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Fanatec GT3RS V1 to GT3RS V2 Tutorial

by Roy Visser

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How to update your Fanatec GT3RS V1 wheel to a GT3RS V2 wheel

Welcome to this guided and detailed tutorial for upgrading your Fanatec GT3RS V1 wheel to

the new and improved Fanatec GT3RS V2 wheel. I will guide you step to step in the

installation and tried to make it as detailed as possible. The most important thing to

remember when following this tutorial is this: Patience and read carefully, if you follow the

instructions nothing can go wrong and you will be on the virtual road again soon!

This tutorial has been written by Roy Visser for Fanatec, if you have any questions, please

use the 911 wheel forums, or send me a pm. My username on the 911 wheel blog is Roy

Visser. Email for questions is also possible: Roy@sr-academy.nl

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Step 1

The tools you need are the following:

- Philips Head Screwdriver

- 2.5mm Allen Wrench (sometimes also a 3mm Allen Wrench)

- Hobby knife

- Pocket knife

- Pliers

- Tape

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Step 2

Use the pocket knife to gentle pry open the Grey lid with Porsche logo on top of the wheel.

Be really gentle as this is an operation which can have devastating effects to the look of the

wheel. If you don’t have a pocket knife, use something similar to the non sharp shape.

Gentle pry the lid of the wheel by going around it and prying it on different sides until its far

enough out so you can jiggle it all the way off.

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Step 3

Once you have removed the lid, this is what you will see. The inner workings of your wheel.

Look into the center, you will see 3 philipshead screws. These are the screws you need to

remove in order to get the wheel of its axle. This screws might be hard to unscrew

(remember righty tighty, lefty loosy) since they have been secured with loctite (some sort of

glue). Once you’ve unscrewed a screw and managed to drop it into the wheel, no worries,

you’ll soon be able to get the screw back.

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Step 4

Now that the wheel is loose from its axle, gently pull it off until you can freely move the

wheel. You have about 4cm of slack in the electric cord, so it shouldn’t be too much of a

problem. Now look at the back of the wheel, you will see 4 holes. In here are also 4

philipshead screws. Remove these aswell.

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Step 5

Once the 4 screws are removed, you can remove the centerpiece of the wheel. You will end

up looking at this:

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Step 6

Now we are going to remove the left and right buttons. Use the pair of pliers and grip

around the metal axle which is sticking out. Gently pull it out. If it’s far enough out to grip it

with your fingers and pull it fully out. You can then remove the buttons.

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Step 7

The lower buttons are actually just pushed on. Use 2 fingers on either side of the button and

gently pull, the POV button and Select-Start button will easily pop off

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Step 8

You can now also remove the small lcd window, and your wheel will look like this.

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Step 9

Unplug the 3 plugs (2 for the vibration motors) And one USB plug. You will find 4 screws on

the pcb, remove these. The only thing holding the pcb in place is a small ball on the bottom

of the wheel, and a cable on the back of the pcb. Gently remove the pcb.

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Step 10

This is the backside of the pcb, the main plug is positioned here. Notice the nasty yellow

stuff on it. It is very hard to remove this from the plug. Fortunatly, if you don’t want to use

the old pcb and wires as spare parts, you can just cut the wires for this main plug (the one

with all the yellow stuff on it, and 18 wires coming out of it). DO NOT CUT THE WIRES FROM

THE SMALLER USB PLUG SINCE YOU NEED IT FOR V2!! If you want to use the pcb and plug

as spares, use the hobby knife to gently scrape off the yellow glue. Remove the plug after

you’ve scraped enough off.

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Step 11

You will now have the whole PCB lose from the steeringwheel. Only thing left to remove are

the small white caps on top of the buttons. There are 2 on the backside of the pcb for the

shifters, and 14 on the front. Don’t loose them, since you will need them on the new pcb.

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Step 12

Now turn the whole wheel upside down and remove the standard paddle shifters

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Step 13

Turn the wheel around again, and you will see that the part where the shifters are attached

to, can be removed without unscrewing anything. It’s just clicked in place behind plastic

hooks. Use your pocket knife to open one side of the hooks up, and pull out the part.

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Step 14

Now you need to push the wires out of the wheel itself. If you cut the main cable, this will be

easy, if you haven’t, just push the plugs through sideways

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Step 15

Remove the screw on the top of the casing, do not remove the others!

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Step 16

Remove the 5 allen screws, sometimes the screws circled in red are 3mm instead of 2.5mm.

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Step 17

Remove the lid of the wheel base, but make sure you do it gently, since you don’t want to

lose the 5 nuts which are placed in the lid. I super glued these so I can’t lose them.

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Step 18

Don’t be alarmed by this view, it looks more difficult than it is! Might want to take a break at

this point and simply admire the great mechanics of your wheel.

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Step 19

Pull the main cable and the usb cable through the center of the wheel. This is a little fiddly if

you haven’t removed the plug from the main cable, but you’ll soon get it. Make sure you

don’t damage the usb cable, since you will need this.

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Step 20

Now we will start disambling the wheel so we can replace the main pcb. Remove the big fan

by removing the 2 screws.

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Step 21

Remove the 2 PCB screws (lower left and upper right) This will free the pcb so you can more

easily remove all the plugs. Also cut through the zip ty so you can move the wires around

more easily.

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Step 22

Now remove before removing all plugs, use the tape to name them, or give them the

numbers which I have put on the next page. This is very important since it makes pluging in

the plugs in the new pcb a lot easier!

Once you have removed all plugs, this is what your old pcb will look like

The wiring diagram is on the following page!

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Wiring PCB

11 = USB Cable which you have taken out of the wheel and wheel axle

12 = New Base Button Plug

13 = New Main Plug

X = you don’t need to use this, this plug is only used on new GTR3RS V2 wheels and is for the on and off switch

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Step 23

Remove the old base button, just unscrew the 2 screws

Now place the new base button which came in the upgrade kit

You also got a new cable in the upgrade kit, use it for the new base button

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Step 24

Now we are going to replace the positioning sensor. Remove the small silver screw, and pry

the tiny pcb out gently

Replace it with the new Sensor, be very carefully with touching the diodes and the sensor,

take your time and pry it in gently.

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Step 24

Now it’s time to place the pcb back into position, and put in the wires. Do a little bit of cable

management and make sure none of the cables are touching any rotating parts. Remember

that USB cord I told you to be careful with, free the cable from its plastic translucent harness

by cutting the harness open. You will see it in the bottom of this picture. Once you have

secured all cables, and hooked them up in the right spot, give yourself a pat on the back,

your almost homefree!

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Step 25

Do the final cable management, check all wires, and use a zipty to tighten the cables a bit

together. Place the big fan back in position. And your work inside the base is almost done.

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Step 26

If you haven’t already done this (which if you are following this tutorial correctly you

shouldn’t have) feed the new main cable through the center axle of the wheel.

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Step 27

Now we are going to place the wheel back. Rotate the axle all the way to the left (until it

won’t turn any further to the left, and place the steering wheel 90 degrees to the left, and

put in 1 screw.

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Step 28

Rotate the wheel 450 degrees to the right, this is your center position. Remove the screw

again. And place the new frame with the paddle shifters in position. It should snap inplace,

take a good look at how the cables from the vibration motors are positioned, they should

not run underneath the new frame! Feed them through the small gap

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Step 29

Get your new steeringwheel pcb that comes with the upgrade kit, turn it around so you are

facing the back of the pcb. It is VERY IMPORTANT TO NOT FORGET TO USE THE SMALL

WHITE CAPS ON THE PADDLE SHIFTER BUTTONS (the white caps we took of the buttons of

the old pcb).

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Step 30

Put the pcb back in its position in the wheel itself. (might be a tighter fit then the old pcb)

Don’t forget about the ball on the bottom, make sure to push the pcb over the ball first,

before pressing it in the upper part of the wheel. Make sure the cables for the vibration

motors are fed through the center, aswell as the main plug.

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Step 31

Replace the 4 screws which hold the pcb. Also put back the 14 white caps over all the

buttons.

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Step 32

Replace all the buttons and the new LCD Window (make sure you can push the lcd/tuning

buttons easily, if this is not the case, unscrew the 4 screws from the pcb a bit, and try to

position it a bit lower, this should put less stress on the lcd buttons). Remember that the

lower buttons just snap in place (first POV button, then the Select-Start button) and that you

need to push the metal bars through the left and right buttons

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Step 33

Replace the centercap from the steeringwheel and tighten the 4 screws on the back.

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Step 34

Put back the lid on the base, and put in the small black screw on the front (or just leave it out

since it’s a whole lot easier to open the case without this little annoying screw)

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Step 35

Put back the 5 allen screws in the base make sure you still have all the nuts in place inside

the base lid!

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Step 36

Put back the 3 screws which attach the wheel to the base, don’t drop them into the wheel,

use a magnetic philipshead screw driver, or gently hold them in position with your fingers

while screwing them in place.

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Step 37

Press the center piece with Porsche logo back in place, your almost done! Remember we

have a nice new upgrade for our wheel, this upgrade also comes with new shifter paddles!

You can choose to put back the old paddles, or the new clubsport paddles!

Whichever one you chose, you are done and you can enjoy your newly upgraded V2 wheel!

Have fun with it, if you have any questions, please use the 911 wheel forums, or send me a

pm. My username on the 911 wheel blog is Roy Visser. Email for questions is also possible:

Roy@sr-academy.nl

Small notice after completing the installation:

- You will need to recalibrate the 6speed Shifter

- The left tuning button does not have a function (yet ;) )

- Check the Porsche Wheel Property Page and make sure all functions work before

hardmounting it back into your gaming rig.

- Enjoy ☺