Audi B9 Steering Wheel: Which One Fits Your A4, S4, A5 or S5

Which Audi does a B9 steering wheel fit?

The A4, the A5, the S4 and the S5 on the B9 platform — the listings date that as 2016 to 2020. If your car is one of those four, a B9 wheel is the one you want.

If your car is newer than that, it is not a B9, and a B9 wheel will not fit it. We also list a separate B10 wheel for the later cars. The two are not interchangeable, so it is worth checking which platform you actually have before you start comparing prices.

Why are there twelve B9 listings between $285 and $685?

This is the question we get most, and the answer is that most of the price difference has nothing to do with fitment. Nine of these wheels are for the same car. What moves the number is the surface on the rim and whether there is a light strip in it.

Roughly, the ladder runs like this:

So the honest answer to “why is this one $685” is: because it has shift lights in it, not because it fits better or is built to a higher standard. We build them all the same way underneath.

Do I keep my airbag, buttons and paddle shifters?

Yes. Every wheel here is built onto your original core, which is why we ask for photos before we start. The airbag module unbolts from your old rim and goes into the new one, the buttons and their loom are reused, and the paddle shifters drop into the cutouts.

Nothing is cut, drilled or spliced, and the swap is reversible — several customers keep the original wheel wrapped and put it back before selling the car.

Do I need to order the button kit or the paddles separately?

Usually not. Those two listings are for people who want carbon in places the wheel itself does not cover.

The button kit at $75 is the trim around the steering wheel buttons, for 2017–2019 B9 cars. The paddle shifters at $105 are carbon replacements for the plastic paddles behind the rim. Neither is required to fit a wheel, and neither changes how the car drives. They are finish parts — buy them if you want the whole area to match, skip them if you do not.

Matte, gloss, Alcantara or forged — which one?

Gloss is the classic look: a deep, wet shine over a visible twill weave. It is the most traditional of the four and it is what most people picture when they think of a carbon wheel.

Matte is the same weave without the shine. It reads as more modern and it hides fingerprints and small scratches noticeably better, which matters on a daily driver.

Alcantara grips put a soft, suede-like material at 9 and 3 where your hands actually sit, with carbon across the top and bottom. It is the most comfortable of the four on a long drive, and the one that needs the most care — it holds dirt and it will wear if you drive with rings on.

Forged carbon is a different material, not a different finish. Instead of woven cloth you get a marbled, random pattern with no direction to it. It hides marks best of all, and every wheel comes out slightly different.

Is the LED version worth the extra money?

The LED wheels start around $525, so you are paying roughly $140 to $240 more than a plain carbon wheel for the same car. The strip runs across the top of the rim and reads an engine speed signal the car already produces, so it is a wiring job rather than anything that touches the engine.

Our view: on a daily driver you can see the instrument cluster, so the lights are there because they look right, not because they tell you something you would otherwise miss. That is a fair reason to buy them — you look at the wheel every time you get in the car. It is just worth being clear that you are buying the look of it.

One practical note: we list two LED wheels for the B9 at $525 and $685. If you are comparing those two, ask us before ordering rather than guessing from the photos — the answer depends on your car’s spec, and it is a $160 question.

What do you need from me before you build it?

Three things: the model and year, whether the car has paddle shifters, and a photo of your original wheel from the front and from the back.

The photos are the part people skip, and they are the part that decides the order. Photos settle which core you need in about a minute, and every order that has gone wrong for us went wrong on the core rather than on the finish.