D.I.Y.: Add Paddles Shifters to Your Automatic Mustang
Our forum members offer some excellent guidance on making the best of your Mustang.
Steering wheel mounted paddle shifters have been making performance cars with automatic transmission more fun to drive for years, but the Ford Mustang didn’t get them from the factory until the arrival of the 2015 model year. Fortunately, one of the members put together a do-it-yourself article explaining how to add paddle shifters to your 2011-2014 automatic mustang and since the thread was initially posted back in 2015, several members have completed this modification and shared their results.
The Introduction
The DIY thread on how to install shift paddles on the 2011-2014 Ford Mustang was originally posted to the forum by “jim010”. He offered a quick preview of the project along with a list of the items needed to add functional shift paddles to your Mustang’s steering wheel.
This is a How To thread on how to add the Mercedes-Benz AMG paddle shifters to the 2013/2014 Ford Mustang automatic cars.
Note: this can be done to 2011/2012 cars. My car is a 2012. See the following thread to first get Sport Select Shift. Once you have that, you can do this mod.
These paddle shifters are Mercedes-Benz AMG. There are many people out there using these for their cars. I have found threads showing How Tos for putting these on BMWs, Chargers/Challengers/300s, Focus and even Escapes. Why no one has tried an automatic Mustang is beyond me. I guess I am the first.
If you mess anything up, I am not responsible. This is what I did to make this work. You may come up with something better. If so, please post it!
Here is what you need:
-Mercedes-Benz AMG paddle shifters – part number A 171 267 00 46 (I got mine from ECS Tuning)
-2 screws 8-32 in size
-2 hard rubber washers 3mm thick (I took mine from an old garden hose)
-2 metal washers at least 1 cm diameter-hard foam sheet or abs plastic 3mm thick
-control module from TRS300 Custom Products website is below. You should go there and read up on his module. He is also VERY helpful with tech support!
You read that right—this upgrade requires you to add parts from a Mercedes-Benz to your Mustang, but with a little elbow grease, it is a surprisingly easy mod to do at home.
Adding the paddles
Adding Mercedes-Benz shift paddles to your automatic Mustang isn’t as simple as screwing something down and plugging it in.
You have to begin by removing your steering wheel and cutting a portion of the padding out of the back, making a spot for the AMG shifters to sit. The OP begins by explaining how to safely remove the steering wheel and how he made the paddle assemblies fit cleanly in the back of the Mustang’s wheel.
Once the paddles are mounted, you bolt the steering wheel back into place on the column and begin the trickiest part of the project—the wiring.
Wiring up the paddles
These paddles are made to plug right into ports on the steering wheel of the AMG products, but in the automatic Mustang, you will need to strip the plugs off and connect the paddles to a transmitter box. Of course, you need to run power and ground wires for the paddle transmitter, and the OP walks us through each step of how to do that as well. He includes images of each key step along the way and once the transmitter is wired up, he shows where to tuck it safely within the steering wheel assembly.
Next, the transmitter communicates with a receiver box, so that it is next item that you will wire into your Mustang. The OP put the receiver in the steering column and he ran wires through the center console. Once there, he spliced the receiver wires into the factory wires running from the stock shifter to the transmission. The automatic Mustangs from those years have a shift button on the shifter, so the shift paddles are basically just using that function, but they do so through the transmitter and receiver, rather than through the stock shift button.
The last step is to run 12 volts power to the receiver box, at which point the 2011-2014 Ford Mustang will have functioning shift paddles. From there, you just need to make sure that everything in the steering wheel assembly has been properly tightened and you are ready to go enjoy your new shift paddles.
While we have included some pictures and details from the DIY, anyone attempting this upgrade should carefully read through the entire thread. If you have any questions, the OP is generally quick to answer, so in addition to writing up the DIY – he has continued to provide input for years.
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