Steering Wheel leather care help

[Horizontally Opposed]

What Sace said.

I use warm water on a microfiber cloth, and dry right away with a second mf cloth. Works well and won’t affect leather

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[SoccerMan94043]

What do you recommend for the Race-Tex wheel on our GTS?

I've only cleaned mine once since I've owned it (2.5 months... I assume the wheel was never cleaned before that as the car only had 500 miles on it) and I followed this procedure:

1) Hydrated the wheel with a damp (fairly saturated, but not dripping) microfiber towel
2) Cleaned with Carpro Perl (15:1 dilution) applied to another damp (barely) microfiber towel and lightly rubbed all around, followed by light use of a leather brush
3) Wiped off any remaining Perl with the microfiber towel from step 1.
4) Dried with a 3rd Microfiber towel and lightly used the brush to prop up the fibers
5) Let air dry over night with a relatively small drying towel draped over the entire wheel (to try and catch any gases that might find their way to my windshield)

 

[Elroy]

What Sace said.

I use warm water on a microfiber cloth, and dry right away with a second mf cloth. Works well and won’t affect leather

Thank you.

I've only cleaned mine once since I've owned it (2.5 months... I assume the wheel was never cleaned before that as the car only had 500 miles on it) and i followed this procedure:

1) Hydrated the wheel with a damp (fairly saturated, but not dripping) microfiber towel
2) Cleaned with Carpro Perl (15:1 dilution) applied to another microfiber towel and lightly rubbed all around, followed by light use of a leather brush
3) Wiped off any remaining Perl with the microfiber towel from step 1.
4) Dried with a 3rd Microfiber towel and lightly used the brush to prop up the fibers
5) Let air dry over night with a relatively small drying towel draped over the entire wheel (to try and catch any gases that might find their way to my windshield)

Thank you

 

[refazi]

Koch Chemie Pol star works great on all interior leathers/textiles, it's a big bottle but highly dilatable (by adding clean water 1:5 up to 1:20) so it can last very long https://www.amazon.com/Koch-Chemie-Textile-Leather-Alcantara-Protection/dp/B08J28WRY9/

 

[Murph7355]

What do you recommend for the Race-Tex wheel on our GTS?

Just did mine this weekend.

Sonax Alcantara cleaner. It's great stuff.

I'm ashamed to say my steering wheel looked like gloss leather with the amount of crap on it after not being cleaned for a while (I blame the OH's moisturiser ).

Looks and feels like new now after 30mins at the weekend. Applied and rubbed in/off with clean microfiber cloths (which looked very unclean after doing this!).

Car has 42k miles on it.

Seats and console parts also look tip top now.

 

[tophamn]

What do you recommend for the Race-Tex wheel on our GTS?

(sorry for late reply - only just seen your post)

You could do what I did: replace the wheel with a leather one - my RaceTex wheel is pristine in a box!!!

 

[Murph7355]

(sorry for late reply - only just seen your post)

You could do what I did: replace the wheel with a leather one - my RaceTex wheel is pristine in a box!!!

It's an option I suppose

But then why date Kylie Minogue only to go for dinner and on holiday with Mama Fratelli in case you wear Kylie out!

 

[tophamn]

It's an option I suppose

But then why date Kylie Minogue only to go for dinner and on holiday with Mama Fratelli in case you wear Kylie out!

TBH my GTS was specced (not by me) with full leather, but retained the RaceTex steering wheel - which I hate: too slippery. I was going to get it re-trimmed but haven't got round to it.

 

[Murph7355]

TBH my GTS was specced (not by me) with full leather, but retained the RaceTex steering wheel - which I hate: too slippery. I was going to get it re-trimmed but haven't got round to it.

RaceTex is slippy? I may be misunderstanding as it's the opposite way round to me (if the Alcantara is in good nick...very grippy).

If you do mean you'd prefer the RaceTex one, why not just swap them over and sell the leather one?

 

[tophamn]

RaceTex is slippy? I may be misunderstanding as it's the opposite way round to me (if the Alcantara is in good nick...very grippy).

Yes, slippy: if I grip the wheel as normal the weight of my arm drags my hand down the wheel, even when the wheel was 'new' (128 miles on the clock). I find moisture in my hands makes them stick to a leather wheel.

If you do mean you'd prefer the RaceTex one, why not just swap them over and sell the leather one?

Quite the reverse: I bought a leather wheel to replace the factory RaceTex wheel. I didn't get round to selling the RaceTex wheel - which is why it's in a box at home.

 

[SoccerMan94043]

TBH my GTS was specced (not by me) with full leather, but retained the RaceTex steering wheel - which I hate: too slippery. I was going to get it re-trimmed but haven't got round to it.

Mine too and the race-tex wheel almost caused me to back out. Turns out I kinda like it now, it's really easy to clean (I do it every 2 months or so) and it's more resilient than the leather wheel to scratches/nicks.

On a side note, I put together some estimates to have the wheel changed in case I hated it as much as I thought I was going to... I estimated about 5K installed. What did your cost?

 

[tophamn]

On a side note, I put together some estimates to have the wheel changed in case I hated it as much as I thought I was going to... I estimated about 5K installed. What did your cost?

£600 (~US$800) for an as-new leather wheel on ebay; fitted it myself.

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