CL and AMG steering wheel wear!!!

[dieseldonicel1]

Hi All,

I'm looking from some advice from the forum having just joined.

I'm in the process of looking to buy either a CL 500 or CL 55 Supercharged and have viewed 5 cars so far covering the 2002/2003 model years so does include 3 face lift models, one of which was a CL55 Supercharged. So far all five cars viewed have shown varying degrees of unsightly wear on the leather part of the steering wheel some have been half wood.....all the colour appears to have worn off where the majority of the hand holding goes on. Worth pointing out that these al had either beige or grey leather.

I have two questions:

1. Any idea what the cause is?
2. Can this be repaired and if so how and likely cost?

This problem seems to be an isolated blemish on cars that otherwise look fantastic and having checked out the price of a replacement CL 500 wheel at £660 plus fitting the mind boggles at what it would cost to replace on the CL55 Supercharged model with its flappy paddles.

Many thanks
Rob

 

[GordonTarling]

Welcome to the forum! My W210's steering wheel is light-ish grey and shows no sign of the sort of wear that you mention at 110,000 miles. I'm guessing this is yet another sign of MB cutting corners, in an area where they hoped nobody would notice. I'm sure a specialist car trimmer/upholsterer would be able to either refinish the leather or renew it entirely at less than the cost of a new wheel. Do a search for car upholstery specialists in your area and make a few phone calls.

 

[dieseldonicel1]

Thanks for the steer Gordon.......no pun intended! Will do some research.

 

[jaymanek]

They do show wear, its unfortunately very common and they cannot be repaired properly.. However you can use leatherique or stronger leather dye which will hide the wear... Black is easiest to colour..

 

[JonnyCJ]

Hi All,

I'm looking from some advice from the forum having just joined.

I'm in the process of looking to buy either a CL 500 or CL 55 Supercharged and have viewed 5 cars so far covering the 2002/2003 model years so does include 3 face lift models, one of which was a CL55 Supercharged. So far all five cars viewed have shown varying degrees of unsightly wear on the leather part of the steering wheel some have been half wood.....all the colour appears to have worn off where the majority of the hand holding goes on. Worth pointing out that these al had either beige or grey leather.

I have two questions:

1. Any idea what the cause is?
2. Can this be repaired and if so how and likely cost?

This problem seems to be an isolated blemish on cars that otherwise look fantastic and having checked out the price of a replacement CL 500 wheel at £660 plus fitting the mind boggles at what it would cost to replace on the CL55 Supercharged model with its flappy paddles.

Many thanks
Rob

Hi Rob

I've put an AMG half wood/leather wheel (aftermarket) with Flappy paddles (o/e) on my CL55 Kompressor. Total cost approx £500. Looks superb and original, but you do need a degree of mechanical skill in using a dremmel.

Merc don't do a flappy paddle wood leather steering wheel, but you'd be looking at upwards of £1k if they did.

CJ