Discover Everything There is To Steering Wheels

By Steven Harrisson, January 30, 2023

When it comes to customizing your car, swapping out your factory steering wheel for an aftermarket wheel is one of the most satisfying mods you can make.

Not only do steering wheel swaps enhance the look of your interior, but they can also change your whole outlook on your vehicle’s performance. How well it accelerates and brakes, how nimble your suspension is, and even the condition of your tyres are all transmitted through the steering wheel, making it the one mod that can tell you exactly how your vehicle’s behaving.

Steering wheels are essential safety components though, and that means any wheel you install has to comply with Australian Design Rules (ADRs) for your vehicle’s frontal safety. However, if your car or truck isn’t impacted by crumple zone or airbag restrictions, then there are a lot of steering wheel options available that can give you a look and feel that won’t disappoint you.

Aftermarket Steering Wheels Connect Drivers to Their Cars

From the simplicity and sophistication of wood and leather, to the competition-inspired grip of polyurethane and PVC, there are high-quality aftermarket car steering wheels available to fit every driver’s style and sense of connection with their vehicle. The optimized hand and finger positioning, a wide range of grip thicknesses, and standard 6 x 70mm bolt patterns of billet aluminium wheels allow drivers to control, and tale feedback from, their vehicle more effectively than they can, using OE equipment, with benefits that also include:

Better visibility than OE wheels. With their smaller centre hubs, and thinner grips and spokes, aftermarket car steering wheels for sale offer a clearer, less restrictive view of the highway and dashboard.
Greater durability than OE wheels. The rubberized grips used on OE steering wheels aren’t formulated to withstand the heavy use or prolonged UV exposure that long-lasting wood, polyurethane, or leatherette can.
Portability between vehicles. With interchangeable centre hubs and spacers, aftermarket wheels can easily be moved between other vehicles with a 6 x 70mm bolt pattern, or taken out entirely to prevent theft.

An ADR-compliant hub adaptor or boss kit for your vehicle’s exact make and model is all that’s needed to get your aftermarket steering wheel installed. The result is a high-quality wheel/hub combination that addresses all the technical aspects of a steering wheel upgrade for you, leaving you free to concentrate on the attributes that are going to give you the most comfort and convenience.

Getting the Right Wheel Diameter for Your Car

Size matters when it comes to aftermarket car steering wheels, and choosing a less-than-ideal size is going to affect your performance. Factors such as the size of the car’s interior, and whether or not it has power steering have to be considered, which is why the 3 most common diameters of steering wheels found in Australia are:

• 13” (330mm), for drifting, competition driving, or vehicles with ordinarily light steering;
• 14” (350mm), the nominal size for OE wheels that are suitable for competition or daily driving; and,
• 15” (380mm), for daily driving, cruising, or for larger vehicles that require more turning effort.

ADR 69/00 puts 330mm as the minimum allowable diameter for street-legal aftermarket car wheels, so the ideal size comes down to how you’re using your car, along with its features and layout. Buying a 330mm wheel for a Falcon XK is a bad idea because of the effort you’d need to make turns without power steering. Likewise, purchasing a 380mm wheel for an MG Midget is just as bad because you won’t have enough clearance to get in or out of the car.

Where size is concerned, you don’t want a wheel that’s going to leave you feeling battered and beaten; and you can rest assured that you won’t have any problem finding a steering wheel online that’s the right size for you and your car.

Letting Utility Determine the Right Wheel Shape

Although the shape of a custom car steering wheel isn’t dependent on its size, the two are closely related. Fortunately, there are only 2 street legal steering wheel shapes to choose from in Australia: round or flat bottom.

Round auto steering wheels come in 350mm and 380mm diameters and are the standard for most OE and aftermarket steering wheels. They’re so standardized, in fact, that there’s almost nothing that can be said about them: they allow a consistent grip from any angle for perfect hand-over-hand movement, every time.

D-shaped, flat-bottom car driving wheels come in 330mm and 350mm diameters and are good-looking, race-inspired attention-getters. They don’t have the perfect visual symmetry that round wheels do, but they offer the added legroom and easy ingress and egress that even OEMs have taken notice of.

The priority when it comes to the wheel’s shape is utility. Round wheels make tight parking and everyday maneuvering effortless, while flat bottom wheels come into their own for long drives and sharp twists. It means that before you order any steering wheels online, you’ll want to carefully assess how and where you do most of your driving.

Gauging the Ideal Dish for Your Steering Wheel

The steering wheel’s dish is the distance from its mounting surface to the centerline of its grip. It’s not as glamorous an attribute as size or shape, but it’s not an arbitrary measurement: it determines how close you are to the wheel, how much you have to bend your arms to reach the wheel, and even your proximity to the pedals and other instruments.

On an aftermarket auto steering wheel, the dish can be anywhere from 0mm (flat) to 90mm, with the average dish depth being between 25mm and 35mm. What qualifies as an optimal dish, however, is a matter of personal preference. A shallow dish makes getting in and out of the car easier, but depending on how you like to sit, it can also mean you won’t be able to apply as much control or effort to the wheel.

To find your optimal dish dimension, you first need to pinpoint where the right balance is between your driving style and your car’s setup. You always want your steering wheel at a distance that allows your arms to extend naturally, and the proximity that you have with your OE wheel and pedals is a good starting point for gauging how much dish you need.

The Final Word

At the end of the day, a steering wheel swap is one of the most meaningful mods you can make to your car. And it’s not just something that you’ll think about occasionally, or if it needs repairing: it’s the first thing you’ll touch every time you get in, and it can tell you as much about your car as any gauge or instrument can.

High quality aftermarket car steering wheels are safe, stylish pieces of equipment that bind drivers to their vehicles’ performance. If you’re serious about discovering what your car or truck can really do, an ADR compliant wheel from a source you trust will help you do it.