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Guide: DSG paddle shifter install

I purchased some extremely cheap DSG paddle (steering wheel) shifters from Aliexpress. This guide will work for most third part DSG paddle shifters. These are very similar to the VWR DSG paddle which I find to be exorbitantly expensive

Tools:

  • Long needle nose pliers

That’s all you need, this is a simple install.

  1. First turn your wheel so you can view the under side of the DSG paddles. I found it best to turn the wheel 90 degrees and work with the driver side door open.
  2. You will see the head of a round plastic pin, it has a notch under the head that you can get the needle nose pliers under to leverage out.
  3. Once leveraged out a bit you should be able to easily pull it the rest of the way out. My paddles just fell off at this point once the pin was removed
  4. Place the new paddles on the wheel as the OEM ones were and slide the plastic pin back in. You may need to jiggle the fitment of the paddle to get the holes to line up correctly. It should go in very easily, do not force it as the pin is only plastic.
  5. Give them a test, they should have similar feel as your originals in the way they press and release.

Before:

After:

The fitment of the Aliexpress shifters is pretty good, there is barely any play in them and they seem to be a solid metal construction. The larger paddles give you much more range of hand placement on the wheel which makes the paddle shifters useful. Before I never used them because my hand position at times just didn’t work with the short stubby OEM paddles.

I’m still not sure if I will keep them on, I need to give them more time to see if I will use them. I am so used to using the stick shift currently, it will take time to break the habit and get used to it.