S40 V40: Multifunctional steering wheel for volvo v40

[dcavallo]

Hello everyone !

I'm a happy owner of a 2001 volvo v40 2.0T - and I love it ! I know it's not the newest model, but that's all I can afford for now.

Nevertheless, I'm trying to upgrade a few things in the car to make it more functional. I'm adding a Yatour iPod adapter for my HU605 CD/tape player (I don't want to mess up the interior look by buying a non-volvo stereo), and now I'm trying to upgrade the steering wheel as well.

The steering wheel is a basic one, and I would want to have more advanced multifunction steering wheel (aka volume, radio, skip track, etc...)

I already have the cruise control on the side with the L/R indicator stick.

I looked online for steering wheels, but all I could find were custom made ones... and I'm not even sure that they would be compatible with the volvo standards... I'm really lost !

Is there a way to have a multifunction steering wheel on a v40?

Thank you very much for your help, and I look forward reading your answers.

[baldmosher]

Welcome, and you've probably come to the right place to ask.

Easiest to buy a new head unit with a "stalk" included for that model, unfortunately I think you're probably stuck with a non-Volvo unit there, but there may well be someone who's done this before with theirs.

You might want to try ICE (In Car Entertainment) specialist forums as they will be able to suggest alternative things that might work.

Bear in mind though, unless I've misunderstood the capability of your Yatour, any wheel-mounted controls won't work the iPod, only the head unit itself, so track skipping probably impossible.

In my case I'm about to convert my old HTC Desire into a dedicated ICE with satnav built in. They're £80 on eBay which is cheaper than anything else I could think of.

[baldmosher]

One more thing, you might want to make the subject title more relevant to what you're asking

[dcavallo]

Hello baldmosher,

thank you for your advice... I'm quite new at all of this !

The yatour enables the head unit to read a playlist from an ipod or iphone as if it were a CD... so it should work!

Is there a way to move the thread to ICE or should I post a new thread there?

Thank you

[tt82]

Think up a new title, post it as a normal response and then use the little ! icon on the red triangle (bottom left hand corner of every post) to ask a mod to change the title.

[dcavallo]

Multifunctional steering wheel for volvo v40

[baldmosher]

Yeah there isn't (I think) an ICE subforum on here, is there? I meant another site completely which is full of people dedicated to ICE rather than dedicated to Volvos. They'd be more likely to have the experience you need.

Same way that if you have a T4 and want to customise it in ways that others have done, there's a T4 forum on another site that you can go to. Probably a lot of those members will come on here anyway though.

I used to go on a couple of VW forums but decided one was full of idiots.

[dcavallo]

Besides buying a new ICE, do you think I could find a multifunction steering wheel for my car that works with my current head unit ?

[dcavallo]

I mean... do they exist ?

[baldmosher]

I would be inclined to think not, those Grom units utilise the head unit autochanger controls to select the MP3 tracks from a USB stick, rather than doing it the other way around.

Much simpler to invest in a half-decent double-DIN head unit with a screw-on control stalk, they'll be cheap enough on eBay. IMHO depending on what you like to listen to, you might also want a separate power amp as the HU-605 is underpowered, although the sub is pretty powerful there's masses of distortion through the front coax system at high volumes. You can add that later on though

It's great for radio though, many aftermarket head units aren't so good at tuning.