worn out leather steering wheel

[eunique]

1992 525i US version

the leather is worn out, cracked on my steering wheel
and was wondering if there's any remedy to this?

i found some M steering wheels on ebay (no airbags)
that are supposed to mount right onto E34s...

but, what about CHECK ENGINE/CODES???
will something show up when the airbag is disconnected?
and is there a remedy for it?
should i even bother with the "new" steering wheel?
or should i try to stitch a new leather one? any input?

[JonE]

I tried refurbing the leather on my '89 325ic steering wheel, first sanded lightly (fine grit) and looked really good until I sanded a "bit more" and put a hole through it. Gave up and stitched a new cover over it. It was a bit of a pain, but it does look much better. If there are cracks and you decide to refurb, you might want to look into the leatherique kit with rejuvinator, dye, crack filler, etc. If black then you can refurb your seats as well!

[Jason]

I have not had good luck with wheels other than the stock one on my car, right now i have an M-tec 1, it is not perfect, i had a momo/schnitzer wheel before which looked cool and felt nice and was smaller but blocked the top of the guages as a result. I bought some alcantara for 30 bucks and I'm having a friend re-cover my airbag wheel, and im gonna have him make a shift and e-brake boot too for that performance package look. If you want to have it professionally done there is a place in FL that seems to do really nice work, but you pay for it, I've never used them, just seen their stuff, its called Alan Gunn Leather

[mholbrook]

I can highly recommend "Wheel Skins" steering wheel covers. They now have a new perforated cover that can be ordered in full perforation or partial perforation. My cover has the full perforation and I really like it. Wheel Skins leather is very good quality and I have used 4 or 5 of these in the past. No comparison to those Kragen "Classic" covers. Take you time in stitching it on and keep things tight as you go around the wheel. I usually take a couple turns on either side of a spoke to ensure it is going to be tight as I go around the wheel. Takes a little over an hour to do a really good job so don't be in a hurry.

[1992 BMW 535i]

What about adding wood to the wheel, anyone tried that?

[bimmerd00d]

I've had the Wheel Skins cover for 3-4 yrs now, and it is just now starting to show its age, best $39 i've ever spent!

[mike wong]

mine is even covered with Wheelskin - for added thickness, original is not worn out. I prefer a thick grip. You could remove the Wheelskin if you didn't want it. I hope to be buying an M3 wheel on Thursday (not by auction).

if I buy that wheel, then mine will be for sale. we can discuss this more offline. email: mywong23@yahoo.com

let me know if your airbag can be reused, if so we can set a lower price.

mike


[QUOTE=eunique]1992 525i US version

the leather is worn out, cracked on my steering wheel
and was wondering if there's any remedy to this?

[Ian w]

The grip, the whole thing, leather and foam or whatevers under it moves on the top section of my (three spoke) steering wheel frame. A fairly common problem I think. Does anyone know of a good repair?