How to Replace Steering Wheel 2007-09 Chevy Suburban 1500

Hi, I’m Mike from 1A Auto. We’ve been selling auto parts for over 30 years!

In this video, we'll be removing and replacing a steering wheel in a 2009 Chevy Suburban. If you need this part, or other parts for your vehicle, click the link in the description, and head over to 1AAuto.com.

We're going to remove the airbag. Before we do that, we want to make sure we take the key out. Make sure the steering wheel is straight with the wheels going straight ahead, and we're going to disconnect the battery. I'm going to use a 10mm wrench, and we're going to disconnect the negative post on the battery. Just loosen this up a little bit. I can grab it and wiggle it back and forth. I can't take it and tuck it out of the way. Once the battery is disconnected, before we go to work on the airbag, we want to wait one minute. That will drain all of the capacitors out of the modules and it'll be safe to work on.

Okay to disconnect the airbag, we're going to need a blunt tool. This was actually a straight pick that had broken anyway, so we just filed down a little bit to make it flat. What you're going to do, is right in this hole over here, you're going to have to feel around. And I'll show you once I pull the airbag out where it is. But there is a little spring that you have to push on that retains the airbag in there. It's somewhat difficult to do. Got to feel around for it. And then push, a little pressure, and then pull. And we're going to do the same with the other side. And push that down, and then this pulls right up. And this is where it's clipped in. And I'll show you those little springs in here.

As you can see, my blunt tool isn't here, so I have to feel around here. And when it's in place, you're pushing that in. It's somewhat difficult to do, but if you feel around, you can push it in. To disconnect the connectors, I'm going to use a straight blade tool. Just get underneath this lock right here. You could use a pick also. Pull that out, and pull the other one out as well. Just get under there. Pull that. You can actually just pull it up. The other one pulled out completely. And then there's two retainers here, two locks. We'll push those in.

I'm going to use my finger for one, a screwdriver for the other, and then I'll pull out. See, those are the two locks. And then same with the white one. Pull that out. Then we can pull the airbag out. We want to set this down on a bench just like this. Make sure there's nothing electrical near it. You do not want to set it on its face. And you want a 13/16ths socket, extension, and a ratchet. I'm going to put it on the nut. I'm going to hold the steering wheel and just break it loose.

So before I pull the nut off completely, this steering is stuck down. What you can do is to get it off, just shake the wheel back and forth gently while you're pulling up. And sometimes you actually need a puller. This one, I was just able to wiggle it back and forth. You want to be careful not to pull to hard though, you'll bend the steering wheel. But if you use a puller, you can put the puller in those two holes and put the center in there. But leaving the nut on there will prevent the steering wheel from hitting you in the face while you're removing it. Now we can remove the nut.

Now the steering wheel is keyed, so it only goes on one way. There's the little key on there, so you don't have to worry about marking it on this vehicle. Pull that out. Now, we're going to disconnect this connector. We'll use a straight blade screwdriver. Just stick it underneath there, just slightly while we pull the connector off. And these two airbag wires will go straight through.

Now, we're going to reinstall our steering wheel, with this connector, and we want to feed these two wires for the airbag through that hole there. As we're going down, we're going to connect this connector. Push it down. And then you see the arrow, you're going to line that up with the shaft of the steering wheel column.

So, we're going to reinstall the nut. The nut has a nylon retainer that pretty much locks the nut from loosening, so you want that facing you with that part of the nut up. Stick that on. And we'll start tightening it with our 13/16ths socket, extension, and ratchet. All right, we're going to torque this nut to 30 foot-pounds. This lock popped off while we were taking it out, so we're going to put that back in first. It's going to go on like that, and I want to push it all the way down. Just get it just in there like that.

Now, I'll reconnect our airbag. So there's grooves in these terminals, you can see. There's two on there. You can see on the airbag, two grooves on that side. So this one goes in like this. And once that clicks. Then you can push the lock down like that. And then this white one has one groove, and the groove goes right there. Lock that. And lock it. And the airbag is in the right position. Make sure the wires aren't pinched or anything. We can push it, and then we're going to align these two little tabs up with those holes, and push it down.

Now, we're going to reconnect our battery. Grab the negative cable and hook it back up. Now I'm going to use my 10mm wrench and tighten down the nut. Not too tight, you don't want to break the terminal. Tighten it and check it, and make sure it doesn't wiggle. It seems good.

So, we're going to turn the key on. You want your body not pressed right up against the airbag. This is a safe repair, it should not go off, but just in case something does happen, you want your body further away. So you can turn the key on. Now we're going to look at the airbag light right here. And it should flash seven times and then go out. And it did. And that means your airbag system is working properly.

Thanks for watching. Visit us at 1AAuto.com for quality auto parts, fast and free shipping, and the best customer service in the industry.

How to Replace Steering Wheel 2007-09 Chevy Suburban 1500

step 1 :Disconnecting the Battery

step 2 :Removing the Air Bag

step 3 :Removing the Steering Wheel

step 4 :Installing the Steering Wheel

step 5 :Installing the Air Bag

step 6 :Connecting the Battery

Tools needed

How to Replace Airbag Clock Spring 2007-12 Chevy Silverado 1500

How to Replace Steering Wheel 2007-09 Chevy Suburban 1500

step 1 :Disconnecting the Battery 0:43

step 2 :Removing the Air Bag 1:08

step 3 :Removing the Steering Wheel 3:59

step 4 :Installing the Steering Wheel 5:57

step 5 :Installing the Air Bag 7:30

step 6 :Connecting the Battery 8:25

Tools needed

How to Replace Airbag Clock Spring 2007-12 Chevy Silverado 1500

step 1 :Disconnecting the Battery

step 2 :Removing the Air Bag

step 3 :Removing the Steering Wheel

step 4 :Installing the Steering Wheel

step 5 :Installing the Air Bag

step 6 :Connecting the Battery