so you get it right either way

[passat123]

Thanks Umai. You're a star! Do you know the torque?

I've done the MFSW swap over. I read that it should be tightened to 80Nm

I tightened mine as as tight as possible but WITHOUT over tightening it, to avoid cracking anything.

[3C4M Guy]

Did the job today and it all went well. It was so easy. Thanks everyone for your advice.

The most nerve-racking bit was handling the airbag. All the warnings about the risk of personal injury makes it seem more dangerous than it really is. After tightening to 30 Nm, I applied the extra 90 degrees using a deflecting beam torque wrench set to 40 Nm just for interest sake. The torque hit 40 Nm at about 60 degrees, so overall it wasn't too much more. The bolt ended up a lot tighter than how it was when I removed the old steering wheel.

Now I just have to visit a friendly VW specialist with VCDS to re-code the steering control module to get the paddles working. Maybe it's time to invest in a basic version of VCDS and put it on a dedicated entry-level laptop. Anyone care to share their experience / advice doing this?

[passat123]

All that would need to be done is activation of the paddles