anyone else having trouble with their steering wheels. mine seems to be, for lack of a better word, melting where my hand usually rest. early 03 model so maybe the new ones are better. anyway if yours was bad did dealer replace or just say to bad.

tim

 

Stop squeezing it so hard!

 

I have owned both of the Gen 2's and the Gen 1. All of them ended up having ugly wheel syndrome. Never tried to get the dealer to do anything. Figured if I get them that nasty I deserve to have to buy wheel covers.

Have heard that if you clean them with anything other than warm soapy water you risk the delamination.

ED

 

If all else fails, I've seen OEM 3rd gen steering wheels on Ebay... much cheaper than the dealer, and way better than putting some gawdy cover over the problem. Take a look at the difference between the '03's and the 04's... they changed the wheel (center anyways). I like my '04.5's wheel much better than my buddies '03.

I drive with a death grip, so I'll probably have to go through this down the road as well...

 

i`m hating my wheel as well. I find myself trying to find a NEW spot to put my hand I will look into the Ebay thing, how does that work with the airbag? do i get a NEW one?

 

I always use the 12/1 o clock position as a pivot point for the palm of my hand when making sharp turns, and it wears through that leather in less than 20K miles. This time I just plan on having the wheel recovered and a wood/carbon/silver type insert on the top and bottom of the wheel. Hopefully that will last a lot longer than the leather, and the sides will still be leather for comfort on those long highway trips... btw, the quote I got was about $365, not cheap, but the result looks as good or better than those stock Lexus wheels of the same type.

 

I have good luck with Wheelskins leather steering wheel covers on my previous vehicles. So far no problem with the current steering wheel leather but if and when I will recover with Wheelskins.

MikeyB

 

I'll second the recommendation for the wheelskins. I have been very satisfied with them myself and have them in all my vehicles. You can get them at Geno's amongst other places.
Mishkaya

 

I tried a wheelskin on my last truck, and while they are excellent quality compared to most other aftermarket wheel covers, they still don't look OEM. I'd be more inclined to go with the wheelskins on a work truck, whereas my truck is my pride and joy. Here's a pic of the wheel with carbon fiber, but of course they can do wood, or match the silver inlay on the '04+ Laramie, etc.

 

I have found that when traveling for work on long drives where I share the driving duties with another person they end up marring the wheel very easily with rings. I don't wear a ring so I don't have that problem but it is always easy to tell just by looking at the wheel to see if a ring was worn by the driver.

 

For long hours of work I don't like the leather. To get rid of it, put a Dakota plastic wheel on it. Second gen that is...

 

dodgedude361, I dunno how to work around the airbag... maybe someone else can chime in if they have exp with that. I have seen both brand new and used ones on Ebay, you just have to read their ad carefully, and in some cases contact the seller to be sure you are getting what you are looking for.

thejeepdude, where does that leather/carbon wheel come from? That thing is sweet! I can barely read that label in the center of the wheel... it looks like "American Stitchers" or something like that. I did a search on the web for that name but found nothing.

 

Close! www.american-stitches.com

There's a few others out there too, but I talked to those guys on the phone and they seemed competent with very high quality standards, although I haven't seen any in person. If you get yours done, show us some pics!

 

Wow, those wheels are sweet... I like how they matched out the grab handles on that Lightning! $365 is pretty steep tho, so something like that might be a frivilous extra down the road a piece for me. My question is this: They say they cover or recover YOUR wheel... just send it to them... so what do you do in the meantime with no steering wheel? I'm sure it would take weeks to have this done... so unless you have a backup vehicle, how are you supposed to get around? I told myself I'd never put vise-grips on the steering shaft again...

Seems like they should send a loaner ahead of time, or have a core program...

 

I asked them the same thing. They said they DO have a loaner program, but not EVERY vehicle is in stock. They did have a 2nd gen wheel when I was considering doing it, not sure about the 3G, but I'd guess by now they would. Basically, you pay the full price, they send you a wheel, you put yours in that box and send it to them, you get it back all fixed up, and send them the loaner back. I think if they don't get their loaner back in a decent time, they'll charge your card for it... it's been a while since I talked to them.